Scottish Primary Individual Championship

Pitlochry

June 4-5, 2005

by Alex McFARLANE

The Scottish Primary Individual Championship is the highlight of the primary season offering as it does a weekend of chess and activities to the top primary players. This years event attracted 28 players to the Atholl Centre in Pitlochry on Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th June. The players themselves coming from Nairn in the north to Carrick in the south via Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Mull!

Saturday’s results produced a few results that would have turned the Chief Grader’s hair grey (if it wasn’t already that colour). So by the evening meal only Craig Petrie of Tinto Primary in Glasgow was left on full points.

The evening activities had to be curtailed because of the wet weather, as gorge walking would have been dangerous. Despite rumours the canoeing was not carried out in the car park!

Play resumed after breakfast on Sunday morning. Craig maintained his 100% score with a win over Kirill Mikhaylov whilst Calum Mclean (Tinto) and Jonathan Wright (Robert Gordon’s) kept up the pressure only a ½ point behind. Round 5 saw the lead change hands for the first time when Jonathan defeated Craig and with James Todd from Lamlash defeating Calum Jonathan was now the clear leader.

And so to a very tense last round which produced the three longest games of the weekend as the leading players battled on for the prizes and championship title. On second board Connor Blair eventually defeated Craig Petrie to deny the long time leader of a place in the prize list. The battle on top board was even closer with James Todd missing a winning chance late on to eventually succumb to Jonathan Wright. Congratulations to Jonathan on a fine fighting performance, making him a worthy Champion.

Final Positions: 1st Jonathan Wright (Robert Gordons) 5½/6 2nd Calum McLean (Tinto) 4½ 3rd Connor Blair (Tinto) 4½ 4th Barnaby Leach (Robert Gordons) 4½ These places were decided on tie-break. 5th= James Todd (Lamlash), Craig Petrie (Tinto), Ali Roy (St Cuthberts) 4 8th= Kirill Mikhaylov (Millers Neuk), Stuart Macqueen (Bishopton), Robert Lawless (Bishopton), Jonathan Scott (James Gillespies), Andrew McClement (Drumlemble) 3½; 13th= Christopher Mudie, Marc Woods, Scott Jordan, Rory Duthie 3; 17th= Callum Roberts, Bryan Rettie, Michael Clayton, Jamie Scott, Ryan Archibald 2½; 22nd= Adam Paterson, Christopher Burns, Andrew Davie 2; 25th= Alex North, Raksha Amaesh 1½; 27th= Joe Knox, Ross Hannah 1.

Grading Data

PlayThru games below

Some games from the Championship Connor Blair - Stuart Macqueen [A21] Primary Individual 2005 (3) 1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Bc5 3.g3 Nf6 4.Bg2 0-0 5.e3 Nc6 6.Nge2 d6 7.d4 exd4 8.Nxd4 Nxd4 9.exd4 Re8+ 10.Be3 Bg4 11.Qd2 Bb4 12.a3 Bxc3 13.Qxc3 d5 14.c5 c6 15.0-0 Qd7 16.Qc2 Bh3 17.Bg5 Ne4 18.Bf4 Bf5 19.Qc1 b6 20.cxb6 axb6 21.Re1 c5 22.dxc5 Nxc5 23.Rxe8+ Rxe8 24.Be3 Nb3 25.Qd1 Nxa1 26.Qxa1 d4 27.Bf4 d3 28.Qd1 Re2 29.Bf3 Rxb2 30.Be3 d2 31.Kg2 Rb1 32.Qxd2 Bh3# 0-1

