Edinburgh Wandering Dragons Chess Club, news

Will it be an El of a night for Sloan or will Walter Whoop it up? The Summer Trophy Final is on Tuesday! Hi wood-pushers. Two weeks since the last Newsletter and season 2015-16 is finally winding down. Since the last newsletter the six players left in the Summer Trophy have been whittled down to 2. This Tuesday at The Fortress Elliot Sloan will take on Walter Burnett in the final of the Summer Trophy. For both players this is an opportunity to win one of the club's major trophies for a first time - spectators welcome. Also this week the final WD team match will take place (tomorrow) when the Summer Cup A team travel to Slateford Bowling Club in the semi final of the Summer Plate. The final of the Plate is always held over until next season (i.e. September) and of course if we lose then that's the lot for the season anyway. There will be a brief midweek update on Wed (with the result from the Summer Trophy final and the result from the plate SF) then the next Newsletter will be in September as your correspondent (after an unsuccessful 8 month campaign to get his chess grading up) will embark on a 3 month campaign to get his golf handicap down. However if any of our Fire Breathers do great things on the checkered battlefield in the summer (e.g. in the Scottish Championships) then you will be notified. I hope you enjoy the summer as much as I intend to !

The Summer Trophy Competition

The action continued over the last two weeks in our internal competition where Elliot Sloan and Walter Burnett have emerged as the finalists. Full results from round 4 , 5 and 6 are shown below:

Round 4 results:

WHITE BLACK

Elliot Sloan (0) 1-0 Don Heron (0) Tues 10th May

Richard Kynoch (1) 1-0 Jim O'Neil (1) Tues 17th May

Raj Bhopal (1) 1-0 Marek Straczynski (1) Tues 17th May

Walter Burnett (1) 1-0 Peter MacFarland (1) Tues 17th May

Eoin Campbell (1) 1-0 Chris Donkin (1) Tues 24th May

One of the more interesting games from this round was the hammering I took from The Big Man (see game of the week)

Round 5

Elliot Sloan (0) 0-1 Walter Burnett (1) Tuesday 31st May

Don Heron (1) 1-0 Eoin Campbell (1) Tuesday 31st May

Raj Bhopal (1) 1-0 Richard Kynoch (1) Wed 1st June

Round 6

Don 0-1 Elliot Tue 7th June

Walter 1-0 Raj Wed 8th June

Game of the Week

In the previous Newsletter I reported on the quarter final of the Summer Cup when our B team went down fighting in a close match against Pentland Hills. Every cloud has a silver lining though and on an otherwise disappointing night stalwart Bill Falconer had a good win against Dick Heathwood of the Hills. Bill has been kind enough to supply the score of the game and I am pleased to publish it below:

White Dick Heathwood Black Bill Falcomer ( Edinburgh Chess League Summer Cup QF - 24/5/16)

1. d4 Nf6, 2. c4 e6, 3.Nc3 d5 4.cd Nd5, 5. e4. Nc3. 6.bc Be7, 7.Nf3 c5, 8.Be2 o- o , 9.o-o cd, 10.cd b6, 11. Re1. Bb7, 12.Bd3. Rc8, 13.Be3 Rc8, 14. Rc1 Nb4 15. Bb1. Qd7 16. Ne5 Rc1 17. Bc1 Qc7 18.a3 Nc6. 19. Nc6 Bc6 20. Qd3 f5 21.f3. Bh4. 22. g3 Bg3 23. hg Qg3+ 24. Kf1 fe 25. Qd1 Bb5+ 26.Re2 Rf3++ 0-1

Enjoy your chess in the coming months - next edition of the Newsletter will be in early September and will be the first Issue of Vloume 6 !

Breathing Fire as always

Chris

Hi fellow wood-pushers, the Newsletter is a day early this week basically because I am out all day tomorrow - playing chess (!) in the SNCL. Yet another busy week last week and much activity this coming week also with 3 Dragons teams in action and also Andy Burnett's talk scheduled for this coming Tuesday. The headlines from the last seven days: The Club Championship round 2 is almost complete with the Burnett brothers, Richard Carter and David Wallace leading on 2/2 and the C team go down fighting at Gorgie Dalry.

News

Our very own Street-fighting Andy Burnett will be giving a talk on how to improve your play at the club this week on Tuesday (27th). This is not to be missed. Please make sure you support this event - starting at 7.30. Current East of Scotland Chess Champion Andy will be concentrating on two themes: (i) preparation and (ii) the tactics of the middle game. Andy has done delivered presentation at other chess clubs and it has been very well received and he usually charges a 3 figure fee - we are getting this for free and I reckon this will be a real chance for players to get some input as to how to play better chess.

