Local derby night at the club, with C v D team match and a heavyweight Club Championship game.

Club Championship
A Borwell 1836  0-1  E Spencer 2025
A game Alan will quickly blot out, as an unfortunate blunder lost a piece after just 15 moves. No way back at this level.

Dundee C  4-0  Dundee D
L Archip 1529  1-0  Z Swaczyna 1241
R Flood 1509  1-0  M Whisson 948
T Harley 1439  1-0  N Carroll 948
R Burnett 1374  1-0  R Bremner
A slightly harsh scoreline on the D team, but at least the C team found their wings in time. ZZ’s Maroczy-type setup didn’t quite bind enough, Max lost too much time with his Scandinavian, Norrie’s rather passive structure caved against Trevor, and Ross allowed too many weaknesses round his king. The D team are punching above their weight in this division, and this setback shouldn’t dishearten them too much.

A reminder that due to boiler works in the church there will be no club night next week, 28th Jan.  We return Feb 4th.

The ¼ final of this year’s Richardson Cup was held at the Inchture Hotel on Saturday January 18th. The format of Richardson Cup matches consists of teams of 8 players and a playing session of 40 moves in 2 hours plus 30 minutes each in addition once the time control has been reached. This year Dundee were strengthened by our new Board 1, Jacques Ophoff – giving a team of Jacques, David Findlay, Andrew Wright, Ed Spencer, Stephen Hogg, Gary Weir, Alan Borwell and Euan Dawson – this is by any standard a very strong team but it could be argued that Edinburgh were even stronger, perhaps one of the top two teams in Scotland and led on Board 1 by FM Neil Berry.
All of the matches were lengthy and extremely tight. First to finish was Stephen Hogg who lost a very tight match as Black against Andrew Green. There followed several draws. Alan Borwell drew his match against the high-graded Hugh Brechin. Jacques used a Slav Defence to obtain equality against Neil Berry and eventually a draw was agreed in an evenly balanced and Queenless middlegame. Then, Euan Dawson reached a drawn R and P endgame against the highly-rated Raj Bhopal. But then a couple of reverses. Ed Spencer found it tough going against Adam Bremner in a Sicilian Morra Gambit and eventually resigned. Then Andrew Wright and Petros Walden on Board 3 reached a time scramble leading up the time control. Such was the speed of play by both as the time control approached that the game moves had to be reconstructed – and at that point it was found that Andrew has lost on time with his opponent only having himself 5 seconds left on his clock.
Shortly afterwards David Findlay and Calum MacQueen agreed a draw on Board 2. Which left Gary Weir up against Graeme Kafka on Board 6. Gary has not played much chess in the last 2 years but the standard of his play did not reflect that. He entered the middle-game a pawn up with Graeme struggling to hold a fragile position. But hang on Graeme did, and with the match already decided, a draw was agreed between the two players. The final result was 5.5 – 2.5 in favour of Edinburgh. Dundee should be proud of drawing 5 of the matches against higher-grade opposition. But at the end of the day, the strength in depth of the Edinburgh was probably the telling factor that enabled them to secure a place in the semi-finals. Overall it was an enthralling afternoon of high-quality chess and Dundee Chess Club should be proud of having put up such a fighting performance.

Click here to play through games.

The new decade was welcomed in with another busy club night, with two TAFCA matches and a growing junior contingent being put through their paces by Christine and Jim.

Dundee A  3-1  Castlehill C

J Ophoff 2253  1-0  E Walton 1429
D Findlay 2109  1-0  C Young 1380
E Spencer 2025  1-0  C Hawkins 1350
A Dawson 1806  0-1  C Wilson 1323

An otherwise expected win by the A team, but for a fine performance by Cameron against Alistair. A nailbiting ending with both players down to a few minutes, where Cameron’s connected passed pawns and bishop outfought Alistair’s rook. The match also marked the debut of our new signing, Candidate Master Jacques Ophoff – a most welcome addition to the club celebrated with a good win against Steady Ed.

