4NCL 30th April – 2nd May 2011 Barcelo Hotel, Hinckley

[LozCooper]

4NCL 30th April – 2nd May 2011 Barcelo Hotel, Hinckley

The final weekend saw all three divisions playing at one venue, the Northern League merged with Division Three and titles, promotion, relegation and European Club Cup places were up for grabs.

Division One Championship Pool:

Team P W D L GP Pts
Pride & Prejudice 7 7 0 0 43½ 14
Wood Green Hilsmark 7 6 0 1 37 12
White Rose 1 7 4 1 2 25 9
Cheddleton 1 7 3 0 4 28 6
Betsson.com 7 2 1 4 23 5
Barbican 4NCL 1 7 1 2 4 26 4
Guildford A&DC 1 7 2 0 5 23 4
e2e4.org.uk 1 7 1 0 6 18½ 2

The destination of the title inevitably came down to the final round encounter between defending champions Wood Green Hilsmark Kingfisher 1 and Pride and Prejudice. P&P had the advantage on game points which meant as the teams both had 12 match points that a 4-4 draw would suffice.

The match was surprisingly one sided despite the teams appearing to be evenly matched. Board one saw a hard fought draw where Luke McShane had some initiative against Michael Adams but black was able to liquidate and hold. David Howell won on board 2 against Jon Ludvig Hammer after gaining a clear advantage in the early middle game due to black’s exposed king and weakened pawn structure. Board 3 was a fifteen move draw as Emmanuel Berg fell an hour behind on the clock trying to find a plan against Sergei Tiviakov’s 3…Qd6 Centre Counter. Gawain Jones easily converted a positional advantage into extra material after a seemingly quiet opening where black made a couple of questionable decisions. Board 5 saw an interesting tussle between Nick Pert and Glenn Flear where black had an extra pawn but white had some space. As someone who prefers to grab pawns and worry about compensation later I was more convinced by Glenn’s position throughout the game. Mark Hebden had a nominal edge against Pia Cramling but black always looked secure on board 6. Board 7 started quietly but then exploded into life before the time control. John Emms, as black, was allowed a dangerous passed e pawn which Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant was unable to stop. Sophie Milliet played an enterprising gambit against Neil McDonald but he gave up material which allowed Sophie to play without risk having an extra pawn in a rook and opposite coloured bishop ending which Neil was able to hold. This meant that Pride and Prejudice won the match 6-2 and secured their first 4NCL Division One title. Congratulations to the team and to Claire Summerscale, their manager. Their team has changed a lot since they first set foot in the 4NCL. Initially a team that fielded mainly women, then juniors they have now evolved to a team that regularly fields three of the England team and a number of other experienced English GMs with a foreign female player.

The earlier rounds of the weekend had seen WGHK1 win a tough match against Barbican with Luke McShane winning against Jonathan Parker on top board which combined with wins on boards 5 and 8 helped them to a 5-3 victory despite Max Devereaux winning against Ketevan Arakhamia. Pride and Prejudice were able to overtake them on game points though as they scored heavily against White Rose and e2e4.org.uk.

White Rose clinched third place with an impressive win against Cheddleton by winning the bottom two boards (wins for Paul Townsend against Paul Wallace and Lateefah Messam-Sparks against the much higher rated WIM Fiona Steil-Antoni from Luxembourg) and showing great resilience in some of the other games with Colin McNab holding a knight and pawn ending against Danny Gormally in the last game to finish. This victory, coupled with their win against Betsson in round 8 ensured they clinched a European Club Cup place and they finished with a creditable 4-4 draw with Barbican. They have clearly had a great season and have managed to finish above teams with far bigger budgets and higher rated players.

Cheddleton finished their first season in the top flight in fourth place and Jonathan Hawkins secured his first GM norm after a great result on top board which included wins against Parker, Gordon and Conquest. He has made huge progress in the last couple of years and I won’t be surprised to see him making more norms in the near future. The team also added Elisabeth Paehtz and Richard Pert to the team for the final weekend to ensure a good finish.

Of the other teams e2e4.org.uk had an outstanding first season in the initial group stage and Yang-Fan Zhou gained yet another IM norm which he can add to his collection. He should become a ratified IM at the next FIDE meeting in June and is likely to have a rating around 2450 in July. He is still only sixteen and is an outstanding talent who I hope can keep improving and fulfil his potential. He is also a great role model to the other juniors and I hope his results will help inspire them to keep playing. I should also thank David Howell for his work with Yang-Fan and hope this will continue. I was also pleased to see Ameet Ghasi return to international chess for the first time in five years and a draw with Elisabeth Paehtz and a win against Richard Bates was a very encouraging comeback. His only loss came against Sergei Tiviakov.

