Club Autumn Lightning

Crawford Macnab

30 October 2023

Despite four call offs, the Autumn Allegro still had a strong turn out of fifteen players.

Two qualifying sections were played over 7 rounds with Allan McDiarmid and Euan McDiarmid winning their respective sections.

In the first section, Charles was undefeated but four draws including one against Euan left him trailing a half point behind in the end.

In the second section, Sandy equalled Allan’s score of five points but since their individual games was won by Allan, Sandy lost out this time on the tie break. A strong effort none the less given he was the lowest graded in his section.

In the play off between the two McDiarmids, it was a slight advantage to Allan having won a pawn coming out of the middle game. Allan proceeded to win a second pawn but then blundered his knight! The resulting endgame appeared to be winning for Euan with the knight advantage against the two pawns, but care was required to avoid these two extra pawns becoming strong. In the end Allan made an illegal move with Euan winning the Autumn Allegro Trophy for the first time.

Section One

• 1: Euan McDiarmid (5½/7)
• 2: Charles Gunn-Russell (5/7)
• 3-4: Crawford Macnab, Simon Bate (4/7)
• 5-7: Stuart McKinney, Gerry Brown, David Hale (3/7)
• 8: João Reis (½/7)

Section Two

• 1-2: Allan McDiarmid, Sandy Powell (5/6)
• 3: Douglas Heatlie (4/6)
• 4: Eric Smith (3½/6)
• 5: Richard Josey (2/6)
• 6: Richard Scott (1½/6)
• 7: Patrick Miller (0/6)