Ah Wun - August 2002

We are now into a new season and with it new competitions are starting.  This year Chess Scotland is introducing a new team tournament for those in Primary 5 and under to run alongside the Primary Team Championship.  Entry forms for this will be distributed to known schools later.  Along with this newsletter should be an entry form for the Scottish Schools Team Championship – individuals are invited to take them into their schools and persuade a teacher to enter a team.

Despite it being the summer there has been a tremendous amount of chess and much to report.

Boys’ & Girls’ Championship

This event was held in Glasgow at the end of June and had an entry of 18. It was a closely fought event as the final results show.  The first two rounds showed little in the way of surprises with the top seeds generally winning only Ivan Stokes win against Neil Thomson almost 500 points above raised some eyebrows.  The round 3 draw between Chris MacDonald and Graham McKay meant that only Joe Redpath had 100% by Saturday evening.  On Sunday Joe drew with both Daniel McGowan and Chris MacDonald to finish on 4 with both these players winning their other game to join Joe on 4.  Also finishing on 4 points was Andrew Green, who after his first round loss to Christopher recorded 4 straight wins including a victory over Graham McKay. This win meant that Andrew shared the Boys’ title and won the Primary Individual (see later) in a month.  The girls’ title was won by Kathleen Rutherford ahead of defending Champion Natalie Donohue and Rhian Hughes.

1^st Joe Redpath, Christopher MacDonald, Andrew Green and Daniel McGowan all 4/5; 5^th Gavin Reid, Neil Thomson, Graham McKay, Lloyd Hughes 3; 9^th Stuart Leslie, Kathleen Rutherford, Ivan Stokes 2½;  12^th Edmund Davis, Blair Hawthorne, Hugh Brechin, Natalie Donohue 2; 16^th Rhian Hughes 1; 17^th Iain Cameron, Callum Binnie ½. 

British Championships

Rhian Hughes had a double success at this year’s British Championships held in August at Torquay.  Following her success last year when she tied for the Girls’ Under 8 title she did even better this year to win the Girls’ U8 title outright with a very convincing performance.  In the Girls’ Under 9 the competition was that bit harder but she still managed to finish 1^st equal but had to wait a considerable time whilst an appeal against an arbiter’s decision was heard.  The appeal confirmed that she had drawn her last round game and thereby shared the title.  Both of Rhian’s brothers were playing and did well in their respective sections.

A number of stronger juniors were playing in the Major Open.  This event is the one below the Championship proper and is sent for international rating.  As a result both Colin Hall and Louise MacNab should achieve their first FIDE (world) rating when the next list is published in October.  Christopher MacDonald has also achieved a FIDE rating, having temporarily dropped off the list.  Colin in particular had a fine tournament.  Despite a poor start he started the last round with a chance of becoming British Under 18 Champion.  Unfortunately the results did not go his way.

The next international list will include ratings above 1800 (previously it only went down to ratings of 2001) so there is even more scope for juniors, and others, to gain an international rating.  With this in mind, Willie Rutherford is running a FIDE rated all-play-all in Edinburgh in October.

Also in Edinburgh, but this time in July of 2003, will be the next British Championships.  It is hoped that there will be opportunities to win an entry to this event at tournaments throughout the season.

Primary Individual Championship

The 20^th Primary Individual Championship was held on 1^st-2^nd June at St Andrew’s Campus of Glasgow University in Bearsden.  This has been the venue on a number of occasions, but as the bulldozers are due to move in at the end of July the event will need to find another venue for next year.  The event is the highlight of the primary year with an overnight stay and a trip to the ten-pin bowling

The championship was dominated by Andrew Green from Edinburgh who stormed to a maximum 6/6.  Andrew is a very worthy Champion having defeated all of his nearest challengers on the way to his victory.  The battle for second place was resolved on tie break when Adam Bremner and Calum MacQueen agreed a draw in the last round.  The encouraging aspect for the future was the large number of primary 6 and under pupils scoring well.

1^st Andrew Green 6/6; 2^nd Adam Bremner 4½; 3^rd Calum Macqueen 4½;  4^th= Callum Binnie, Ewan Cruickshank, Natalie Donohue, Alastair Grant, Blair Hawthorne, Martin MacDonald, Ian MacGregor 3½;  11^th= Iain Cameron, Nico Giordano, Marc Paton, John Tawdrous 3;  15^th= Jonathan Edwards, Michael Emery, Ewan Riddoch 2½;  18^th= Rachel Curry, Craig Petrie 2; 20^th= Matthew O’Donnell, Connor Woods 1½; 22^nd Andrew Rutherford.

