Summer Plate - lost to Edinburgh West

Crawford Macnab

12 August 2024

We won on the actual score (4 - 2) but lost on the handicap score (5½ - 4).

Only the top board did not have a handicap for either team with all the other boards amounting to 3½ points in Edinburgh West’s favour.

So they just had to score 1½ points.

I was first to finish with a quick 16 move checkmate win against my junior opponent. There were some tactics on the black squares that meant my Nxd4 capture could not be taken by the queen otherwise Bc5 would pin the queen against the king. My junior opponent failed to spot that a later Bc5 check could be followed by a Ng3 smothered mate.

Allan always had a slight edge in a level position with the white pieces and opened things up in the centre to create an eventual winning advantage.

Douglas went a piece down against his junior (J8) opponent and looked likely to lose. Eventually white had K+R+B+P against K+R, with the pawn being a rook pawn there were some drawing chances. However as the bishop was the same colour as the queening square, forcing off rooks would have won the game. This did not happen and Douglas managed to draw the game!

Emma had a nice controlled position that was level for a while but her opponent blundered later on.

Paul dropped a piece in the middle game but managed to get his rooks doubled on the 7th rank with some tactics threatened against the exposed king. I think he had a perpetual at one point which Paul did not think was possible and soon after his opponent dropped a knight back to protect against the checks. There was no way to hold the position after that.

Charles had a tough time with a cramped defensive position with the back pieces. He defended very well and eventually a king and pawn ending was reached with no way for either side to break through.

It’s been a tough season in the Summer Cup / Plate this season!

	Civil Service		Civil Service		Edinburgh West
1	Charles Gunn-Russell	1751	½ - ½	Martin Robinson	1708
2	Allan McDiarmid	1750	1 - 0	Callum Darling	1586
3	Crawford Macnab	1696	1 - 0	Shriya Mathu	1435
4	Paul Girdwood	1542	0 - 1	Alistair Hindle	1336
5	Douglas Heatlie	1481	½ - ½	Haruo Uegaki	1095
6	Emma Scott	1286	1 - 0	Ron Whalen	1027
				4 - 5½