Category Archives: Club Member Results

The Perth Congress was held last weekend at the Salutation Hotel (an excellent venue – and has been welcoming guests since 1699?!?) – with a significant number of club members taking part.

No prize winners in the Open but good 3½/5 scores by both CM Paul Roberts (drawing with the eventual winner Junhao Xian in the second round but then losing to IM Mark Orr in the third) and Willie Rutherford (losing to Max Turner in the third round).  Robert Kane, Benjamin Ridge and Michael Ridge all scored 2/5 and David Robertson ended on 1½/5.

In the Major six players came first equal on 4/5 leaving Ian Whittaker as 7th equal on 3½/5 (sharing the U1650 grading prize).  Keith Aitchison followed closely behind on 3/5 and Will Samson scored 2½/5.

Leading on 100% into the final round of the Minor, after a marathon fourth round win which only finished just before the start of the final round, a drained Allan Buchan unfortunately lost his final game to Gordon Greig, the eventual joint winner, coming third equal (on 4/5).  Andrew Rutherford (Tiger Cubs) was close behind on 3/5 coming sixth equal and Mark Smith ended up with a score of 3/5.

Full tournament results are on the Chess Scotland web site

Have you played in any events that we haven’t mentioned here on the site? If so please let us know – bill@spiderwriting.co.uk

Members ventured into darkest Fife in January for the Kirkaldy weekend congress.

In the U2200 Mike Ridge came in second with a score of 3/4 ahead of third placed Benjamin Ridge on 2½/4, followed by Robert Kane on 2/4 and Vipin Zamvar (0/3).

Keith Aitchison came second in the U1800 tournament with a score of 3/4 and Calum McGillivray scored 1½/5.

Full tournament results are on the Chess Scotland web site

Have you played in any events that we haven’t mentioned here on the site? If so please let us know – bill@spiderwriting.co.uk

The Lothians Allegro was held at the Bainfield Bowling & Social Club on 13th January with a number of club members taking part.

David Robertson was in the Open scoring 1/5.  In the Challengers Ian Whittaker came second on 4/5 followed by both Raj Bhopal and David Archibald, who were third equal on 3½/5, and Robert Kane on 2½/5.

In the Major, Calum McGillivray scored 4/5 to come in at second equal, with James Hartman (from the Tiger Cubs) following in sixth place with 3½/5 and Jonathan Fallman (who scored 2/5).

Allan Buchan was first equal in the Minor (4½/5) followed by Jennifer Shelley and Mark Smith (both with 2/5).

Full tournament results are on the Chess Scotland web site.

Again let us know of any ommissions.

Catching up on congress results in the last few months – we start with the Oban Congress held in November; one of the most scenic venues of the events calendar with views over to the island of Mull.

A number of members went over to the congress. Mike Ridge and our president Neil Berry (FM) played in the Open, with Neil finishing third equal on 3½/5, behind two IMs: Andrew Greet was the winner on 4½/5 and Mark Orr was on 4/5.

In the Challengers, Robert Kane achieved second place with a score of 4/5 with Benjamin Ridge scoring 3/5 (sixth equal) followed by Keith Aitchison with 2.5/5.

In the Minor, Allan Buchan and Mark Smith both scored 3/5 coming sixth equal.

Full tournament results are on the Chess Scotland web site

If we’ve missed anyone please let us know.

Armageddon Chess is a relatively recent phenomenon, but I’m not sure exactly who invented it.  The concept is this: the game must produce a decisive result.  Black has draw odds, and to compensate this White has extra time.  It is often used in knockout tournaments as a “tiebreak of last resort”, if the players cannot be split by a series of tiebreak games with shorter and shorter time controls.  In this case usually White has 6 minutes to Black’s 5, or perhaps 5 v 4.  It has even appeared in the World Championship regulations.  While this might sound like a ridiculous way to decide a World Championship match (it is), there have been plenty of examples of worse.  The most famous is probably the Smyslov-Hubner Candidates quarter final in 1983 being decided by the roll of the roulette ball (although the ball landed on zero first time!).

A few years ago the US Championship introduced Armageddon into their event, albeit with a twist.  After 8 rounds of a normal Swiss, the top 4 players would qualify for the Armageddon playoff, with 2 semis and a final.  The time control was slightly different, with White having a fixed time (of say 30 minutes – I can’t recall the exact details) and players ‘bidding’ for the Black pieces.  The player with the lowest bid would ‘win’ the Black pieces and draw odds, but would start the game with their bid against White’s full allocation.

Edinburgh Chess Club member David Oswald has organised 2 similar Weekend events at the club – the so-called Elite Armageddon events.  After a 4 round Swiss, players are split into groups of 4 according to finishing places to play a semi-final and final/ playoff (although most of the prizes are for the top group only).  Here White has 45 minutes to start with.  There has been a huge variance in strategy, with a number of players bidding 45 minutes to secure White, right down to the bidding style of Andrew “the 14 minute man” Green.  My own preference has been somewhere in the middle.  I had the opportunity to ask a couple of the strongest players on the planet (!) after the Scottish Blitz this year what they might bid.  Their verdict was that it would hugely depend on the situation and how you were feeling at that moment.  Or they were sitting on the fence!

Both events have been won by Alan Tate of Wandering Dragons.  Alan is generally one of the 45 minute bidders (although he did go a bit lower against me in the final of the first event).  In the final of the second against GM Keti Arakhamia-Grant both players bid 45 minutes!  In this case, the rules allow for one resubmission should players wish to alter their bid.    Again, both players bid 45 minutes.  There was then a coin toss to decide who was to get White.  This got me thinking.  If both players wanted White and bid 45 minutes, then why not reverse the auction?  So for the second bid, players would bid for White.  Would the players actually be willing to take less time and give draw odds just for the White pieces?  Food for thought.

To finish, here is a position from the second Armageddon event.  The result of Oswald-Groves probably had no bearing on the final positions, but was still dramatic…

Black played 1…Nxg4, and after 2.Rxh7+ Kg6 3.Rhg7+ Kh6 the move 4.hxg4?? allowed Black to draw immediately with 4…Qh1+! 5.Kg3 Qg2+! 6.Kf4 Qf3+!

4 club members were in a 6 player group of Scots that played in the 9th Malakoff Open in Paris in April.  Due to a certain volcano disturbing our travel plans, the Scots arrived late and were paired against each other!  A further derby match Berry v Oswald took place in round 5.

Andrew Green took the scalp of Kozhuharov (2419) to round off a fine tournament on 6/9.  Neil Berry also scored 6.  David Oswald won the under 2000 Grading Performance Prize with his score of 5.5.  Clement Sreeves scored 4.5.

For further details see

http://www.malakoffetmat.net/

l to r: Clement, Neil, David, Andrew, Andrew McClement