Allegro League - First team extend their lead!
Crawford Macnab
8 February 2024
The 5th round of the Allegro League took place on Thursday 8th February with the first team defeating rivals Bank of Scotland 1 to extend their lead at the top of the table.
The first team won both games 3 - 1.
Chess Edinburgh website has the latest table with both teams taking the first two places.
Against Bank of Scotland, Richard faced strong opposition in Mike Chisholm. The rest of the team won to claim an important victory in the battle to win the league.
Richard faced further strong opposition against Raj Bhopal from Edinburgh 1 and a complicated game developed with most of the pieces still on the board long in to the middle game. With chances for both sides it looked like Raj was about to break through only to run out of time.
Euan went multiple pawns ahead and safely avoided any checkmate threats to secure the full point.
William allowed his opponent to create a strong outside rook pawn that gave no chances to hold the endgame.
| Bank of Scotland 1 | Bank of Scotland 1 | Civil Service 1 | Civil Service 1 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mike Chisholm | 1807 | 1 - 0 | Richard Scott | 1692 | ||
| 2 | David Stewart | 1638 | 0 - 1 | Euan McDiarmid | 1548 | ||
| 3 | James Turner | 1414 | 0 - 1 | William Lindved | 1273 | ||
| 4 | Kevin Williamson | 1074 | 0 - 1 | Derek McCann | 1194 | ||
| 1 - 3 | |||||||
| Civil Service 1 | Civil Service 1 | Edinburgh 1 | Edinburgh 1 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Richard Scott | 1692 | 1 - 0 | Raj Bhopal | 1814 | ||
| 2 | Euan McDiarmid | 1548 | 1 - 0 | Robert Kane | 1665 | ||
| 3 | William Lindved | 1237 | 0 - 1 | Calum McGillivray | 1587 | ||
| 4 | Derek McCann | 1194 | 1 - 0 | Anthony McLellan | 900(e) | ||
| 3 - 1 | |||||||
Against Musselburgh Charles had forgotten it was allegro league night and I stepped in on board one after about 10 minutes! Eventually I simplified down in to an ending a bishop up that had winning chances only to lose on time. Hard to see time left with the analogue clocks so probably a draw offer would have been prudent.
Allan had an off night losing both games against opponents that played well.
In contrast Richard Josey was in good form and won both his games.
Well done to Lewis Pantony who made his allegro league debut and won both his games quickly!
Charles arrived in plenty of time to play in the match against Edinburgh West 1 securing a draw against J8 junior Devesh Sharma on board one.
| Civil Service 2 | Civil Service 2 | Musselburgh | Musselburgh | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Crawford Macnab | 1717 | 0 - 1 | Kathleen Rutherford | 1678 | ||
| 2 | Allan McDiarmid | 1549 | 0 - 1 | Jacob Sladek | 978 | ||
| 3 | Richard Josey | 1375 | 1 - 0 | Ross Veerman | |||
| 4 | Lewis Pantony | 1111 | 1 - 0 | Gavin Howard | 587 | ||
| 2 - 2 | |||||||
| Edinburgh West 1 | Edinburgh West 1 | Civil Service 2 | Civil Service 2 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Devesh Sharma | 1021 | ½ - ½ | Charles Gunn-Russell | 1763 | ||
| 2 | Callum Darling | 1508 | 1 - 0 | Allan McDiarmid | 1549 | ||
| 3 | Kyriakos Mckenzie | 0 - 1 | Richard Josey | 1375 | |||
| 4 | Prithvi S Nathan | 564 | 0 - 1 | Lewis Pantony | 1111 | ||
| 1½ - 2½ | |||||||