One of the best things about moving to Dundee has been how healthy the chess scene is here. The city has two major chess clubs: Castlehill Chess Club, of which I am a member, and Dundee Chess Club. While followers of other sports may expect that there'd be some rivalry between the two - and there certainly is some banter - the friendship between the clubs (and the players therein) is far greater than the competitive edge. Many players are members of both clubs, and we are united by our love of - and desire to promote - the game of chess. For example, the support of both clubs will be crucial to the success of the upcoming Dundee Chess Congress.
Me in action at a previous Dundee Chess Congress
I can say without bias it is the best Congress in Scotland - certainly the Congress prides itself on being best value for money - it was one that I always tried to attend even before I moved here. Since my return to OTB chess, I have played in it every year - except the one when I had the very reasonable excuse of being on my honeymoon, or the Congress had the excuse of not running due to Covid. Entries are still open for the Major and Minor events; the Open is already fully subscribed. I'm sure Congress Convener Keith Rose won't mind me plugging the event here - if mentioning it to a readership that can be counted on one hand counts as "plugging"!
Keith presenting me with a grading prize in 2019
The two clubs do in fact combine forces to compete as one entity in certain events, where we are known as "Dundee City". This allows us to reliably field a number of teams in things like the Scottish National Chess League, and the 4 Nations Chess League Online. It suits me, as the combined squad places me quite far down the pecking order, often playing for the "C" or even "D" teams. In this season's 4NCL Online, for example, I have been playing for Dundee City D so far. Here is my first game in this season:
That helped us to a 3-1 win, and we followed that up with a 2-2 draw against probably the division favourites. Dundee City A are the defending 4NCL Online Champions. More locally, however, the two clubs have their own identities. They are part of the Tayside and Fife Chess Association, which runs a number of online and OTB events, including the vibrant Winter League. Two full divisions of ten (nine) teams! Between them, the two "Dundee City" clubs provide just over half of the teams in the league, but five other clubs play an integral part in the quality and sustainability of the competition, including the new "inabootcomers" fae Stonehaven!
1
DUNDEE A
9
9
0
0
18
2
PERTH A
9
6
1
2
13
3
CASTLEHILL A
9
6
0
3
12
4
ST ANDREWS UNI A
9
5
0
4
10
5
KIRKCALDY A
9
4
1
4
9
6
CASTLEHILL B
9
4
1
4
9
7
DUNDEE B
9
2
2
5
6
8
CASTLEHILL C
9
2
1
6
5
9
ST ANDREWS UNI B
9
2
1
6
5
10
CASTLEHILL D
9
1
1
7
3
The above is the TAFCA League Division 1 table for the 2023-24 season. I can only put in 10 rows, so you'll have to imagine the "Played, Won, Drawn, Lost, Points" headers for yourself. It was tight at the bottom, with Castlehill C (who I played for in the 22-23 season!) avoiding relegation by winning 2 more games in the individual matches over the course of the season. Were it to be head to head record that split the tie after points, Castlehill C would be down! As you can see, it is less tight at the top, with Dundee A comfortable winners. Dundee Chess Club does seem to attract the region's "top" players, boasting at least one titled player in their ranks. For context, I turned up to play Board 3 for Castlehill against Dundee A last season - board THREE - to find myself up against the then reigning Scottish Champion, Ed Spencer!
The above was the game. Not surprising, then, that Dundee A have won Division 1 for I think 11 seasons in a row, when they have titled players and champions to call upon, and Castlehill are stuck with the likes of me. But what you may also see from the table is that Castlehill might still have the edge when it comes to strength in depth. We (apparently) have the strongest B team, the strongest C team, and so on. Yes, our D team was relegated, but we are the only club to have a D team in the top Division this past season. This brings me to the focus of this post - a competition that Castlehill actually have a chance of winning!
In progress - picture courtesy of Ray Noble
The Bobby Gow Memorial Trophy
Monday, 30th September saw the 19th Bobby Gow Memorial Trophy. Since he passed away over 20 years ago, I obviously never had the pleasure of knowing him, but he is fondly remembered by those who did. He was a stalwart of both Castlehill and Dundee chess clubs, and is often described as "a character". I'm sure he would have been proud of what transpired on Monday, as the format of the event makes for an excellent curtain-raiser to the season.
My attempt to photograph the venue without getting anyone in it
The event is ostensibly a team match between the two clubs, each player playing one Classical chess match (time control: 90 mins). Unlike league matches which have fixed team numbers of 4 or 5 players, this team match includes as many players as turn up! Both clubs did an outstanding job encouraging their members to attend, resulting in a staggering twenty five boards! We're not sure, but we THINK that might be a record attendance for the event - and certainly good news for Tayside/Fife/Angus chess!
