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Grangemouth Chess Club

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Grangemouth Chess Club

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Chess club supporting all age groups in the local Grangemouth, Falkirk, and Linlithgow area.

01/11/2026

Grangemouth B v Dunfermline B

01/11/2026

Grangemouth B 3.5 v 1.5 Dunfermline B

Report by Bill Gray
This was an encounter in which the Black pieces largely prevailed, the home team winning on the top 3 boards, all of which featured hard fought middle games. Board 1 was first to finish with Bob, erstwhile of the Prestwick club, making a successful league debut. Home wins on board 2 and then 3 followed, leaving the results of the bottom two boards inconsequential to the match outcome.

Unlike the upper boards, I did witness the finale of the remaining games, both of which coincidentally featured RN v RN endgames. Glynis, despite enjoying a 2 pawn advantage, was prompted by time trouble to offer a draw which Ethan accepted.

Last to finish was board 4, won by George after Harry, short on time and trying to force home a passed b pawn, placed his N on a square that allowed the black K to put both his pieces under attack. He resigned after dropping the Knight.

22/10/2026

Grangemouth A 3.5 - 1.5 Badgers Brook A

Report by Alan Bell

Grangemouth got off to the fastest of starts when Alan P caught young Scott in a smothered mate trap. On top board, just out of the opening, Kenny hit me with a very dangerous looking piece sac that I just had not considered at all. Fortunately for me there was a defence and Kenny had nothing better than a draw by repetition.
https://share.chessbase.com/SharedGames/share/?p=DvalGfQXOIPYCdGNygbkfWBpOCiIWML6HpxKK8H6SwotVvWKzUAh9SsMl0DODS/S
Unfortunately board 3 was defaulted when Pranav forgot about the game and did not turn up. The last two games lasted well into the time control but both were well controlled by the Grangemouth players. Jonathan pushed aggressively on the Kingside but Mark always looked to be breaking through in the centre and duly cashed in for material advantage. Graham and Dougie had looked level for much of the game but Graham over pressed on the Kingside overlooking a nice breakthrough in the centre and Dougie followed up accurately to win material.

Always a friendly contest with Grangemouth coming out ahead this time.

13/10/2026

Coming to a theatre near you…
(2026 version currently in production).

08/10/2026

Grangemouth B v Badgers Brook B

08/10/2026

Grangemouth B 3.5 - 1.5 Badgers Brook B

Report by Alan Bell
Grangemouth has a good pool for this year's Division 2 Championship but Badgers showed that they also have strength in depth and on this occasion actually out-graded Grangemouth on all boards. Nevertheless a close match was expected and that proved to be the case. Badgers got off to a good start when Sean slightly over estimated his position. Scott played very well and despite limited material he created threats that Sean couldn't deal with. All other games were very tense at this stage. Harry started to build a typical King's Indian attack against David L's King-side and with some very nice tactical play he won a piece. Thereafter he traded a Rook for a piece and a pawn and with 2 Bishops and 2 passed pawns this was an unstoppable advantage. A very nice win by Harry to level the scores. Coming back from the analysis room, Harry asked me how the match was going. As we came back to the main playing room I said the top two were close but Crawford was totally lost. We walked over to Crawford's board just as he was delivering mate! In fairness I think Crawford had kept the position messy and dangerous despite being 2 pieces down. I suspect most, if not all of us have lost games like this. On board 2 William was pressing in the centre with some dangerous possibilities for Knight forks. Colin seemed to have the position under control when William sprung a pseudo Queen sacrifice, taking a Knight with the potential for a follow up fork winning back the Queen. In practice this was a good try as best play should have led to an equal Rook ending but Colin decided to play for the attack instead. This was a bad choice as William was able to defend and Colin ended up losing on time, albeit in a lost position. Last to finish was board 1 where David and Joe, having been fairly level throughout, were now in a very drawish Rook and pawn ending. However, with David playing on the increment Joe started looking for complications. Having several times gone down to single digit seconds, David eventually decided to give up a pawn and head straight for the Philidor position (if you don't know it you should!) and clearly demonstrated his knowledge leaving Joe to offer the draw.

A very interesting match that could easily have gone the other way.

