Round 3 saw the first necessity for re-pairings with a few late call-offs and no-shows. Our first odd-numbered turn-out resulted in a defaulted win for Gilbert. So I got a couple of “bounce games” for a change, and missed early wins for A McLean and A Connor, the “junior” thus joining Gilbert on 2.5 points. The other juniors showed some maturity in finally producing some drawn matches;  the fight to decide the Greatest Alexander never looking like anything but a draw, whilst Eric Martin approached yet another time scramble with the edge on both clock and board, but Ciadh’s brisk and dangerous counterplay drew the draw (?!).

The re-matched Eldridge v Innes ended in a win for White, while Craig gradually ground down Dairena with the exchange and pawn advantage…despite dubious flirting with a quirky mating net before returning to the steady approach. The Bottom Board fight for the “Greatest Jim” ended in a solid win for the O’Neill variety.

Meantime a ding-dong battle was playing out between Anderson and McClymont. The latter missed at least one mate-on-the-move whilst trying to finish off his opponent, but had to accede a draw as his clock neared flag-fall.

As often the case, the top games went to the wire. Jalal finally broke through Danny’s creative defending of a variously pinned knight, and Graeme joined him at the top on three points when his surfeit of minor pieces finally demonstrated the defensive deficiencies of rooks and extra pawns, oddly after Mahmoud seemed to have improved things with a forcing simplification.

 No fights; so again, thanks to all