Chess Scotland Club Tournament Finals

Grangemouth - May 17, 2008

report by Sam Collins

Barring a few minor hiccups this year’s Richardson/Spens Cup ran smoothly. 18 teams participated in all events.

Edinburgh v Cathcart
Bd1. Was a very tight positional game.
Bd2. Played half the game in endgame mode, with SM a pawn to the better.
Bd3. Alan Grant was a piece up and on his 31st move played Qd7 to which Neil Farrell under time pressure replied Rf7 and losing. Not noticing that he could have played BxQ. Although at this point it would not have really mattered.
BD7. This was the decisive game. The match was standing at 3½-3½ and with both getting close to time pressure George Livie gave up the exchange for a knight giving his opponent Alan Bell the game and Edinburgh West the match.

Edinburgh West at long last get their hands on "what for them has been" an elusive trophy.
Always the bridegroom never the bride proved not to be the case today.

Oban v Glenrothes
Glenrothes make it three in a row, and will definitely be playing in the Richardson Cup as will Oban next year.
This was a very evenly contested match, probably the turning point was at Bd 5 where Bruce Harrold had the better of the game. Should he win it would give Oban the Spens Cup on board count, however he let his advantage slip to go into an inferior endgame which he lost.

Edinburgh Civil Service v Hamilton
This was a very one sided match as the 6-0 score indicates, Giving your opponent a point of a start, does not really help your cause.
The most interesting game in this encounter was Bd2 Robert Montgomery (black) who was under the cosh for most of the game and struggled to get his pieces developed against a very aggressive Alan Prince. All the pressure paid off when towards the endgame Robert lost a piece.

Congratulations to the Winners and my commiserations to the losers.

Next years tournaments will revert to the old format with one change.

The Richardson Cup will be run as two sections of five teams, which will start in October 08 with the top team in each section playing off for the Final, and the team at the bottom of each section being relegated.

The Spens will run as a Knockout format with the two finalist being promoted to the Richardson Cup.

Richardson, Spens Grading Data 2007-2008

Richardson Finals

Spens Finals

 

Richardson Cup Final

Board No Edinburgh West Cathcart Colour Name Grade Score Name Grade Score 1  B  C Pritchett 2362 ½  R McKay 2411 ½ 2    J Grant 2305 0  S Mannion 2317 1 3    N Farrell 2173 0  A Grant 2200 1 4    P Roberts 2157 ½  A Maxwell 2044 ½ 5    G Neave 2193 1  M Tyre 1923 0 6    W Buchanan 2098 ½  S Tsang 1853 ½ 7    A Bell 1973 1  G Livie 1636 0 8    S Hogg 1969 1  S Beaton 1554 0       Total 4½   Total 3½

Spens Cup Final

Board No Glenrothes Oban Colour Name Grade Score Name Grade Score 1  B  M P Carballo 2082 ½  J Lennox 2136 ½ 2    G Pyrich 1976 1  D Campbell 1846 0 3    B Jenkins  1956 0  A Campbell 1752 1 4    R Kynoch 1936 ½  H Flockhart 1714 ½ 5    S Blyth 1545 1  B Harrold 1706 0 6    P Selbie 1391 1  G White 1345 0       Total 4   Total 2

Jack Campbell Rosebowl

Board No Edin Civil Service Hamilton B Colour Name Grade Score Name Grade Score 1  B  C MacNab 1877 1  I McLean 1906 0 2    A Prince 1774 1  R Montgomery 1785 0 3    S Bate 1681 1  W McIntosh 1593 0 4    R Austin 1648 1  A Mulholland 1492 0 5    G Brown 1532 1  J Frame 1370 0 6    Default 0 1  Default 0 0       Total 6   Total 0