Stuart MacQueen - Jonathan Wright [E61] Primary Individual (4) 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.Nf3 d6 5.Bg5 Nbd7 6.e4 c5 7.dxc5 Nxc5 8.e5 Nfe4 9.Nxe4 Nxe4 10.exd6 Qa5+ 11.Bd2 Nxd2 12.Nxd2 Qe5+ 13.Be2 Qxd6 14.0-0 0-0 15.Qc2 Bf5 16.Ne4 Qe5 17.Bd3 Rad8 18.Rfe1 Qxb2 19.Rad1 Qxc2 20.Bxc2 e6 21.f3 Rd4 22.g4 Bxe4 23.Rxe4 Rfd8 24.Rexd4 Rxd4 25.Rxd4 Bxd4+ 26.Kg2 Kg7 27.Be4 b6 28.h3 Kf6 29.f4 e5 30.fxe5+ Kxe5 31.Bd5 f6 32.Bg8 h6 33.Bh7 g5 34.Bf5 Be3 35.Kf3 Bf4 36.Ke2 Kd4 37.Be6 a6 38.Kd1 Ke3 39.Bd5 Kf2 40.Bb7 a5 41.a4 Kg3 42.Ke2 Kxh3 43.Bf3 Kg3 44.Bh1 Kxg4 45.Kf2 h5 46.Kg1 Kg3 47.Be4 h4 48.Bd5 Be3+ 49.Kf1 g4 50.Bh1 Kh2 51.Be4 g3 0-1

C Mclean - J Todd [C50] Primary Individual 2005 (5) 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 h6 4.Nc3 Nf6 5.0-0 Bb4 6.d3 0-0 7.Bd2 Re8 8.a3 Ba5 9.Nb5 Bxd2 10.Qxd2 a6 11.Nc3 d6 12.d4 exd4 13.Nxd4 Nxd4 14.Qxd4 Qe7 15.Rfe1 Be6 16.Nd5 Ng4 17.Nxe7+ Rxe7 18.Bxe6 Rxe6 19.h3 Ne5 20.Qb4 Rb8 21.Rad1 Rg6 22.c4 Nf3+ 23.Kf1 Nxe1 24.Qxe1 Re6 25.Qa5 b6 26.Qxa6 Rxe4 27.Qa7 Rc8 28.Qb7 Ree8 29.Rd5 Red8 30.b4 Re8 31.c5 Kh8 32.cxd6 cxd6 33.Rxd6 Rc1+ 34.Rd1 Rxd1# 0-1

S Macqueen - A McClement [D31] Primary Individual 2005 (5) 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 e6 4.Bf4 Bd6 5.Bxd6 Qxd6 6.Nf3 Nf6 7.e3 a6 8.Bd3 Bd7 9.0-0 b5 10.cxb5 axb5 11.Rc1 b4 12.Na4 0-0 13.b3 Re8 14.Qe2 Bc8 15.Nc5 Nfd7 16.Nxd7 Nxd7 17.Ng5 h6 18.Bh7+ Kf8 19.Nh3 g6 20.Qf3 Kg7 21.Rce1 e5 22.Rd1 e4 23.Qg4 Nf6 24.Qe2 Ba6 25.Qc2 Bxf1 26.Rxf1 Kxh7 27.f3 Rf8 28.fxe4 dxe4 29.Qe2 Ra7 30.Kh1 Rfa8 31.Qc4 Kg7 32.Nf2 Qd5 33.Qe2 Rxa2 34.Qe1 Qxb3 35.Ng4 Qb2 36.Qg3 Ra1 0-1

The deciding game - Jonathan Wright - James Todd [C50] Scottish Primary Individual (6), 05.06.2005 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 h6 4.Nc3 Nf6 5.0-0 Bc5 6.d3 0-0 7.Bd2 d6 8.Qe2 Bg4 9.Be3 Bxe3 10.Qxe3 Bxf3 11.Qxf3 Nd4 12.Qd1 Re8 13.Ne2 Nxe2+ 14.Qxe2 a6 15.a4 c6 16.c3 b5 17.Bb3 Qb6 18.a5 Qc7 19.c4 Qb7 20.Qc2 Nd7 21.Ba2 Qc7 22.cxb5 axb5 23.Qc3 Kf8 24.Bd5 Ra6 25.b4 Rc8 26.Bb3 c5 27.Rfc1 Rc6 28.Bd5 Ra6 29.Rc2 Nf6 30.Bb3 Rc6 31.Bd5 Nxd5 32.exd5 Ra6 33.Rac1 Ke7 34.Kf1 Kd7 35.f3 f6 36.Kf2 g5 37.Ke3 f5 38.Kf2 Ra7 39.Qb2 Qb7 40.bxc5 dxc5 41.Qxe5 Rxa5 42.Qxf5+ Kd8 43.Qf8+ Kc7 44.Rxc5+ Kb8 45.Rxc8+ 1-0