After a brief visit to Division 2, the Dragons second team return to Division 1. We normally do well in this division but some of our strength is required in the Premier Division.

All 1st division results are here while grading calculations are here.

Opposition	H/A	Date	Res
Pentland Hills 1	H	Oct 29	3-3
Edinburgh 4	A	Nov 14	3.5-2.5
Edinburgh 3	H	Nov 26	5.5-0.5
Civil Service 1	A	Dec 16	3-3
Edinburgh University 1	H	Jan 21	6D-0D
Pentland Hills 1	A	Feb 4	3-3
Edinburgh 4	H	Feb 18	4.5-1.5
Edinburgh 3	A	Mar 3	3-3
Civil Service 1	H	Mar 11	2-4
Edinburgh University 1	A	Mar 20	4-2

Edinburgh University 1 (away, Mar 20)

An overall disappointing result tonight, to follow on from the loss to the Civil Service last week.

Firstly thank you and well done to Silvian. A bishop up he withstood his opponent's counterplay until he had to give up queen for a rook.
He remained calm and built an impregnable fortress with rook, bishop and pawns against pawns and a queen checking for a draw.

This was actually a relegation four pointer (remember them) for the students and consequently they had their top two big guns out. Jim got a brilliant draw (and may have missed a win).
Ewan's opponent, known for playing the QGD, played a King's Indian (o.k.) Bg4 variation. Richard K. got a brilliant win against a Pirc.
Richard has his queen on d2 and bishop on h6. His opponent exchanged the bishops off leaving his king in the middle and Richard's queen on h6 which led to lively play in the centre ending up with Richard queen and pawns v. rook and pawns.
Richard C, your game looked very interesting with your opponent castling queen-side and then advancing the queen-side pawns in front of his king.

Well as the song goes, this could be the last time for us this season.
We took our chances to avoid relegation, which was the primary aim and did not suffer a heavy defeat having four drawn matches

Well done to the team players

Edinburgh University 1	4‑2	Wandering Dragons 2
Krassel, Timofei (2095)	1‑0	Taylor, Ewan (1849)
Watson, Jacob (1958)	½‑½	O`Neil, Jim (1814)
Erez, Uri (1871)	0‑1	Kynoch, Richard J P (1791)
Lendvai, Oliver (1669)	1‑0	Carter, Richard G (1704)
Rogers, Andrew (1613)	1‑0	Heron, Donald (1633)
Mayajan, Ameen(ug/guess 1560)	½‑½	Grosu, Silvian (1560)

Civil Service 1 (home, 11 Mar)

The last home game of the season, where Dragons 2 pulled themselves out of the relation zone, after early mishaps, to be Division 1 contenders. Unfortunately, it was not to be.
Thanks to all team members and pool players for their support throughout the season.

Ewan Reports:
If anyone had said after the loss to Edinburgh 4, Dragons 2 would be challenging for the league towards the end of the season, we would have have been rotfl (rolling on the floor laughing).

The first result of the evening was a draw in a possibly closed position between Richard C. and McDiarmid junior, a second result closely followed with McDiarmid snr losing to a typical, Jim king-side attack.
So two games down and one point up!!.
At that time, the majority of the remaining games looked at least even apart from "Houdini, Richard K" who was material down, big time.
Unfortunately two of the four games went downhill and then Ewan lost trying for a win to salvage at most a draw.

Wandering Dragons 2	2‑4	Civil Service 1
Taylor, Ewan (1849)	0‑1	Rounds, Matt (1876)
O`Neil, Jim (1814)	1‑0	McDiarmid, Allan (1750)
Kynoch, Richard J P (1791)	½‑½	Macnab, Crawford T (1696)
Carter, Richard G (1704)	½‑½	McDiarmid, Euan (1669)
Heron, Donald (1633)	0‑1	Scott, Richard (1657)
Walkowiak, Adam (1502)	0‑1	Smith, Eric P (1589)

Edinburgh 3 (away, Mar 3)

