Victory in the Summer Cup!
Crawford Macnab
19 September 2023
We lost 1-5 over the board but won 5½-5 on handicap in the final of the Summer Cup against Wandering Dragons.
Wandering Dragons played a strong team with each of their boards giving up ¾ point on handicap. This meant they had to win 6-0 or 5½-½ to win the match.
A great win by Euan McDiarmid on board 4 clinched the match.
We believe this is the first time we have won the summer cup.
| Wandering Dragons | Wandering Dragons | Civil Service | Civil Service | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hamish Olson | 2337 | 1 - 0 | Charles Gunn-Russell (¾) | 1763 | ||
| 2 | Tom Leah | 2069 | 1 - 0 | Allan McDiarmid (¾) | 1751 | ||
| 3 | Elliot S Sloan | 1931 | 1 - 0 | Ralph Jackson (¾) | 1651 | ||
| 4 | Richard JP Kynoch | 1869 | 0 - 1 | Euan McDiarmid (¾) | 1616 | ||
| 5 | Jim O'Neil | 1821 | 1 - 0 | Stuart McKinney (¾) | 1464 | ||
| 6 | David Wallace | 1776 | 1 - 0 | João Reis (¾) | 1410 | ||
| 5 - 5½ | |||||||
After 20..Rg6+, if white takes the rook then Qg3 check is a perpetual for black. Instead white continues to play for the win when as it happens a draw would have won the match! Both players were in serious time trouble but the white king exposed in the centre was not going to survive for long.