SNCL 2024/25 - Rounds 1 and 2

Crawford Macnab

27 October 2024

New season and both teams stayed in divisions 1 and 2 respectively.

CSBOS 1 - Edinburgh West 1

	CSBOS 1		CSBOS 1		Edinburgh West 1
1	Chris James	1917	½ - ½	Neil Farrell	2114
2	Matt Rounds	1800	0 - 1	George Neave	2070
3	Nigel Chapman	1848	0 - 1	Rithvik Deepak Ambattu	2063
4	Stuart Ballantyne	1831	0 - 1	Kritan Boggarapu	2015
5	Crawford Macnab	1848	0 - 1	Devesh Sharma	1854
				½ - 4½

The first team had a tough start facing an Edinburgh West team that played three of their top juniors on the bottom boards.

A good draw for Chris against Neil Farrell avoided the 5-0 whitewash!

Nigel had more pawn islands in a knight and pawn ending that proved tricky to hold.

Matt looked to have a comfortable position with a good black square bishop and control of the a file. Eventually a bishop ending was reached and would have been drawn but for the fact his bishop did not have enough squares to repeat moves which forced his king to move allowing his opponents king to break through.

Stuart delayed castling in his Sicilian Defence and his attack against the queenside castled white king always looked to be slower.

I had more space at the cost of a pawn in the Morra Gambit but failed to find the correct line when I ran behind on the clock.

CSBOS 1 - Dunfermline Knights

	Dunfermline Knights		Dunfermline Knights		CSBOS 1
1	Pavlos Bozinakis	2275	1 - 0	Chris James	1917
2	Daniel Savidge	2149	1 - 0	Matt Rounds	1800
3	Volodymyr Tushnskyi	2140	1 - 0	Nigel Chapman	1848
4	Nicolas Skettos	2002	1 - 0	Stuart Ballantyne	1831
5	Jonathan Mckay	1982	1 - 0	Crawford Macnab	1848
				5 - 0

The afternoon match was even tougher against the current champions, that saw us outgraded on all boards.

Chris’s game looked interesting and quite complicated with both kings positions looking a bit exposed. Although it became clear that white was much more in control and central pawns rolled through forcing the black king on to the h file and a simple Rh1+ finished the game.

Nigel looked to have a very difficult position to defend with white rooks lined up on g and h files supported by two advanced knights, his opponent could afford to ignore a threat on his queen to finish the game off.

Did not see much of Matt’s and Stuart’s games.

I had a poor opening with the black pieces and had to go two pawns down to finally get developed. Instead of resigning I played on a few more moves only to find some resource to win a pawn back and a slip by my opponent further improved my position. Low on time I reached a K+R+P v K+R+P that was drawn if I could sacrifice my rook for his pawn that would leave my advanced king and pawn enough to force the draw. In time pressure and over thinking some tricks that my opponent set, I managed to lose on time!

CSBOS 2 - Inverclyde Pheonix

	CSBOS 2		CSBOS 2		Inverclyde Pheonix
1	Euan Mcdiarmid	1659	1 - 0	Kevin Mcdonald	2040
2	Richard Scott	1657	½ - ½	Carsten Bolln	1721
3	Alistair Forbes	1581	0 - 1	Stephen Doherty	1621
4	Ralph Jackson	1552	0 - 1	David Logue	1613
5	Scott Higgins	1186	1 - 0	Alex Fisher	1282
				2½:2½

The second team got off to a good start drawing against a team that was promoted from last season.

Euan played well against a 2000+ player and managed to eliminate his own pawn weakness with a level position. His opponent declined a draw offer only to lose on time. Unfortunately he had not appreciated increments were being used and expected additonal time to be added to his clock!

Scott had a good win on bottom board and finished quickly. His opponent could have resigned a lot earlier.

Ralph was a pawn down going in to the endgame where there was not enough to hold the draw.

Did not see Alistair’s game.

Richard appeared to have a lost position, so much so that I went for a quick soup only to return to find he had salvaged the position and reached a king and pawn ending. A valuable draw to half the match.

CSBOS 2 - Corstorphine 2

	Corstorphine		Corstorphine		CSBOS 2
1	Chris Sykes	1739	½ - ½	Euan Mcdiarmid	1659
2	Alistair Macnaughton	1654	½ - ½	Richard Scott	1657
3	Graham Wilson	1490	0 - 1	Eric Smith	1590
4	Richard Dowling	1363	0 - 1	Alistair Forbes	1581
5	Angus Ruthven	1212	0 - 1	Scott Higgins	1186
				1 - 4

Did not see any of the games but good to see Eric Smith making his SNCL debut for CSBOS2 with a win!

And another good win for Scott on bottom board.

This was an important match to win and should give the team a chance of avoiding the bottom two places.

Click here for a list of news stories about this competition.