Stewarton Bonnet Guild Chess Allegro 2003
And the Ayrshire Junior Championships

Organised by Stewarton Chess Club in Association with
the Stewarton Bonnet Guild and the Ayrshire Chess Association

June 15, 2003

Grading Data

Held on Sunday 15th June 2003 in the Stewarton Annick Youth Centre, Stewarton. Another record breaking year with 130 people playing on the day - the largest ever number. Once again we played host to the Ayrshire Junior Championships as part of our tournament and we were happy to once again send over fifty of the players home with some sort of prize from the tournament.

Nearly forty of the entries came from Ayrshire clubs with another fifty from clubs in the Glasgow area. Other players hailed from as far afield as Edinburgh, Stirling, Dunfermline, Grangemouth, and several groups of school children from Bishopton Primary in Renfrew, from Corsehill Primary in Kilwinning and from Glebe Primary in Irvine.

The Open section finished with a clear winner Stephen Mannion IM of Cathcart Chess club with two players drawn on second place - John Shaw IM of Kilmarnock/Polytechnic and Joe Redpath of Edinburgh. A tiebreak was used to sort out the trophies but they shared the prize monies between them.

Stewarton Chess Club would like to thank Johnny Elliott and the other officials from the Bonnet Guild committee for their assistance in setting up and running the tournament this year and are pleased that the weather was better this year than last and we hope that they found the owner of the BMW that was left in the car park after the event. If they had to impound it - can we have it as a raffle prize for next year ? Our sincere thanks also go to local company McCluskey Browne who donated the shields awarded during the prizegiving. We are also grateful to the caretakers of the Youth Centre who so ably coped with large numbers of players.

The organisers of the event would like to thank the controllers who have supported the tournament for many years with their skills in running the events. Thanks to Alan Steel of our own Stewarton Chess Club and John McNicoll of Kilmarnock Chess Club and Stephen Taylor and David Deary of Greenwood Chess Club who so ably handled the junior events.

The ladies and gentlemen of the canteen / tuck shop excelled again this year with their home baking and tasty selection of hot and cold food (Nan Kafka, David Montgomery and newcomer Carolyn McNicoll - thank you all), and served a splendid array of home baking donated by parents of the junior members of Stewarton Chess Club. Thanks are also due to Sam and Laura Collins of Chess and Bridge Supplies (Scotland) for running a bookstall at the venue.

Open section
First Stephen Mannion Cathcart
Second equal John Shaw Kilmarnock / Polytechnic and Joe Redpath, Edinburgh
Grading prizes Steven Brown, Glasgow Montrose, Duncan Grassie, Bon Accord and
Steven Tweedie, Holy Cross, Jim Kleboe Kilmarnock
Best Ayrshire player Alex Goral Stewarton

Major section
First Chris Tweedie, Holy Cross
Second equal Bob O'Brien Largs and Stephen Hamilton Symington
Grading prizes Neil Thomson, Neilston, George Murphy Concord, Amy Officer Perth
Best Ayrshire players Ian Muir Kilmarnock and John Calder Troon

Minor section
There was a five way draw for first place so a tiebreak was used.
First (tie break) Stewart McKay Esat Kilbride
Second equal David Potts of Knight Moves, Ross Thomson of Stewarton,
Calum MacQueen of Bishopton and William Ellis of Polytechnic
Grading prizes Ivan Stokes, Bearsden and Graham Forbes of Shettleton
Best ungraded player Lewis Johns of Perth
Best Ayrshire player Brian Mitchell, Greenwood Academy Irvine

Under 14 section
First on tiebreak Matthew O'Donnell Holy Cross
Second on tiebreak Natalie Donohue Bankton
Third equal Stuart Gallacher Kilmarnock, Jordan Gray Troon, John Tawdrous Lanark,
Frankie MacDonald of Cambuslang and Lynsey Shovlin of Perth
Best female player Rebecca Edge of Troon
Best ungraded player Daniel Filmer of Lanark
Best Ayrshire prize Ryan Howie of Kilmarnock

Stuart Gallacher also wins the Ayrshire Chess Association Under 14 Championship

Under 12 section
First Jamie Hookham Kinross
Second equal David Nisbet East Kilbride, Stuart MacQueen Bishopton, Benjamin Filmer Lanark,
Michael Miller West Kilbride, Robert Montgomery also West Kilbride
Best ungraded player Joseph Dyer, Polytechnic
Best female player Shona Jordan Bishopton, Kayleigh Cannon Tinto Primary,
Hayley Donohue Bankton and Ali Roy Carrick
Best Ayrshire player Stuart Montgomery West Kilbride and Jamie Malkin Kilmarnock
Grading prize Graham Lee Renfrew
Best aged 8 or under Matthew Thomas Glasgow
Best aged 9 years Craig Petrie, Cathcart
Best aged 10 years Cameron Maclean West Kilbride, Calum Lee Corsehill Kilwinning
and David Craig St Brides

Robert Montgomery of West Kilbride also wins the Ayrshire Primary Championship.

Family prizes were won by Ivan and Brian Stokes of Bearsden, Kenny and Jamie Malkin of Kilmarnock, Steven and Chris Tweedie of Holy Cross, Andy, Calum and Stuart MacQueen of Bishopton, Tom, Natalie and Hayley Donohue of Bankton Livingston and Alex, Iain and David Nisbet of East Kilbride.

Prepared by John Montgomery, Secretary, Stewarton Chess Club,
4 Barbeth Place, Girdle Toll, Irvine KA11 1QL, Telephone 01294-221486