English Chess Forum

The final entry list is now up on the 4NCL website.

91 teams in total.

That's an impressive increase - I think it was 84 last season

Should make Div 4 easier than last year, with 25 teams

Mick Norris wrote:That's an impressive increase - I think it was 84 last season

Should make Div 4 easier than last year, with 25 teams

Up to 92 now, with a 26th team appearing in Div 4.

Groups and pairings are out, for the record.

Richard Bates wrote:Groups and pairings are out, for the record.

The pairings might be out for Divisions 1,2 & 3 South but not, as yet, for Division Three North or Division Four. The latter, a 25 team Swiss, should not be a problem whilst the former has been discussed on another thread. I sincerely hope that it isn't going to be paired as an 18 team Swiss for the reasons given previously and that the system I suggested is adopted. Yes if a team fails to appear in Rounds 1-5 this might cause problems but these are by no means insuperable. However an 18 team Swiss will mean that by Round Eight or so the strong teams will be casting their nets amongst the minnows and the last weekend could well turn out to be a farce.

Neil Graham wrote:

Richard Bates wrote:Groups and pairings are out, for the record.

The pairings might be out for Divisions 1,2 & 3 South but not, as yet, for Division Three North or Division Four. The latter, a 25 team Swiss, should not be a problem whilst the former has been discussed on another thread. I sincerely hope that it isn't going to be paired as an 18 team Swiss for the reasons given previously and that the system I suggested is adopted. Yes if a team fails to appear in Rounds 1-5 this might cause problems but these are by no means insuperable. However an 18 team Swiss will mean that by Round Eight or so the strong teams will be casting their nets amongst the minnows and the last weekend could well turn out to be a farce.

The pairings are now announced for Divisions 3 North and Division Four as follows:-

The pairing process for Divisions 3n and 4s

Rounds 1 and 2

Rank the existing teams by 4NCL order from the previous season. Separately rank the new teams. Pair two rounds of balanced pairings, with no new team playing another new team.

Rounds 3 and 4
Rank all the teams into 4NCL order and then do two rounds of balanced pairings in which no further account is taken of previously earned points.

Perhaps someone can explain in laymen's terms what all the above actually means?

Looks like they're suspending the operation of the Swiss mechanism for four rounds of pairings where everyone plays against roughly balanced fields.

Very logical actually - makes sure that the top teams play at least a couple of 'weaker' teams, so top vs top gets pushed back to something much nearer the end of the event.