15th April, 2003

THE 110th Scottish Championships ended in a two-way tie for the national
title, as defending champion GM Paul Motwani and Woman Grandmaster
Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant finished equal first on 7/9.

Going into the final round, overnight leader Motwani had the benefit of
a half point lead over his nearest rival. Yet, despite the advantage,
Motwani found the going tough playing Anglo-Irish IM Mark Orr, who
defended accurately to force a draw in the top board clash. This left
the way open for lone female player Arakhamia-Grant to catch up with
Motwani, and she did so by brushing aside the challenge of GM Colin
McNab for the full point.

Unlike most national titles the Scottish Championships is not decided by
tiebreak or by a playoff - if the players tie, then they share the
title.

For Motwani, the shared title win puts him on seventh heaven as he
equalled the modern-day record of IM Roddy McKay (achieved between
1971-1988) with seven title wins in the Championship roll of honour -
still some way off the all-time record of 11 titles won during a golden
30 year period from 1932-1962 by the eminent bridge designer WA
Fairhurst (not to mention the 10 titles won during the same period by
his arch-rival, Dr. James Aitken).

As for Arakhamia-Grant, one of the world's top female players who now
lives in Edinburgh, it's her first national title win - and she now
emulates the feats of Hungary's Judit Polgar by having the distinction
of entering the record books by becoming the first woman to win the
national title.

Despite a highly-creditable third place with a Boys Own stuff
performance, Graeme Kafka could only draw with Joe Redpath and thus
fails to get the IM norm.

Final standings: 1-2 GM P Motwani, WGM K Arakhamia-Grant 7/9; 3 G Kafka
6; 4-7 IM C Pritchett, I Gourlay, J Grant, M Fraser 5; 8-12 GM C McNab,
IM M Orr, A Grant, J Redpath, I Robertson 4.5; 13-14 A Burnett, J
Stevenson 4; 15-17 E Spencer, S Brown, C MacDonald 3; 18 D MacArainn
1.5.

K Arakhamia - C McNab
110th Scottish Ch., (9)
Pirc Defence
1 e4 g6 2 d4 d6 3 Nc3 Bg7 4 Be3 Nf6 5 Qd2 c6 6 Nf3 Qa5 7 Bd3 Bg4 8 0-0-0
Nbd7 9 Kb1 e5 10 dxe5 dxe5 11 Bc4 0-0 12 h3 Bxf3 13 gxf3 Rfd8 14 a3 Qc7
15 Ba2 Bf8 16 Qe2 b5 17 Bg5 Be7 18 h4 Nf8 19 Bxf6 Bxf6 20 h5 Rd4 21 Rdg1
Rad8 22 Qe3 Qd6 23 hxg6 hxg6 24 Ne2 Rd7 25 Nxd4 exd4 26 Qd2 Qe5 27 Rg4
c5 28 Bd5 Rxd5 29 exd5 Qxd5 30 Qe2 c4 31 Qe4 Qd6 32 f4 b4 33 f5 Bg7 34
fxg6 fxg6 35 axb4 1-0

JOHN B HENDERSON