Club Competitions

Tuesday night saw some frenetic action in the Club Championship with no less than 8 games taking place. Most games went with the form book but there were two notable shocks. A minor shock when Mr Carter defeated Mr Kynoch in the battle of the two Richards (see games of the week). A more seismic shock saw the in-form Donald 'El Presidente' Heron claim a half point against defending champion Mark Orr (again see games of the week). At the end of the night only four players had emerged as having scored the full 2/2 after the opening two rounds. The Burnett brothers, Richard Carter and David Wallace now lead the field with Mark and Donald stalking them a half point behind. The draw for round three has been made and is attached. I have also pasted in below for ease of reference. Note that I am suggesting that most games take place on the 11th December but you do have until the 8th Jan to play your round three game.

WD Chess Club Championship 2012-13 Round Three

White Black Suggested date

Andy Burnett (2) v Richard Carter (2) Tues 11th Dec

David Wallace (2) v Walter Burnett (2) Tues 11th Dec

Mark Orr (1½) v Tony Akers (1) Tues 11th Dec

Steven MacGregor (1) v Donald Heron (1½) Tues 11th Dec

Damian Bullen (1) v Eoin Campbell (1) Tues 11th Dec

Raj Bhopal (1) v Chris Donkin (1) Tues 11th Dec

Elliot Sloan (1) v Marek Straczynski (1) Tues 11th Dec

Richard Kynoch (1) v Stuart Goodall (x) Tues 8th Jan

Brian J Donkin (0) v Marek Deren (x) Tues 11th Dec

Anne Donkin (0) v Peter MacFarland (0) Tues 11th Dec

League News for 2012-13

Firstly a correction from last week's newsletter - in the match between Edinburgh II and our B team it was Walter Burnett (not Donald) who beat Raj Bhopal in the decisive game. This week only the C team were in action and we were very disappointed to lose 4-2 at Gorgie Dalry. Although the gradings were close, we did outgrade them on every board. However on the night only Scott Binnie won, Damo Bullen and I both claimed draws and although all three lower boards were very closely contested Steven MacGregor, Bill Falconer and Marek Straczynski all succumbed to the home team players. This week the A team visit Lasswade on Monday in a match they must win to keep their title hopes alive. On the same night the D team travel to Alva Street to play the fourth team of the Edinburgh Chess Club. Good luck to both teams.

Allegro League News for 2012-13

The two Dragons Allegro teams will be in action again on Thursday the 13th December. To see the current league table click this link: http://www.chessedinburgh.co.uk/allegroresults.htm

SNCL

The results and tables from the first two rounds of the competition are available on the Chess Scotland site. To see our guys flying high click: http://www.chessscotland.com/event2013/SNCL_Division_4.html The next two rounds of matches will take place tomorrow on Sunday the 25th November. The club will be represented by Dave Wallace, Richard Kynoch, Donald Heron, Richard Carter and myself. Full details of how we got on will be in next week's Newsletter.

News

Alan Minnican ventured north to Oban last weekend to compete in the Open event at the Oban weekend congress. Alan scored 3/5 and finished 7th (just out of the prize winners) out of a field of 30. I believe that Eoin 'The Big Man' Campbell is heading south soon for some FIDE rated tournament action in England - details of how he fares will be posted in the Newsletter over the coming weeks.

Forthcoming tourneys

Edinburgh's premier Allegro event will take place on Saturday the 12th January 2013 - only seven weeks away ! To enter now click this link and send your entry in via email ! http://www.chessscotland.com/tournament.php?tid=16024712022995

Games of the week

Both games this week come from the club championship - firstly Don's draw against Mark Orr and secondly Richard Carter's win against Richard Kynoch.

