The Stonehaven vs Bishops match in the North East Scotland chess league was played at the Newton Arms, Newtonhill on Wednesday 22nd April 2015. The result was a comfortable for the Bishops as follows:
| Stonehaven | Bon Accord Bishops | ||||||
| 1 | B | Keith Emery | 1684 | 0 | 1 | Mike Cavanagh | 1856 |
| 2 | W | Bruce Harrold | 1671 | 0 | 1 | Richard Jennings | 1820 |
| 3 | B | Pat Coffield | 1452 | 0 | 1 | Hugh Holmes | 1724 |
| 4 | W | David Bridges | 1235 | 0.5 | 0.5 | Ian Grieve | 1445 |
| 0.5 | 3.5 | ||||||
The match between Bon Accord Knights and the Teflons Sharks in the North East Scotland chess league was played at Ferryhill community centre on Tuesday 21st April, and ended in a 2-2 draw.
The board 4 game ended first with Alan Smith of the Sharks pinning Mark Barclay’s knight against his king on the open g file. Boards 2 and 3 resulted in well played draws, whilst on board 1 Jeremy Mitchell blundered a piece in an equal position against Neil Irving. The full results were as follows:
| Bon Accord Knights | Teflon Sharks | ||||||
| 1 | B | Neil Irving | 1644 | 1 | 0 | Jeremy Mitchell | 1812 |
| 2 | W | Ricky Telford | 1639 | 0.5 | 0.5 | Ross Brennan | 1670 |
| 3 | B | Leston D’Costa | 1421 | 0.5 | 0.5 | Eric Davidson | 1669 |
| 4 | W | Mark Barclay | 1457 | 0 | 1 | Alan Smith | 1603 |
| 2 | 2 | ||||||
The Edinburgh chess congress is the largest chess congress in Scotland, with five sections including the only FIDE rated weekend open in Scotland. This year it was held at the new venue of St Thomas of Aquins school in Edinburgh between the 17th and 19th of April 2015. The Edinburgh congress was hosted for many years at George Heriot’s school. The new venue is about five minutes’ walk from Heriot’s, and although the building is a lot less grand, the playing conditions are in my opinion rather better. The playing hall was very spacious, catering was provided onsite, and there was also (unusual these days) a bookstall. From Bon Accord Murad Abdulla, Leston D’Costa, Euan Gray, Stuthi Hegde, Neil Irving, Richard Jennings, Anna Milton, Vagif Ramazanov, Vusal Ramazanov and Callum Smith were competing. The only players to win prizes were Neil Irving who was part of a nine way tie for second in the challengers, and Euan Gray who shared the grading prize, also in the challengers. The results for the Bon Accord players were as follows. Knights (under 1300)
Bishops (under 1500)
Major (under 1700)
Challengers (under 1900)
Premier (FIDE rated)
Grading data for the Edinburgh congress can be found here : http://www.chessscotland.com/news/?p=4928
The first round match of the BP cup between the Teflon Sharks and Newmachar was played at Ferryhill community centre on Tuesday 7th April 2015. Thanks to Jeremy Mitchell for providing information for the following report.
The match seems to have been exceptionally close. On board 1 Jeremy Mitchell drew with Joy Durno quite quickly. Eric Davidson then lost a winning (or at least drawn) position to Gerald Lobley. Tariq Pasha somehow won from a losing position against Steve Sawaryn on board 3. This left the match tied at 1.5 each with only the board 4 game to go.
On board 4 Stuthi Hegde was a pawn up in a king and pawn endgame against Ayo Suberu when she blundered a pawn. She then offered a draw but her opponent declined, not realising that a draw would be good enough for Newmachar to go through on board count. Further play resulted in a pawn race which should have been drawn but Ayo played a queen check while he was still in check from Stuthi’s queen, so he had to swap queens leaving Stuthi with a won king and g pawn against king. Stuthi got her king to the 6th rank, but then retreated the king and pushed the pawn so the position was once again drawn. However at this point Ayo’s flag fell, so he lost.
| Teflon Sharks |
Newmachar | ||||||
| 1 | B | Jeremy Mitchell | 1812 | 0.5 | 0.5 | Joy Durno | 1732 |
| 2 | W | Eric Davidson | 1669 | 0 | 1 | Gerald Lobley | 1649 |
| 3 | B | Tariq Pasha | 1192 | 1 | 0 | Steve Sawaryn | 1453 |
| 4 | W | Stuthi Hegde | 1084 | 1 | 0 | Ayo Suberu | U/G |
| 2.5 | 1.5 | ||||||
Congratulations to the Bon Accord All Stars on winning the 2014/15 North East Scotland Allegro league. The All Stars were clear winners, winning 8 of their 10 matches. The only hiccup being a double default against Newmachar.