Dundee C  2-2  Castlehill E

L Archip 1520  1-0  N Waugh 1161
R Flood 1509  1-0  D Hayes
A Woodcock  1383 0-1  M Kats 1091
R Burnett 1374  0-1  D Coleman 1056

Sadly, once again this season, our C team failed to take advantage of a clear grading difference and conceded another point. We’ve all been culpable – myself more than most -and it’s been a disappointment so far. Still time to make amends, but needs to happen quickly! Credit to Daniel’s team for a fine performance.

Newport Knights B  1-3  Dundee D

S Finnie 1379  1-0  M Whisson 948
R Mclaren 1122  0-1  H Meadows 840
F Rossiter 777  0-1  T Rosazza
A Wallace  0-1  R Bremner

In contrast, on Wednesday our D team travelled to the always welcoming premises of Newport and managed an excellent result. Well done guys!

Hope you’ve all had a good Christmas and a Happy New Year. The club championship still has 6 matches to be played. This has to be done by the 31st January. There are 2 matches this Tuesday the 14th January. Dundee A versus Castlehill C and Dundee C versus Castlehill E. The club also has a Richardson Cup match against Edinburgh. This is being played at Inchture Hotel on Saturday 18th January.

The club was host to two knockout matches this week. The B team played Newport Knights A. In the first round Jim Anderson had a good win against Lloyd Hughes. Gordon Robertson then beat Douglas Cairns. Next Alan Woodcock lost to Simon Markham and finally Laurenziu Archip beat Marcus Wylie Giving the B team a 3 – 1 lead. In round 2 Jim drew with Lloyd then Alan beat Simon. This gave the B team the win. The final 2 games were a win for Gordon and a loss for Laurenziu. This gave the B team a win of 5½ – 2½.

The other Knockout match was Dundee C versus Kirkcaldy. In the first round Max Whisson lost to Peter Selbie. Norrie Carrol lost to Aaron Owens, Thibault Rosazza lost to Kam Wan and Andres Aguila beat John Christie giving the score as 1 – 3 to Kirkcaldy. In round 2 Max got a nice draw against Peter, then Norrie lost to Aaron , Thibault beat Kam  and Andres beat John giving the final score as 3½ – 4½.

There was also a Club championship match played between Robert Burnett and John Robertson Jnr. See game below. Also below is an earlier Round 2 Club Championship match between Trevor Harley and Jim Anderson.

Ray Noble has updates on the TAFCA Allegro and the J R Chalmers Grand Prix, with our own Laurenziu Archip leading the way in both 🤗http://tafca.co.uk/…

The TAFCA Allegro Championship roadshow rolled into Dundee Chess Club for our local version, and proved another huge success in a line of huge successes for this revamped tournament.

This was perhaps the strongest entry of the series to date, with three 2000+ rated players and a host of other very strong competitors taking part. Despite this, our own David Findlay stormed through the evening and, though not without incident, recorded a perfect 5/5 shutout to take the title, all the more remarkable considering he was recording all his games, even at 15 minutes per game!

David conquered Alan Woodcock, A Patzer, Alastair Dawson, and fellow colossi Ed Spencer and Stephen Hogg in the last two rounds for a superb triumph, defending the title he shared last season with Declan Shafi.

The turnout of 34 players equalled last season’s top attendance, despite appalling weather, and many thanks to all players who came, saw, and hopefully enjoyed a fine night’s chess.

1^st D Findlay (Dundee) 5/5

2^nd= S Hogg

E Spencer

A Borwell

R Flood

L Archip (All Dundee) 4/5

These events are fast becoming the highlights of the chess season, and those regular attendees can testify to the evenings of good chess, and great fun all round. A vote of thanks is owed to Newport Knights who hosted the inaugural tournament last season, and made it so much more than a chess tournament with great food and prizes at a time when nobody knew what to expect from the new addition to the calendar. They set the bar, and happily all other clubs have taken the baton and run with it, each imparting their own slant to a great night’s entertainment.

