SNCL 2024/25 - Rounds 5 and 6
Crawford Macnab
23 February 2025
No easy opponents in the SNCL..
CSBOS 1 - Bon Accord
| CSBOS 1 | CSBOS 1 | Bon Accord | Bon Accord | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chris James | 1914 | 0 - 1 | Robert Lothian | 2024 | ||
| 2 | Jamie Mollison | 1915 | 0 - 1 | Theodoros Vasiliadis | 1937 | ||
| 3 | Crawford T Macnab | 1840 | 1 - 0 | Richard L Jennings | 1899 | ||
| 4 | Euan McDiarmid | 1830 | 1 - 0 | Duncan MacDonald | 1808 | ||
| 5 | Stuart Ballantyne | 1810 | 0 - 1 | Jan Berg | 1896 | ||
| 2 - 3 | |||||||
Euan’s opponent played very quickly but failed to spot that Euan had a nice rook sacrifice on g3 that led to a forced mate.
I think Stuart faced the Budapest Gambit (or similar) and struggled to get his king castled to safety. His opponent kept his pieces very active which led to a winning advantage.
Chris looked like he might get an attack going against the caro kann but his opponent defended well. Did not see the finish.
Jamie went a pawn down and although it looked like there might be a chance of holding the ending this proved not to be the case.
Having lost one pawn, I gave up a second pawn to stop my opponent castling queen side with a slightly exposed king. With time pressure looming, black positioned his two rooks and knight offside on my kingside (I had castled queenside) which allowed me to push through the centre with a brief king hunt that led to a checkmate.
CSBOS 1 - Forth Valley A
| Forth Valley A | Forth Valley A | CSBOS 1 | CSBOS 1 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Isaac Browning | 2022 | ½ - ½ | Chris James | 1914 | ||
| 2 | Kenny R McGeoch | 1965 | ½ - ½ | Jamie Mollison | 1915 | ||
| 3 | John Iwuozor | 1 - 0 | Nigel Chapman | 1840 | |||
| 4 | Susan G Cooke | 1950 | ½ - ½ | Euan McDiarmid | 1830 | ||
| 5 | Pranav Ram Hariharan | 1801 | ½ - ½ | Crawford T Macnab | 1840 | ||
| 3 - 2 | |||||||
For the afternoon match Nigel swapped in for Stuart and I dropped to bottom board to ensure Euan and myself didn’t have the same colours as the morning match.
Solid draws for Euan and Chris.
Although I gave my opponent doubled pawns on the e-file, he had some compensation with the open f file and pressure on f7.
Jamie drew although he felt that he could have got more from his slightly better position.
Nigel’s opponenent created some threats against h7 that led to g6 being pushed creating a weakness on f6.
CSBOS 2 - Forth Valley B
| CSBOS 2 | CSBOS 2 | Forth Valley B | Forth Valley B | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Richard Scott | 1657 | 1 - 0 | Neil Irving | 1726 | ||
| 2 | William L Lindved | 1563 | 0 - 1 | William Spiers | 1807 | ||
| 3 | Ralph Jackson | 1551 | ½ - ½ | James F Shemilt | 1759 | ||
| 4 | Krishan Paterson | 1447 | 1 - 0 | Richard Warcup | 1555 | ||
| 5 | Nicholas C West | 1306 | 0 - 1 | Stephen H Smith | 1599 | ||
| 2½ - 2½ | |||||||
A great result for the second team against Forth Valley B team being outgraded on all boards.
CSBOS 2 - Hamilton A
| Hamilton A | Hamilton A | CSBOS 2 | CSBOS 2 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Andrew McCusker | 1967 | 1 - 0 | Richard Scott | 1657 | ||
| 2 | Derek McCormack | 1866 | ½ - ½ | Eric P Smith | 1589 | ||
| 3 | Tom Donohue | 1919 | 1 - 0 | William L Lindved | 1563 | ||
| 4 | Arthur L Mulholland | 1535 | 1 - 0 | Krishan Paterson | 1447 | ||
| 5 | Benjamin Saunders | 1467 | 1 - 0 | Nicholas C West | 1306 | ||
| 4½ - ½ | |||||||
Another tough one from a team heading back to Division One.
A great draw for Eric against a strong experienced opponent.
William was unlucky not to hold his position but eventually white broke through on the queen side.
Richard was last to finish and looked like he might get a draw but was not to be.
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