Scottish Championship Report

July 5-13, 2008 

by IA Alex McFarlane

This year the Scottish took on a different look. The Championship was included in an International Open with increased prizemoney. In addition Internet transmission of the games was arranged so the stay at home punters could enjoy the games as well. The outcome was a tournament which attracted entrants from as far afield as Uzbekistan and as close as England with Italy, Germany, Slovakia and Austria also represented. There was a significant increase in the numbers attending. The Glasgow Academy provided a very good venue for the event, even if the weather was disappointing.

The Open was a keenly contested affair with everything to play for going into the last round. There were three players on 6 ½ - Alan Tate, Jan Markos (GM from Slovakia) and Tautvydas Vedrickas (Lithuania). Unfortunately, from the Scottish point of view, Alan lost to Tautvydas leaving £3000 to be shared by Messrs Markos and Vedrickas.

A very good win by Andy Muir over Italian IM Sabino Brunello meant that he too finished on 6 ½ as did Ravshan Khamroev of Uzbekistan. The Scottish Championship therefore had to be decided on tie-break, as agreed at the 2007 AGM. When the calculations were done Alan Tate had a performance approximately 60 points above Andy's.

The Boys' and Girls' events were also contained within the Open. Despite a surprisingly good early show by Daniel Rocks he was pipped to the Boys' title by Andrew Green and Connor Woods. Ali Roy won the Girls' title.

Andy again lost out on the decision for the Lord Kirkwood Best Game Prize when his last round victory was adjudged runner up to Joe McGreechin's second round win against Reinhard Schmerwitz of Germany.

The first two rounds were accelerated, as is common in events of this nature, to prevent huge rating differences between the players. As a result of this only 4 players entered round 3 on 2/2, all three former champions (Muir, J Grant and Bonner) all drawing in the first round.

In round 3 Jan Markos established a lead only to be pegged back again in round 4. Whilst there were a number of drawn games it must be said that these were in the main hard fought with only one GM draw throughout the tournament.

A very encouraging feature of the event was the number of late teen/early twenties players who were taking part. Pride of place amongst the younger element must go to Daniel Rocks who was on 4/5 and a draw with Andy Muir in round 6 was no mean achievement. Unfortunately Daniel faded a bit towards the end.

Ed Spencer was doing well and challenging for the Scottish title until an unfortunate lapse in his round 8 game.

The series of tough games meant that going into the last round three people were in with a chance of first place. Unfortunately for the home supporters it was Alan Tate who lost out leaving Jan Markos (Slovakia) and Tautvydas Vedrickas (Lithuania) as the joint winners. Alan had some solace in winning the Scottish Championship on tie break from Andy Muir, this despite an entertaining last round win against IM Sabino Brunello (Italy) for the defending champion.

FIDE Crosstable of Open (excel)

CS Grading

The Senior Championship was a seperate event and the title was shared by Michael Roth and Eoin Campbell. Michael's round 7 win against Ken Brown was highly rated by the judges.

CS Grading

The U1500 Championship was also shared. The winners were Alistair Goodall and Fraser Taylor. The Under 1500 Boys' Champion was Ian McCulloch

CS Grading

The Scottish Lightning Championship was held on the mornings of the final Saturday and Sunday. Callum MacQueen with a score of 13 ½ /14 is the new champion.

The Championships will be held next year in Edinburgh from 11th – 19th July.

Acknowledgements

Chess Scotland would like to acknowledge the support given to the event by the following:

Glasgow Chess League for providing the premises; ECF for loaning the sensory boards and to Dave Clayton and Steve Hughes for setting the system up along with our very own Andy Howie; Carl Hibbard for hosting the games on his servers for free; Lord Kirkwood for donating the special prizes and to Jacob Aagard,John Shaw and Geoff Chandler for agreeing to select the winners of these prizes; and the control team of Donald Wilson and Lara Barnes.