Both Betsson and Barbican finished slightly lower than expected but were involved in a number of close matches which could have gone either way whilst Guildford had a good final weekend to avoid last place.

The top three teams qualify for the European Club Cup in 2011 although as WGHK have already turned down their place this means that P&P, White Rose and Cheddleton are currently the three teams able to take up places. At the time of writing only White Rose have confirmed their intentions so it is still possible that Betsson will get a chance to play and I am aware that e2e4 are also interested should enough teams turn down the opportunity.

Division One Demotion Pool:

Team P W D L GP Pts
Wood Green Hilsmark 2 7 6 1 0 37 13
Cambridge University 1 7 6 0 1 34½ 12
The AD's 7 4 1 2 31 9
Barbican 4NCL 2 7 4 0 3 33 8
Oxford 1 7 3 1 3 27 7
Pandora's Box Grantham 7 1 1 5 19 3
Sambuca Sharks 7 1 0 6 23½ 2
Warwickshire Select 1 7 1 0 6 19 2

The demotion pool was mostly about relegation but Wood Green Hilsmark Kingfisher 2 beat Cambridge to top the pool despite having to play their joker as I was asked to fill a vacant board leaving Brian Smith free to look after Pia Cramling’s daughter. Congratulations also to Peter Sowray who secured an IM norm.

The crucial relegation battles were realistically between ADs, Barbican 2 and Oxford. Sophie Tidman continued her fine run of form for Oxford. She started the weekend on 4/6 and performing at 2293. She won on Saturday against Pandora’s Box and drew a complicated game against IM Craig Hanley leaving her assured of a norm if she played anyone rated over 2235 or a draw against anyone lower. Sadly, she was unable to do this and lost to Jana Bellin. Her rating performance was still 2240 for the season and probably her best career result to date. I hope to see her playing more as she remains one of our strongest women. Sadly for Oxford their 4-4 draw in round 9 against Pandora’s Box was followed by defeats to WGHK2 and in the vital eleventh round they were overpowered 6.5-1.5 by the ADs so not only did they miss out on norms for Sophie and David Zakarian but they also fell into the bottom four meaning they will play in Division 2 next season. Barbican 2 secured their escape by winning in rounds 10 and 11 and Chris Dorrington made his first IM norm whilst Kanwal Bhatia narrowly missed out on her first WIM norm.

Division Two Promotion Pool:

Team P W D L GP pts
Jutes of Kent 7 5 0 2 33½ 10
Anglian Avengers 1 7 3 4 0 29½ 10
Bristol 1 7 3 1 3 29½ 7
Guildford A&DC 2 7 3 1 3 26 7
Poisoned Pawns 1 7 3 0 4 28½ 6
Barbican Youth 7 3 0 4 26½ 6
Wessex 1 7 2 2 3 26 6
Rhyfelwyr Essyllwg 7 1 2 4 24½ 4

Jutes of Kent recruited GM Luis Galego from Portugal and IM Bjorn Thorfinsson and this enabled them to win all three matches to move from fifth to top the division albeit round 9 was only 4.5-3.5 against Poisoned Pawns. Bjorn lost to Andrew Dunn and Luis was held to a draw but wins by GM Simon Williams, WFM Aly Wilson and Alexis Harakis saw them home.

Barbican Youth were the team to slip out of the promotion places although as Barbican 2 survived they would not have been able to take promotion anyway. Anglian Avengers had a great season and finished second only on game points to Jutes. Their strength in depth enabled them to draw 4-4 with Bristol despite taking only 0.5 on the top four. Their last round 4-4 draw with Wessex also led to Wessex finishing seventh whereas a 4.5-3.5 victory to Wessex would have seen them finish fourth by half a game point! Guildford 2 therefore took fourth place ahead of Wessex whilst Bristol secured third by winning against Barbican Youth.

Both Jutes and Bristol look well equipped to establish themselves in Division 1 whilst it will be interesting to see how Anglian Avengers fare, they have certainly been one of the success stories of this season. Guildford 2’s chances may largely depend on how strong their first team is.

