SNCL - Round 9
Crawford Macnab
21 April 2024
The final round of the SNCL had the first team already safe, with the second team needing to win and rely on Corstorphine losing to survive.
CSBOS 1 - Wandering Dragons
| Wandering Dragons | Wandering Dragons | CSBOS 1 | CSBOS 1 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Andrew Burnett | 2274 | ½ - ½ | Jorge Blanco | 2141 | ||
| 2 | Mark Orr | 2179 | ½ - ½ | Hugh Lamarque | 1794 | ||
| 3 | Tom Leah | 2069 | 1 - 0 | Mike Chisholm | 1939 | ||
| 4 | Elliot Sloan | 1931 | ½ - ½ | Chris James | 1884 | ||
| 5 | Walter Burnett | 1910 | 1 - 0 | Crawford Macnab | 1716 | ||
| 3½ - 1½ | |||||||
Jamie reccomended using the latest live FIDE gradings for board order, placing Hugh on board two. Hugh did not dissapoint with a strong game against IM Mark Orr that looked promising but in the end a draw was agreed.
Jorge had a solid draw on board one against Andrew Burnett.
Mike lost a pawn and reached a minor piece ending that had some drawing chances but Tom Leah made no mistakes and the game was lost.
Chris created some early initiative looking to exploit black’s uncastled king but Elliot Sloan defended well.
I managed to get an acceptable position with the black pieces against Walter Burnett’s Bird Opening. Unfortunately a few innacurate moves allowed white to get an attack going that should have been defended but in time trouble the pressure eventually told.
Despite the loss, a good season for CSBOS1 in the new 10 team format finishing safely in 6th place.
CSBOS 2 - East Kilbride
| East Kilbride | East Kilbride | CSBOS 2 | CSBOS 2 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Graham Dobbie | 1834 | 0 - 1 | Stuart Ballantyne | 1635 | ||
| 2 | Alan Jelfs | 1801 | 1 - 0 | Ralph Jackson | 1651 | ||
| 3 | Frankie Murray | 1615 | 1 - 0 | William Lindved | |||
| 4 | Jim Robertson | 1333 | 1 - 0 | Scott Higgins | 1108 | ||
| 5 | Scott Miller | 1275 | 0 - 1 | Douglas Lester | |||
| 3 - 2 | |||||||
The second team were outgraded significantly on all boards.
A great win for Stuart on board one against an experienced player.
Ralph sacrificed pawns and had compensation with doubled rooks on the 7th rank supported by a bishop. It looked like this would at least achieve a perpetual but this proved not to be the case.
William had a tough time against Frankie Murray falling behind on the clock and in the position.
Douglas won well on the bottom board to leave the match delicately placed at 2-2.
By this time Corstorphine had lost 5-0 which meant that a win or a draw for Scott would avoid relegation.
A complicated middle game had Scott create strong counterplay down the h-file. Did not see the position but apparently in the resulting endgame his opponent played very well to clinch the game.
In a tough division CSBOS2 narrowly missed avoiding relegation.
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