CLUB NIGHT REPORT & MORE!
CLUB NIGHT REPORT & MORE!
Thurs 16th March 23
Another busy night at Castlehill Chess Club Dundee with plenty of juniors at the club and all the fun, joy and noise they bring with them! They also play some crazy chess type formats which just fry my brain!
On the night we had two TAFCA matches on. Castlehill C v Castlehill D (relegation danger zone battle!), and Castlehill B had the pleasure of playing reigning league champions, Dundee A in the TAFCA League.
Result
Castlehill C 2, Castlehill D 2
This result was probably the best result for both sides regards relegation as they are both safe now! It will be Castlehill “E” & “F” that go down this season. It’s not so good a result for our “C” team in another way as it means they will finish below our “D” team in the league table, so bragging rights to our “D” team!
On board one, Alisdair McLeod (1531) saw off the challenge of Subhayu Banerjee (1444) to push himself up the J.R.Chalmers Grand Prix table!
Castlehill C 1, Castlehill D 0
Board three was a win for Castlehill D and new player, Jorge Rodriguez Perez (ug) against Cosmo Bobak (1530) est! Nice win Jorge!
L to R: Cosmo & Jorge (with Ramit in the middle!)
Castlehill C 1, Castlehill D 1
Board 4 saw two junior players from the same team (Castlehill E), playing up against each other for “C” & “D”! Nhat Nguyen J14 (1200) est playing for Castlehill C, got the better of Ramit Kanodia J15 (903) playing for Castlehill D!
Castlehill C 2, Castlehill D 1
So it all rested on the final match to finish on board two, Conor Kelly 1450est (“C” team) v that old stalwart, Graham Atkins 1352 (“D” team)!
Oh boy what a game they both played, with Conor having a very good position (maybe a couple of moves from winning even?), but finding himself under attack down the “h” file from Graham, which in the end, Conor could find no defence against!
Graham Atkins
Castlehill C 2, Castlehill D 2
What a game by both players to finish the match off! Graham it must have felt like old times gone by, if you can remember that far back! Well played Graham and Conor!
Result
Castlehill B ½, Dundee A 3½
Andy Rowe (1572) on board 1 faced the mighty talent of CM Jacques Ophoff (2257) and one of the nicest people you will meet face to face, but ruthless OTB! It was not a quick kill, but none the less a win for Jacques!
Castlehill B 0, Dundee A 1
Kit McEvoy Gould (1560) had the pleasure of playing, Dundee legend, Ed Spencer (2127) on board 2. When you play Ed in a game of chess, you never know what’s going to happen and that includes Ed himself! In the end Ed was just too strong for Kit to handle.
Castlehill B 0, Dundee A 2
On board 4 Castlehill B had a last minute replacement as young Master Scott Xu J14 (1200) est stepped up to play (he did not know until he walked into the chess club)! He faced the talented Joshua Crofts (1660) playing his first match for Dundee A. It was a good game and Scot played well, but grading and experience told in the end and Joshua took the point to give Dundee A the match.
Castlehill B 0, Dundee A 3
The last match too finish was between two old rivals, Ray Noble (1531) and Alastair Dawson (1795) on board 3. Both have met each other a few times over the years! The opening was rather strange with Alastair (White) going for a double fianchetto in the English opening! Ray was under the cosh after an early opening error (7….Be6), but thankfully Alastair made a miscalculation of his own on move ten when he should have played 10.Qxd4! Instead he played 10.exd4, which allowed Ray the strong blocking move, 10…..d5!!
After that, Ray was able to muster a defence which even included castling Kingside, only to move his King the very next move to f7 to help his queen defend his earlier error (Be6)! After that both players found that “BOTH” their bishops were hemmed in by their own pawns! Alastair did try advancing his queenside pawns and did gain entry into Ray’s camp, but could do nothing with it as Ray defended well and held his nerve to get the draw and stop the whitewash. Phew!
Castlehill B ½, Dundee A 3½
Congratulations to Dundee A, deserved winners on the night by a long way!
(Last week!)
ABERTAY UNIVERSITY CHESS FUNDRAISER
Wed 8th March 23, 5pm to 9pm (approx)
Old Collage Building, Abertay Uni
Congratulations to Euan Murray (Castlehill) on winning 4 out of 4 and 1st place on the night. This was a fundraiser for Abertay Chess Club to buy chess equipment. It was organised by Duncan Rendall who approached Castlehill Chess Club for some help with chess equipment on the night, which we were more than happy to help with! Castehill had 4 players taking part (Keith Rose, Euan Murray, Adam Crocker and Ray Noble), with a total of 14 players involved.
Euan Murray
It was Abertay`s first organised event and they did pretty dam well on the night running a Swiss, food and refreshments, including Pizza!
The whole night was a great success and Castlehill wish them well and hopefully we may see them take part in the TAFCA league at some point! Some of their players made a visit to Castlehill to see how we do things. Hopefully we will see them at our club again taking part in our competitions. They have some very good players in their side already!
Well that’s it for another week (or so!). The TAFCA season is coming to a close and things hopefully will get a little less congested on the chess calendar front!
See you all next week at the club for some banter and game of chess!
For all the latest on the TAFCA front, click the link below.