Heron,D - Orr,M [A11] Club champ, 20.11.2012

1.c4 Nf6 2.g3 c6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Bg2 Bg4 5.Ne5 Be6 6.cxd5 Bxd5 7.Nf3 c5 8.b3 g6 9.Bb2 Bg7 10.Qc2 Na6 11.d3 0-0 12.0-0 Rc8 13.Na3 Nb4 14.Qd2 b6 15.Nc4 Ba8 16.a3 Nc6 17.b4 Nd4 18.Bxd4 cxd4 19.Rac1 Nd5 20.Rc2 b5 21.Na5 Qd7 22.Rfc1 e5 23.Nb3 Nc3 24.Nc5 Qe7 25.Re1 e4 26.dxe4 Nxe4 27.Nxe4 Rxc2 28.Qxc2 Bxe4 29.Qc5 Qxc5 30.bxc5 Rc8 31.Rc1 a6 32.Nd2 Bxg2 33.Kxg2 Kf8 34.Nb3 Ke7 35.Kf3 f5 36.h3 Ke6 37.g4 Kd5 38.gxf5 gxf5 39.e3 dxe3 40.fxe3 Bf8 41.Rd1+ Kc4 42.Na5+ Kc3 43.Nb7 Rc7 44.Nd6 Bxd6 45.cxd6 Rd7 46.Kf4 a5 47.Ke5 b4 48.axb4 axb4 49.Rc1+ Kd2 50.Rc7 Rd8 51.d7 b3 52.Ke6 b2 53.Rb7 1/2-1/2

A tough encounter and further evidence that Donald is bang in form. A tricky ending for both players to play when short of time !

And for the second game - Richard Carter writes:

"The Fort Knox variation of the French is not one that you see very often, but on Tuesday night I was trying to channel the Streetfighting spirit as I have a dim recollection of seeing Andy bust Chris MacDonald's Fort Knox some time ago. I can't lay my hands on the game now but maybe if Andy has it he could send it to you as it's definitely worth seeing again."

Carter,R (1748) - Kynoch,Ri (1923) [C10]

Wandering Dragons Club Championship (2), 20.11.2012

1.d4 e6 2.e4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bd7 5.Nf3 Bc6 6.Bd3 Nf6 7.Ng3 Bxf3 8.Qxf3 c6 9.c3 Bd6 10.0-0 Qc7 11.Re1 0-0 12.Ne4 Nxe4 13.Rxe4 Nd7 14.Rh4 g6 15.Qh3 Nf6 16.Bg5 Nh5 17.g4 Bf4 18.Rxh5 gxh5 19.Bf6 h6 20.Qxh5 Rad8 21.h4 Rd5 22.g5 Be3 23.Bh7+ 1-0

... and never one not to rise to a challenge, Andy subsequently sent in his game against McDonald (see below)

Burnett,A - MacDonald,C [C10] Edinburgh, 2005

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bd7 5.Nf3 Bc6 6.Bd3 Nd7 7.0-0 Ngf6 8.Ng3 Be7 9.c4 b6 10.b3 Bb7 11.Bb2 c5 12.d5 exd5 13.Nf5 0-0 14.Re1 Re8 15.cxd5 Bxd5 16.Bb5 Be6 17.Nxg7 Kxg7 18.Rxe6 fxe6 19.Ng5 Nf8 20.Qh5 e5 21.Qf7+ Kh8 22.Bxe5 h6 23.Bc4 1-0

Impressive, brutal and direct in both cases - thanks to Andy and Richard for these contributions.

... and finally ....

I was subjected to the "I am stopping the clocks because I don't believe you are trying to win by normal means" rule at Gorgie this week and when it was clear that we had lost the match I agreed a draw. It was two pawns each and a N (me) v a B (him) and to be fair I had been shuffling the N around for about 10 moves hoping that he walked into a cheap fork ... but I was also hoping to stumble across a plan to at least create some imbalance - then the clocks were stopped ... I still don't know what to make of this but I guess I feel a bit miffed that I have been penalised for managing my time better than my opponent - any views ? (the game probably was a dead draw - but we are both about 1500 and anything can happen)

Breathing fire as always

Chris Donkin

Wandering Dragons Newsletter Sunday 4th November 2012: Volume 2 Issue 9 Wandering Dragons Newsletter Sunday 4th October 2012: Volume 2 Issue 9

Hi fellow wood-pushers - loads of action last week and much activity this coming week. The headlines from the last seven days ... the A team v B team Edinburgh league fixture ends in a win for the A team, the C team win in Loanhead, the SNCL campaign begins with the Dragons team winning both of their opening games and Eoin 'The Big Man' Campbell plays well in the FIDE rated tournament in Basingstoke. This coming week there are no less than 5 (!!) Dragons teams in action (is this a record ?) as the A, B and D teams continue their Edinburgh League campaigns and the two Dragons Allegro teams get ready to strut their stuff in Roslin on Thursday. Additionally there are three Club Chp games scheduled for Tuesday !

