Category: Events

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Events

League Restart, Dundee, New Investment

October was a busy and productive month for Queens Park Chess Club. Our three league teams had two matches each, we had good representation in the Major and Minor section of the Dundee Congress, and we met Grandmaster Daniel King. 

Away from the chess board, we confirmed Beltrami law practice as our 2022/23 season sponsor, and achieved a share of a community grant voted on by residents of Govanhill. The new investments will help the Chess Club to manage its recent growth. 

One immediate use of the grant will be to purchase additional chess sets for the Club and for our local partner, the Thursday Chess Group, to address recent shortages and enable even more people around the Queens Park area to join us for casual and competitive chess.

Read on to learn how our players fared in six league matches and a national tournament.

Glasgow Chess League

It has been almost 90 years since a Queens Park Chess Club team competed in the historically significant Glasgow Chess League.

Our Division 3b Team, captained by Rhys McCrosson, got off to a winning start away to the talented juniors of Hamilton C, scoring 3.5 to 0.5. This included a win on board one for J Craig T Thomson, formerly of East Kilbride, in his first game for Queens Park – and his first league game in decades!

The second match was at home to Lenzie Dementors, another extremely strong junior side. The score was 3-1, with wins for Rhys McCrosson, Paul Cumming and Jordan McNaught. The two wins put Queens Park top of the league at the end of October. 

There are many fixtures to come, and next month will see the team visit Glasgow University A, who are also likely to be pushing for promotion to Division 2. Results and standings are available on the Glasgow Chess League website. 

Rhys is captain of Queens Park’s Glasgow team

Dumbarton Chess League

Queens Park A, captained by Jass McNeill, face tough opposition in Division 1 of the Dumbarton & District Chess League this season.

The first game resulted in a loss away to Renfrewshire. Jordan McNaught won for Queens Park on board two. Tommy Lally, formerly of Airdrie and Shettleston Chess Clubs, and currently Queens Park’s strongest player by grading, was winning his game on board one and almost saved a draw, but a mistake in time pressure led to a 3-1 loss.

The A team drew its second game, home to Phones A on 24 October. The away side had the impressive Pavlos Bozinakis, rated 2177 FIDE, on board one. Pavlos had to work hard to beat 1481 rated Alex Radevic. A win from Graeme McKinnon, and draws by Harvey Dellanzo and Derek Rankine achieved the team’s first league point of the season. See Division 1 results and standings. 

Caitlin McCulloch – who this month joined the Club Committee – captains Queens Park B in the Dumbarton league Division 2. The first game featured four unrated players against Bearsden B. Harry Thomson picked up his first win for the Club on board four in a 3-1 home defeat on 11 October.

In the second match, away to Stepps B on 27 October, the team secured a 2.5-1.5 victory, with wins from Chris Dinwoodie and Jonny Linney, and Tommy Lally got a draw on board one. See Dumbarton Division 2 results and standings.

The Dumbarton league fixtures provided valuable experience for many players new to competitive, classical over-the-board chess. Next up for Queens Park B is away to Giffnock on 7 November (Caitlin’s father, Andrew, plays for Giffnock, raising prospects for an inter-family clash!). The A team host Stepps A the following evening.    

Click on the board to see Graeme McKinnon’s win vs Phones A

Dundee Congress

A contingent from Queens Park attended the Dundee Chess Congress (pictured above) on the weekend of 14-16 October. Held in the University of Dundee’s Chaplaincy Centre, the five round classical event (time control: 90+15) featured three sections – Premier, Major and Minor.

The Premier section was tied by IM Andrew Greet of Bearsden and FM Keith Ruxton of Sandy Bells Chess Club. IM Greet kindly donated several chess sets to Queens Park at the start of the 2022/23 season, and has agreed in principle to give a simultaneous match against our Members in early 2023. We intend to arrange a date and issue a call for players later in the Autumn.

Three Queens Park Members competed in the Major section – Alex Lane, Rhys McCrosson, and Jordan McNaught. They were joined by Liu Zizheng of Strathclyde University, a regular visitor to Queens Park, who finished on an impressive 2.5 points out of 5. 