It was a wonderful feeling to begin a report without having to use the phrase " relegation four pointer " !
In fact league title four pointer could be more appropriate but we cannot know at this time.
Thanks again to Chris for playing up from Dragons 3. Unfortunately no success this time.
Ewan drew again. Don got our first win with a brilliant win beating off Lindsay's attack on the king side.
Just remember kids centralisation, centralisation.
Jim got our second win, hanging in there from a weak response to the Morra Gambit. Jim struggled through the bad position to have a lovely finish in a king, rook and pawns endgame.
Richard K drew his game to give us the magical three points. As far as I could see he had the initiative throughout the game but his opponent defended really well and had an extra doubled pawn. Bishops of opposite colours ensured the draw.
Richard C. was the last to finish playing his defence really well but unfortunately went astray in a high pressure ending which finished with only seconds left on each player's clock.

Another great team performance.

Edinburgh 3	3‑3	Wandering Dragons 2
Bundulis, Ivar (1723)	½‑½	Taylor, Ewan (1849)
Gyalus, Mark (1730)	0‑1	O`Neil, Jim (1814)
Marusic, Berislav (1714)	½‑½	Kynoch, Richard J P (1791)
Brejter, Martin (1690)	1‑0	Carter, Richard G (1704)
McGregor, Lindsay A (1678)	0‑1	Heron, Donald (1633)
Hutchison, Colin J (1662)	1‑0	Moore, Chris (1294)

Edinburgh 4 (home, 18 Feb)

Smith, Johnstone, Reilly, Turnbull, Ormond
Well at least for one night only it was
O'Neil, Kynoch, Carter, Heron and Taylor.
Four wonderful wins for the first four and a scraped draw for Ewan.
In Ewan's defence he had prepped for Snorri and Calum only for a newcomer to appear out the blue.
Jim gambited against Calum and got into a strong attacking position.
Calum held his defence well, but the pressure eventually told and he broke.
Overall, a great night for the WD2 Squad, starting off with a default on 6, the team played magnificently.

Wandering Dragons 2	4½‑1½	Edinburgh 4
Taylor, Ewan (1849)	½‑½	Bergamaschi, Matteo (F1754)
O`Neil, Jim (1814)	1‑0	McGillivray, Calum (1717)
Kynoch, Richard J P (1791)	1‑0	Haddow, Findlay (1612)
Carter, Richard G (1704)	1‑0	Whittaker, Ian P (1669)
Heron, Donald (1633)	1‑0	Montgomery, David C (1557)
DEFAULT AWAY WIN	0‑1	McConnell, Ivor (1464)

F=FIDE grading

Pentland Hills 1 (home,4 Feb)

A return to playing a proper match!!
Another tight match against Pentland Hills, with another draw Richard K bringing home the point. Ewan thought that Richard C. did a wonderful Ulf Anderson impersonation and Richard K. was the last to finish drawing with rook knight and an extra pawn against two rooks. Before that there were good draws from Jim and Don, and a very good draw from Chris Moore playing up from the third team. Many thanks Chris. Ewan's prep. against Phil Best's Grunfeld did not turn out to be sufficient and he suffered a disappointing loss.

The league is still close but we are doing well considering.

Pentland Hills 1	3‑3	Wandering Dragons 2
Best, Philip N (1905)	1‑0	Taylor, Ewan (1849)
Morrison, Ian C (1774)	½‑½	O`Neil, Jim (1814)
Cornes, Brendan A (1754)	½‑½	Kynoch, Richard J P (1791)
Begg, David (1669)	½‑½	Carter, Richard G (1704)
Dickinson, Adam (1663)	0‑1	Heron, Donald (1633)
Donkin, Chris (1612)	½‑½	Moore, Chris (1294)

Edinburgh University 1 (home, 21st January)

A win, by default, gives the the second team some breathing space.
We would have loved to have played this tie, even if it would have been a tough one.

Wandering Dragons 2	6D-0D	Edinburgh University

Civil Service 1 (away, 16 December)

Jim suffers his first loss of the season in the league, while the Richards and Ewan save the draw.

Only young McDiarmid turned up and Richard C. had a brilliant win with black against this promising youngster. At the end he was the exchange up and had a queening pawn.

Richard K. survived being misled about the identity of his opponent and had a brilliant win with white against Crawford's obligatory Nc6.