Huge thanks for the buffet on this night to Jean Chalmers who provided a veritable feast for everyone and served it all up with aplomb. Jean also found time to cajole (?!) the sales of the raffle tickets for many fine prizes generously donated by our members, and books donated by Alan Borwell. Thanks as ever to irrepressible MC Ray Noble for orchestrating the evening, and Jim Anderson for running the technical aspects of the tournament. Thanks also to the army of volunteers who cleared up in record time after the event. Much appreciated.

The circuit rolls on to Perth Chess Club on Monday 27th January 2020. Over to you guys!

Many Thanks again to everyone who contributed to and enjoyed a great night.

The A team continued the defence of their Division 1 title with a comfortable win in Kirkcaldy.

Kirkcaldy B 0-4 Dundee A

E Henderson (1267)    0-1       D Findlay (2109)

P Selbie (1241)            0-1       E Spencer (2025)

C McDonald               0-1       A Dawson (1806)

P Anderson                 0-1       R Flood (1509)

(With thanks to Ray Noble for results and pictures)

Castlehill F 1.5-2.5 Dundee E

1. R McLeod (980) 1-0 P Gibson (815)
2. L Paton (944) 0.5 S McKenzie (530)
3. R Akula (J 683) 0-1 T Rosazza
4. K Akula (J 569) 0-1 A Aguila

A very good win for the E team, in the rematch between the teams of their 2-2 draw just ten days previous!

The Dundee A team began the defence of the TAFCA Handicap Knockout Cup in eventually convincing fashion against our friends from Newport. Dundee A’s handicap is usually me, but despite my playing in every round last year, we somehow managed to win the trophy. This was a pleasant first step in this season’s effort.

1^st Round

Dundee A 2-2 Newport Knights B

A Borwell (1836) (B)  0-1       S Finnie (1379)

A Dawson (1806)       1-0       A Sneddon (1332)

F Stevenson (1647)     0-1       A Wallace (1200)

R Flood (1509)           1-0       F Rossiter (1200)

The handicap factor is of course time, and we were giving away quite a bit of it. I had 18 minutes to my opponent’s 42, and I was the best off! Our other boards had about 12 minutes each. This naturally leads to some strange and occasionally frantic play. You can be grinding along quite happily, then a glance at your clock shows you only have a few minutes left. I had convinced myself that my semi-accidental exchange sacrifice would bear fruit, but I had to rely on my opponent’s co-operation! Alan and Frank were not so fortunate, with Frank actually losing on time in a clearly advantageous position. Alan won a piece and then exchanged into the ending, but with only one minute remaining, left a rook en prise!

This kind of thing happens all the time in this competition, but it left us in a tricky situation. A drawn match would put the lower rated team through on tie-break…

2^nd Round

Dundee A 4-0 Newport Knights B

A Borwell (W)1-0       S Finnie

A Dawson       1-0       A Sneddon

F Stevenson    1-0       A Wallace

R Flood           1-0       F Rossiter

Dundee A 6-2 Newport Knights B

Fortunately we were able to navigate the second round of games without much incident to get through comfortably enough. A typical adventure, but it’s what makes this cup so much fun(!?) We live to fight again.

Club Championship Rd 2

N Carroll (948)            0-1       S Zdenek (1241)

T Rosazza                    1-0       M Wang

The Club Championship rolled along with the two games going to expectations. A reminder that due to the rather loaded nature of the first half of the season and all the events and fixtures taking place, the deadline for this round is extended to the end of January. Round 3 starts on Feb 4

One of those ‘events’ is the 2^nd TAFCA Allegro which takes place at our club next Tuesday (26^th November). This is a 5 round Swiss competition with each player having 15 minutes on the clock. It’s a huge fun night for those of you who have never taken part before, and we’ll have raffles and refreshments and other goodies on hand too. There will be no Junior club for this night only. Our shindig was the best attended of last season so let’s keep it going. Join in for a 7.30 sign-in on the night. Be seeing you.