Alex Lane (right) achieved a Chess Scotland grading of 1316

In round two, Rhys achieved a superb victory with the Black pieces against top seed Donald Heron, rated 1797. Rhys finished on 2 points. Alex scored three draws to get 1.5/5, and achieved a national rating of 1316 in the process, while Jordan finished on the same score with one win and one draw.

Iain Shields and Chess in the Park & Thursday Chess Group regular Ronnie Martin played in the Minor section. Both finished on 2 points, Ronnie scoring two wins and three losses, Iain achieving a win and two draws.

Next up on the national stage is November’s Livingston Allegro and the Oban Congress. Several Queens Park Members will be participating in both.

Pictures from the Dundee Chess Congress on Flickr

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Events

Meeting GM Daniel King

Five Queens Park Members had the pleasure of meeting the acclaimed English Grandmaster Daniel King on his visit to Glasgow this week.

In addition to being among the UK’s strongest players, GM King is notable as an author of 17 books, a commentator of key events including World Chess Championships since the 1980s, and content producer for his instructive PowerPlayChess YouTube channel.

GM King was the key guest at a special University of Glasgow Games and Gaming Lab seminar on Chess in Focus, which took place in the University’s Advanced Research Centre on 27 October. The purpose of the event was to explore the evolving relationship between chess and mental health, climate change, language and literature.

The event featured presentations, a Q&A with GM King, breakout discussion groups, and a special blitz match. During the Q&A, Queens Park Secretary Derek Rankine asked GM King for his views on the value of casual, over-the-board chess for improving mental health, citing positive stories Derek heard from some of those attending popular chess meetups around Queens Park.

GM King agreed chess has tremendous value for mental wellbeing, and said it was a source of regret that professional chess players had to become “assassins” when facing rivals over the chess board, and lose some of the opportunity to connect with others and form friendships that develop more easily at beginner and intermediate level in less competitive environments.

The blitz match saw two teams of five – alumni of Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities – face off in a 5+2 blitz match. Under the watchful eye of GM King – no pressure! – Derek Rankine and Jonny Linney won their games for the Glasgow Uni team, while Paul Cumming got a point for the Strathclyde Uni team. The Strathclyde Uni team, which also featured Sagar Kukreja of Queens Park and Nicolas Skettos of Phones Chess Club – a friend of Queens Park – won 3-2.

Also attending the event were Giuseppe Bosco of Queens Park and Colin Paterson of Phones; Colin is also a co-founder of Queens Park in its earlier incarnation as Govanhill Chess Club. The event was part of a series entitled ‘Forms in Focus’, which look at the relationship different types of games have with modern society. The series is hosted by Francis Butterworth-Parr and Dr Timothy Peacock of the Games and Gaming Lab.

Pictured above, left to right, are Nicolas, Sagar, Giuseppe, Paul, Derek, Dr Peacock, GM King, Jonny, Francis, and Colin.

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Events

Vote Chess – QPCC vs CSRA

Queens Park Chess Club’s first organised activity on chess.com will be a transatlantic ‘vote chess’ challenge match against the Central Savannah Riversite Area (CSRA). CSRA is a US club with players from the city of Augusta, Georgia and the neighbouring towns of Aiken and Edgefield in South Carolina.

What is vote chess? 

Vote chess is a format in which two teams play a single game of correspondence (aka ‘daily’) chess against each other. In this game, Queens Park is playing with the Black pieces, and each team has three days to discuss and vote on every move. Both teams have access to a private message board for discussion on suggested moves. 

The normal rules of correspondence chess apply – the chess.com opening explorer and books on opening theory can be used for reference, and the pieces can be moved around on the board, but chess engines and endgame tablebases must never be used. 

How do I join? 

On chess.com, click / tap on vote chess in the Queens Park Chess Club menu, or click here.

Then select the QPCC-CSRA game and choose ‘join game’.

Those who do not already have a chess.com profile can register and play for free.

QPCC will play with the black pieces

How do I play? 

To start with, introduce yourself on the message board under the vote chess game. Then let us know what you would like Queens Park’s first move with Black to be. 

When it’s our move, we have three days to decide what to play. In the first two days, club members of all abilities are encouraged to suggest and discuss potential moves in the position. When we have around 24 hours to go, a vote will be called for the consensus move (or a choice between two or more moves if no consensus has been reached). ‘Voting’ is a case of playing a move on the board, and clicking a tick box to confirm. 

