A narrow defeat, but a clear step forward for Stonehaven Cowie.
Match report by David Watkin
Stonehaven Cowie made the midweek trip into Aberdeen to face top-of-the-table Bon Accord Rooks, and the evening delivered everything you could hope for from a league match: careful manoeuvring, kingside drama, and a draw earned the hard way.
On Board 1, Alan Cundill faced Thomas Murray in a high-quality strategic battle. For a long stretch it was “proper” chess: pieces developed, tension built, and neither side rushed into anything speculative. Alan held his ground confidently through the opening and middlegame, but as Black’s pieces began to gather on the kingside the pressure steadily increased. The engines may argue that the position remained balanced longer than it felt, but over the board the attack became increasingly difficult to contain, and Alan was eventually forced to concede in the face of a powerful assault.
Board 2 saw David Watkin take on Michael Adam and opt for immediate complexity with a Benko-style pawn sacrifice. The opening was sharp and accurate from both players, with neither side giving an inch. The game pivoted in a tactical middlegame: Michael had a moment to consolidate but missed it, and David found a precise counterpunch that swung the momentum. From there, Black was able to simplify into a favourable endgame and convert methodically, with Michael resigning only when the outcome was beyond doubt.
The match’s marathon came on Board 3, where David Bridges battled Matthew Thornton in a Queen’s Gambit Declined that evolved into a long, technical endgame. For long periods it appeared that Matthew might grind out a win, but David showed immense resilience. Time and again he found resources, kept his king active, and refused to collapse. In the end, he conjured a stalemate from a losing position — a tremendous result and a real testament to fighting spirit.
On Board 4, Tate Randle met Guatam Joshi in a quiet Three Knights Opening that stayed balanced for a long time. Tate developed sensibly and kept the position under control, but a single pawn push changed the character of the game, giving White a strong outpost and access to the seventh rank. Once Guatam’s pieces broke through and pressure mounted around f7, the position became very difficult to hold, and Tate was eventually forced to resign.
A night full of lessons. David Bridge’s epic on Board 3 was a masterclass in resilience and endgame accuracy, showing that a game is never truly lost while there are still moves to be made. Alan’s battle reminded us that chess is played by humans, not engines: positions that look “equal” on a screen can feel anything but over the board when pressure mounts and an attack gathers force. And on Board 2, a wild tactical swing underlined how much of competitive chess is psychological — managing emotion, nerve, and momentum when the evaluation bar is lurching from side to side. The match finished 2.5–1.5 in favour of Bon Accord Rooks — a narrow defeat for Stonehaven Cowie, but a clear step forward from the 0–4 loss in the reverse fixture earlier this season. Progress, grit, and plenty to build on.