Sponsored by
Chess & Bridge
Bridge - The Scotsman 23/05/2013
Although the Sime team were outscored almost throughout the Scottish Cup Final, they did not play as badly as the score suggests. Alan Mould did well on this deal.
Chess - The Scotsman 23/05/2013
THE European Individual Championship has become one of the most keenly contested tournaments for many grandmasters, mainly due to the lure of the top finishers earning a potentially lucrative pay-day with a guarantee of multiple qualification spots into the next FIDE World Cup.
Bridge - The Scotsman 22/05/2013
This is another illustration of the advantages of making opener’s new suit rebid forcing. Once North has responded at the two-level South knows he wants to be in at least game, and slam is a possibility.
Chess - The Scotsman 22/05/2013
CHESS has lost one of its most respected, trusted ambassadors. German grandmaster, three-time world championship chief arbiter and bibliophile Lothar Schmid died on Saturday in Bamberg, Germany. He was 85.
Bridge - The Scotsman 21/05/2013
Another double-figure swing from the first segment of the Scottish Cup, this one created by a difference in style. Iain Sime opened 1C to show his balanced weak no-trump.
Chess - The Scotsman 21/05/2013
RUSSIA’S Sergey Karjakin scored the biggest result of his life by winning the Norway Supreme Masters in Stavanger, scoring 6/9 to win the top prize of e100,000 (£84,600) in a field that included seven of the ten top-rated players in the world.
Bridge - The Scotsman 17/05/13
A TRUMP lead is not always bad, particularly against a high-level doubled contract. On this deal from the National Pairs semi-final the auction became a little overheated.
Chess - The Scotsman 17/05/13
MUCH has been said on the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson, but not many know that Govan’s finest is a chess aficionado, and over the years has used the odd chess analogy such as, “you can play chess for 10 hours and still lose,” when having a dig at rivals Arsenal.
Bridge - The Scotsman 16/05/13
“WHEN in doubt – lead trump” is a maxim that has probably cost more points than any other. This example comes from the National Pairs Semi-final. South opened a horrible weak no-trump, but playing that range there is no good alternative.
Chess - The Scotsman 16/05/13
FORMER world champion Vassily Smyslov said a master’s goal is to play 40 good moves in a game. And if his opponent also makes 40 good moves, it’s time to agree a draw, Smyslov believed.
Chess - The Scotsman 15/05/13
HISTORY could well record 1990 as being a vintage year for chess players. It was when Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin were both born – and the two not only became the strongest teenage players of all time, they also now look set to be rivals for many years to come.
Bridge - The Scotsman 15/05/13
WHEN responder bids a new suit at the one-level (a one-over-one response) opener’s new suit is not completely forcing. Still, responder should try to find a second bid rather than unilaterally end the auction with a pass.
Chess - The Scotsman 14/05/13
CHESS received a massive pop-culture boost on Saturday as the central theme of the latest Doctor Who episode, as the errant Time Lord – who revealed the game was invented on his home planet of Gallifrey – was reunited with his old cybernetic enemy of the Cybermen.
Bridge - The Scotsman 14/05/13
THERE is a fundamental difference between Pairs and Teams: in teams play you always try to defeat a contract, accepting you may concede unnecessary overtricks; at pairs an overtrick may make the difference between a top and bottom score, so you aim to make as many tricks as you can, not necessarily to defeat the contract.
Bridge - The Scotsman 13/05/13
In 1950 a pair of ladies from Perth Bridge Club, Freda Hayes and Ann Weir, won the fifth Scottish National Pairs, the first time a major event was won by a pair from outwith the two main Districts, East and West.
Chess - The Scotsman 13/05/13
FOLLOWING the FIDE farrago over the lack of a bidding process for the World Chess Championship match in Chennai, India, Magnus Carlsen, the contender and world No 1 from Norway, accepted it as a venue albeit with reservations.
Disappointed about the decision, the 22-year-old said nevertheless he “will now start preparing for the
match.”
Bridge - The Scotsman 09/05/13
THE jump cuebid is quite a rare overcall. Most play that it shows a solid suit, and asks partner to bid 3NT with a stopper in opponent’s suit.
Chess - The Scotsman 09/05/13
FOLLOWING widespread criticism over the FIDE farrago of allowing Chennai to host the 2013 World Championship match amidst claims that there was no fair and open bidding process, the game’s governing body went into damage limitation mode by saying that they tried to convince the All-Indian Chess Federation to share the match with Norway, but they refused such a request.
Bridge - The Scotsman 08/05/13
THE stronger two-over-one change of suit response favoured by modern Acol has affected opener’s rebid.
Bridge - The Scotsman 04/05/13
THE danger hand is the defender who can put your contract at risk if he gets on lead. You must plan to lose the lead to the other defender first.
Bridge - The Scotsman 03/05/13
Bridge can be a tough game. On this deal from the match against Northern Ireland Scotland’s Lady Milne team bid to 7S. North’s two-over-one promised at least 10 points, so the jump rebid made the auction game-forcing.
Chess - The Scotsman 03/05/13
THE Alekhine Memorial had a dramatic ending that was certainly befitting its grandiose surroundings of the Russian State Museum in St Petersburg, as the world No 2, Levon Aronian, of Armenia, came from behind to snatch victory on tiebreak ahead of overnight leader Boris Gelfand, of Israel, both scoring 5.5/9.
Bridge - The Scotsman 02/05/13
Another lost opportunity for Scotland’s Lady Milne team, though this one cost just 1 VP. (Scotland won their match against Northern Ireland 24-6.) The opposing North-South stopped in 2S, making 11 tricks when declarer was allowed to take two heart ruffs in dummy.
Chess - The Scotsman 29/04/13
IN the 18th and 19th century, two of the greatest players of the era – Francois-Andre Danican Philidor and Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais – were French, and the Café de la Régence in Paris was a gathering place for anyone to play the game, including Benjamin Franklin and Napoleon Bonaparte.
Bridge - The Scotsman, 29/04/13
SCOTLAND had good fortune on this deal from the Lady Milne. The Irish West brushed aside Sam Punch’s weak jump overcall and kept bidding in spite of partner’s attempts to sign off.
Bridge - The Scotsman 25/04/13
PRE-EMPTS will never go out of fashion as long as they give opponents insoluble problems.
Bridge - The Scotsman 24/04/13
WE ARE taught that when partner opens one of a major a two-over-one response (bidding a new suit at the two-level) promises at least ten points.
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Edinburgh
Thursday 23 May 2013
Today
Light showers
Temperature: 5 C to 10 C
Wind Speed: 24 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 5 C to 13 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: North east