It is possible for players to vote at any time on any move they wish, but participating in discussion on candidate moves first, and voting on an agreed move, helps to make this more of a team game, in which we can learn from each other, and play higher quality moves.

Lower-rated players are encouraged to suggest their preferred moves, and higher rated players are asked to respond courteously to any potential mistakes or inaccuracies. Lower-rated players are welcome to ask higher-rated players questions about their proposed moves, to improve their understanding of the ideas behind them.

What happens after we vote on our move? 

The opposing team, CSRA, will have three days to pick their move, then it’s back to our turn. The game will continue to a conclusion. At any point, it is possible for teams to vote in favour of offering or accepting a draw, or to resign the game. The outcome of the game will be rated on the chess.com vote chess leaderboard. If there is appetite for more, Queens Park can set up a new game, or even several at once.

Any questions?  

Drop Derek a message on chess.com or ask away in the vote chess chat. Thanks to all for taking part and let’s see how our first match goes! 

Top image created with artificial intelligence using DALL-E

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Events

University or College?

Queens Park vs University Select

In a pre-season friendly, Queens Park hosted a team of nine players from both Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities. The 60+0 graded match took place on Tuesday 27 September in Wellcroft Bowling Club.

The purpose was to provide the three teams with some match experience ahead of the resuming of league chess in October 2022. Queens Park and the two Universities are playing in Division 3 of the Glasgow Chess League, while Queens Park and Strathclyde have additional teams in the Dumbarton and District League too.

On the night, the away team won 6-3, a respectable outcome for Queens Park who were outrated by 500 points on the top two boards.

Ryan McGill (second from left) won a full point for Queens Park

All Queens Park’s points were achieved by new members in their first games for the club. Alistair Ahmed and Ryan McGill achieved victories on boards seven and eight respectively. Paul Cumming scored a draw on board three, while Iain Shields also got a half point on board five.

The results have been published by Chess Scotland. Our thanks to Jeson and Ashleigh at Strathclyde University Chess Society for coordinating.

Edinburgh Dean Allegro

Three Queens Park members participated in the Scottish Chess Tour Edinburgh Dean Allegro, held in Stewart’s Melville College – pictured above – on Saturday 1 October.

The five round rapid tournament featured two Chess Scotland and FIDE rated sections: an Open and an under-1600 Intermediate. The format was Swiss pairings and the time control was 20+10.

Jordan (left), Graeme (centre) and Rhys (right) represented Queens Park

In the Open section, Rhys McCrosson scored 1.5 / 5, the win coming against 1616 rated Ian Whittaker of Edinburgh Chess Club. Jordan McNaught, who also plays for Strathclyde University (he represented the away side in the above friendly), got 1 point.

Jordan and Rhys were heavy underdogs, respectively seeded 47th and 49th out of 50. Calum McQueen of Edinburgh Chess Club won the section with 4.5 points, while 11 year old prodigy Freddie Gordon of Edinburgh Chess Academy was among six runners up on four points.

In the intermediate section, Queens Park President Graeme McKinnon scored 3 / 5, with wins against players from Edinburgh, Lenzie and Sciennes. He finished in 12th position of 39.

Graeme lost in the first round to 10 year old Alagu Karthick, who is a regular visitor to Chess in the Park. Alagu, who won a grading prize at the recent Hamilton Scarecrow Allegro, finished on 2.5 points.

Full results from the Open Section and Intermediate Section are available on the Chess Results website.

Jordan and Graeme prepare for the Edinburgh Allegro with a warm-up

Glasgow and Dumbarton Leagues

Queens Park’s attention now turns to league business, with six games taking place in October.

A full schedule of games for our three league teams over the 2022/23 season is available in our calendar.

Those who have paid their membership fee will have received a call for players from our team captains. If you have not yet registered as a member, and would like to be considered for league selection, please complete the form here.

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Events

The Scarecrow and the Grand Prix

Hamilton Scarecrow

Queens Park Chess Club and friends were out in force at another well-organised tournament by Hamilton Chess Club (see also 2022 Hamilton Open) on Sunday 11 September 2022.

The 2022 Scaregrow Allegro – delivered as part of the Bothwell Scarecrow Festival – was a six round rapid event held at the Alona Hotel in Strathclyde Country Park.

