European Senior Team Championships

Dresden, Germany

February 10-18, 2010

Top 10 finish for Scots in Germany

Official website

Final rankings

Annotated Game

Event Summary

Scotland 1 Team

Board 1: Craig Pritchett, IM 2366

Board 2: Gerald Bonner, 2179

Board 3: Alastair White, 2123

Board 4: Alan Borwell, 2018

Scotland 2 Team

Board 1: Hugh Flockhart, 1871

Board 2: George Murphy, (CS_1685)

Board 3: Siegrun MacGilchrist, 1817

Board 4: James Macrae, 1753

Scotland	ENG	RUS	NED	ISL	GER	ESP	NED	DEN	GER	%	Total
Pritchett	1	1	0.5	1	0	0.5	1	0.5	0.5	67	6
Bonner	1	0	1	0.5	1	0.5	0.5	0.5	1	67	6
White	1	0	1	0.5	1	0	0.5	0	0.5	50	4.5
Borwell	1	0	1	0.5	0	0.5	0.5	1	0.5	56	5
Total	4	1	3.5	2.5	2	1.5	2.5	2	2.5	60	21.5

Round 1 - February 10

Scotland		4-0	England 2
C. Pritchett (2366) b		1-0	Kendall,Paul S N 2069
G. Bonner (2179)		1-0	Wilson,Peter J B 1995
A. White (2123)		1-0	Pemberton,Clive H 1897
A. Borwell (2018)		1-0	Wood,Peter C 1904

Round 2 - February 11

Scotland		1-3	St Petersburg
C. Pritchett (2366) w		1-0	Mishuchkov,Nikolai M 2396
G. Bonner (2179)		0-1	Turikov,Viktor 2345
A. White (2123)		0-1	Karasev,Vladimir I 2344
A. Borwell (2018)		0-1	Dommes,Vladimir M 2297

Round 3 - February 12

Scotland		3½-½	Amsterdam
C. Pritchett (2366) b		½-½	Ghijsen,Pim 2171
G. Bonner (2179)		1-0	Jongsma,Alexander 2184
A. White (2123)		1-0	Oud,Niek 2038
A. Borwell (2018)		1-0	Holsteijn,Gerrit 2008

Round 4 - February 13

Scotland		2½-1½	Reykjavik
C. Pritchett (2366) w		1-0	Gunnarsson,Gunnar K 2231
G. Bonner (2179)		½-½	Finnlaugsson,Gunnar 2121
A. White (2123)		½-½	Gunnarsson,Magnus 2107
A. Borwell (2018)		½-½	Jonsson,Ingimar 1915

Round 5 - February 14

Scotland		2-2	Hessen
C. Pritchett (2366) w		0-1	Donchenko,Anatoly 2380
G. Bonner (2179)		1-0	Haubt,Georg 2266
A. White (2123)		1-0	Niebling,Ferdinand 2197
A. Borwell (2018)		0-1	Zunker,Reinhard,Dr. 2160

Round 6 - February 15

Scotland		1½-2½	Catalonia
C. Pritchett (2366) b		½-½	Rodriguez Vargas 2423
G. Bonner (2179)		½-½	Simon Padros 2229
A. White (2123)		0-1	Anguera Maestro 2217
A. Borwell (2018)		½-½	Poyato Sala 2216

Round 7 - February 16

Scotland		2½-1½	Den Haag
C. Pritchett (2366) w		1-0	Happel,Henk 2181
G. Bonner (2179)		½-½	Dickhoff,Ronald 2123
A. White (2123)		½-½	Lindner,Jan-Joost 2174
A. Borwell (2018)		½-½	Vink,Wim 2001

Round 8 - February 17

Scotland		2-2	Denmark
C. Pritchett (2366) b		½-½	Sloth,Jorn 2300
G. Bonner (2179)		½-½	Jorgensen,Jorgen 2340
A. White (2123)		0-1	Sorensen,Bent 2240
A. Borwell (2018)		1-0	Nielsen,Poul Erik 2114

Round 9 - February 18

Scotland		2½-1½	Berlin
C. Pritchett (2366) w		½-½	Baumbach,Friedrich 2261
G. Bonner (2179)		1-0	Postler,Reinhard 2325
A. White (2123)		½-½	Lieb,Harald 2249
A. Borwell (2018)		½-½	Brameyer,Hermann 2237

*****

 

European Seniors Team Championship – Dresden 2010 by Alan Borwell

My lasting impression from Dresden 2010 will be that we had a really excellent team, working well together to produce a result which exceeded our expectations. When we arrived we found we had been elevated to 22 nd seed (from 24 th ) and that we would have to work hard to justify the seeding.

From a personal point of view, I was a little disappointed not to score at least 6/9, because I had opportunities to win three games which were all subsequently drawn. Although having the White pieces in Round 1, I ended up having only 4 Whites (scoring 3.5) and 5 Blacks (scoring 1.5). My two losses were against St. Petersburg and Hessen, two of the strongest teams playing, but my biggest disappointment was in the last round, against a much higher rated Berlin opponent, when I missed an absolutely certain win on the last move before time control, when we were both short of time.

Although my best game was probably against Catalonia (opponent rated 2216), it was also drawn after I underestimated the strength of 27. Nex5!, when although it temporarily gave up a piece for 2 pawns, the follow up of 31.f4!, would have recovered the material, with a clearly winning position. It was even more frustrating as a win would have secured a draw for the team against very strong opposition. I should have won against Iceland (KR Reykjavik) although a draw ensured team victory. However overall, I was reasonably satisfied as oldest player in the team and infrequent OTB player!

All games are available for downloading from :- http://www.schachfestival.de/www_festival/92e9ee85b2a0843ab8dfe06a2e51adee.php

Here is my game from Round 3 against VAS Amsterdam , but I should have concluded more elegantly with 27. Rxf5!, although the continuation which I played did convert into a totally winning ending.

Borwell,Alan (2018), Scotland 1

Holsteijn,Gemit (2008), VAS Amsterdam

 

1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.Be3 Nf6 5.Qd2 Nc6 6.f3 0–0 7.h4 e5 8.Nge2 a6 9.0–0–0 exd4 10.Nxd4 Nxd4 11.Bxd4 h6 12.Be3 Kh7 13.g4 h5 14.Bg5 Qe8 15.Bxf6 Bxf6 16.Nd5 Qe5 17.Nxf6+ Qxf6 18.gxh5 gxh5 19.Bd3 Qe5 20.Rhg1 f6 21.f4 Qe8 22.e5+ f5 23.exd6 Be6 24.Rg5 Rf6 25.Rdg1 Qa4 26.Rxh5+ Rh6 27.Qc3 Qxf4+ 28.Kb1 Rg8 29.Rxg8 Kxg8 30.Rxh6 Qxh6 31.dxc7 Bc8 32.Bc4+ Kh7 33.Qg3 Qf8 34.h5 Qg7 35.Qxg7+ Kxg7 36.Kc1 Kh6 37.Be2 1–0

 

The other memories of Dresden 2010 will be of the snow and cold weather, a virus which affected most of us towards the end of the event, the three concerts attended with other colleagues and the excellent fellowship with all the Scottish players and other chess and correspondence chess friends – two World CC Champions were on the top boards for our last two opponents, Denmark and Berlin!