4NCL 2010-2011 2nd weekend 15-16 January 2011

[LozCooper]

4NCL 2010-2011 2nd weekend 15-16 January 2011 Barcelo Hotel, Hinckley Island

After the split venues at the first weekend caused by the ever-increasing size of the league it was nice to have all three Divisions held at one venue. I am also pleased to report that the hotel was fully booked (albeit I was hoping to find a room on the Saturday night) which bodes well for continued good relations with the hotel.

Thankfully there was no snow this year and so despite a surprisingly large number of players contacting me on the morning of the match (asking me how to get to the venue!) the matches got underway without any problems. A reminder that in the top two divisions after 7 rounds the top four in each section merge to form the Championship/Promotion pool whilst the bottom four form the demotion pool. Four teams are subsequently promoted/demoted. Division 3 will merge with the Northern League and the top four will subsequently be promoted to Division 2.

There are also three European Club Cup places available to the highest teams in Division One that wish to take the places. Whilst they should be teams finishing in the top half of Division One it is likely that this will be relaxed to include teams further down the league.

The awards ceremony for the 2009-10 season took place before the start of the Sunday matches so may have been missed by some players. Congratulations once again to Wood Green Hilsmark Kingfisher 1 who were champions of Division 1, Sambuca Sharks who won Division 2, Rhyfelwyr Essyllwg who won Division 3 and also to KJCA Kings and The Full Ponty who won the Division 3 team rating prizes.

The big match in round 3 of Section A of Division 1 was between Pride & Prejudice and Betsson. P&P were taking no chances and by fielding Adams, Howell, Jones and Hebden on their top four were able to power to a 7-1 victory. They were joined on 6 match points by Barbican who demolished newly promoted Pandora’s Box 8-0. The remaining two matches in the section were thankfully more evenly fought with a potentially crucial match for a Championship Pool place resulting in a 5.5-2.5 win for WGHK 2 against Cheddleton. The ADs won the closest of the four matches; 4.5-3.5 against Warwickshire Select to keep them in contention for a Championship place.

Round 4 proved a lot more competitive with four relatively close matches. Pride & Prejudice won against WGHK2 although Peter Sowray won against GM Chris Ward and Chris Briscoe held Sophie Milliet with black. P&P won their top three whites though and Gawain Jones is now on 4/4. Barbican joined P&P on 4 match wins by beating the ADs 5-3 aided by wins on the top two boards by their GMs. John Richardson secured a consolation victory for the ADs against IM Lorin D’Costa. Betsson won 5.5-2.5 against Cheddleton by winning boards 4-7 along with Richard Bates defeating Keith Arkell on board 1 with black and also look set to qualify whilst Warwickshire Select beat Pandora’s Box 5-3 which will probably have greater significance in the second half of the season if, as expected, both teams end up in the Demotion Pool. Team scores after round 4: P&P + Barbican 8, Betsson 6, ADs 4, Cheddleton, Warwickshire & WGHK2, Pandora’s Box 0.

Section B saw WGHK1 pull clear by winning both matches against Barbican 2 and Guildford. Nick Pert now has 4/4 and his team will be expected to qualify with seven wins and a healthy game points total. The remaining three qualifying places looked wide open although e2e4.org.uk had a great weekend with 4.5-3.5 wins against Cambridge & Oxford to finish the weekend on 6 match points with Yang-Fan Zhou and WGM Diana Arutyunova making their debuts on boards 2 and 3. Having talked up White Rose in my first weekend report it was almost inevitable that they would find the next weekend tougher and they suffered a surprise 5.5-2.5 loss to Oxford and drew with Cambridge on the Sunday. Barbican 2 beat Sambuca Sharks in round 4 to leave the Sharks bottom of the section and facing an uphill battle to make the top 4.
Team scores after round 4: WGHK1 8, e2e4.org.uk 6, White Rose 5, Guildford & Oxford 4, Cambridge 3, Barbican 2, Sambuca Sharks 0.

