7th April, 2003

THE first of the chess double-headers got underway at George Heriot's
School in Edinburgh, as MSP Iain Gray, Minister for Enterprise,
Transport and Life-long Learning, accompanied by John Glendinning, the
president of Chess Scotland, officially declared the 110th Scottish
Chess Championships open.

Formalities aside, top seed Paul Motwani got off to the best possible
start to the defence of his title as he outwitted Joe Redpath in a sharp
game, when the Edinburgh junior's pet-line in the Prybil System was
blown apart by Motwani's legendary, tactical prowess.

Motwani's opening day victory puts him on the road to retaining his
title - and his chances of doing so were helped by the fact that the
other four titled players didn't win a game! IM Craig Pritchett, a
whole piece up, let his position slip against Andrew Burnett and had to
settle for the draw; WGM Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant was held to a draw by
Mark Fraser; and likewise IM Mark Orr, who could only draw with Steven
Brown.

The biggest opening day shockerooney, however, came on board two with
the defeat of second seed and four-time champion GM Colin McNab, who
came unstuck and found himself surprisingly being checkmated in a wild
and complicated game by Ian Robertson - who himself was a reluctant
last-minute championship replacement for IM Douglas Bryson.

Leader board: 1-4 GM P Motwani, E Spencer, G Kafka, I Robertson 1/1;
2-14 IM C Pritchett, WGM K Arakhamia-Grant, IM M Orr, A Burnett, I
Gourlay, J Stevenson, M Fraser, S Brown, C MacDonald, J Grant 0.5; 15-18
GM C McNab, A Grant, J Redpath, G MacAriann 0.

Game analysis: Instead of the dubious 16 ..Nd4, Black could have
maintained an advantage with 16 ..Be2 17 Re1 Nd4 18 a4 Bd6 19 d3 c6 20
Be3 Bh5. In a complicated position, White misses his chance to unravel
with the better position: 22 Nxf5! Rf6 23 d4 exd4 24 Qd3 Raf8 25 Nh4 Qe1
26 Nf3 Qf2 27 Bg5 and white's much better.

C McNab - I Robertson
110th Scottish Ch., (1)
English Opening
1 c4 Nc6 2 Nf3 Nf6 3 Nc3 e6 4 e4 Bb4 5 Qc2 d6 6 h3 0-0 7 Ne2 d5 8 e5 d4
9 exf6 d3 10 Qb1 dxe2 11 Bxe2 Qxf6 12 0-0 e5 13 Bd3 Bxh3 14 Bxh7+ Kh8 15
Be4 Bg4 16 Nh2 Nd4 17 Nxg4 Ne2+ 18 Kh1 Ng3+ 19 fxg3 Qxf1+ 20 Kh2 f5 21
Ne3 Qf2 22 Bxf5 Bc5 23 Bg6 Rad8 24 d4 Rxd4 25 Nf5 Rg4 26 Bh5 Rxf5 27
Bxg4 Qg1+ 28 Kh3 Qh1mate 0-1

JOHN B HENDERSON