Club Night - 29th Jan 2024
Crawford Macnab
29 January 2024
Six games in the club championship were played on Monday 29th January 2024.
Euan McDiarmid managed to defeat Matt Rounds to maintain his 3/3 score.
Club Championship
Euan appeared to have a fragile position being a pawn down (albeit doubled) and all his pieces just about hanging on. Matt may have delayed his chance by a few moves to press home his advantage and the tables were turned.
Crawford and Simon played out a Morra Gambit accepted with Simon playing a solid Scheveningen variation. In a balanced position black played a d5 pawn push that allowed a white pawn to e5 ejecting the knight to h5. As black squared bishops were swapped off, g6 was required to defend the knight leading to decisive queen mating attack on the black squares.
Crawford and Euan (both on 3/3) will meet in the fourth round.
João and Sam appeared to have a game where chances switched sides multiple times. In the endgame Sam missed the chance to retreat his king to defend against whites rook pawn promoting.
Nick managed to checkmate Emma with seconds left on his clock. This despite Emma continually setting fresh problems despite a bishop for a pawn down.
Ralph jetted in from his skiing holiday to take on William in a tough battle that was the last game to finish. To pursue his kingside attack, Ralph sacrificed a bishop ramping up the pressure with his queen and two rooks. Williams extra bishop on the queenside was of no use repelling the attack and at a critical point William may have needed to give up his g3 pawn to survive. Instead major pieces were exchanged to leave an active rook against bishop to secure the endgame.
Richard Josey defeated Tommy Li.
Hopefully the last three games will be completed next Monday.
Round 3
8th Jan 2024 - 5th Feb 2024
| White | Black | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Matt Rounds (2) | 1825 | 0 - 1 | Euan McDiarmid (2) | 1616 |
| 2 | Crawford Macnab (2) | 1716 | 1 - 0 | Simon Bate (2) | 1532 |
| 3 | Andrew Wright (1) | 1280 | Paul Girdwood (1) | 1564 | |
| 4 | João Reis (1) | 1410 | 1 - 0 | Sam Clucas (1) | 1245 |
| 5 | Nick West (1) | 1327 | 1 - 0 | Emma Scott (1) | |
| 6 | William Lindved (½) | 0 - 1 | Ralph Jackson (½) | 1651 | |
| 7 | Mathew Boyd (½) | 1255 | Gerry Brown (½) | 1342 | |
| 8 | Isaac Boyd (0) | 1385 | Sandy Powell (0) | 1103 | |
| 9 | Richard Josey (0) | 1375 | 1 - 0 | Tommy Li (0) |
Graded Friendlies
Two graded friendlies were played.
Charles and Allan reached a position where each had two rooks and a bishop with no opportunity to gain an advantage a draw was agreed.
Eric managed to defeat new member Lewis Pantony in a graded friendly. Though Lewis took the honours in both subsequent quick games.
Potential new member Prudvi Raj played six shorter games with Gerry Brown with each of them winning three times.
29th January 2024
| White | Black | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Charles Gunn-Russell | 1763 | ½ - ½ | Allan McDiarmid | 1751 |
| 2 | Eric Smith | 1601 | 1 - 0 | Lewis Pantony |