After a couple of convincing wins in the quarter and semi-final of the Summer Plate, Edinburgh 1 came up against a very youthful and talented Edinburgh West team in the final.

Matthew Willder produced a quick win for us on board 3 but all the other games were tight.

Raj was fought to a standstill in an opposite coloured bishops endgame. Mark Gyalus had a very sharp game that mercifully was agreed drawn while time was running out for both players.

The final result was a deserved victory to Edinburgh West by 3.5 to 2.5 – before allowing for handicap points. Taking into account the handicap the result was 5 to 2.5. Congratulations to Edinburgh West.

Report by Ivor McConnell

The Edinburgh and Lothians leagues have recently been completed for the season, and our teams’ results were as follows.

Premier

Our 1st team relinquished their oft-held title to Edinburgh West 1, and finished 2nd, just a point behind.

Division 1

This year we had three of the six teams in this division and they finished in the top three places. The 2nd team won decisively with a perfect match score of 20/20, while the 4th team were second on 10/20, and the 3rd team a point further back. Well done to all.

Division 2

Having only been promoted from Div 3 last year, our 5th team secured a very fine 3rd place in this division, behind the winners Wandering Dragons 2, and runners up Corstorphine 1.

Division 3

Tiger Cubs inevitably varies in strength from one year to the next so it was no surprise that having won this division last year, they finished in 9th place this time. Many of their matches were very close and could easily have gone the other way and seen them finish higher.

We ran a 6th team for the first time this year, and for many of them it was their first taste of league chess, so it was no disgrace to finish in last place. Valuable lessons will have been learned and they can look forward to building on their experience for next year.

On Saturday evening the club played a return match against the Mechanics Institute of San Francisco played over 10 boards on chess.com (2 games on each board: 15 minutes for the game with 2 second move increments) .

The game was broadcast (and recorded) on Twitch with commentary by a great line up made of GM Nick de Firmian, FM Paul Whitehead, WCM Allyson Wong along with MI’s Chess Director Abel Talamantez and MI’s General Manager Dr Judit Sztaray.

We lost 14-6 in the end against a strong side, but managed some good performances. The top two boards ended equal with FM Neil drawing both his games on top board against IM Josiah Stearman whilst Adam deserves special mention for winning one game against GM Patrick Wolff. Berislav managed half a point versus IM Elliott Winslow. Ian held US National Master Mike Walder to a draw in their first game but whilst fighting hard in their second game got into time trouble and lost defending an opposite bishops endgame.

Some games from the match, annotated by GM Nick de Firmian, are in MI’s recent newsletter.

Message from Abel and the Mechanics’ Chess Team:

Hi Neil,

We wanted to give thanks to you and your team for helping organize the club match. It is great to have this kind of positive interaction between our clubs and communities, and we look forward to continuing to engage and collaborate in the future.

Edinburgh’s Team:

Neil Berry (thebalernobull)
Adam Bremner (AllStarShark)
Berislav Marusic (Sunshine1978)
Henk Bulthuis (henkbu)
Ian Whittaker (scotsgeek)
AJ Rushing (anacampserote)
Calum McGillivray (Penguin89C)
Ross Blackford (Ragnar006)
Robert Kane (fiercebadger)
Ian Johnston (SplashLeChat)

Full results can be found here on Chess.com.

For the second time in three years, we sent a team to play in the European Club Cup. This years’ event was held in the splendid Rodos Palace Hotel in Rhodes, from October 19-27. We qualified as Richardson winners, and were joined by runners up Edinburgh West. We had an average rating of 2136, making us 43rd seeds out of the 53 Teams in the Open section. Here are my highlights:

Winning! We won 3 matches 3.5-2.5, which meant we finished in 33rd place. This was double our points total from last time (although we had a kinder draw this time around). Edinburgh West player John Watkins remarked that winning a game in the ECC was similar to winning a game in the Edinburgh Premier League. He meant it as a compliment…I guess we don’t have to face the mighty Edinburgh 1 so don’t have the same perspective!

Rubbing shoulders with the stars. It was nice having all the games in the one hall, and almost all of the Teams staying in the same Hotel. During meal times you would always see a number of galacticos. This extended to the local bars, where various groups of chess players gathered to watch the Champions League football matches or just unwind. Ukrainian GM Anton Korobov had the unfortunate experience of witnessing one of our worst pieces of analysis.

The Morra Gambit! Well, not really, but it provided us with our first individual win, the following fine attacking effort from David Oswald:

19.g5! hxg5? [Too compliant.]

[19…Nd4 was better. The position is messy – White has a strong attack but Black has counterplay.]

20.hxg5 Bxg5 21.Rh1 [White’s attack flows naturally.]

21…Bxe3 22.Qxe3 Nd4! [The best try. Black combines an attack on the ?c4 with defensive resources such as …Nxf5–h6 or …Qg5+–h6 in some variations.]

23.Bd3! [The most impressive move of the game. White takes a time out to move his attacked Bishop, while preventing …Nxf5 and creating a new threat of f6. A very hard move to find when ‘mid combination’.]

[Neither 23.Qh3 Qg5+; nor 23.Ne4 Nxf5 work for White.]

23…e4 24.Bxe4 d5 25.Rh5 [25.Rxh7+ mates immediately, but the move played is plenty good enough to win.]

25…dxe4 26.Rch1 Kg8 27.Rxh7 f6 28.Rh8+ Kf7 29.Rxf8+ winning either the Queen or the Knight on d4. Black resigned. 1–0

Match Results:

Rd1: Reichenstein SSB (SUI) 4.5-1.5 Edinburgh
Rd2: Edinburgh 3.5-2.5 SV Voerendaal / KNSB (NED)
Rd3: Edinburgh 1.5-4.5 SK 47 Eynatten (BEL)
Rd4: Eppingen (GER) 2.5-3.5 Edinburgh
Rd5: White Rose (ENG) 3.5-2.5 Edinburgh
Rd6: Edinburgh 3.5-2.5 Adare (IRL)
Rd7: ASI Bologna (ITA) 4-2 Edinburgh

Individual scores:

1. Clement Sreeves 2.5/7
2. Calum MacQueen 3.5/7
3. Neil Berry 3.5/7
4. David Oswald 4/7
5. Alastair White 1/7
6. Chris Sykes 3.5/7

Following on from John’s reporting of the SNCL triumph, Edinburgh Chess Club also won the Edinburgh Premier Division, and Scotland’s premier team competition, the Richardson Cup. This was our first victory since 1987, and 24th overall! The results from the final against Edinburgh West were as follows:

Edinburgh 5.5 – 2.5 Edinburgh West

Calum MacQueen 1-0 Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant

Neil Berry 0.5-.05 Craig Pritchett

Clement Sreeves 0.5-0.5 Jonathan Grant

Adam Bremner 0.5-0.5 Neil Farrell

David Oswald 1-0 George Neave

David Robertson 0.5-0.5 Walter Buchanan

Hugh Brechin 0.5-0.5 Alan Bell

Raj Bhopal 1-0 Duncan Walker

Well done to everyone involved on a fantastic achievement!  I’ll be adding some chess content in due course.

Neil