01/10/2026

Under 1600 Championship

The Under 1600 Championship started last night with three very competitve games.
Ethan Young 1 - 0 Allan Mitchell
Harry Leishman 0.5 - 0.5 William Walker
Bob Carter 1 - 0 Joe Johnston

Ethan was first to finish clinching the game after Allan made a couple of errors. The other two games were both lengthy and very tight. Bob showed early aggression on the Kingside but Joe defended well and was a pawn up into the ending though Bob looked to have enough compensation. Nevertheless after a couple of errors Joe looked to have a near winning Knight and pawn ending as well a big time advantage. However this was almost certainly his undoing as rather than use the time to calculate best moves he continued to play fast and after a couple of errors Bob had established an unstoppable passed pawn. The last game to finish was a very close game between Harry and William. As the game moved into a Rook and pawn ending it looked as though William had winning chances but he allowed Harry to gain a passed pawn on the Queenside. This could easily have cost William the game but he defended accurately and Harry had nothing better than allowing a repetition of moves with a draw.

An excellent start to what promises to be a very competitive tournament.

29/09/2026

Central League Division 1: Stirling B 3 - 2 Grangemouth

Report by Alan Bell
A disappointment for Grangemouth following the cup win last week. Stirling was out graded on every board and of course had only the 2 whites but it certainly didn’t seem that way. First to finish was board 2 where Dougie was pushing on the Kingside but Bill defended well and there never seemed to be a breakthrough. Eventually all major pieces were traded on the one open file and a draw was agreed. My game was next to finish. Brad initiated a tactical flurry almost out of the opening; this led to an ending where I had B & N v R & P but with a big advantage on the white squares. Eventually White was able to push Queenside pawns to promotion. Probably the key game was on board 3 where Duncan seemed to have a dangerous looking Kingside attack but Kenny countered on the Queenside and as time started to play a role it was Kenny who broke through and actually mated Duncan’s King in the middle of the board. On board 4 Nathaniel seemed to have the better of it for much of the game but then let things get out of control. Pranav was close to winning but was down to playing on the increment and chose to repeat moves with a draw. This left Toby against Mark to decide the match. Toby had looked better throughout and was several pawns up in a Q & P ending. As always in such endings, avoiding perpetual check was a challenge but Toby played well and duly brought the point home to clinch the match.

Well played by Stirling.

24/09/2026

Neil Giffen Cup Final - we won!

Report by Alan Bell:
An excellent result 4.5 to 2.5. Star prize to Daniel for putting away Volodymyr and in the process getting us over the line. A very quick win by Mark got us off to a great start. I was struggling a bit energy wise but fortunately the chess didn’t seem to mind and I came through with a winning sac on the Kingside to take us to 2-0 though at that stage it still looked uncertain. Alan was always a bit better but his advantage dwindled and a draw was agreed. John had been looking a bit dodgy from the opening but managed to reach a level ending only to blunder but fortunately Ian missed the chance and the game was duly drawn. And then Daniel did the business to clinch the win.

Pranav had been slightly worse from the opening and looked to be in for passive defence, albeit probably holding. However next thing he was an exchange up and clearly winning but a moment of carelessness allowed Gonzalo to steal a perpetual check. Dougie’s game was last to finish but he had always looked to be up against it and was duly ground down in the ending.

Time to look out the silver polish!

01/09/2026

Daniel wins Glorney Blitz!
https://www.chessscotland.com/news/glorney-results-2027

In fact, both Daniel and Nicholas did very well in Ireland, not losing a single game between them despite typically facing stronger opponents (on the second board). Out of the 10 games they played, there were nine draws and one win by Daniel. :)

https://s2.chess-results.com/tnr1460592.aspx?lan=1&art=9&fed=Ireland+B&turdet=YES&flag=30&snr=22&SNode=S0

https://s3.chess-results.com/tnr1460597.aspx?lan=1&art=9&fed=Ireland+B&turdet=YES&flag=30&snr=26&SNode=S0

Daniel's victory in the blitz tournament (especially considering that he was rated 12th at the start) was a particularly nice way to finish his junior chess career.

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Grangemouth Community Education Centre, Abbots Road
Grangemouth
FK38JB

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