Ben seemed to be well on his way to a draw but missed a mate by rooks.

Don ended up with a Kings Indian Attack which seemed to be going well but ended up losing.

Jim seemed to have a very complicated game with some pressure on the king side
but his opponent ended up with a powerful, protected knight on e6 and won when
Jim's attack faltered.

Ewan swindled a win in a drawn position, his opponent allowing a rook fork check to win his knight.
Ewan had hoped to disrupt his opponent's central pawns in the opening but messed up and had to hang on against a passed pawn and then defend threats to his pawn on f2.

Civil Service 1	3‑3	Wandering Dragons 2
Rounds, Matt (1876)	0‑1	Taylor, Ewan (1849)
Gunn-Russell, Charles (1751)	1‑0	O`Neil, Jim (1814)
Macnab, Crawford T (1696)	0‑1	Kynoch, Richard J P (1791)
McDiarmid, Euan (1659)	0‑1	Carter, Richard G (1704)
Scott, Richard (1657)	1‑0	Heron, Donald (1633)
Smith, Eric P (1589)	1‑0	Irvine, Ben (L1294)

L=live grade

Edinburgh 3 (home, 26 November)

Our third match and already a relegation four pointer.

We got off to a " fortunate " start with Edinburgh defaulting their board 5.

Ben was again playing up for us on board 6 and got a brilliant, hard fought
king v king and pawn draw after an opening setback.

Richard K. got our first real victory with an artistic, attacking Scandinavian.

Jim played an attacking opening as white which his opponent defended very well and had some initiative on the king side.
Although he defended well, he missed a simplification giving Jim the advantage, so the point was ours.

Ewan, suffering from his opponent playing one of the few variations he had not prepped, nearly won the total plonker of the galaxy award for blowing a probable win.
Fortunately he remembered how to queen pawns using his king and threat of a mate.

Richard C. was the last to finish with neat endgame play.
As white he had to face a Queen's Indian with his opponent also having some pressure on the king side.
Richard's play on the queen-side was successful though, and the last point was ours.

We did better then Hibs despite the cheers from Easter Road!!

Wandering Dragons 2	5½‑½	Edinburgh 3
Taylor, Ewan (1849)	1‑0	Bundulis, Ivar (1723)
O`Neil, Jim (1814)	1‑0	Gyalus, Mark (1730)
Kynoch, Richard J P (1791)	1‑0	Marusic, Berislav (1714)
Carter, Richard G (1704)	1‑0	Brejter, Martin (1690)
Heron, Donald (1633)	1D-0D	McGregor, Lindsay A (1678)
Irvine, Ben(T1326)	½‑½	Hutchison, Colin J (1662)

Note - Default Home win on board 5

Edinburgh 4 (away, 14 November)

Overall the teams were well matched but despite two great results from Ewan and Richard K,
we could not get the result over the line. Thanks to Ben for stepping up into the fire of Div 1.

Edinburgh 4	3½‑2½	Wandering Dragons 2
Kristjansson, Snorri (1873)	½‑½	Taylor, Ewan (1849)
McGillivray, Calum (1717)	½‑½	O`Neil, Jim (1814)
Wilson, David T (1689)	0‑1	Kynoch, Richard J P (1791)
Willder, Matthew (1635)	1‑0	Carter, Richard G (1704)
Haddow, Findlay (1612)	½‑½	Heron, Donald (1633)
Whittaker, Ian P (1611)	1‑0	Irvine, Ben(T1326)

Pentland Hills 1 (home, 29th October)

We had an advantage on grades but as the night wore on we were looking at a defeat.
Thankfully, we managed to snatch draw from our difficult position.

Wandering Dragons 2	3‑3	Pentland Hills 1
Taylor, Ewan (1849)	½‑½	Morrison, Ian C (1774)
O`Neil, Jim (1814)	1‑0	Cornes, Brendan A (1754)
Kynoch, Richard J P (1791)	½‑½	Begg, David (1669)
Carter, Richard G (1704)	½‑½	Dickinson, Adam (1663)
Konarski, Jannic (1703)	½‑½	Donkin, Chris (1612)
Heron, Donald (1633)	0‑1	Thimonier, Victor (1592)