4NCL North 2013-14

[William Metcalfe]

I was talking to Paul last night we will def have 2 teams in as we have 20+ players intrested in playing.I am going to help Paul run the B team

[Mick Norris]

Excellent

[Roger de Coverly]

Excellent

With a number of squads having two teams, that could lead to some challenging pairings for arbiters if they intend to avoid pairing teams within the same squad.

[Ian Jamieson]

Excellent

With a number of squads having two teams, that could lead to some challenging pairings for arbiters if they intend to avoid pairing teams within the same squad.

e2e4.org.uk 6 played both e2e4.org.uk 5 and e2e4.org.uk 4 in Div3s last year.

[Paul Robson]

Just to confirm two teams from North East England entering for sure . We can't resist those nice hotels for the first three weekends at least! Only Darlington in the North mind.

[Mike Truran]

With a number of squads having two teams, that could lead to some challenging pairings for arbiters if they intend to avoid pairing teams within the same squad.

Div 3 North almost doubles in size in a year, and the Sage of Bourne End still finds something to complain about.

Why am I not surprised? In all the years that our man has been posting, I don't recall a single instance when he has actually said anything complimentary about anything in English chess.

[IM Jack Rudd]

I recently paired a 19-player 11-round Swiss. After that, there is very little that can faze an arbiter when it comes to pairings.

[John McKenna]

Mike Truran "... Div 3 North almost doubles in size in a year, and the Sage of Bourne End still finds something to complain about.
Why am I not surprised? In all the years that our man has been posting, I don't recall a single instance when he has actually said anything complimentary about anything in English chess."

Congratulations on that and the 4NCL's expansion to 92 teams.

However, you may have to accept that a retrospective accolade was paid, despite the absence of the word 'English' -

>RdC Post subject: Re: 2nd Bournemouth Grand Chess Congress: 26-28 April 2013 Posted: Mon Apr 29, 2013 12:33 pm

Sean Hewitt wrote: Clearly, most decided that the pot odds were not sufficiently in their favour.

That's arguably where British chess has gone soft in the last twenty years. Twenty years ago or more, a large prize fund would have Mickey Adams and Julian Hodgson turn up to contest it, with their round 4 or 5 encounter contributing to the theory of the Trompovsky. Forty years ago, the enhanced prize funds supported by the massive events of the 1970s enabled players like Tony Miles and his contemporaries to try to make a living from chess and playing chess in particular. The outcome was a team that could hold the Soviet Union by the end of the decade.<

[Andrew Bak]

I'm slightly surprised that none of the "Southern" teams have chosen to switch to the North.

Apparently being in Div 3 North guarantees you promotion into Div 2, it's £50 cheaper and the Div 3 South teams don't get to hang out with the GMs anymore!

[Roger de Coverly]

Div 3 North almost doubles in size in a year, and the Sage of Bourne End still finds something to complain about.

Why do you interpret an observation as a complaint? Those responsible for the pairings will have to decide whether to take account of teams being from the same squad. In the current third division, it has been allowed but not in the context of where any of the teams were realistic promotion candidates.

[Sean Hewitt]

Div 3 North almost doubles in size in a year, and the Sage of Bourne End still finds something to complain about.

Why do you interpret an observation as a complaint?

Do you think it's a good thing that the 4NCL is seeing a 10% increase in entries this year, with 4NCL North doubling in size?

[Roger de Coverly]

Do you think it's a good thing that the 4NCL is seeing a 10% increase in entries this year, with 4NCL North doubling in size?

Finally the Northern division has reached some form of critical mass. If the NCCU has plans to reboot county chess on its patch, it may have missed the opportunity. In the rest of the league, players may get rather bored with spending five weekends a year at Hinckley or Daventry.

I would be cautious about measuring size based on the number of teams entering. It's seen every year in the third division that teams enter and don't complete the eleven rounds. Membership doesn't increase the number of players and doesn't increase the leisure time available to play chess either, so if one series of events grows, it's likely to be at the cost of other events.

[David Pardoe]

Just to confirm two teams from North East England entering for sure . We can't resist those nice hotels for the first three weekends at least! Only Darlington in the North mind.

This is a very good showing from our northern chess community....most encouraging.
I`d agree your point about northern venues, and now we look like we have a stronger base it would be good to consider reinstating another northern venue, perhaps at Harrogate, to replace Daventry (in March..).
Maybe our captains and representatives can raise this at the next 4NCL meeting.
The Marriott at Shipley http://www.marriott.co.uk/hotels/hotel- ... ntry-club/ could make an excellent venue, but might be difficult to secure within our budgets/availability, etc. Looks like its a big wedding venue at weekends.

[Mike Truran]

Finally the Northern division has reached some form of critical mass. If the NCCU has plans to reboot county chess on its patch, it may have missed the opportunity. In the rest of the league, players may get rather bored with spending five weekends a year at Hinckley or Daventry.

I would be cautious about measuring size based on the number of teams entering. It's seen every year in the third division that teams enter and don't complete the eleven rounds. Membership doesn't increase the number of players and doesn't increase the leisure time available to play chess either, so if one series of events grows, it's likely to be at the cost of other events.

That would be a 'no' then.

[Mick Norris]

Excellent

With a number of squads having two teams, that could lead to some challenging pairings for arbiters if they intend to avoid pairing teams within the same squad.

Always negative and always behind events

Year 1 and 2 we had an APA plus a Jamboree because there were too few teams

Year 3 we had 8 teams to pair in a swiss event over 6 rounds i.e. everyone only missed 1 other team

Pairing this year should be easy, and avoiding first and second teams playing each other simple

Hopefully what we can get in weekend 1 is a tough match and a reasonable match for the weaker teams, rather than 2 tough matches like we have previously experienced