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The Scottish U-1800 FIDE tournament was held in Hamilton from 03 July to
08 July. Three Borders playeers entered.
13 Jul 2026: Good results at Hamilton
Three Borders players travelled to Hamlton to compete in the Scottish U-1800 FIDE tournament. The players were Keith Aitchison of Kelso, and Selkirk players Maurice Richards and Sam Cornwell. Sam and Maurice were seriously outgraded in a few of their matches, but played excellently to score 3½/9 (Sam) and 4/9 (Maurice). Those were very good outcomes in a tough section, relative to their gradings.Sam recorded a shock win in the first round, overturning a 485 deficit to defeat Edinburgh's Vipin Zamvar, who has a FIDE rating of 1738 and was one of the favourites to win the tournament.
But it was Keith Aitchison who turned in the best performance of all. Keith scored 7/9 to come joint second behind Stirling's Lokesh Kumar Pulkanti, who won with 7½/9. Excellent result from Keith.
Final crosstable from chess-results.com...06 Jul 2026: Mark is the Selkirk champion
Mark Gardiner has defeated close rival Nick Dunne to take the 2025-26 Selkirk Championship with a very impressive 12/13. Full crosstable on the Club News page...30 Jun 2026: Lightning tournament in Selkirk; end of season updates
The annual lightning tournament took place on Tuesday in the County Hotel, and the top three on the nght were (1) Mark Gardiner (2) Nick Dunne and (3) Sam Cornwell. We have a light-hearted report (with photos) from Sam, and it can be read on this special blog page...End of season 2025-26
June 30th saw the last day of the Scottish season for grading updates. Over the next day or two we will be archiving the 2025-26 tables and starting to update the live grades in readiness for 2026-27. Please keep checking this site for your new grades.09 Jun 2026: NHS are League champions; Borders players in Edinburgh
The final match of the 2025-26 Borders League took place in the County Hotel last night, when NHS Borders beat Kelso 2½-1½ to lift the title for the first time.Victories by Max Scott and Logan Symons (and a top board draw by Stasys Gimbutis) secured the win for the NHS team, so congratulations to Stasys and his team, who have played fighting chess throughout the season.
All the Kelso-NHS games are on the League results page...
Borders players in Edinburgh
Four Borders players entered the Edinburgh Congress: Keith Aitchison played in the Major, and three Selkirk players - John Moore, Maurice Richards amd Sam Cornwell - played in the Bishops. All four had decent results and enjoyed the weekend even though with 5 rounds of 90-30 it was an exhausting one.Sam Cornwell has submitted his games, and they are all on the League results page...
League results, plus all the Kelso-NHS games...
Results from Edinburgh: Major section...
Results from Edinburgh: Bishops section...
26 May 2026: Kelso v Selkirk B; plus a report from the Perth Allegro
Kelso were the visitors to Selkirk last night, and the result was a 2-2 draw. Kelso players Keith Aitchison and Ian Whittaker won on the top two boards, while on boards 3 and 4 Selkirk B recorded wins by Mark Gardiner and Nick Dunne. This means that the League depends on the result of the forthcoming Kelso v NHS match. If NHS win, then the League is theirs; but if Kelso draw or win that match, then Kelso will win the League.League results, plus the Bogle-Aitchison and Whittaker-Richards games...