Following on from the East Kilbride Allegro, Queens Park was again represented among the prize-winners.

The event featured in the programme for a popular scarecrow festival

Major Section

Jordan McNaught (right, above), who holds dual Queens Park and Strathclyde Uni membership, scored 3.5/6 in the under 1800 Major.

Rhys McCrosson (3rd from right) achieved 3/6, and won the grading prize with a 1427 performance rating.

Alex Lane (left) and Strathclyde Uni’s Liu Zizheng (3rd from left), a regular visitor at Queens Park, also scored 3/6, while Giuseppe Bosco (2nd from right) got 1.5.

The section winner was Hamilton’s Duncan Walker; it was a double success for the host club as Hamilton’s James Montgomery won the Open section.

Major section results from Chess Scotland.

Minor Section

10 year old Chess in the Park regular Alagu Karthick (centre) won the under 1400 Minor section grading prize with an impressive score of 4.5/6.

Alagu finished in joint third place out of 33 participants, as did smartly dressed Iain Shields (2nd from left) a dual Phones & Queens Park player, with the same score.

Chris Dinwoodie scored 3/6. The section winner was Lenzie’s Angelo Lynn, who hopes to join Chess in the Park in its remaining six weeks.

Minor section results from Chess Scotland.

Bearsden Grand Prix

Queens Park competed in a four-month long online Grand Prix

Queens Park have a long-standing friendship with Bearsden Chess Club, who donated boards and clocks to help us get started in 2019, played a series of graded friendlies with us during the pandemic, and invited us to special events like a March 2022 simultaneous match vs GM Jacob Aagaard.

Their generosity continued over the summer break, as Queens Park was offered five places in the 2022 Bearsden Grand Prix, a weekly online rapid tournament that offered cash prizes in three sections: under 1800, under 1500 and under 1200.

The games were played on chess.com on Tuesday evenings from mid-May to mid-September. The time control was 12+5, with up to five rounds played each night, points being awarded for wins, draws and participation.

The tournament concluded this week. While Queens Park’s contingent didn’t take any gold medals, Derek Rankine was runner-up in the u1500 section with 31 points and Jass McNeill was also second in the u1200 section with 25.5 points. Graeme McKinnon, Giuseppe Bosco and Rhys McCrosson also took part in the series.

Our thanks to Bearsden and our congratulations to host team winners Alan Sharp (u1800), Alistair Goodall (u1500) and Chris Monk (u1200).

We hope to continue collaborations with Bearsden in 2022/23 and are planning towards two special events – watch this space!

Above images created with the help of artificial intelligence using DALL-E.

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Events

History Made at East Kilbride Allegro

It has been almost 90 years since a player represented Queens Park Chess Club in official competition. As far as we can tell, the last occasion in which the historic Queens Park Chess Club played in formal competition, was losing to Dundee in the 1936 Spens Cup final.

Fast forward to the 21st century, and those of us in the modern club like to think our ancestors would be proud of our picking up points and prizes at the Scottish Chess Tour East Kilbride Allegro.

The rapid event, played over five rounds in a Swiss format (i.e. ‘winners play winners’) tournament at the 20+10 time control, was held in East Kilbride’s Holiday Inn hotel on Sunday 4 September 2022.

Not only did the name of Queens Park Chess Club once again grace a national competition, but the Club was recognised among the prize-winners. The top performers were:

Alex Lane: Alex (pictured above, left) shared second prize in the internationally rated intermediate section with a superb 4/5. On the top board in the final round, Alex narrowly lost to section winner Ishan Kumar of Bearsden, and shared 2nd prize with Liu Zizheng (above right) of Strathclyde University, a regular visitor to Queens Park.

Rhys McCrosson: despite being a major rating underdog in the open section, Rhys (fourth from right) scored 2/5 against fierce opposition. Rhys, who holds a current Chess Scotland Allegro rating of 1240, delivered a performance rating of 1734.

Graeme McKinnon: Graeme (third from left) achieved 3.5/5 in the intermediate section and was placed 5th of 43 in the final standings.

