SNCL 2023 - Rounds 1 and 2

Crawford Macnab

29 January 2023

Great start to SNCL 2023 with both teams winning both of their first two rounds!

CSBOS 1 - Lenzie Basilisks

In the morning CSBOS1 beat Lenzie Basilisks by 3½ - 1½.

	CSBOS 1		CSBOS 1		Lenzie Basilisks
1	Jorge Blanco	2139	½ - ½	Muhammad Al Dakl Alla	1322
2	Mike Chisholm	1958	1 - 0	Neev Lukhi	1454
3	Chris James	1853	0 - 1	Kanishka Bhatia	1391
4	Jamie Mollison	1839	1 - 0	Michael Moroz	1000
5	Crawford Macnab	1760	1 - 0	Advik Mittal
				3½ - 1½

Lenzie had an adult player on board one with a number of Scottish Junior Internationalists on the rest of the boards. Their t-shirts with names on the back emphasizing the point!

The warning signs this would be a tough match were there with Chris first to finish with a loss.

Jamie was next to finish converting smoothly after his opponent allowed two undefended minor pieces to be attacked by Blacks queen. Loose pieces drop off!

My opponent kindly accepted my pawn sacrifice on c5 which allowed me to play Ne4 forcing his bishop on c5 to move and the supported pawn push to f6 exposed the black king position, setting up a minor piece winning tactic. A further tactic that was not spotted led to a second minor piece being won.

Mike had to be patient in a rook and multiple pawn ending where he was a doubled pawn up with a stong protected passed pawn. With better piece placement care was still needed to setup the winning push.

Jorge had a comfortable middle game advantage with his knight being superior to the sad black bishop blockaded in by blacks pawns. Unfortunately he did not follow the best line which allowed his opponent to improve his position on the queen side and exchanges led to a drawn rook and pawn ending.

CSBOS 2 - Lenzie Dementors

In the morning CSBOS2 beat Lenzie Dementors by 3½ - 1½.

	CSBOS 2		CSBOS 2		Lenzie Dementors
1	Matt Rounds	1749	1 - 0	Chrsya Mitraka	1071
2	Alistair Forbes	1567	1 - 0	Humam Al Dakl Alla
3	Euan McDiarmid	1519	1 - 0	Ali Abid
4	Nick West	1356	½ - ½	Lochan Balaji
5	Charlie West		0 - 1	Sumanth Prakash
				3½ - 1½

The 2nd wave of Lenzie Juniors!

Matt started with a London System but when opponent matched with Bf5, he switched to a queens gambit. Opponent was not familiar with the best line and proceeded to reach a horrible position with king trapped in the centre. At his leisure Matt could complete development and choose the time to win material.

Did not see the details of Alistair and Euan’s games but two wins secured the match victory.

Nick had a nice position with the black pieces and with hindsight should have steadily built up pressure on the kingside. Instead the centre was opened which allowed white to relieve some of their cramped pieces and a draw was agreed in the end.

Charlie made his SNCL debut and looked to have a pretty good position but lost in the end.

CSBOS 1 - Perth

In the afternoon CSBOS1 beat Perth by 5 - 0.

	Perth		Perth		CSBOS 1
1	Martin B Gourlay	1900	0 - 1	Jorge Blanco	2139
2	David G Hall	1653	0 - 1	Mike Chisholm	1958
3	John Williamson	1412	0 - 1	Chris James	1839
4	Ian Washington	1353	0 - 1	Jamie Mollison	1839
5	James Graham	1215	0 - 1	Crawford Macnab	1760
				0 - 5

Chris was first to finish with a win.

Jamie had a nice bishop and pawn setup that locked the black king in the corner. Black managed to push a passed pawn to the seventh rank where care was needed to defend correctly. When rooks and passed pawn came off Jamie was two pawns ahead with a winning endgame advantage.

My opponent played a few too many pawn moves that created some weaknesses that allowed me to win a knight for two pawns. This could have been awkward to convert but some tactics led to an almost zugzwang position where a knight move allowed a further pawn to be captured and white resigned.

Did not see Jorge and Mike finish but both won.

Jorge appeared to be two pawns up in a rook ending but Mike’s position looked more equal when I left.

CSBOS 2 - Hamilton B

In the afternoon CSBOS2 beat Hamilton B by 3 - 2.

	Hamilton B		Hamilton B		CSBOS 2
1	Alex Keenan	1593	0 - 1	Matt Rounds	1749
2	Douglas Neil	1390	½ - ½	Alistair Forbes	1567
3	Igor Semenov		0 - 1	Euan McDiarmid	1519
4	Jim H Frame	1211	½ - ½	Nick West	1356
5	Thor Saemundsson	1108	1 - 0	Charlie West
				2 - 3

Euan was playing on an adjacent board in a game that both kings chose not to castle. White blundered by moving rook away from h1 that allowed Qh2 check picking up some of the white kingside pawns. White sacrificed his knight in an attempt to create some tactics with queen and bishop. Euan carefully forced the white king on to the same file as his queen allowing Rc8 winning the said queen.

Matt reached an ending with bishop and knight plus some extra pawns against a rook and pawns. In an attempt to stop the extra pawns rolling forward his opponent managed to get his rook into a position where it was trapped. And soon to be lost.

Draws for Nick and Alistair secured the victory.

Well done to both teams!

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