Division One 2016-17

[Neil Graham]

I've opened a new thread - no doubt someone will have some comments before the end of the season!

* Here's one already - Gawain Jones goes on a king hunt - two games worth looking at from the opening rounds!

[Mick Norris]

OK then; pleased to see 3Cs 1 off to a good start in Pool A; NE England finding Pool B a bit of a struggle as was feared, but maybe the venues for the remaining weekends will help them get their strongest team out

[MartinCarpenter]

It looks hard for NE1 in Div1 to me. Most of the teams are ~2300+ average and I don't think they can hope to reach that.

Good weekend for White Rose 1 in the end anyway, especially the margin of the win on Sunday! Talking of that match, I just noticed the final position in Tan - Wells on the replay viewer. Something of a work of art

1r6/5pk1/p3q1p1/3pp3/P1p1K1P1/1p2PN2/1P2B1Q1/3N3R w - -

I put it in the comments on the live stuff too, but it does seem somehow subtly vindictive to give someone a net -1 game points for a match.
(0-8 and a default.).

[Alan Walton]

I was very pleased with our start, more so on the result against Guildford 2 than the 8-0 on Sunday

About the default on Sunday it was fortunate (if you can call it that) that Daniel had only travelled from Oxford; this is not for the first time King's Head have defaulted against ourselves without any notice, so really have no sympathy for them getting minus one

Another point to make is we believe that Daniel Abbas has acheived his FM title (verification obviously required)

[Mick Norris]

Another point to make is we believe that Daniel Abbas has acheived his FM title (verification obviously required)

[MartinCarpenter]

Definitely

[LawrenceCooper]

Another point to make is we believe that Daniel Abbas has acheived his FM title (verification obviously required)

According to the FIDE rating calculator he would gain 21.2 in round 1 and 10.8 in round 2 taking him from 2270 to 2302

[Barry Sandercock]

Great win by Alan Merry with the black pieces against Tamas Fodor today.

[Carl Hibbard]

Great win by Alan Merry with the black pieces against Tamas Fodor today.

[Event "4NCL Division 1a"] [Site "Northampton, ENG"] [Date "2017.02.12"] [Round "6.12"] [White "Fodor, Tamas Jr"] [Black "Merry, Alan B"] [Result "0-1"] [WhiteElo "2511"] [BlackElo "2411"] [PlyCount "76"] [EventDate "2017.02.12"] [WhiteTeam "Cheddleton 1"] [BlackTeam "Barbican 4NCL 1"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. Nf3 O-O 5. g3 d6 6. Bg2 Nc6 7. O-O a6 8. e4 Bg4 9. Be3 e5 10. d5 Ne7 11. Qc2 Ne8 12. Nd2 Bd7 13. c5 f5 14. f3 f4 15. Bf2 g5 16. Qb3 Rb8 17. Rac1 Rf7 18. a4 Ng6 19. cxd6 Nxd6 20. Rc2 h5 21. Rfc1 Bh6 22. Ne2 g4 23. Rf1 Qe8 24. Rxc7 fxg3 25. Nxg3 Bxd2 26. Qb6 Nf4 27. Qxd6 h4 28. Nf5 Bxf5 29. Rxf7 Kxf7 30. Bxh4 Bg6 31. Bf6 Be3+ 32. Kh1 gxf3 33. Bxf3 Bd4 34. Rc1 Kg8 35. Qc7 Qf8 36. d6 Ne6 37. Qe7 Re8 38. Rc8 Qxe7 0-1

[Mike Truran]

Played my first match in Div 1 in many a long year on Sunday. Almost got a nose bleed from being so high up.

[Jonathan Rogers]

There was some good news this weekend for those concerned about our lack of young GMs: both Ravi and Daniel moved to 7/8, with excellent GM norm chances, though they may need to play more than one game to clinch it - it is not easy to play an average of 2380 these days, given the number of weaker teams which often have no one at all of that level, and I wonder whether either or both of them might need to drop one of their wins against one of their earlier weaker opponents.

Ravi has his last IM norm and title, of course.

Elsewhere this weekend, James Adair played both Ameet Ghasi and Alan Merry, which is a bit unfortunate from the point of view of having as many young players as possible closing in on 2500/GM norms.

[LawrenceCooper]

There was some good news this weekend for those concerned about our lack of young GMs: both Ravi and Daniel moved to 7/8, with excellent GM norm chances, though they may need to play more than one game to clinch it - it is not easy to play an average of 2380 these days, given the number of weaker teams which often have no one at all of that level, and I wonder whether either or both of them might need to drop one of their wins against one of their earlier weaker opponents.

Ravi has his last IM norm and title, of course.

Ravi has an average of around 2379, the relevant requirement is that he plays a GM against Cheddleton so the round 9-11 pairings appear to have fallen kindly. David Fitzsimons is also very close to an IM norm.

[Jonathan Rogers]

Worth noting that 3Cs have good chances of finishing third; though even fourth or fifth would be very much a record performance too. The "local boys" element which used be such a strong feature of the team has become somewhat compromised in the process, though of course their identity has not been abandoned to the extent that happened with Pride and Prejudice when they became ambitious.

[LawrenceCooper]

Worth noting that 3Cs have good chances of finishing third; though even fourth or fifth would be very much a record performance too. The "local boys" element which used be such a strong feature of the team has become somewhat compromised in the process, though of course their identity has not been abandoned to the extent that happened with Pride and Prejudice when they became ambitious.

There's still quite a strong presence though: Stephen Gordon, Adam Ashton, Alex Longson, Andy & Jaime Horton, Daniel Abbas, Alan Walton etc

[Jonathan Rogers]

Not all at the same time, given the minimum of one French GM and a French woman. Quite a strong presence still, yes.