Vital Win for Inverclyde Central v East Kilbride A

Inverclyde Central Chess Club have won away against East Kilbride 5.5-2.5 in a must-win relegation match in the First Division of the Glasgow Chess League. Inverclyde went into the game having won one and lost five of their matches so far, and needing to win against their fellow strugglers East Kilbride to have any realistic chance of avoiding relegation. Their opponents, on the other hand, could afford to draw the match and improve their chances of staying up.

With grading advantages on every board, Inverclyde were favourites, though East Kilbride had won their previous two league matches. The match started very well for Inverclyde with early wins for Stephen Doherty ,who won with a storming pawn attack, and John Calder, who sacrificed a piece to break his opponent’s position. David Logue on board eight could not generate much counterplay in a Kings’s Indian Defence, and drew, leaving Inverclyde leading 2.5-0.5 with five games still to finish. East Kilbride stuck back, however, winning on boards four and seven against Stephen Hilton and Gary McPheator to tie the match at 2.5 points each. Next to finish was Inverclyde’s Stephen Riley, who won a wild Sicilian Sozin against the fast-improving junior Lennart Koehn. Inverclyde now needed one point from the top two boards to secure the win. They got both. Jim Montgomery on the top board won his opponent’s isolated central pawn, then expertly converted his queenside pawn majority to force the promotion of a pawn, and his opponent’s resignation. On board two, Kevin McDonald won the exchange of a rook for a knight and then ground down his opponent for a comfortable win.

The 5.5-2.5 win was a great relief to Inverclyde, who now sit joint-seventh in the table on four points, with two teams from the ten to be relegated. However, Inverclyde still face a very difficult task in avoiding relegation: they will be underdogs in their final two matches, versus Polytechnic, whom they have only beaten once, and Bearsden, the league leaders. If they do not pick up any points in their last two games, they will have to rely on favourable results in other games to stay up. To make matters more difficult, the teams below them have still to play each other. At least one of them will match Inverclyde’s current total of four points , meaning that if Inverclyde lose both of their remaining games they would have to rely on board points (the chess equivalent of goal difference) in order to survive in Division 1.

While Inverclyde’s status in the Glasgow League First Division remains precarious, they can look forward to another season in the Scottish National Chess League Third Division: they enter the final round of matches against Hamliton B, on Sunday, in mid-table.

Full Result and League table shown below:

Bd Grade East Kilbride A vs Inverclyde Grade

1 2067 Rattray, Gordon 0 - 1 Montgomery, Jim 2114

2 1860 Jelfs, Alan 0 - 1 McDonald, Kevin 2095

3 1549 Thomas, Daniel R 0 - 1 Calder, John 1834

4 1698 Dunlop, Anthony 1 - 0 Hilton, Steve H 1765

5 1629 Murray, Frankie 0 - 1 Doherty, Stephen 1745

6 UG Koehn, Lennart 0 - 1 Riley, Stephen 1717

7 1569 McDonald, Duncan 1 - 0 McPheator, Gary 1705

8 1499 Brisbane, Tom ½ - ½ Logue, David 1637

2½ - 5½

GCL Division 1 League Table

								Boards
			Matches					Played			Defaults			Score
Pos	Team	Team Name	P	W	D	L	Pts	W	D	L	W	D	L	Boards	%
1	1	Bearsden A	7	7	0	0	14	35	15	6	0	0	0	42½	76
2	10	Shettleston A	7	6	0	1	12	31	17	8	0	0	0	39½	71
3	2	Cathcart A	8	6	0	2	12	22	18	22	2	0	0	33	52
4	6	Glasgow Polytechnic A	7	4	0	3	8	19	19	17	1	0	0	29½	53
5	7	Hamilton A	7	3	0	4	6	20	18	17	0	0	1	29	52
6	9	Phones A	6	2	1	3	5	13	13	20	0	0	2	19½	41
7	4	East Kilbride A	7	2	0	5	4	17	15	24	0	0	0	24½	44
8	8	Inverclyde	7	2	0	5	4	18	13	25	0	0	0	24½	44
9	3	Crowwood A	7	1	1	5	3	10	22	24	0	0	0	21	38
10	5	Glasgow Montrose A	7	1	0	6	2	11	10	33	1	0	1	17	30
			70	34	2	34	70	196	160	196	4	0	4	278