Congratulations to club member Calum McGillivray who came 1= in the Malawi Major (U1850) event held on Saturday way over in Prestwick.
They had a record 75 players participating raising a grand total of £4230 for the Malawi Charity!
A mass exodus took place at the weekend of club members heading for Oban’s 2019 Chess Congress – with stunning views en route and on arrival
….. with strange sights in the evening before Round 1!
The Oban congress is one of the most popular events on the Scotland chess circuit. The event has been superbly organised for many years by Duncan Campbell and his team. The Congress was held in the Royal Hotel, Oban with four tournaments taking place, Open, Challengers (U-1900) Major (U-1600) and Minor (U-1350) with over 120 players coming from all round Scotland and the UK.
Top slots were achieved by both FM Neil Berry (the club’s president!) and Martin Brejter.
Neil came first equal in the Open and Martin first equal in the Major with Keith Aitchison winning a grading prize in the Challengers section.
In the Major Martin came out of round 4 as outright leader with 3.5/4 …..
….. but was held to a draw by fellow club member Ian Whittaker (on 3/4) in a tense final round game where Martin had pressure throughout but Ian finally won a pawn in the latter part of a tricky N+3Ps v B+3Ps endgame with two of Martin’s P’s on the same colour as his bishop – but a draw was finally agreed with both players down to just over a minute each in extra time …..
Also playing were Mike Ridge (who drew with IM Mark Orr in Round 2!) and Ben Ridge in the Open, Robert Kane in the Challengers, and Allan Buchan in the Major.
Many thanks for an excellent congress well organised by Duncan Campbell and his crew of arbiters and assistants.
The club was well represented at this year’s Dundee Congress on October 18-20. Held at the University and run very efficently by Keith Rose, the congress is established as one of the best on the Scottish circuit.
Going into the final round in the Premier competition, both myself and Willie Rutherford were in a large group half a point behind leader Steve Mannion. I was given the task of pegging back the tournament leader. We reached this position:
Steve played 16.Qc3!, sacrificing material to destroy the Black centre. After 16…Bb4 17.Qxc6 Bxe1 18.Rxe1 (18.gxf3!? is also interesting) the d5 pawn falls. 18…Be4 19.f3 Bf5 20.Bxd5 my Rooks are dominated by the Bishops, and White can try to arrange rolling his central majority. I made a draw, but was not happy with my position at this point.
One nice idea I found about after the game was to meet 16.Qc3 with 16…Rb8!?, intending 17.Qxc6 Rb6 and …Rg6 will follow. Black is doing at least fine here.
Unfortunately Willie lost to Murad Abdulla so did not join the winners, though he picked up a share of the grading prize as consolation.
Final Results:
Premier
Neil Berry 3.5
Willie Rutherford 3
Mike Ridge, Snorri Kristjansson 2
Robert Kane 1.5
Major
Vipin Zamvar 3 (also picking up a grading prize)
Calum Macgillivray, Keith Aitchison, Richard Scott 2.5
Alan Buchan 1
Inverness Congress
Congratulations to Calum McGillivray winning the Tomnahurich Major – Under 1850 FIDE Rated – scoring 4/5 – just beating Keith Aitchison, with 3.5/5, into 2= place.
Mike & Ben Ridge and David Robertson played in the Balnuaran Premier and also Mark Smith competed in the Clach Na Cudainn Minor
The Scotland heat of the UK Open Blitz was held in spacious surroundings at Broughton School in Edinburgh on September 7. This was a FIDE rated tournament with each player having 3 minutes on the clock plus 2 seconds per move – very tough!
The event was jointly won by IM Andrew Greet and GM Justin Tan who both scored 13/15. Willie Rutherford was the top player from the club coming in 25th with an excellent score of 8/15.
Other members playing included Mike & Ben Ridge, Calum Mcgillivray and Ian Whittaker (who was in close contention for the wooden spoon …).
Further details on the Chess Scotland and ECF web sites with full tournament results here.
The 2nd Northumbria Masters took place in the Novotel Hotel in Newcastle on August 22-27. 9 games in 5 days over the bank holiday weekend was a demanding schedule, but the venue was excellent and the Masters featured 6 GMs and 7 IMs. I managed to finish 5th= on 6/9, having played 4 GMs – my best tournament result in a while. TRaj Bhopal and Robert Kane played in the Challengers event.
The event will be held on the same weekend next year. Definitely worth a visit!