Division Two Demotion Pool:

Team P W D L GP pts
South Wales Dragons 7 5 1 1 35 11
White Rose 2 7 4 2 1 30 10
AMCA Dragons 7 3 3 1 30 9
Kings Head 7 3 2 2 29½ 8
Cambridge University 2 7 3 1 3 26 7
3Cs 1 7 2 1 4 29½ 5
Sambuca Black Sheep 7 1 2 4 23 4
Poisoned Pawns 2 7 0 2 5 18½ 2

The demotion pool saw AMCA Dragons, Kings Head and White Rose both win in round 9 to virtually secure their survival. AMCA won 5.5-2.5 against Cambridge 2 with James Holland amongst the winners on board 3, Kings Head whilst White Rose 2 win against 3Cs left Cambridge and 3Cs with too much to do and despite both winning in round 10 they finished with a 4-4 draw and were both relegated along with Sambuca Black Sheep and Poisoned Pawns 2. South Wales Dragons topped the pool on 11 match points.

Division Three:

Team P W D L GP Pts
Bradford DCA Knights A 11 9 1 1 42 19
Spirit of Atticus 11 9 1 1 40½ 19
Brown Jack 11 8 1 2 44 17
FCA Solutions 1 11 7 2 2 41½ 16
Celtic Tigers 1 11 7 2 2 41 16
e2e4.org.uk 2 11 6 4 1 38 16
Wessex 2 11 7 1 3 39 15
Braille Chess Assoc 11 7 0 4 39 14
Iceni 11 6 2 3 38 14
Oxford 2 11 5 4 2 35½ 14
Anglian Avengers 2 11 6 1 4 39 13
Warwickshire Select 2 11 6 1 4 38 13
KJCA Kings 11 6 1 4 34 13
Sussex Smart Controls 11 6 1 4 30½ 13
The Rookies 11 3 6 2 36½ 12
Holmes Chapel 11 5 2 4 36 12
Cheddleton 2 11 6 0 5 34 12
FCA Solutions 2 11 5 2 4 33 12
AMCA Rhinos 11 4 3 4 33½ 11
e2e4.org.uk 3 11 5 1 5 33½ 11
Metropolitan 11 5 1 5 33 11
Guildford A&DC 3 11 5 1 5 32½ 11
British Universities CA 11 5 1 5 31 11
Gloucestershire Gambits 11 5 1 5 31 11
Bristol 2 11 4 2 5 31½ 10
Bradford DCA Knights B 11 5 0 6 28 10
The Full Ponty 11 3 3 5 32½ 9
Hackney 11 2 5 4 30 9
3Cs 2 11 4 1 6 30 9
e2e4.org.uk 4 11 4 1 6 26½ 9
Oxford 3 11 2 4 5 30½ 8
Halesowen 11 4 0 7 28½ 8
Jorvik 8 4 0 4 25 8
AMCA Hippos 10 3 1 6 28½ 7
KJCA Knights 11 3 1 7 26½ 7
Banbury Bulldogs 10 3 1 6 25 7
Celtic Tigers 2 9 3 1 5 22½ 7
Manchester Manticores 11 3 1 7 22 7
Channel Isolani 8 2 2 4 21½ 6
Guildford A&DC 4 8 2 1 5 17½ 5
UCL 8 2 1 5 16½ 5
Aigburth 11 2 0 9 26 4
Bristol 3 11 2 0 9 20 4
SCS 11 1 1 9 14 3

Division 3 saw the 8 northern teams joining up for the final weekend meaning Bradford DCA Knights and The Spirit of Atticus carried forward points from the first four weekends to head the table.

Brown Jack defeated Bradford 4-2 in round 9 whilst Atticus won 3.5-2.5 against Wessex 2 thanks to a win by John Carleton on top board. There were also wins for Celtic Tigers, Oxford 2, e2e4.org.uk 2 and the Braille.

Round 10 saw promotion for both Bradford & Atticus as Brown Jack were unable to make their rating advantage tell against Atticus and David Robertson secured the only decisive result on board 5. Bradford won 4-2 against Celtic Tigers with Ben Hague defeating Ryczard Maciol on top board and their were also wins for e2e4.org.uk 2, FCA Solutions and the Braille.

Round 11 saw Brown Jack join the top two northern sides in Division 2 next season as they overcame Warwickshire Select 2 thanks to wins from Mike Truran, Richard Haydon and Pablo Padilla Cabero. e2e4.org.uk 2 needed to win against Atticus but despite heavily outrating them on the bottom 5 and securing a draw on top board they were held to 3-3 with James Jackson the only winner. This enabled FCA Solutions who won 4-2 against Oxford 2 to claim the fourth remaining promotion place ahead of Celtic Tigers by half a game point! e2e4 also finished on 16 points but were 3 game points behind the Celts.