Picture courtesy of Ray Noble
I said our (Castlehill's) strength in depth gave us a chance of winning. At the top end of the field, we were outgraded on every board by hundreds of points, but as you go down the pecking order, things levelled out, and towards the bottom end, we had more experience. This came up in conversation with Iain Sneddon prior to the start. Iain has previously appeared in this blog as an opponent; this time, he was a team-mate - for which I was grateful!
I'm sure Iain won't mind me reposting his trophy picture!
Iain is every bit the player I am, and probably better IMHO, but our respective ratings don't quite reflect that, owing to my knack for outperforming my actual level. Nonetheless, we were both destined to be quite high on the Castlehill roster. We were the "sacrificial lambs" as we put it - we might not have any chance of winning our games, but we were assisting our team-mates just by turning up. If we were going to win this, the vast majority of our points were going to come from the double-figure-number boards. But someone had to take on the top players in order to clear the road for our lower rated players to do the business.
Another picture courtesy of Ray Noble
Of course, it wasn't like we were just going to lie down. Somewhere along the line, we needed to slay some giants. With 25 boards in play, the magic number was 13 - it's not like we could give Dundee a 10-0 head start! In any case, I found myself on Board 2. There was some confusion in the Dundee ranks about which way round David and Ed should be, but they eventually settled for fielding Ed on Board 2, so I had a rematch on my hands.
I'll get you next time, Gadget! (Disclaimer: I realise that my threatening to win against a former Scottish Champion is about as intimidating to him as San Marino threatening to win a football World Cup Qualifier against Germany would be, but it's all in good fun). With my game over, it was time to wander the tables and assess our chances. The scoreboard brought good news: we were up 7.5-4.5, but an experienced team match player knows that this is not the be-all-and-end-all. The magic number was 13, so unless we were currently winning at least 6 of the remaining 13 matches, we were not currently winning in real terms. I looked in on Iain's game.
Posted without comment or annotation, as Iain has his own blog, and has gone through the game in detail, which you can read here. At the time this game finished, this was the highest board that we had picked anything up on, although I think at least two of Boards 1, 3 and 4 were still in progress. I went in search of points for Castlehill on the lower boards. Our underrated stars needed to come through for us. Connor and Daniel seemed to be on the verge of victory, and it looked like Ed had the upper hand in his match. This was an endgame that caught my eye:
If you read my last post, you will have seen me say that most rook endgames are drawn. Indeed, Iain and Joshua had agreed a draw because they both knew this, even though Black especially still had play in the position. This was not one of these positions. While I can't swear that this was the exact position, it was similar to this. Moritz was winning because his pawns were more advanced, AND his King was there to shepherd them to safety, while the White King was blocked from getting in to do anything.
This also got my interest (again, I probably don't have this exactly right). Opposite coloured bishops normally mean a draw, but Stuart had an overwhelming majority here. Still, a question of team match tactics sprung to mind. If we were on 12.5 (and I think around the time we were close to that), should he sacrifice his bishop and secure the draw? This became particularly relevant when his opponent sacrificed his a pawn for reasons I'm not privy to. In this position I think not - it's always an option later - it will always depend on how confident you are that you can convert the win.
Our players who had the advantage in their games did indeed go on to convert them into full points, and as you can see, we got across the finish line. Perhaps the result of the night was Jan on Board 3, who won against David Findlay - just the 351 grading points of a difference! (I honestly thought it was about twice that much; David is undergraded I think!). That being said, Jan is undergraded himself, and a result like this shows he will also be looking to break the 2000 barrier before too long!
Jim presenting Daniel (right) with the trophy
Congratulations, thanks and well done to my Castlehill team-mates; commiserations to the Dundee team, and a huge thank you to Dundee Chess Club for hosting, and in particular James Anderson and Ray Noble, who do a power of work behind the scenes to ensure the event is a success. Most importantly, a good night's chess was had by all (I hope!), and the event was a really good advert for both clubs. 11 in a row for Castlehill in this event; we look forward to failing to keep Dundee A to 11 in a row in the league!
For those who think the post is not complete without a puzzle: How should I have delivered Mate in 6 in that 4NCL game?
Our players who had the advantage in their games did indeed go on to convert them into full points, and as you can see, we got across the finish line. Perhaps the result of the night was Jan on Board 3, who won against David Findlay - just the 351 grading points of a difference! (I honestly thought it was about twice that much; David is undergraded I think!). That being said, Jan is undergraded himself, and a result like this shows he will also be looking to break the 2000 barrier before too long!
