Category Archives: Club Member Results

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.

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

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.

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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!

 

In the ChessBase.com Scottish Grand Prix (2018-19) club members were top in three out of the four categories winning the Challengers, Major and Minor sections!  The Grand Prix’s purpose is to boost the Scottish tournament circuit and to provide another benefit for Chess Scotland members who play chess regularly.

In the Challengers, which had a grading limit of 1701-1900, Robert Kane (1866) came first with 47.0 points wining £100 plus ChessBase software, book, magazine and a trophy.  Mike Ridge scored 32.0 coming in 6th.

Robert Kane

In the Major, for players graded 1451-1700, first was Keith Aitchison (1664) with a score of 52.0 also winning £100 plus ChessBase software, book, magazine(s) and a trophy.  Calum McGillivray (1612) came in 3rd winning ChessBase playing program (e.g. latest version of Fritz), a book and a magazine.  Martin Brejterr, Ian Whittaker and Ben Ridge also appeared in the tables at 11th, 12th and 20th respectively.

Keith Aitchison

Alan Buchan (1252) not only came first in the Minor (for players graded under 1450) with 62.0 points, winning not just £100 plus software, book, magazine(s) and a trophy but also won a further £200 bonus award having the highest total accumulated by any player in all four grand prix sections.  David Cubitt and Mark Smith also appeared in the rankings at 14th and 15th respectively.

Allan Buchan

Not forgetting the Candidates section (for players graded 1901 to 2150), where Andrew Green (2076) was the highest scoring member with 20.0 points making 15th in the table followed by Willie Rutherford (20th), Paul Roberts (25th) and David Robertson (30th).

Well done everyone!