Stewarton Bonnet Guild Chess Allegro 2004

And the Ayrshire Junior Championships

June 13 2004

report by John Mongomery

Organised by Stewarton Chess Club in Association with

the Stewarton Bonnet Guild and the Ayrshire Chess Association

Held on Sunday 13th June 2004 in the Stewarton Annick Youth Centre, Stewarton. It was another great year with 112 people playing on the day. Once again we played host to the Ayrshire Junior Championships as part of our tournament and we were happy to once again send nearly fifty players home with some sort of prize from the tournament.

Over 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, Perth , Grangemouth, Glenrothes and a father and son from the Isle of Arran. Several groups of school children from West Kilbride Primary, from Bishopton Primary in Renfrew, from Corsehill Primary in Kilwinning and from Glebe Primary in Irvine also attended and won a fair number of the prizes on offer.

The Open section finished with a clear winner Stephen Mannion IM of Cathcart Chess club (the IM stands for International Master) repeating his win from last year's event. Stephen now has his name on the trophy three times equaling Alan Grant of Cathcart who had held the record for number of years. Daniel McGowan of Tiree finished clear second with three players tying for third place – Graeme Kafka of Edinburgh University , Joe Redpath of Edinburgh and Alan Grant of Cathcart. 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. Our sincere thanks also go to local company McCluskey Browne who donated the shields awarded during the prizegiving. We are also grateful to Brian the caretaker of the Youth Centre who so ably coped with large numbers of players.

No event can run without controllers and we would like to thank the guys 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 canteen was run a little short-handed this year but the kitchen staff prevailed and managed to provide an excellent service during the day. Our thanks go to Carolyn McNicoll who was the mainstay of the canteen with Hazel Montgomery giving some much needed help over the lunch time period. Thanks also to Mrs Thomson who provided such a splendid array of home baking.

Open section

First: Stephen Mannion (Paisley)

Second: Danny McGowan (Tiree)

Third equal: Graeme Kafka (Edinburgh University), Joe Redpath (Edinburgh), Alan Grant (Cathcart)

Grading prizes: Chris Tweedie (Hamilton), Jim Docherty (Kilmarnock) and Michael Rooney (Crowwood)

Best Ayrshire player: Steven Brown (Ardrossan)

Major section

First: David Potts (East Kilbride)

Second equal: Ian Muir (Kilmarnock), Stephen Smith (Stirling), Alex Nisbet (East Kilbride), Bill Falconer (Wandering Dragons) and David Gillespie (Crowwood).

Grading prizes: Gary McPheator (Prestwick) and Ian Nisbet (East Kilbride)

Best Ayrshire players: Jim Armour (Kilmarnock) and Siegrun Macgilchrist (Carrick)

Minor section

First: Amy Officer (Perth)

Second equal: Barry Lee Colyer (Greenwood), Calum MacQueen (Bishopton), David Finnigan (Paisley), Graeme Forbes (Shettleston)

Grading prizes: William McIntosh (Hamilton), Jamie Hookham (Perth)

Best ungraded player: Peter Swan (Paisley) and Paul McDonald (Glenrothes)

Best Ayrshire player: Stuart Montgomery (Prestwick) and Ross Thomson (Stewarton)

Under 14 section

First: Iain Cameron (Bearsden)

Second: Ian McCulloch (Giffnock)

Third equal: Michael Boyd (Greenwood), David Martin (Bishopton)

Best female player: Shona Jordan (Bishopton)

Best ungraded player: Michael Gray (Bearsden)

Best Ayrshire prize: Stuart Gallacher (Kilmarnock) and Jamie Malkin (Kilmarnock)

Michael Boyd also wins the Ayrshire Chess Association Under 14 Championship

 

Under 12 section

First equal: Cameron MacLean and Robert Montgomery (both West Kilbride)

Third equal: Stuart Montgomery and Michael Miller (both West Kilbride), Samuel Kerr (Glebe)

Best ungraded player: Matthew Thomas (Giffnock)

Best female player: Ali Roy (Carrick)

Best Ayrshire player: Lee Simpson (Glebe)

Cameron Maclean and Robert Montgomery share the Ayrshire Primary Championship.

Family prizes were won by Andy and Calum MacQueen of Bishopton (father/son), John and Robert Montgomery of West Kilbride (brothers), Shona and Scott Jordan of Bishopton (sister/brother), Charlie and Ali Roy of Carrick (father/daughter), Jacqui, Daniel and Matthew Thomas of Giffnock (mother and sons) and Fiona, Craig, Morven, Russell Petrie of Cathcart (mother, daughter and sons).

Prepared by John Montgomery, Secretary, Stewarton Chess Club,

4 Barbeth Place, Girdle Toll, Irvine KA11 1QL, Telephone 01294-221486