The club will once again be running an 8 round FIDE rated swiss over 2 weekends in June.  We’re still finalising the dates – the calendar in June will be packed with tournaments – but likely to be the middle 2 weekends.  Further details to follow, but feel free to contact me at thebalernobull@hotmail.com if you are interested in playing.

The club ran a successful Swiss event on the weekends of June 12-13 and 19-20.  18 players participated, with 6 rated over 2000.  The club was well represented by Daniel McGowan, Hugh Brechin, Clement Sreeves, Mark Sanderson, Mike Ridge, Johnny Scott and Shivan Murdochy.

Final Standings:

1 Paul Roberts 6.5/8 2-4 Hugh Brechin, Chris Macdonald, Walter Burnett 5.5 5 Mike Ridge 5 6-7 Andrew McHarg, John McBride 4.5 8-9 Daniel McGowan, Stuart Hayes 4 10-15 Johnny Scott, Shivan Murdochy, Nigel Chapman, Clement Sreeves, Gavin Saxton, Eoin Campbell 3.5 16 Jamie Mollison 3 17 Mark Sanderson 3 18 Hutch Williams 0

Paul Roberts was a deserved winner of the event, although he was pushed very hard in a number of games and had to defend an inferior ending in the last round against Chris Macdonald to secure outright first.  Hugh Brechin was matching Paul for most of the event until a round 7 defeat to Chris, who along with Walter Burnett had a strong finish to the event.

Andrew McHarg edged out Hugh for the performance rating prize, with a score of +1.48 ahead of FIDE expected score.  Of the unrated players, Mike Ridge had a great recovery following a 0/2 start to register a 2025 performance.  Results should be included in time for the July 1 Chess Scotland grading list, and hopefully the next FIDE list too.

We hope to run a similar event next year following this success.

Neil