English Chess Forum

According to the BBC, there is heavy snow forecast in the night, here in the soft south (Abingdon). That might make for some interesting journeys to Telford tomorrow!

To confirm, like Lawrence we (CSC) will only have 1 team playing this weekend in 4s as well as our 1st team in div 2 elsewhere.
We expected we would have an issue with Telford at the beginning of the season but hope to be back to 2 teams or 18/19 March.

Best wishes on travelling - brief 20 second snow flurry at Wimbledon this evening though as some flooding/burst water pipe outside the station this is why they announced it is slippery as was icing up.

Foggy start to this morning across the Thames in central London even with the wind from the east (wind chill was hitting but I had my winter walking gear on with a suit). Expect colder and same tomorrow.

Don't forget as you drive that, up North, snowfall is measured in inches, not millimetres

Not sure that is the problem, more likely to be dense, freeing fog as per the BBC Telford weather site & local forecasts - that will limit speeds on the motorway.

It's not fog oop north until it's impossible to drive..

Round 7 pairings

41 Barnet Knights 1 - - - The Full Ponty
42 CSC Rhinos (2) - - - Oxford 2
43 Brown Jack 2 - - - West is Best 2
44 Cambridge University 3 - - - Wood Green MM 2
45 Throw in the Tal 1 - - - Shropshire 2
46 MK Phoenix 2 - - - Oxford 3
47 Poisoned Pawns 2 - - - Sussex Martlets 3
48 D&D Utd - - - Anglian Avengers 3
49 CSC Hippos (3) - - - Kent Kestrels
50 Iceni 2 - - - Throw in the Tal 2
51 Sandhurst Cadets - - - Wood Green MM 3
52 Barnet Knights 2 - - - The Pitstop
53 Barnet Knights 3 - - - Barnet Knights 4

LawrenceCooper wrote:

Neil Graham wrote:

Roger de Coverly wrote:
I don't think they've been loaded. I ran into the same problem when trying to research my potential opponents for Saturday and Sunday.

I understood that the person responsible for entering the games had gone to Gibraltar.

I took possession of the Division 4 scoresheets last night and will input them next week. I stood down as game inputter for those divisions at the end of last season but am still happy to help out on an occasional basis after, but not during, the weekends.

Having downloaded various files it looks like all inputting is now complete for rounds 1-5 and there's just round 6 to come from Div 3N, 3S and 4.

Mick Norris wrote:Round 7 pairings

41 Barnet Knights 1 - - - The Full Ponty
42 CSC Rhinos (2) - - - Oxford 2
43 Brown Jack 2 - - - West is Best 2
44 Cambridge University 3 - - - Wood Green MM 2
45 Throw in the Tal 1 - - - Shropshire 2
46 MK Phoenix 2 - - - Oxford 3
47 Poisoned Pawns 2 - - - Sussex Martlets 3
48 D&D Utd - - - Anglian Avengers 3
49 CSC Hippos (3) - - - Kent Kestrels
50 Iceni 2 - - - Throw in the Tal 2
51 Sandhurst Cadets - - - Wood Green MM 3
52 Barnet Knights 2 - - - The Pitstop
53 Barnet Knights 3 - - - Barnet Knights 4

Will Barnet Knights 4 actually appear - by my calculations they are next due to be seen round about Season 2018-19?

Hopefully they will be playing - organisers are doing a fantastic job.
Suspect there will be a lot more quick draws, wins & losses with the 5pm start for Ireland - England Rugby Union Grand Slam hopefully decider.

My eldest son, Andrew, will be 27 on 18th March. My ex-wife's waters broke a few hours before the Scotland - England Grand Slam decider on 17th March 1990. Born 24 hours later on 18th. I was at University with the Scottish & then Lions captain & England's scrum half.

From the 4NCL homepage:

Division 4s re-pairing
16.3.17 - One squad has announced that they are unable to field a team for round 7. Therefore pairings for Saturday only have accordingly been revised to include a triangular match. There is no other change to the pairings.

The 2 highest rated teams will face each other on Sunday - Barnet Knights 1 Vs Oxford 2 !

Whilst CSC Hippos are out for round 7 we are in for round 8.
That may mean another triangular match in round 8 & round 9. Not sure how that works but we will find out when we get there.

As for the underdogs v Oxford 2 we may pull off a Lincoln City v Burnley result.

At least one other team was struggling with players for both days. Hope they come up with players.

Look forward to seeing you over the weekend.

An unusual game from yesterday's matches:
[Event "4NCL Division 4 South"] [Date "2017.03.18"] [Round "7.24"] [White "Matta, Francesca"] [Black "Lees, Fraser A"] [Result "1-0"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Nf3 O-O 6. Be2 e5 7. d5 Nbd7 8. Bg5 a6 9. O-O h6 10. Bh4 Qe8 11. Nd2 Nh7 12. f3 f5 13. b4 g5 14. Bf2 f4 15. c5 Ndf6 16. Nc4 Qg6 17. cxd6 g4 18. dxc7 g3 19. d6 Qg5 20. Nb6 Bh3 21. gxh3 gxf2+ 22. Kh1 Qh4 23. d7 Nh5 24. Rxf2 Qxf2 25. Nxa8 Ng5 26. d8=Q Nxh3 27. c8=Q Ng3+ 28. hxg3 Qxg3 29. Q1d5+ Kh7 30. Qf5+ Rxf5 31. Q8g8+ Kg6 32. exf5+ Kh5 33. Ne4 Nf2+ 34. Nxf2 Qxf2 35. Qdf7+ 1-0

Yes Jack, a ridiculous game!

Great rearguard action from Oxford 2 today. We were losing on the bottom 3 boards only to hold them all, before a win on board 1 claimed the match. Delighted!

As complex as it was it actually looked a pretty usual kings indian game to me - white achieves an objectively winning position on the queenside, black flails around wildly trying to land a cheapo mate on the kingside before the material situation becomes untenable. Offering the f2 bishop as a sacrifice here seemed a decent idea, and led to a pretty ruinous attack while also sidestepping the worse of black threats so that is definitely some creative play to be lauded.