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

This was a tough season for Edinburgh 2.

There were a number of close matches throughout the season, which went against us.

We started off with a heavy defeat to Edinburgh 1 – indeed the games were closer than the result.  Draws against Badgers Brook and University, along with narrow defeats by Edinburgh West and Dragons A, meant that we reached the halfway mark with only 2 points.

The second half of the season got underway with a tight defeat against Edinburgh 1, giving them a bit of a fright.  We followed this up with a win against Badgers Brook, our seasons highlight!

We then claimed a default win against University, when they failed to turn up at Alva Street.  Edinburgh West and Dragons A both beat us leaving us to wait for the final two games between Edinburgh 1 and University, with University needing to win one to overtake us.  Edinburgh 1 won one and claimed one by default. This ensured that Edinburgh 2 remained in the playoff place.

The playoff match was against Bank of Scotland which was closely contested with Edinburgh 2 winning narrowly.  Hence we will be in the Premier League next season.

Thanks to all who played this season.

Team:

Keith Aitchison (Captain),  Colin J Hutchison,  Lindsay A McGregor,  A David Archibald,  Neil Irving,  Michael Ridge,  Calum McGillivray,  Siddharth Berera,  Robert Kane,  Benjamin Ridge,  Raj Bhopal,  Lukah Connolly Sams,  Dietah Connolly Sams,  Ioannis Dabos-Doukas,  Snorri Kristjansson.

Full Premier Division results available here.

[Report by team captain Keith Aitchison]

The 4th team were playing in Division 2 again this season, after having finished 3rd in the 2017-18 season.

We won our first league match against Civil Service 2.  We then lost four games in a row (against Edinburgh University 2, Edinburgh West 2, Sandy Bells 1 and Pentland Hills 2) which put us in danger of relegation.

After narrow victories against Wandering Dragons C and Dunbar, we lost our penultimate match against Bank of Scotland 2.

This meant we needed a win away against Gorgie Dalry to avoid a relegation playoff. We won the game 3.5-2.5, which ensured we avoided relegation and finished 7th in Division 2.

Team:
Calum McGillivray (Captain), Bill Platts, Ian Whittaker, Niall Fergusson, Martin Brejter, Dietah Connolly Sams, Allan Buchan, Paul Stewart, Jennifer Shelley, Daniel Ranson, and Snorri Kristjansson.

Full Division 2 results available here.

[Report by team captain Calum McGillivray]

Team captain Colin reports on the 3rd team’s survival in Division 1 of the Edinburgh & Lothians League this season.

With high hopes of maybe challenging for the league, we found ourselves down at the wrong end of the table yet again.

After a poor start, only taking 1 point from our first 5 games, the troops rallied after the turn of the year winning a couple of big games,  the highlight being against Pentland Hills. With Pentland outgrading us on 5 of the 6 boards, we produced our best until last with a stunning 4-2 win.

With Corstorphine losing their last game to Dragons we finished in 5th place 1 point ahead of them.

Playoff match.

We were supposed to be playing University 2 who finished 2nd in Division 2 but, with their 1st team getting relegated from the Premier, they gave us the tie. HAPPY DAYS!

Team

Colin Hutchison (Captain), Ivor McConnell, Lindsay McGregor, Ian Whittaker, Christopher McIntee, David Archibald, John Smith, Martin Brejter, Ben Ridge, Jake Thwaites, and Jonathan Fallman

Full Division 1 results available here