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

Snow passess traversed en route to Oban
Oban Harbour

 

 

 

 

 

….. with strange sights in the evening before Round 1!

A unicorn piece is introduced into the game at Oban Chess Congress

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.

And the winners were:

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.

Martin – Major First

In the Major Martin came out of round 4 as outright leader with 3.5/4 …..

Martin taking sole lead after round 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.

Edinburgh and Lothians Chess League – Edinburgh 4 – Division 2 Update

We won the match 5-1 against Pentland Hills 2 – thanks to help from the 5th team.  This was after losing 4-2 in the first match of the 2019/20 league season against the 5th team!

Thanks to everyone who played.

The full board results are:

Edinburgh 4 vs Pentland Hills 2 (away)

McGillivray 1-0 Lange
Whittaker 1-0 Clark
Robertson 1-0 Cumming
Armitage 1-0 Heathwood
Buchan 1-0 Ridland
Platts 0-1 Purkins

Edinburgh 4 vs Edinburgh 5

McGillivray 0.5-0.5 Robertson
Reiland 0-1 Anderson
Brejter 1-0 Buchan
Zamvar 0.5-0.5 Platts
McLaurin 0-1 Shelley
Egan 0-1 Duffy

[Report by Calum McGillivray]

Team chess for the 2019/20 season is now underway.

The club has 2 teams in the Edinburgh Premier League, and this means the opening fixture is a match between the 2. This fixture has often been hard fought, and this match was no exception. In fact, the first Team were lucky to escape with a 3-3 draw after wins from Mike Ridge and Bob Kane put the second Team in a strong position. In the next set of matches, the first Team had a comfortable win against Civil Service, while the seconds lost to a strong Edinburgh West side.

The SNCL season started on Sunday 3rd November. Both Teams had a tough set of fixtures, particularly with Edinburgh 2 winning promotion to Division 2 last season.

Edinburgh Premier League

Edinburgh 2 3-3 Edinburgh 1
Edinburgh 1 5-1 Civil Service
Edinburgh West 4.5-1.5 Edinburgh 2

SNCL Division 1

Edinburgh 1 2.5-2.5 Bon Accord
Edinburgh West 3.5-1.5 Edinburgh 1

SNCL Division 2

Kilmarnock 3.5-1.5 Edinburgh 2
Edinburgh 2 0.5-4.5 Thistles

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