Chess Scotland is pleased to announce that Maureen and Norrie Mathie have been coaxed out of retirement and have agreed to organise the event next year.

Schools’ Team Championship

The final of the Schools’ Team Championship was held in Perth on Saturday 8^th June between Greenwood Academy, Irvine and Robert Gordon’s of Aberdeen.

It was an extremely closely fought match being eventually decided on tie break.

Bd        Greenwood      Result   Robt Gordon’s

1          S Greenwood   1 – 0    L McNab

2          R Graham         ½ - ½   G Molyneaux

3          A Carey           0 – 1    C Curry

4          D Deary           ½ - ½   S Enoch

                                    2 – 2

The match was decided when Stuart Greenwood pressed home his early pawn advantage over Louise McNab to give Greenwood the trophy on tie break (board count).  This is the 4^th time that Greenwood has won the trophy – a new record.  It is 14 years since the school last won the title.

Primary  Schools’ Team Championship

The final of the Primary Team Championship, held on the 12^th of May, was dominated by teams from the Aberdeen area (Mile End, Newmacher and Robert Gordon’s) with Jordanhill (Glasgow) being the only qualifiers from outwith the oil capital

The four teams qualified by winning their sections in the second round as detailed.

MP=Match Points, GP=Game points

South Morningside A ran Newmacher close tying on match points and being only a half point behind on game points.

The final section was held in Aberdeen and as can be seen from the match results it was an extremely competitive tourney.

Rd 1     Robert Gordon’s 3-1 Newmacher        Jordanhill 2-2 Mile End

Rd 2     Mile End 2-2 Robert Gordon’s Newmacher 3-1 Jordanhill

Rd 3     Newmacher 3-1 Mile End                    Robert Gordon’s 2-2 Jordanhill

Robert Gordon’s won the title on tie break from Newmacher with Mile End third and Jordanhill in fourth place.

P5 and Under Final

The final of this event was held at Wester Hailes on Sunday 25^th May.  All invited players had qualified by their performance in P5 and under events throughout Scotland. This years heats were held at Airdrie, Paisley, Aberdeen, Nairn and Blairgowrie.  The numbers taking part in the qualifying events were remarkably similar to last year despite a drop in 22 at the Blairgowrie event due to a snowstorm.

Competition was close all the way with the number 2 and 3 seeds (on grading) meeting in the last round to decide the top two places.  The winner was Conal MacGregor from Millbank Primary in Nairn. Two methods of tie-break were required to sort out 2^nd to 5^th places.

1^st Conal MacGregor (Millbank) 5/5;  2^nd Rhian Hughes (S Morningside) 4; 3^rd Marc Woods (Millbank) 4; 4^th Andrew Rutherford (James Gillespies) 4; 5^th Owen Hughes (S Morningside) 4; 6^th Craig Tinto 3½; 7^th= David Sutherland, Jamie Hookham, Kristian Roberts, Andrew Shaw, Ruairidh Milne, Gordon Buchan, Connor Woods 3; 14^th= Benjamin Filmer, Cameron McLean 2½.  Also taking part were Fraser McKay, Michael Miller, Robert Hay, Louise MacDonald, Michael Wills, Robert Montgomery, Stuart Montgomery, Adam Morrison, Jack Milne, David Nisbet, James Stephen, Eleanor Moncur, Joshua McGeechan, Jamie Malkin, David Brunger. 

Glorney & Faber Cups

The Glorney and Faber Cups are events for teams of Under 18 Boys and Girls respectively.  This year the countries involved were Scotland, England (2 teams), Ireland, Wales, Belgium, Czech Republic and the Netherlands.  Whilst we have always sent a team to the Glorney, in recent years it has proved impossible to get a team of girls together.  However, this year we managed a team – even though it was made up of two Scots and a Welsh girl!!

The event was held at Swansea University from the 22^nd to 26^th July.

