Scottish Championship Report

July 7-15, 2007  

by IA Alex McFarlane

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This year's Scottish was held at St Maurice's, Cumbernauld.  The venue was given by North Lanarkshire Council as part of the the new town's 50th anniversary celebrations.  The event had a truely international flavour with players from Denmark, England, France, Germany, Ireland, Norway and Spain as well as Scots competing.  The entry was up significantly from the previous year, though higher numbers still would have been appreciated.

Championship

The Championship was a ten player all-play-all.  It had been decided in advance, as the result of a poll conducted amongst chess players, that in the event of a tie, the title would be shared.  Interestingly, had the tournament been run as a Swiss then the vote was in favour of a rapid-play play-off!!

The event itself was a 10 player all-play-all and produced an emphatic victory for Andy Muir with the impressive score of 8/9.

Unfortunately, as there were only 3 titled players no norms were available.

CS Grading

 

Ranking and Games after round 9 of Scottish Championship

No.  PNo.  Name                          R1    R2    R3    R4    R5    R6    R7    R8    R9    CB Score
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  1.    2  Muir, Andrew J                9b1   6w1     +   1b½   8w1  10b1   4w1   5b1   3w½    0  8.0
  2.    1  McNab, Colin A                5b1   3w½   9b1   2w½   7b1   6w1   8w1  10b1   4w0    1  7.0
        4  Grant, Alan G                 8w1  10b1   6b1   5w½   3b½   9w1   2b0   7w1   1b1   -1  7.0
  4.    3  Bryson, Douglas               7w1   1b½   8w1  10b1   4w½   5b½   6b1   9w½   2b½   -1  6.5
  5.    6  Spencer, Edwin A             10w1   2b0   4w0   7b1   5w½   1b0   3w0   8b1   9b1   -1  4.5
  6.    5  Fraser, Mark G                1w0   8b1  10w1   4b½   6b½   3w½   9b0   2w0   7b0   -1  3.5
  7.    9  Nisbet, Alex Ian              2w0   7b½   1w0   8b½  10w½   4b0   5w1   3b½   6w0    1  3.0
  8.    7  Stevenson, James AB           3b0   9w½     -   6w0   1w0   8b½  10w½   4b0   5w1    2  2.5
  9.    8  Hilton, Steven H              4b0   5w0   3b0   9w½   2b0   7w½   1b0   6w0  10w1    1  2.0
 10.   10  Marks, Ian A                  6b0   4w0   5b0   3w0   9b½   2w0   7b½   1w0   8b0   -1  1.0

 Rating Results Table after round 9 of Scottish Championship
 nr Name                       Fed T  rating  Rat-ID  tot  Rc   N  W    W-We
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  1 McNab, Colin A             SCO GM  2416  2400030  7.0 2179  9  7   -0.03
  2 Muir, Andrew J             SCO IM  2354  2400138  8.0 2176  8  7   +1.32
  3 Bryson, Douglas            SCO IM  2350  2400073  6.5 2164  9  6.5 +0.04
  4 Grant, Alan G              SCO     2223  2400723  7.0 2163  9  7   +1.88
  5 Fraser, Mark G             SCO     2208  2401339  3.5 2164  9  3.5 -1.45
  6 Spencer, Edwin A           SCO     2200  2401568  4.5 2165  9  4.5 -0.36
  7 Stevenson, James AB        SCO     2078  2401215  2.5 2157  8  2.5 -0.76
  8 Hilton, Steven H           SCO     1992   415030  2.0 2178  9  2   -0.54
  9 Nisbet, Alex Ian           SCO     1952  2461688  3.0 2169  9  3   +0.80
 10 Marks, Ian A               SCO     1914  2401983  1.0 2161  9  1   -0.90      

 

 

FIDE Open

The Open was a keenly contested affair, and whilst there were a number of draws on the top boards these were generally hard fought.

 

 

 

 

 

