Despite the imminent arrival of Storm Ciara a squadron of members migrated north for the Perth Congress last weekend.
A well-attended congress, with over 130 chess-players, in the pleasant surroundings of the Salutation Hotel, it was extremely well managed by the organising team of Andy Howie, John McNicol, David Congleton et al. Technology reigned with the top boards from each tournament being shown live online (games from the top boards in each tournament round-by-round are here)
There were three Swiss tournaments in the congress: an Open (with 46 players including 4 titled players), Major (U1800 with 51 players) and Minor (U1400 with 43 players), together with an evening’s social Blitz organised for those staying over on the Saturday.
Winner of the Open was FM Abdulla Murad with a 100% score of 5/5 ahead of the club’s CM Andrew Green on 4/5. Father and son team Mike and Ben Ridge were competing head-to-head throughout the Open before Mike finally drew ahead in the final rounds.
Despite bids by both Calum McGillivray and Keith Aitchison on the two top boards in the final round, the Major was won by Stephen Robinson with a score of 4.5/5.
The Minor was won jointly by Freel Lawrence and our own David Cubitt (who was leading all the way before agreeing a draw in the final round) each on 4.5/5.
Club performance were (and apologies for any omissions/errors):
Open
CM Andrew Green (4/5)
Mike Ridge (3/5)
Ben Ridge (2.5/5)
William Rutherford (0.5/5)
Major
Calum McGillivray (3.5/5)
Keith Aitchison (3/5)
Ian Whittaker (3/5)
Robert Kane (3/5)
Allan Buchan (1/5)
Minor
David Cubitt (4.5/5) 1=
Full results can be found here and on the Chess Scotland web-site.
[Report and photos by Ian Whittaker}