Friendly Match - lost to Wandering Dragons

Crawford Macnab
21 February 2022

We welcomed a team from Wandering Dragons for a graded friendly match played over 5 boards.

The Dragons put out a strong team, but we battled well and narrowly lost 2 - 3.

Allan was first to finish with a win against Donald Heron with the black pieces. It looked like he had dropped (or gambited?!) a pawn in the opening but had some chances with active pieces and a backward pawn on d3 to chase. White miscoordinated his pieces and allowed a tactic that lost his initiative. At this point white resigned but it looked like this might have been premature as material was close to equal with only a slight edge to black.

Euan had a more cramped position with the white pieces against Jim O’Neil and unfortunately blundered by placing his queen on the only available retreat square for his knight.

Charles had a solid draw with the white pieces against Elliot Sloan. Material was equal and although black had a passed rook pawn this was blockaded, with white having control of the open b file.

Sandy finished with a draw in the end. Although he was material ahead his opponent had some passed pawns as compensation.

I was last to finish losing to Mark Orr. Fell behind on the clock as it was proving difficult to defend correctly against multiple threats. In time trouble I blundered and position collapsed.

Thanks to Wandering Dragons for giving us a tough match!

Civil Service Civil Service Wandering Dragons Wandering Dragons
1
Crawford T Macnab
1811 0 - 1
Mark J L Orr (IM)
2116
2
Charles Gunn-Russell
1797 ½ - ½
Elliot S Sloan
1900
3
Allan McDiarmid
1740 1 - 0
Donald Heron
1841
4
Euan McDiarmid
0 - 1
Jim O'Neil
1832
5
Sandy Powell
1108 ½ - ½
Chris Moore
2 - 3
Friendly v Wandering Dragons

Friendly v Wandering Dragons