A number of other Queens Park members, plus regulars from Chess in the Park & Brodies Chess Group, scored points and strong mid-table finishes in the intermediate section. Those competing included Jordan McNaught, Caitlin McCulloch, Derek Rankine, Iain Shields, Chris Dinwoodie, Ryan McGill, Jonny Linney and Finn MacLeod.

Several were playing competitive chess for the first time and reported greatly enjoying the experience.

The overall standings and individual results are available on the Chess-Results website:

Open Section

Intermediate Section

A list of prize-winners is available on the Chess Scotland website, while selected games from the open section can be viewed on the Live Chess Cloud.

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Events In The Park

Outdoor Chess in Queens Park – Extended!

A Busy Summer

A big thank you to all who joined us for outdoor chess in Queens Park, Glasgow, this summer.

On Sunday mornings throughout June, July and August, we brought people together initially by the flagpole, and latterly at the boating pond, for highly enjoyable casual games.

The ‘bring your own board’ tradition was started by Queens Park Chess Club co-founder Julien Papillon back in 2019, and current President Graeme McKinnon took the lead in promoting and attending the weekly meetups this year.

We generally benefited from good weather, although this being Glasgow, battles with the elements were not uncommon. More than once, we had to recover to the nearby coffee shops Glad Café and Spill the Beans.

Come rain or shine, however, each week has seen healthy numbers taking part, with up to 16 players engaging in simultaneous games, plus some curious spectators.

It has proven to be a highly effective forum for promoting the game in Glasgow and Scotland, by not only providing a convenient meeting place for local players of all ages and abilities, but in drawing in passers-by, beginners, and people from outside Glasgow, who heard about the sessions via social media and word of mouth.

Karthik and Caitlin are among the regular participants

Back by Popular Demand

The original intention was to conclude these park sessions at the end of August. Many of the regular participants have, however, confirmed a keen interest in continuing to meet into the Autumn.

Queens Park Chess Club is delighted to support the ongoing interest.

To that end, we will aim to ensure that one of our members will be present from 10am to 1pm on Sundays in September and October, to welcome people.

Please note that we can’t completely guarantee a presence from the Club on all dates – and as the weather is likely to become more unpredictable, we may have to move more frequently from the boating pond to a nearby coffee shop.

We therefore recommend that those intending to join a future session, follow updates on our dedicated ‘Chess in the Park’ WhatsApp group.

We anticipate the outdoor sessions will conclude when the clocks go back at the end of October.

A WhatsApp group is used to advise of alternative locations in bad weather

Join the WhatsApp Group

The WhatsApp group provides a channel for regular participants to connect and check arrangements for meeting at the boating pond picnic benches on Sunday mornings, or in the event of bad weather, a cosy local Café.

If you would like to be added to the ‘Chess in the Park’ WhatsApp group, please send a note of your mobile number to Graeme at president@queensparkchessclub.com or Derek at secretary@queensparkchessclub.com.

The Strathbungo Society Newsletter highlighted the park meetups

Graeme and Derek are more than happy to answer any queries from those looking to take part in future.

Meantime, weekly indoor Queens Park Chess Club meetings will resume on Tuesday 30 August.

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Events

May 2022 Results Round-Up

Club Championship

Govanhill Chess Club’s 2021/22 season concluded in May.

One of various activities was the final round of our inaugural Club Championship, where the final set of eight games resulted in the following final placings:

  1. Rhys McCrosson
  2. Aidan Doye
  3. Alex Radevic

Click here to see the full results and standings.

Friendly vs Cathcart

Our thanks to Alistair Maxwell at Cathcart Chess Club, for organising a home-and-away graded classical friendly.

The first leg, in Govanhill on 17 May, was a one-sided affair, in which the visitors won 4-1. Alex Lane picked up Govanhill’s only point on board four.

Govanhill achieved a win by one point in the return leg on 23 May, with victories for Rhys McCrosson, Graeme McKinnon and Alex Lane, plus a draw by Harvey Dellanzo.

Govanhill Allegro #2

Govanhill’s second graded Allegro tournament, pictured above, took place in a three-round 15+0 format with Swiss pairings on 24 May. The mini-tournament followed the Club’s first formal Allegro event in March.

