East of Scotland Championships

Grangemouth

27-29 May 2011

by Donald Wilson

The East of Scotland Championships 2011 were held in Grangemouth between 27 and 29 May 2011.

Prize winners in each section were as follows:

Championship (11 players)
1= Calum MacQueen (Edinburgh) 4/5
1= David Oswald (Edinburgh) 4/5
Grading Prize (under 1950) - Ian McLean (Hamilton) 3/5

Calum and David share the title of "East of Scotland Champion" for this year. (I did check - Calum is eligible, as he has been resident in Edinburgh for a few years now.)

Major (30 players)
1. Kenny McGeoch (Stirling) 4½/5
2. John McBride (Dunfermline) 4/5
3= Jim Kleboe (Kilmarnock), Garry Forbes (Dunfermline), Michael Roth (Perth), Andrew MacQueen (Giffnock), Mark Monaghan (Grangemouth) and Stephen Smith (Stirling) 3½/5
Grading Prize (under 1600) = Robert Loughran (Irvine) and John Blake (Stirling) 3/5

Minor (17 players)
1. Peter Horne (Dunfermline) 4/5
2= William Gray (Grangemouth), Bernard Cassidy (Hamilton) and Mike Mitchell (Glasgow) 3½/5
Grading Prize (under 1300) - Jonathan Blake (Stirling) 3/5

The total turnout of 58 players this year was a bit disappointing, but there may be many reasons for the reduced numbers - I know of several players who would have taken part but for other commitments. Numbers held up in the Major, which turned out to be a very competitive tournament, and the Minor also went well, with a lot of close games and the destination of the prizes in doubt for a long time. The small number of players in the Championship, however, meant that the top players met early on and were having to find opponents well down the field in the later rounds, and could also have led to forced byes having an impact on who won what (fortunately this didn't happen, but it's not good to have a tournament where half the players who turn up for round 1 get a one-point bye in a later round).

However, in the end, the important thing is that the East of Scotland Championship has been decided for another year, and the trophy will have two new names on it, those of two of Scotland's strongest young players. So it's congratulations to Calum and David.