Our President, Raj Bhopal has been playing in the European Senior Chess Championship and was delighted to play a legend of the game – GM Nona Gaprindashvili, who was women’s world champion from 1962 to 1968, and is still a strong player in her 80s. The game finished in a draw, so Raj can now say he’s drawn with a world champion. Definitely a day to remember.
Hard on the heels of his first tournament win, 8 year-old Adam Ling has triumphed a second time, at the Albyn Intermediate Shield event in Aberdeen. We’re clearly going to have to watch this young lad carefully.
Congratulations Adam!
After a couple of convincing wins in the quarter and semifinal of the Summer Plate, Edinburgh 1 came up against a very youthful and talented Edinburgh West team in the final.
Matthew Willder produced a quick win for us on board 3 but all the other games were tight.
Raj was fought to a standstill in an opposite coloured bishops endgame. Mark Gyalus had a very sharp game that mercifully was agreed drawn while time was running out for both players.
The final result was a deserved victory to Edinburgh West by 3.5 to 2.5 – before allowing for handicap points. Taking into account the handicap the result was 5 to 2.5. Congratulations to Edinburgh West.
Report by Ivor McConnell
Delighted to hear that one of our youngest members, 8 year old Adam Ling, has won the intermediate section of the Bothwell Junior Chess Congress at the Bothwell Scarecrow Festival in September.
Very well done Adam and good luck in the NEJCA Albyn Trophy in Aberdeen on the 29th. Enjoy the trip and enjoy your chess. You’re already ahead of most of us!
Many congratulations to club member Raghuram Parasur, who plays for the Tiger Cubs, on being awarded the Balerno Trophy for the highest rise in grading over a season.
His grade last year was 742, but has risen an astonishing 1052 points to 1794. Of the 14 games he played in this period he won 13 and drew 1.
The previous record in the Edinburgh leagues was held by our own Freddy Waldhausen Gordon.
To put his rise in perspective, a certain Magnus Carlsen, in the year he got his first coach, rose from 904 to 1907 Elo, a rise of merely 1003 points.
So no pressure Raghuram 😉 but we all look forward to seeing you continue to improve. Very well done.
The Edinburgh and Lothians leagues have recently been completed for the season, and our teams’ results were as follows.
Our 1st team relinquished their oft-held title to Edinburgh West 1, and finished 2nd, just a point behind.
This year we had three of the six teams in this division and they finished in the top three places. The 2nd team won decisively with a perfect match score of 20/20, while the 4th team were second on 10/20, and the 3rd team a point further back. Well done to all.
Having only been promoted from Div 3 last year, our 5th team secured a very fine 3rd place in this division, behind the winners Wandering Dragons 2, and runners up Corstorphine 1.
Tiger Cubs inevitably varies in strength from one year to the next so it was no surprise that having won this division last year, they finished in 9th place this time. Many of their matches were very close and could easily have gone the other way and seen them finish higher.
We ran a 6th team for the first time this year, and for many of them it was their first taste of league chess, so it was no disgrace to finish in last place. Valuable lessons will have been learned and they can look forward to building on their experience for next year.