Inverclyde Central Chess Club secured a crucial win in their battle to avoid relegation from the First Division of the Glasgow Chess League. Their opponents, Crowwood A, are also potential relegation candidates; but had secured three points to Inverclyde's zero coming into the match, including a surprise win over the strong Hamilton A, to whom Inverclyde had narrowly lost. In this context a draw would have been a reasonably good result for Crowwood and but a disaster for Inverclyde. Inverclyde were slight favourites, holding notable grading advantages on the top two boards but the grades on the remaining boards were fairly even, and the result was hard to predict.
The match was very tense, with Crowwood scoring wins on boards four and seven, but Inverclyde were boosted by a good win for Andy Smith on board eight in his first match of the season, and returns to form for David Logue and Gary McPheator who both scored their first Glasgow League wins of the season. Stephen Hilton drew on board three, and Inverclyde's Kevin McDonald and Jim Montgomery (who sacrificed a Queen in his game) proved too strong for their opponents winning the final two games, to give Inverclyde Central a vital win, that was, in the end, comfortable.
The result was a great relief to Inverclyde's players after the terrible start to the season, and the two points gained lifted the team of the bottom of the table. Inverclyde now face several more tough matches but now have fighting chance of avoiding relegation.
Full result:
Bd Grade Inverclyde v Crowwood A Grade
1 2114 Montgomery, Jim 1 - 0 Campbell, Alistair W 1854
2 2095 McDonald, Kevin 1 - 0 Mayo, Kevin 1804
3 1765 Hilton, Steve H ½ - ½ Rodger, Paul 1784
4 1717 Riley, Stephen 0 - 1 Brownlee, Ian G 1691
5 1705 McPheator, Gary 1 - 0 Henery, Robert 1626
6 1637 Logue, David 1 - 0 MacRae, James S 1565
7 1490 McGranaghan, James 0 - 1 Conn, Mark 1516
8 1467 Smith, Andy 1 - 0 Theodoreson, Malcolm 1478
5½ - 2½
