SNCL 2025/26 - Rounds 1 & 2
Crawford Macnab
2 November 2025
New season and both teams dropped down to divisions 2 and 3 respectively.
Welcome to Will Reynolds, Richard Carter and Tom Grey making their debut for CSBOS.
CSBOS 1 - Perth
| Perth | Perth | CSBOS 1 | CSBOS 1 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Martin B Gourlay | 1884 | ½ - ½ | William Reynolds | 2028 | ||
| 2 | Andrew Sutherland | 1702 | 0 - 1 | Chris James | 1884 | ||
| 3 | James Graham | 1591 | 0 - 1 | Jamie Mollison | 1816 | ||
| 4 | David G Hall | 1568 | ½ - ½ | Richard G Carter | 1799 | ||
| 5 | Liam Mathieson | 1467 | 0 - 1 | Charles Gunn-Russell | 1789 | ||
| 1 - 4 | |||||||
A strong start for the first team with a heavy win over Perth.
Will managing to salvage a draw after being multiple pawns down.
CSBOS 1 - Inverclyde Pheonix
| CSBOS 1 | CSBOS 1 | Inverclyde Pheonix | Inverclyde Pheonix | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | William Reynolds | 2028 | 0 - 1 | Kevin McDonald | 2015 | ||
| 2 | Chris James | 1884 | 0 - 1 | Tharindu Wickramanayake | 1851 | ||
| 3 | Jamie Mollison | 1816 | 0 - 1 | Alan Jelfs | 1721 | ||
| 4 | Richard G Carter | 1799 | ½ - ½ | Carsten Bolln | 1702 | ||
| 5 | Charles Gunn-Russell | 1789 | ½ - ½ | Stephen Doherty | 1631 | ||
| 1 - 4 | |||||||
On paper the gradings were close against one of the newly promoted teams.
CSBOS 2 - Hamilton B
| Hamilton B | Hamilton B | CSBOS 2 | CSBOS 2 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Harry E Smith | 0 - 1 | Crawford T Macnab | 1729 | |||
| 2 | Kirsty McCusker | 1412 | 0 - 1 | Richard Scott | 1702 | ||
| 3 | Ewan Queen | 0 - 1 | Tom Grey | 1635 | |||
| 4 | Thor Saemundsson | 1298 | 0 - 1 | Krishan Paterson | 1525 | ||
| 5 | Paul McAloon | 1200 | ½ - ½ | Scott Higgins | 1320 | ||
| ½ - 4½ | |||||||
The two top boards for Hamilton B played very well and we were a bit fortunate to win both those games.
Krishan had a crushing kingside attack, breaking through with a sacrifice on g6.
Tom was always in control and eventually forked his opponents king and queen.
A good start!
CSBOS 2 - Queens Park
| CSBOS 2 | CSBOS 2 | Queens Park | Queens Park | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Crawford T Macnab | 1729 | 0 - 1 | Jordan J McNaught | 1817 | ||
| 2 | Richard Scott | 1702 | 0 - 1 | Connor Thompson | 1729 | ||
| 3 | Eric P Smith | 1574 | 1 - 0 | Scott Kilgour | 1699 | ||
| 4 | Krishan Paterson | 1525 | 1 - 0 | Ally McLellan | 1334 | ||
| 5 | Scott Higgins | 1320 | ½ - ½ | Ayat Jawad | |||
| 2½ - 2½ | |||||||
This was a tougher match where we lost the top two boards.
Richard had a complicated position with material inbalance and his opponents king being exposed. In the end any threats of a perpetual or checkmate died out and the game was lost.
Krishan had another exciting game where his opponents king had advanced forward in a middle game where it looked like it was going to be mated. In the end Krishan had minor pieces and pawns that combined well to secure victory.
Eric had a strong win where he got doubled rooks on the seventh rank.
Scott had a nice attacking position through the centre with his opponent struggling with undeveloped queenside pieces. There was no decisive breakthrough and his opponent played very well to untangle, eventually reaching a tricky endgame where Scott had K+R against K+P+P+P. The three pawns being connected and advanced! Scott played the endgame excellently winning two of the pawns but with the remaining pawn about to queen it had to be taken by the rook with a draw.
This secured an overall drawn match.
Click here for a list of news stories about this competition.