Poor show
Poor showing by team scotland ended with another defeat to the Iceland Legends. (0.5-3.5). The half point earned by Andrew Muir versus Jon Arnason. https://chess24.com/watch/live-tournaments/european-team-championship-open-2015/9/17/3
Posts
After losing to Denmark 4-0. Scotland finally posted their first win of the championship against Kosovo. A quick look at one of the games. At move 31 Stephen Mannion missed out on a nice continuation where instead of the move played in the game which was 31. Qc3. Instead there was the possibility of exchanging the rooks 31. Rxd8 Qxd8 32 Qa7 Creating the possibility of, devastating, attacking possibilities for white. For example 32. ... c5 33. Bxc5 Qxg5 34. Be7 Attacking the queen. 34.. ... Qg4 35. Bf6 Ne6 Preventing white from mating black on g7 Tying down blacks pieces. Here stockfish gives 36. c4 sacrificing a pawn temporarily for a strong passed pawn. another line where black goes 32. ... Ne2 33. Be7 also leads to nice attacking play by white.
Disappointing match.
After drawing with Belgium comes defeat to Austria for Scotland in the European chess championship. A draw by Alan Tate the one bright spot in an otherwise disappointing match. https://chess24.com/watch/live-tournaments/european-team-championship-open-2015/6/18/2
First point against Belgium in the European Championships
Scotland drew with Belgium 2-2 in the European team championship held in Iceland. The score was 2-2 but according to Stockfish anyway could have been more. Alan Tate comfortably won his game in board 1 against Belgian Mher Hovhannisyan, in a French Defence. According to Stockfish Graham Morrision's game ended with an edge to black however objectively it does look like Graham would have had difficulty making headway and a draw may have been the correct result. Move 36 looked significant when perhaps Graham could have looked closer at trying to promote his extra pawn on the queenside and put greater pressure on Steven Geirnaert. These points I hasten to add are made by a not very good amateur with the limited aid of a computer. Further analysis (may) follow. The one defeat was to Andrew Burnett in board 4 in an off beat sideline of the Sicilian. Looks like Andrew was taken out of book early and the well prepared Belgian dominated with Andrew going wrong (acco...
First draw of the European Team Championship for Scotland
Scotland get their first draw against the Faeroe islands after a disappointing European Team Championship. https://chess24.com/watch/live-tournaments/european-team-championship-open-2015/4/18/4