Club Competitions

Round 1 of the club championship is almost complete. The two Mareks were due to play each other on Tuesday but with Marek S suffering from a heavy cold this match has been postponed until the 13th Nov. Note that I will 'assume' a result to ensure that I can still make the draw for round 2 at the end of this week. The remaining three round one matches:

Andy Burnett v Damo Bullen

Eoin Campbell v Nicol Bathie

Richard Carter v Stuart Goodall

... will all take place on Tuesday - upstairs please as the B team have the downstairs lounge for their league match.

Please note that I am hoping that ALL round two matches will (mostly) take place on Tuesday the 20th November so please put this date in your diaries. (a free night at the club - i.e. no league matches) More details will be posted after the draw has been made at the end of this week.

League News for 2012-13

The A team v B team match resulted in a 3.5-1.5 win for the A team. With both players struggling to field six players and the C team also playing that night (so no up-floats from them) the two captains decided against drafting in D team players and agreed to double-default board six - eminently sensible. It was a fiercely contested match with all games close. John Foulger (B) held Alan Minnican to a draw. Hamish Olsen (B) gave Andy Burnett a good game and had a promising attack at one point and went down fighting. Walter Burnett (B) had a good game against Mark Orr and should have drawn or maybe more but lost concentration in a very complicated position. A team players Elliot Sloan and David Wallace drew with Ewan Taylor and Richard Carter respectively. There might be a game or two from this match in next week's newsletter.

The C team continued their campaign last Tuesday and won handsomely 4.5-1.5 against Pentland Hills B in Loanhead. Jannic 'The Iron Man' Konarski was showing no sign of rust essaying a N sac on board one to win with style. Damo Bullen, Steven MacGregor and Bill Falconer also claimed the full point. I drew and Scott Binnie proved that he is human (twice !) by firstly blundering to leave himself with an uphill struggle then when on the verge of equalising blundered again and this time it was terminal.

This Tuesday the B and D teams are at home and on Wednesday the A team visit Alva Street to play Edinburgh I which even at this stage of the season is a crucial match.

Allegro League News for 2012-13

The two Dragons Allegro teams are action this Thursday. Four Donkins (me, Anne and my brothers Brian and Stephen) plus Bill Falconer, Steven MacGragor, Damo Bullen and one other will represent the club.

SNCL

The SNCL started last week and we won both our first matches. In the morning we beat Corstorphine 3.5-1.5 with Elliot Sloan, Richard Carter and me all winning. Richard Kynoch drew on board one and Donald Heron uncharacteristically blundered to allow a mate in two. In the afternoon we beat Irvine 4-1 with Don, Richard K and me all winning and Elliot and Ricahrd C drawing. Next round of matches at the end of November.

Web site

Keep visiting the Club website. It can be accessed via: http://www.wdcc.netne.net Don has been updating again over the last week. This weeks key update is a detailed set of instructions on how to set the digital clocks under the 'stories' tab.

News

In the FIDE rated tournament in Basingstoke, Eoin Campell scored 6/9 in the Intermediate section. Eoin won 5 drew 2 and lost only 2 games. Well played Big Man !

Forthcoming tourneys

The next major weekend congress on the Scottish Chess Calendar is the ever-popular Oban Congress to be held between the 16th and 18th November. See Chess Scotland web site for entry details.

Game of the week

Apols here ... despite the fact that this is a manically busy phase of the season, I have not managed to collect any scoresheets this week. All donations gratefully accepted and will be printed !

... and finally ....

The draw for the 12-13 Richardson Cup has been made we have a bye in the first round and play Hamilton in the quarter finals! More details soon.

Breathing fire as always

Chris Donkin

Wandering Dragons Newsletter Sunday 7th October 2012: Volume 2 Issue 5

Hi fellow wood-pushers, the season is now underway and this coming week is going to be a busy week. The Edinburgh League fixtures meeting is on Monday, round 1 of the Club Championship on Tuesday and the first matches in the Allegro League on Thursday !

Club Competitions

The 2012 Wandering Dragons Allegro was fought out on Tuesday night with 18 players competing in a strong field. Streetfighting Andy Burnett came out on top with a perfect 5/5. (see games of the week) In form Richard Carter and the indefatigable Elliot Sloan finished tied 2nd on 4/5 with Raj Bhopal in 4th on 3.5/4. There were many David v Goliath tussles during the evening and a couple of times David won ! Both Bill Falconer and Dan D'Souza won against opponents with gradings in excess of 400 points of their own. A pic of Andy being congratulated with a handshake is attached ! (The trophy was under lock and key !). A full crosstable of results is attached - once Chess Scotland process the results I will send you a link to the tourney page on their web site.