Glorney Cup                                                   Faber Cup

Rd 1 1½-3½ v England B                               0-3 v Netherlands

Rd 2 3-2 v Netherlands                                  1-2 v Czech Republic

Rd 3 3½-1½ v Ireland                                    ½-2½ v England B

Rd 4 3-2 v Belgium                                        1½-1½ v Belgium

Rd 5 2-3 v Wales                                           ½-2½ v Wales

After a disappointing start the boys bounced back to defeat the eventual winners, the Netherlands.  Poor last round results meant a lowly finish.

Individual Results(in board order): Joe Redpath 2/5; Steven Tweedie 3½/5; Daniel McGowan 2/5, Colin Hall 2/5, Christopher MacDonald 3½/5.

It is to be hoped that the girls will have benefited from the experience and certainly drawing with Belgium was a fair result.

Individual Results: Louise MacNab 2/5; S Rees 1/5; Kathleen Rutherford ½/5.

Tri Nations

The Under 12 and Under 14 internationals against Wales and Ireland were postponed in June due to the Welsh not being able to organise this and the Glorney and Faber Cups.  At the time it was suggested that the event would take place in September.  Despite the efforts of Chess Scotland International Director Alan Minnican to try to confirm the dates and venue this proved to be impossible until less than three weeks before the date proposed by the Welsh.  Due to the difficulties in arranging travel and accompanying adults in such a short space of time – not to mention the additional expense that would have been involved in booking rail travel at such short notice, it was decided that a team could not be sent.

Whilst it must be very disappointing for those originally selected, there can be no doubt that the decision taken was the correct one.

Grand Prix

The winner of the 2001-2002 Grand Prix was once again Joe Redpath.  Joe gained an impressive 155 points well ahead of his nearest rivals.

In second place was Christopher MacDonald with 103.75 points. Derek Rooney (92.5) narrowly shaded third place ahead of David Grant who was only two points further behind. Steven Tweedie was 5^th (89 pts) and Neil Thomson 6^th (62 pts).

7^th and 8^th places were occupied by the leading girls with Louise MacNab (50 pts) finishing a half point ahead of Natalie Donohue.

The top three receive prizes of Chessbase software.

British Land UK Challenge – Scottish Megafinal

The Scottish heat of this event attracted almost 400 competitors to Dunfermline High School on  11^th May.  The winners of the event are given in the table below.  They, and the other qualifiers, went on to the Giga final played in England during July. (Report on final in next issue)

Next year Scotland will be divided into two sections with heats in Dunfermline and Aberdeen.

Glasgow Schools Primary Team Trophy

The Glasgow League supplied a magnificent shield for annual competition between the Primary Schools in the Glasgow League area.  The top four teams met at the West of Scotland Championships to decide the title.

The Jordanhill team was Ian MacGregor; Iain Cameron; Calum Binnie; Euan Robertson.

Stewarton Bonnets Allegro

Under 12: 1^st Mathew O’Donnell 5/5; 2^nd Natalie Donohue 4½; 3^rd= I Cameron, R Aitken, S MacQueen all 4.

Under 14: 1^st Calum Macqueen, 2^nd Ian Nisbet, 3^rd Lloyd Hughes (all 4/5).

Scottish Parliament Defeated?

By the time you read this a team of Scottish juniors will have challenged a team of Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) to a chess match.  The strength of the opposition in Edinburgh is unknown though if the event is successful a challenge will be issued to MPs in Westminster where there is one former Scottish International player (Alan Reid) and the Eagle twins who were English Internationalists in their younger days – one becoming British Girls Champion.

Grading

The new Grading list is now available.

Some interesting statistics are produced by Douglas Bryson, the Chess Scotland Director responsible for grading.

The most improved player is David Grant from Stonehaven whose grade shows a riseof 435 points from 1325 to 1760.  Other juniors with rises of more than 300 points are Rhian Hughes and Alistair Melvin (both up 380 pts), Denesh Sri (+345) and Greg Simpson (+ 320).  Steven Tweedie increased his grade by 250 points to 1985!

David Leslie, the Aberdeen coach increased his grade by 155 to 1315.

Acknowledgements.

Andy MacQueen, Stephen Taylor, Glynis Grant, Sam Collins, Joe MacAdam.

Contact:

Please send any articles for inclusion to:

Alex McFarlane, 2 Castlehill Crescent, RENFREW PA4 8RY.

e-mail: AMcFarlane@bannermanhigh.glasgow.sch.uk  (Note in the address - it is a zero before the @)