Section A of Division 2 looks wide open as the only team to start the weekend with 4/4 South Wales Dragons lost 6-2 to Anglian Avengers in round 3 and then 5-3 to Barbican Youth in round 4. The results were all the more surprising given that they fielded two IMs and outrated their opponents in both matches. Barbican Youth defeated Rhyfelwyr Essyllwg on the Saturday to finish the weekend on 6 match points and I was especially pleased to see that both 12-year-old Isaac Sanders and 16 year old Rhys Cumming scored 2/2 to help their team to victory. Cambridge University 2 won both matches to join Barbican on 6 points and Jutes of Kent, led by GM Simon Williams joined Anglian Avengers on 5 points despite a surprise 4-4 draw with Poisoned Pawns 2 in round 4 after losing their bottom 2 whites despite big grading differences in their favour. Team scores after 4 rounds: Barbican Youth & Cambridge 6, Anglian Avengers & Jutes of Kent 5, SW Dragons 4, Rhyfelwyr Essyllwg 3, Poisoned Pawns 2 & White Rose 1.

Section B is lead by Bristol 1 with 8 match points after two 4.5-3.5 wins against higher rated teams. Wessex won both matches to move to 7 match points whilst the battle for the third and fourth looks wide open. The biggest surprise to me is that 3Cs have yet to get off the mark despite appearing to have one of the strongest teams. It’s not too late for them to qualify but they will need 3 wins and other results to go their way. Team scores: Bristol 8, Wessex 7, Guildford 2 & P Pawns 5, AMCA Dragons 4, Kings Head 3, 3Cs and & Sambuca Black Sheep 0.

The Division 3 swiss remains wide open and is likely to do so until the last weekend of the season. The Braille Chess Association led by IM Colin Crouch now lead with 8 match points with Brown Jack, Celtic Tigers and Oxford 2 on 7. Wessex 2, KJCA Kings, Bristol 2 and Sussex Smart Controls are all on 6 points. Bristol 3 and SCS are the only teams yet to register a match point.

4NCL Northern League 2nd weekend Wychwood Park De Vere Hotel near Crewe

Going into the weekend three teams; Bradford DCA Knights, Cheddleton 2 and Spirit of Atticus led with 4 match points. Atticus defeated Cheddleton 4-2 in round 3 despite being outrated on boards 2-6. Ironically, their top board John Carleton was held to a draw by Alex Richardson despite a 200+ point rating gap while their wins came on boards 2-4. They then won 3.5-2.5 against Jorvik despite a shock loss for John Carleton on board 1 against Jos Woolley to finish the weekend leading on 8 match points. Bradford A are in second place after a 3.5-2.5 win against Aigburth and a 3-3 draw with Holmes Chapel. Jonathan Blackburn scored a fine result, defeating Ben Hague on board 1 to help deny Bradford their fourth match win. Bradford B secured a morale-boosting win in round 4 against the high rated Aigburth to register their first match points. Team scores: Atticus 8, Bradford A 7, Cheddleton 2 6, Holmes Chapel 5, Jorvik 4, Bradford B 2, Aigburth & Manchester Manticores 0.

My thanks to the Barcelo Hotel for accommodating and hosting the second weekend and to all the arbiters and 4NCL officials for the smooth running of the weekend.

The next weekend takes place from February 19th -20th with the following venues being used:

Rounds 5 and 6 19th & 20th February 2011
De Vere Venues, Wokefield Park, Berkshire Divisions 1 and 2
De Vere Venues, Sunningdale Division 3
Barcelo Majestic Hotel (Harrogate) Northern League

Players are requested to make themselves familiar with the venue addresses and suitable directions beforehand!

Links to the website are as follows:

4NCL site homepage: http://www.4ncl.co.uk/

Results:

http://www.4ncl.co.uk/resdiv1.htm
http://www.4ncl.co.uk/resdiv2.htm
http://www.4ncl.co.uk/resdiv3.htm
http://www.4ncl.co.uk/resnorthern.htm

Games for download: http://www.4ncl.co.uk/downloads.htm

Remaining dates & venues for the 2010-11 season: http://www.4ncl.co.uk/2010_11_dates.htm

Rounds 7 and 8 26th & 27th March 2011

De Vere Venues, Staverton Park Divisions 1 and 2
Barcelo Hotel, Daventry Division 3
De Vere Wychwood Park (near Crewe) Northern League

Rounds 9, 10 and 11
30th April to 2nd May 2011
Barcelo Hotel, Hinckley Island Divisions 1, 2 and 3 & Northern League

Junior 4NCL Weekend 2
12th & 13th February 2011
Barcelo Hotel, Hinckley Island

Junior 4NCL Weekend 3
9th & 10th April 2011
Barcelo Hotel, Daventry

[John Saunders]

... led by GM Simon Williams joined Anglican Avengers on 5 points ...