On behalf of the players and officials I would like to thank the Barcelo Hotel in Hinckley for hosting the weekend and enabling us to hold all three divisions at the same venue.

Website: http://www.4ncl.co.uk

[Jonathan Rogers]

I'll just add some various observations of my own:

It was only the second time that the two leaders met in the last round each with 100% (the previous occasion ended in a draw: Wood Green v Guildford 2005, giving Wood Green the title). It was also the second time that the winner scored 100% (Guildford was the first, in 2007). It was the first time that Wood Green played a last round title-decider with the opppnents (Pride and Prejudice) having "draw-odds" and I think this may have contributed to their surprising collapse - it was the heaviest defeat in any season in which they had genuinely competed for the title, and indeed the first time since 2004 when they failed in a genuine bid for the title (when they lost the last round to Guildford by 4.5-3.5).

Assuming that Maidstone (1993) and Invicta Knights/Beeson Gregory (2001-2) are considered to have been the same team, we now have had six winners of division one in the eighteen years since the 4NCL started in 1993.

White Rose had an excellent result. Third place is a record for them, though they finished fourth in the previous two seasons as well. Still, I am not sure that I agree with Loz about them finishing ahead of better paid teams - do they really put that much less money into their team than Cheddleton and Guildford? and I can't think of anyone else who spends comparable amounts at all.

However, White Rose did benefit hugely from the pool system. They lost to Oxford and drew with Cambridge in the original pool but were able to drop both results. Fortune favoured them when Guildford beat Oxford in round seven to join the championship pool, since White Rose had beaten the former ... and conversely Oxford are now the clearest victims yet of the pool system. They finished thirteenth but made one more matchpoint over the whole season than the team which finsihed twelfth, and against the same opposition too; but of course, that was because they had beaten White Rose in the original pool and did not carry the result. This is rather fortunate for the team in twelfth - my team, Barbican 2! - but what can I say, we objected to the pool system louder than anyone else when it was announced, casually by email in 2007 ...!

Division two was fascinating. To my mind, one starting pool was stronger than the other: pool A featured the teams which ultimately finished first and second, and also Barbican Youth. Lawrence might have mentioned that Barbican Youth looked like beating, and later at least drawing with Bristol in the last round; and had we just drawn, then we would then have finished third in the final pool instead of sixth, and we would have been the first team to be affected by the rule which prohibits three teams in the same division. (Admittedly, when play had started that day, we could not even be sure that we would have as many as two ... and of course there are less regrets from the youth team members when they did not make the top four, compared to the situation where they would make the top four but be barred from promotion). The promotion pool in division two was so tight that I believe that at the start of play - and some hours later too! - seven of the eight teams had promotion chances still. But only Jutes of Kent look to have good chances to stay in the first division next year.

[LozCooper]

Hi Jonathan,

Thanks for your comments.

Sadly I was involved in a six hour game on the Monday and so had to base part of my report on result journalism which means I'm not aware of the sequence of results in each match (although even to a spectator keeping track of 39 matches might be problematic) and I also don't have access to all the games as we aim to publish the report within 24 hours and the games are often not published within this deadline. I'm more conscious that my quick assessments of the top match could be questioned by stronger players than me or anyone with a computer to view the games.

[Jonathan Rogers]

Hi Loz, I share your views of the big match, which I was able to observe rather easily because I was playing in the same room. It seemed to me that McDonald would need to win, and that WG were probably also banking on a win in Pert v Flear. The latter game looked interesting. A year ago I think Nick would have won, but more recently his bubble has burst, and I remembered that Flear beat him with Black in a nice ending the 4NCL back in 2003 (... but I don't know the true psychological importance of that, if any, since I don't know their other head to head results)

[LozCooper]

Hi Loz, I share your views of the big match, which I was able to observe rather easily because I was playing in the same room. It seemed to me that McDonald would need to win, and that WG were probably also banking on a win in Pert v Flear. The latter game looked interesting. A year ago I think Nick would have won, but more recently his bubble has burst, and I remembered that Flear beat him with Black in a nice ending the 4NCL back in 2003 (... but I don't know the true psychological importance of that, if any, since I don't know their other head to head results)

Nick started with 4/4 this year but since then he has had a number of draws as well as reversals against Yang-Fan and Glenn. He also had very long games in both rounds 9 and 10. When he was playing professionally he was definitely on his way to 2600 but although he's now working again he remains a very strong player but has less time to work on his chess.