The final table and grading information can be seen here http://www.chessscotland.com/event2015/NE_Scotland_Allegro_League.html
The first round match of the BP cup between Stonehaven and Knights was played at Newtonhill on Wednesday 8th April 2015.
The match was extremely closely fought. Leston D’Costa defeated his less experienced opponent fairly quickly, and just after the time control Duncan Harwood won his game against Bruce Harrold leaving the Knights 2-0 ahead. However on boards 2 and 3 things were not looking promising for the Knights: on board 2 Neil Irving had blundered an exchange in the opening against Pat Coffield, and his final move before the time control had left a completely lost bishop vs rook endgame. Meanwhile on board 3 John Ewen having had a probably winning position earlier in the game against David Bridges was faced by a lost king and pawn ending. This would have left the Knights eliminated from the competition at the first hurdle. Fortunately for the Knights David Bridges made some mistakes and John Ewen was able to win his ending and thus clinching the match. Pat Coffield then recorded a consolation win for Stonehaven.
| Stonehaven | Bon Accord Knights | ||||||
| 1 | B | Bruce Harrold | 1671 | 0 | 1 | Duncan Harwood | 1988 |
| 2 | W | Pat Coffield | 1452 | 1 | 0 | Neil Irving | 1644 |
| 3 | B | David Bridges | 1235 | 0 | 1 | John Ewen | 1619 |
| 4 | W | Robbie Williamson | U/G | 0 | 1 | Leston D’Costa | 1421 |
| 1 | 3 | ||||||
After 5 rounds of the club championship Alan Smith is on the sole lead with 4/5 followed by Mike Cavanagh, Bob Lothian, Jeremy Mitchell and Callum Smith on 3.5.
The draw for round 6 is as follows:
| White | Black |
| Alan Smith (4) | Jeremy Mitchell (3½) |
| Callum Smith (3½) | Mike Cavanagh (3½) |
| Bob Lothian (3½) | Tariq Pasha (3) |
| Neil Irving (2½) | Richard Jennings (3) |
| Leston D’Costa (2½) | Duncan Harwood (2½) |
| Stuthi Hegde (2) | Ricky Telford (2) |
| Euan Gray (1½) | John Ewen (2) |
| Mark Barclay (1) | Dylan Bodrell (1½) |
| Ayo Suberu (0) | Ian Grieve (1½) |
| Eric Davidson (1) | BYE |
The deadline for games to be completed is Friday 1st May 2015.
In the last round of the Scottish National Chess League Bon Accord were paired against Wandering Dragons B for the second time. For various reasons we struggled to get a team and could only field three players. Dragons were given advanced warning of this, but turned up with five players anyway.
The result was a narrow defeat for Bon Accord with Hamish and Daniel winning on the top two boards, and Callum getting ground down by a very experienced opponent.
| Bon Accord | Wandering Dragons B | ||||||
| 1 | W | Hamish Olson | 2087 | 1 | 0 | Eoin Campbell | 1837 |
| 2 | B | Daniel Maxwell | 2081 | 1 | 0 | Elliot Sloan | 1822 |
| 3 | W | Callum Smith | 1057 | 0 | 1 | Donald Heron | 1796 |
| 4 | B | Default | 0 | 1 | Won by default | ||
| 5 | W | Default | 0 | 1 | Won by default | ||
| 2 | 3 | ||||||
This result leaves Bon Accord as division 5 champions, and our promotion to division 4 was confirmed at the league AGM.
Congratulations to Adam Bremner for captaining the team, and to Hamish Olson, Daniel Maxwell, Callum Smith, Tariq Pasha, Duncan Harwood, Murad Abdulla, Richard Jennings, Leston D’Costa, Dylan Bodrell and John Clifford for playing.
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