Interesting - I've always seen Simon more as Dutch (Un)Reformed Church rather than C of E...

What next? Catholic Conquistadors? Muslim Marauders?

Can't be dismissed as a typo as it appears three times in the post.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

... led by GM Simon Williams joined Anglican Avengers on 5 points ...

Interesting - I've always seen Simon more as Dutch (Un)Reformed Church rather than C of E...

What next? Catholic Conquistadors? Muslim Marauders?

Can't be dismissed as a typo as it appears three times in the post.

Heh. That's a good pun on the typo.

It made me go look up the names of the teams, and I got to wondering what "Rhyfelwyr Essyllwg" means. Google Translate tells me the first part is "Warriors", but is 'Essyllwg' a place?

Ah:

http://www.cardiffworld.com/info/Histor ... organ.html
http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/wal/GLA/Lewis1833Gla.html

That doesn't clear it up totally for me, but "Glamorgan Warriors" is not as poetic.

[LozCooper]

... led by GM Simon Williams joined Anglican Avengers on 5 points ...

Interesting - I've always seen Simon more as Dutch (Un)Reformed Church rather than C of E...

What next? Catholic Conquistadors? Muslim Marauders?

Can't be dismissed as a typo as it appears three times in the post.

Well spotted. At least I know my report is being read

[John Saunders]

Well spotted. At least I know my report is being read

I always seek out your posts as just about the best and most informative on this forum and am never disappointed.

[James Pratt]

I echo John's comment. Without hyperbole or padding, Cooper is Super.

[Joey Stewart]

Another fine set of results by Bristol 1 as well - especially as both matches could have ended up as draws or even losses with just slightly different move orders by our opponents.

[Roger de Coverly]

Loz's report is also available in German at http://www.chessbase.de/nachrichten.asp?newsid=11303

Running it through Google translate adds a pun not present in the original.

Barbican 2 beat Sambuca Sharks in round 4 to leave the Sharks bottom of the section and facing an uphill battle to make the top 4.

Barbican 2 won in Round 4 against the Sambuca Sharks that swim around now at the end of the table and have a tough battle ahead if they want to finish in the top four

.

although it looks as if the translator to German is the pun-master.

Barbican 2 gewann in Runde 4 gegen die Sambuca Sharks, die jetzt am Tabellenende herumschwimmen und einen harten Kampf vor sich haben, wenn sie unter den ersten Vier landen wollen.

schwimmen means what you expect it to mean.

[LozCooper]

Loz's report is also available in German at http://www.chessbase.de/nachrichten.asp?newsid=11303

Running it through Google translate adds a pun not present in the original.

Barbican 2 beat Sambuca Sharks in round 4 to leave the Sharks bottom of the section and facing an uphill battle to make the top 4.

Barbican 2 won in Round 4 against the Sambuca Sharks that swim around now at the end of the table and have a tough battle ahead if they want to finish in the top four

.

although it looks as if the translator to German is the pun-master.

Barbican 2 gewann in Runde 4 gegen die Sambuca Sharks, die jetzt am Tabellenende herumschwimmen und einen harten Kampf vor sich haben, wenn sie unter den ersten Vier landen wollen.

schwimmen means what you expect it to mean.

It's hard to believe it's the same report when you read it back through the Google translation of German It makes me sound even less literate than I am

[Sean Hewitt]

Last weekend, Rounds 3 and 4 in division 3 were played with analogue rather than digital clocks. I understand this was because the ECF sent some of it's digital clocks to Gibraltar. I know that some players were not happy with this situation, especially as it came as a complete surprise because Div 3 usually plays with digital clocks.

If this were to happen again in future, would it be possible to announce it? And if so, would it be permissible for players to bring their own digital clocks?

A well know series of chess congresses might even be persuaded to loan some clocks to the ECF for Div3!