The club championship starts this Tuesday - so far 21 players have entered and the round 1 draw is attached. Please note that it is not too late to enter. Please note also that if you have entered then I am expecting 8 of the 10 first round games to take place on Tuesday. If you are expected to play this week (see draw attached) and you can't make it on Tuesday then please let your opponent know and cc me in.

League News for 2012-13

The squads for our teams for the new Edinburgh League season have been confirmed and are attached to this newsletter. The fixtures meeting is tomorrow night (Mon 8th Oct) and me, Elliot, Don and Anne will be there on behalf of the four Dragons teams entered in the league. You will receive an email with the fixtures either shortly after the meeting or at the very latest with next week's Newsletter.

Richard Carter has now put together a squad to play in the SNCL - but it is still not too late to make yourself available. If you wish to be part of the SNCL squad then please contact Richard direct. I believe the first matches in the SNCL will take place in Sunday the 28th October.

The Allegro League starts on Thursday and Tony Akers and I will be captaining the two Dragons teams. We have just about made our first selections - just need to check with a couple of people on Monday - a full report on how the first night of action goes in next week's newsletter.

News

Andy Burnett has kindly offered to do a talk at the club on a free night. This offer has been snapped up enthusiastically and we will fix up a date for this unmissable event once we know the dates of the league matches.

Last weekend saw the staging of the Lothians Congress at WHEC. As previously reported Richard Carter was our man on form and he finished equal first in the Challengers section. In fact all of our 5 representatives at this tourney were in the Challengers section - the intrepid five experienced mixed fortunes. A full breakdown of the results from the Challengers can be accessed via this link : http://www.chessscotland.com/membership/Lothians_Challenger.html

Forthcoming tourneys

Next weekend the Dundee Congress runs from Friday October 12th to Sunday October the 14th. Entry forms can be downloaded from the Chess Scotland web site via this link ( http://www.dundee-congress.co.uk/onlineForm.htm) ... I note to my surprise that no Dragons have entered yet.

Games of the week

A bumper crop this week. Ewan Taylor has kindly donated an impressive win from the Lothians Challenger last weekend and the game is attached. Defending the Q pawn Ewan equalises quickly then turns the tables to win with aplomb. See the attached tif file for the score of the game.

As reported earlier Andy Burnett won the Allegro Championship with 5/5. Not only does he play a good game of chess but he has a good memory. He has remembered (at least) 2 of his games and his impressive wins against John Foulger and Ewan Taylor - both with the white pieces - are shown below:

Andy Burnett - John Foulger 1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 f5 3.exf5 Nf6 4.g4 (King's Gambit Reversed!) h6 5.Bg2 d5 6.d3 Bb4 7.Bd2 Nc6 8.h3 O-O 9.Nge2 Re8 10.O-O e4 11.dxe4 dxe4 12.Ng3 Nd4 13.a3 Ba5 14.b4 Bb6 15.Ncxe4 Nxe4 16.Nxe4 Qh4 17.Be3 Bxf5 18.gxf5 Rxe4 19.c3 Nxf5 20.Qd5+

Andy Burnett - Ewan Taylor 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Be7 5.Nbd2 (an old favourite set-up of Mark Hebden's) O-O 6.e3 Nbd7 7.Rc1 c6 8.Bd3 Nh5 9.h4 f6 10.g4 fxg5 11.hxg5 Bxg5 12.Rxh5 h6 13.Nxg5 hxg5 14.Bh7+ Kf7 15.Qc2 Qf6 16.f4 Ke7 17.Rxg5 Rh8 18.Nf3 Kd8 19.cxd5 exd5 20.Ne5 Nxe5 21.dxe5 Qe7 22.a3 Be6 23.Qg6 Kc7 24.f5 Bg8 25.Qxg7 Qxg7 26.Rxg7+ Kb6 27.Bxg8 Raxg8 28.Rxg8 Rxg8 29.Kf2 Rxg4 30.Rg1 Rh4 31.Rg5 Kc7 32.f6 Rh8 33.e6 Kd6 34.f7

Thanks to both Andy and Ewan for these games - there may well be some Club Chp rd 1 action in next week's newsletter !

... and finally ....

The new season beckons .. so always give check - it might be mate !

Breathing fire as always

Chris Donkin

Updated May 2013