Allegro League Leaders!
Crawford Macnab
9 November 2023
The 2nd round of the Allegro League took place on Thursday 9th November with both teams winning both their games. This leaves our two teams in first and second place in the league!
Chess Edinburgh website has the latest table with the first team taking top spot.
The first team won both their matches 4-0 against Musselburgh and Edinburgh West 1.
Matt dropped a few pawns in the opening but his opponent wasted time not completing development, that gave Matt full compensation to conduct a king side attack.
William won quickly and played some further friendly games against his opponent.
Edinburgh West 1 played three improving juniors on the bottom 3 boards but Euan, William and David succesfully overcame their younger opponents.
| Civil Service 1 | Civil Service 1 | Musselburgh | Musselburgh | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Matt Rounds | 1825 | 1 - 0 | Kathleen Rutherfood | 1678 | ||
| 2 | Euan McDiarmid | 1548 | 1 - 0 | Greg Holstead | 1247 | ||
| 3 | William Lindved | 1273 | 1 - 0 | Ross Veerman | 1000(e) | ||
| 4 | David Hale | 1000(e) | 1 - 0 | Gavin Howard | 586 | ||
| 4 - 0 | |||||||
| Edinburgh West 1 | Edinburgh West 1 | Civil Service 1 | Civil Service 1 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Callum Darling | 1508 | 0 - 1 | Matt Rounds | 1825 | ||
| 2 | Raghuram Parasur | 1220 | 0 - 1 | Euan McDiarmid | 1548 | ||
| 3 | Haruo Uegaki | 662 | 0 - 1 | William Lindved | 1273 | ||
| 4 | Ruben Chandra | 564 | 0 - 1 | David Hale | 1000(e) | ||
| 0 - 4 | |||||||
The second team claimed bragging rights against our friends from the Gorgie Dalry chess club!
Paul had never seen my Nc6 response to his d4 opening and fell behind on the clock before allowing a fork of bishop and knight. A few moves later a queen blunder followed and the game was over.
Unfortunately Allan’s opponent failed to show.
Emma lost a pawn in the opening but battled on into the ending with good drawing chances. She played the ending very well but failed to sacrifice her bishop for whites advancing pawn that would have drawn instantly. Instead a king and queen versus king and bishop ending emerged which can be tricky to win for the side with the queen. In the end Stuart won the bishop only to run out of time with a draw being agreed!
Against Corstorphine, Allan was level for a while but after winning a pawn the resulting endgame was too difficult for his opponent to hold.
João had a good win against Dave Watson who can be a tricky opponent to face.
I managed to drop a pawn to a nice tactic against a Scandinavian Defence but had good control / compensation of the d-file and accepted a draw after as the queens came off.
Emma was involved in the final game and was behind on the clock as the game approached its conclusion. As the position swung in her favour, her opponent’s flag fell with Emma claiming the full point.
| Gorgie Dalry | Gorgie Dalry | Civil Service 2 | Civil Service 2 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paul Girdwood | 1564 | 0 - 1 | Crawford Macnab | 1717 | ||
| 2 | William Hynd | 1508 | 0 - 1d | Allan McDiarmid | 1549 | ||
| 3 | Stewart Good | 1495 | 1 - 0 | João Reis | 1105 | ||
| 4 | Stuart McKinney | 1428 | ½ - ½ | Emma Scott | 1000(e) | ||
| 1½ - 2½ | |||||||
| Civil Service 2 | Civil Service 2 | Corstorphine | Corstorphine | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Crawford Macnab | 1717 | ½ - ½ | Alistair K J MacNaughton | 1633 | ||
| 2 | Allan McDiarmid | 1549 | 1 - 0 | Michael Anderson | 1244 | ||
| 3 | João Reis | 1105 | 1 - 0 | David Watson | 1029 | ||
| 4 | Emma Scott | 1000(e) | 1 - 0 | James D Crerar | 858 | ||
| 3½ - ½ | |||||||