Congratulations to Strathclyde Uni‘s Zizheng Liu, a regular guest at Govanhill, on winning all three rounds, and the event. The full results were:

Round 1

  1. Rhys McCrosson 0-1 Zizheng Liu
  2. Julien Papillon 1-0 Kieran Brown
  3. Jass McNeill 1-0 Alex Lane

Round 2

  1. Zizheng Liu 1-0 Jass McNeill
  2. Alex Lane 1-0 Derek Rankine
  3. Kieran Brown 0-1 Rhys McCrosson

Round 3

  1. Zizheng Liu 1-0 Julien Papillon
  2. Derek Rankine 0-1 Jass McNeill
  3. Kieran Brown 0-1 Alex Lane

Standings

  1. Zizheng Liu (3pts)
  2. Alex Lane (2.5pts)
  3. Jass McNeill (1.5pts)
  4. *Rhys McCrosson (1.5pts)
  5. *Julien Papillon (1.5pts)
  6. *Derek Rankine (0.5pts)
  7. Kieran Brown (0pts)

* Half-point byes were awarded to Derek in round one, Julien in round two, and Rhys in round three

Livingston Allegro

Alex Lane, Derek Rankine and Zizheng Liu played in the internationally rated intermediate section of the six-round Livingston Allegro, a Scottish Chess Tour event, on 15 May in Livingston’s Mercure Hotel.

Zizheng finished in joint third place in a field of over 30, with an impressive score of 4.5 out of 6, while Alex scored 3 points and Derek got 2 points. The players met each other in the tournament, with Zizheng emerging victorious against Alex in round 2, while Alex beat Derek in round 6. The full results are available on the Chess Scotland and FIDE websites.

Govanhill Chess Club’s season finished at the end of May. The club will return in the new season on Tuesday 30 August 2022.

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Events

Phones 4 – 4 Govanhill

In the latest of our series of graded friendlies against other local clubs, Govanhill won four and lost four away to Phones Chess Club.

Phones was founded in the 1960s, taking their unusual name from a long-term sponsor relationship with British Telecom. The friendly was played on the evening of Monday 27 April in their base at St. Andrew Bridge Club in Charing Cross. 

The Phones team featured Ayr Major winner Peter Clarke on board two, and Govanhill performed well to get wins on boards one, three, six and seven. The home team played with white on odd boards. The full results are:

BdPhonesRtgResGovanhillRtg
1Guy Lyons17480-1Rhys McCrosson0
2Peter Clarke16111-0James Todd0
3Colin Paterson15180-1Alex Radevic1359
4Aditya Srivastava6541-0Graeme McKinnon0
5Kieran Rafferty01-0Derek Rankine0
6Iain Shields00-1Alex Lane0
7James McGlaughlin00-1Julien Papillon1202
8Clive Boothby01-0Jass McNeill0
4-4

The results have been graded by Chess Scotland. Our thanks to John McIntyre and Colin Paterson at Phones for organising and hosting.

Govanhill look forward to playing south Glasgow neighbours Cathcart for our last friendly of the 2021/22 season. The home game is scheduled for Tue 17 May in Wellcroft Bowling Club, and the away game will be in Cathcart’s venue, Park Church in Giffnock, on Mon 23 May.

Pictured above: Govanhill’s Alex Lane (left) and Alex Radevic (right) playing a pre-game warm-up in St Andrew Bridge Club.

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Events

Points & Prizes at 2022 Hamilton Open

The 2022 Hamilton Open provided a welcome boost to classical chess in Scotland, as the first national over-the-board tournament of its kind since the start of the pandemic. 

Hamilton Chess Club’s well-organised event brought together 50 players, from talented ungraded juniors to experienced International Masters, to compete in a single open section in Bothwell Bowling Club on the weekend of 2/3 April. The format was a five-round Swiss pairings at a time control of 75+0.

Govanhill were represented by two players, Alex Radevic and Derek Rankine, pictured above with Zizheng ‘Friend of Govanhill’ Liu of Strathclyde University (l-r: Alex, Zizheng, Derek).

Derek and Zizheng both achieved a score of 2.5/5, and were pleased to share the best ungraded player prize. 1359-rated Alex went even better, scoring 3/5 and narrowly missing out on the award for the best u-1500 player. 

In round three, Zizheng faced 2400+ International Master Andrew Greet on board one. IM Greet went on to win the tournament with a perfect 5/5.

The full results have been published by Chess Scotland.