[Jonathan Rogers]

Plus a recent defeat in the London League too. I am just saying that his tremendous unbeaten sequence, the subject of another thread on this forum, had already come to an end. I think it quite normal that when this finally happens, a number of other losses can follow, while the player is still recovering. Put it this way, I bet Wood Green would have been much happier if he had gone into this critical match with his run still unbroken.

That is another point one could make about the Wood Green whom we saw on Monday - how many of them are actually on top form now? In fact only Luke is notably doing well of late. Keti had already had an undistinguished 4NCL season, Hammer has had no further major successes over the last year (at least none that I have noticed) and his 100% record of last season had already been arrested on the Saturday (his first game of this present season). One wonders whether Speelman's non-appearance might be the consequence of earlier loss of form too. Now all of these players may recover, and all played their part in Wood Green's successes over the last two years, but one wonders whether too many of their team were not quite in the zone right now.

[LozCooper]

Plus a recent defeat in the London League too. I am just saying that his tremendous unbeaten sequence, the subject of another thread on this forum, had already come to an end. I think it quite normal that when this finally happens, a number of other losses can follow, while the player is still recovering. Put it this way, I bet Wood Green would have been much happier if he had gone into this critical match with his run still unbroken.

That is another point one could make about the Wood Green whom we saw on Monday - how many of them are actually on top form now? In fact only Luke is notably doing well of late. Keti had already had an undistinguished 4NCL season, Hammer has had no further major successes over the last year (at least none that I have noticed) and his 100% record of last season had already been arrested on the Saturday (his first game of this present season). One wonders whether Speelman's non-appearance might be the consequence of earlier loss of form too. Now all of these players may recover, and all played their part in Wood Green's successes over the last two years, but one wonders whether too many of their team were not quite in the zone right now.

Stephen Gordon was certainly missed but he has university exams at the moment.

[Alex Holowczak]

Plus a recent defeat in the London League too. I am just saying that his tremendous unbeaten sequence, the subject of another thread on this forum, had already come to an end. I think it quite normal that when this finally happens, a number of other losses can follow, while the player is still recovering. Put it this way, I bet Wood Green would have been much happier if he had gone into this critical match with his run still unbroken.

That is another point one could make about the Wood Green whom we saw on Monday - how many of them are actually on top form now? In fact only Luke is notably doing well of late. Keti had already had an undistinguished 4NCL season, Hammer has had no further major successes over the last year (at least none that I have noticed) and his 100% record of last season had already been arrested on the Saturday (his first game of this present season). One wonders whether Speelman's non-appearance might be the consequence of earlier loss of form too. Now all of these players may recover, and all played their part in Wood Green's successes over the last two years, but one wonders whether too many of their team were not quite in the zone right now.

Stephen Gordon was certainly missed but he has university exams at the moment.

So do I, but I was there all weekend.

[Alan Burke]

Alex... I would hope that is not a criticism of Stephen Gordon. Perhaps he considered his exams to be more important to his life than just playing chess - you maybe think the opposite ?

[Mike Truran]

I think Alex might just have been joking. Perhaps the smiley may be a hint.

[Alex Holowczak]

Alex... I would hope that is not a criticism of Stephen Gordon.

Of course it wasn't a criticism of Stephen Gordon...

[Alan Burke]

Mike... yes, I saw the smiley, but that could have been interpreted as showing happiness for having attended the event - and as you can see, Alex was quite capable of answering for himself. Thanks Alex.

[Mike Truran]

......another pointless exchange......

[David Pardoe]

I think Alan`s point regarding the importance of student study is a serious one......and worth making.
I`m sure that both Gordon & Alex are diligent students and hopefully both will do well...

[AustinElliott]

One of the things crusty old University academics like me tell students is that they have to work out for themselves, individually, how much work they will need to do to get where they want to be degree-wise. Working this out, and acting on it, is part of what being a student is about. Some people are incredibly gifted at academic study and/or exams and can get 1st class degrees without too much slaving. Others have to really put in hours and hours of hard work every week. Them's the breaks, as they say.

The same is true, of course, of chessplayers, with natural talent being unevenly distributed. Capablanca would be an extreme example of a naturally super-gifted player who never worked at it much, and many others would figure as less gifted but incredibly determined and hard-working. Some people are both super-gifted AND hard-working - Fischer and Kasparov spring to mind.

Anyway, the point is that only the individuals concerned really know what they personally need to do.