Ranking and Games after round 9 of Scottish Open

No.  PNo.  Name                       Score WP    SB     PS    rat.  TPR  W-We
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  1.    2  Hulme, William              6.5  38.5  26.50  30.0  2027 2119 +0.37
        4  Schmerwitz, Reinhard        6.5  38.5  27.75  27.0  1938 2240 +1.11
  3.    6  McLatchie, Jonathan         6.0  43.0  21.75  31.0  1847 2025 +0.91
        7  Chisholm, Mike              6.0  42.5  27.00  33.0  0000 2104 +1.00
  5.    1  Cochrane, Richard           5.5  44.5  25.25  29.0  2130 1948 -1.16
  6.    3  Will, Douglas               5.0  42.5  18.75  27.0  2006 1789 -1.12
        5  Nisbet, Alex                5.0  39.5  16.75  24.0  1924 1900 -0.11
  8.    9  McBride, John               4.5  39.5  14.75  22.5  0000 1703  1703
       12  Kleboe, James PR            4.5  42.5  19.50  21.0  0000 1918  1918
 10.    8  Parks, Joe                  3.5  42.0  11.50  19.0  0000 1765  1765
       10  Irving, Neil                3.5  38.5  12.50  19.5  0000 1762  1762
       13  Chapman, Nigel              3.5  39.5  10.00  16.5  0000 1612  1612
 13.   11  Warren, John                3.0  35.5   7.75  15.5  0000 1151 0    

 

Rating Results Table after round 9 of Scottish Open
 nr Name                       Fed T  rating  Rat-ID  tot  Rc   N  W    W-We
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  1 Cochrane, Richard          SCO     2130  2400863  5.5 1948  5  2.5 -1.16
  2 Hulme, William             SCO     2027  2461293  6.5 1994  3  2   +0.37
  3 Will, Douglas              SCO     2006  2401070  5.0 1982  4  1   -1.12
  4 Schmerwitz, Reinhard       GER     1938 24646539  6.5 1967  3  2.5 +1.11
  5 Nisbet, Alex               SCO     1924  2461277  5.0 2025  3  1   -0.11
  6 McLatchie, Jonathan        SCO     1847  2461315  6.0 2025  4  2   +0.91
  7 Chisholm, Mike             SCO     0000  2402220  6.0 1979  6  4   +1.00
  8 Parks, Joe                 SCO     0000           3.5 2005  5  1    1765
  9 McBride, John              SCO     0000  2461633  4.5 2025  4  0.5  1703
 10 Irving, Neil               SCO     0000  2402238  3.5 1955  4  1    1762
 11 Warren, John               SCO     0000           3.0    0  2  0   0    
 12 Kleboe, James PR           SCO     0000           4.5 2005  4  1.5  1918
 13 Chapman, Nigel             SCO     0000           3.5 1934  4  0.5  1612

CS Grading

   

Senior Championship

Alastair White won the Senior title ahead of Ian Mason.

Scottish Senior Champion – Alastair White 6/7

2^nd Ian Mason 5½;  3^rd Jack Parkes 4½;  4^th Ken Brown 4;  5= Michael Ash, Paul Rodger 3½; 7= John Gibson, Eoin Campbell, Anthony Rose, Stuart McKinney 3; 11 Michael Roth 2½;  12 Eric Martin 1.

CS Grading  

Under 1800 Championship

The U-1800 title was shared between Donald Heron and Paul McQuillan

3^rd Paul Girdwood 4½;  4= Mark Sanderson, Paul Smith, William Clinton, Siegrun MacGilchrist 4; 8= Stephen Smith, Andrew Rodger 3; 10 Paul Connelly 2½;  11= David Potts, George Anderson 2.

CS Grading  

Under 1500 Championship

Ali Roy won this event and with it two titles as she also retained her Scottish Girls' title

Scottish Under 1500 Champion and Scottish Girls' Champion:- Ali Roy 5/7

Scottish Under 1500 Boys' Champion – Joseph McGreechin 4½

Also Second= Hugh Hanlon, George Thomson, Bernard Cassidy 4½

6= David Cubitt, Peter Horne 4;  8= Iain Hope, Graeme Forbes, Lisa Paton 3½; 11 David Watson 3; 12 Craig Petrie 2½; 13 Robert McLeod 1½.

CS Grading

 

Weekend Open

1st= Jacob Aagaard, Harald Borchgrevink 4/5

3rd= Steve Mannion, Chris Macdonald

5th= Graeme Kafka, Hugh Brechin, David Sime

CS Grading

Weekend Major

1st Stephen Hamilton; 2nd Kevin Campbell  

CS Grading

Weekend Minor

1st David Brodie; 2nd= Ali Roy, Michael Emery Grading Brian Stokes

 

CS Grading

Thanks go to the following people/organisations:

North Lanarkshire Council, Staff of St Maurice's, Ronnie Wallace, Donald Wilson, Simon Gillam, Lara Barnes, George Anderson without all of whom I would not have been able to organise the event.

Game scores are available by searching in the relevant event.  

It is certainly time to consider the future of this event in its current format.  The Championship is nowhere near as strong as it should be and this is having a knock-on effect on the FIDE Open which loses its top players to the Championship.  I for one would welcome an experimental period where an international open event was organised with the title going to the top Scot.

Photos by Lara Barnes and DMB