East of Scotland Championship

Grangemouth

28-30 May 2010

by Donald Wilson

The East of Scotland has a new Champion this year, in the person of Ian McDonald from Aberdeen. At the age of 14 he is, I believe, the youngest ever winner of the East trophy.

Ian finished 1st equal with Alan Grant on 4/5, but Alan of course is not eligible for the EoS trophy.

To put Ian's achievement in perspective, he was by a long way the lowest-graded player in the tournament, with a published CS grade of 1619 (even his latest FIDE grade is only 1723). He beat Graham Hamilton (CS 2036, FIDE 2000), Ed Spencer (2095/2174) and Chaski (David Patrick) (2145/2262) and drew with Alan Grant (2185/2214) and Stephen Hogg (2013/2012).

Not to be totally eclipsed, Ian's father Angus won the Minor tournament with a perfect 5/5!

Prizewinners in full:

Championship

1= Alan Grant (Cathcart) 4/5
1= Ian McDonald (Bon Accord) 4/5

Under-2000 Grading Prize =
Tom Donohue (Hamilton), Ian Marks (Cumbernauld), Sai Kong Tsang (Cathcart), Alastair Dawson (Dundee & Victoria) and Ian Mason (Grangemouth), all on 2½/5

Major

1= Donald Heron (Wandering Dragons) 4/5
1= David Hall Perth 4/5
1= Bappa Roy (Kinross) 4/5
1= Mark Monaghan (Grangemouth) 4/5

Under-1600 Grading Prize
Jamie Malkin (Kilmarnock) 3½/5

Minor

1. Angus McDonald (Bon Accord) 5/5
2= Tamas Kalman (Phones) 3½/5
2= Jim Cunningham (Ardrossan) 3½/5
2= Bryan O'Rourke (Dunfermline) 3½/5
2= Dave Watson (Corstorphine) 3½/5

Under-1100 Grading Prize
Rishi Pandya (Sciennes Primary School) 3/5

There were 15 players in the Championship, 30 in the Major and 21 in the Minor, making a total of 66 players - that's 7 higher than the number last year.