Allegro League - 3rd round
Crawford Macnab
12 December 2024
The 3rd round of the Allegro League took place on Thursday 12th December, with both teams showing improvement being undefeated on the night!
Both teams faced Wandering Dragons which meant that Adam Walkowiak would face both the McDiarmids. Despite battling well in both games, Adam was defeated twice! Not to jinx it but Euan remains undefeated in the allegro league since he started in 2023-24. An impressive 16 games so far!
Good to see Nick stepping in as a reserve and winning his first game despite the faster format not being his favourite form of chess. He even managed to be ahead on the clock for this one.
In the Bank of Scotland 2 match Richard had a good win against Stuart Ballantyne.
Amazingly William had a winning advantage in his game against Ben Irvine but he had very little time left on the clock. One move before he was about to deliver checkmate his opponent made an illegal move with only one second left on William’s clock. Phew!
| Civil Service 1 | Civil Service 1 | Wandering Dragons | Wandering Dragons | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Richard Scott | 1717 | 0 - 1 | Jim O`Neil | 1769 | ||
| 2 | Euan McDiarmid | 1585 | 1 - 0 | Adam Walkowiak | 1502 | ||
| 3 | William L Lindved | 1312 | 1 - 0 | Ben Irvine | 1290(e) | ||
| 4 | Nicholas C West | 1306 | 1 - 0 | John Palmer | 1135(e) | ||
| 3 - 1 | |||||||
| Bank of Scotland 2 | Bank of Scotland 2 | Civil Service 1 | Civil Service 1 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stuart Ballantyne | 1755 | 0 - 1 | Richard Scott | 1717 | ||
| 2 | David Stewart | 1638 | ½ - ½ | Euan McDiarmid | 1585 | ||
| 3 | Gregor Pirrie | 1346 | 0 - 1 | William L Lindved | 1312 | ||
| 4 | Scott Higgins | 1189 | 1 - 0 | Nicholas C West | 1306 | ||
| 1½ - 2½ | |||||||
The second team started well with a 3 - 1 victory over Sandy Bells.
My game concluded very quickly when my opponent failed to spot that my winning of a pawn on d6 with my knight was actually placing his king on e8 in check.
Allan had a complicated game with some advantage in a position where all the major pieces were still on the board. His opponent sacrificed material against Allan’s slightly exposed king but this was not quite sound and Allan defended carefully to repel the attack and simplify to a winning endgame. Though not without some time pressure on the clock.
Sandy had an off night making errors in both of his games. Next time!
In my game against Jim O’Neil I failed to swap off his white square bishop when I had the chance and managed to tamely lose from an equal position.
On board 3, new member Joe Harvey had a great debut winning both his games. A 100% record so far in the allegro league!
| Civil Service 2 | Civil Service 2 | Sandy Bells | Sandy Bells | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Crawford T Macnab | 1750 | 1 - 0 | Chris Linskaill | 1685 | ||
| 2 | Allan McDiarmid | 1562 | 1 - 0 | Max Davidson | 1236 | ||
| 3 | Joe Harvey | 1200(e) | 1 - 0 | Mike Wallace | 1088 | ||
| 4 | Alex Powell | 1082 | 0 - 1 | Chris Dowle | 1106 | ||
| 3 - 1 | |||||||
| Wandering Dragons | Wandering Dragons | Civil Service 2 | Civil Service 2 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jim O`Neil | 1769 | 1 - 0 | Crawford T Macnab | 1750 | ||
| 2 | Adam Walkowiak | 1502 | 0 - 1 | Allan McDiarmid | 1562 | ||
| 3 | Ben Irvine | 1290(e) | 0 - 1 | Joe Harvey | 1200(e) | ||
| 4 | John Palmer | 1135(e) | 1 - 0 | Alex Powell | 1082 | ||
| 2 - 2 | |||||||