4NCL November 3-4 round-up

Venues, fixtures, teams and related matters.
LawrenceCooper
Posts: 7173
Joined: Tue Dec 20, 2011 8:13 am

4NCL November 3-4 round-up

Post by LawrenceCooper » Mon Nov 05, 2012 3:19 pm

4NCL 2012-13 Weekend One 3rd-4th November 2012

The new 4NCL season got underway this weekend with the top two divisions being held in Sunningdale and Division Three South at Wokefield Park. Division Three North will be played at Wychwood Park near Crewe on 24th and 25th November.

Round 1:

The defending champions, Wood Green 1 fielding seven grandmasters, started with a convincing 7-1 victory over newly promoted BCM (formerly AMCA) Dragons, with Richard Webb and Ken Coates holding Jonathan Rowson and Nick Pert to draws on boards two and three to avoid the whitewash. David Howell beat James Holland on top board in one of the youngest pairings seen on board one in the 4NCL top division.

The remaining three matches were much closer, e2e4.org.uk 1 had a surprise 5-3 victory over Guildford 2 with wins for Peter Sowray, Alan Byron and Rasa Norinkeviciute, Cheddleton beat Sambuca Sharks 5-3 with quick draws on the top two boards and 3/3 with the other whites. Sambuca’s victory came courtesy of Clement Sreeves who beat grandmaster Enrique Rodriguez Guerrero. Barbican 1 beat Cambridge University 4.5-3.5 with wins for Matthew Turner, Jonathan Rogers and Mark Ferguson. Nathan Alfred beat John Cox and Sabrina Chevannes (fresh from her England Olympiad debut in Istanbul) defeated Ingrid Lauterbach for Cambridge.

In Division 1b Guildford 1 scored a commanding victory against Warwickshire Select. Guildford fielded two new players on boards one and two; grandmasters Gawain Jones and Robin Van Kampen. Gawain drew with Ameet Ghasi, who had been very close to a GM norm at the recent Basingstoke e2e4 event and the other solitary half point came on board seven with Paul Lam drawing against Alberto Suarez Real.

Jutes of Kent had a convincing win against Wood Green 2, scoring 5.5/6 on boards two to seven to offset losses on top and bottom board, whilst White Rose defeated South Wales Dragons by the same score including a win for James Adair who was recently awarded the FM title. By far the closest match of the round was a 4-4 draw between Barbican 2 and Blackthorne Russia with Samuel Franklin (who had also recently been awarded the FM title) winning on top board against Adam Hunt and Kanwal Bhatia winning on bottom whilst Richard Bates and Bob Eames replying for Blackthorne.

In Division 2a e2e4.org.uk 2 emulated their first team with a victory against a much higher rated Oxford team with wins for John Garnett, Richard Webster and Theodore Dias. Despite the loss, it was heartening to see three of our most promising juniors; Marcus Harvey, Anna and Maria Wang all playing in the Oxford first team.

The only match in the division that went according to rating was Pandora’s Box Grantham’s 5-3 victory over Spirit of Atticus. Wessex overcame a deficit of almost one hundred points per board to defeat Anglian Avengers 1 4.5-3.5 with the match being decided on a successful 10.2 claim by the Wessex board six after wins for Gavin Lock and Bruce Jenks. Poisoned Pawns edged home 4.5-3.5 against Rhyfelwyr Essyllwg 1 with wins on boards four, five and seven and losses on boards one and eight.

Division 2b matches all went according to rating. The ADs defeated the slightly more youthful KJCA Kings with wins for John Richardson, Ian Snape and Mark Stockwell, Kings Head narrowly defeated 3Cs 4.5-3.5 with wins for Felix Kwiatkowski, Rik Thomas and Ananthanarayanan Balaji. Bristol had a comfortable 6-1.5 victory over North East England (0.5 game point deduction for NE for defaulting board eight despite having a female player, Sue Maroroa who has recently transferred to England, in the team). A relatively youthful Barbican Youth team lost 3.5-4.5 to White Rose 2 despite wins for Guy Moss and Ashley Stewart. Jean Luc and Pierre Weller were amongst the White Rose winners.

Round 2:

The first real clash of the season was between Cheddleton & Barbican 1. Apart from Wood Green & Guildford these were the only two teams with a realistic chance of competing for the title. The teams were evenly matched but wins for Jonathan Parker and Sam Franklin against Keith Arkell and Robert Bellin resulted in a 5-3 victory for Barbican. Three of the games went to the final hour and two ended with barely minutes of the playing session to go.

Quite possibly the most amazing result in an eight board match in the history of the 4NCL occurred in what appeared to be a routine match for Wood Green 1 against e2e4.org.uk. The average of the teams were 2504 and 2235 and the closest game on rating was 184 points whilst the biggest gap was 393 on board eight. Despite this it was e2e4 who were pressing on several boards but ultimately Lawrence Trent was able to hold a draw a pawn down in a rook ending against Mark Josse which resulted in a 4-4 drawn match with no decisive games! This was a great result for e2e4 captain Sean Hewitt and the team of Alexei Slavin, Raja Panjwani, Peter Sowray, James Jackson, Robert Willmoth, Alan Byron, Mark Josse and Rasa Norinkeviciute.

Guildford 2 were held 4-4 by BCM Dragons who scored well on the lower boards to cancel out Guildford’s supremacy at the top and Cambridge defeated Sambuca Sharks 5-3 despite losing the top two boards.

Division 1b saw Guildford 1 defeat Barbican 2 6.5-1.5 whilst their nearest rivals had a surprisingly convincing 7-1 victory over Jutes of Kent. This was a very impressive result even allowing for the fact that Jutes aren’t always at their best on Sundays! The other two matches were very close, Warwickshire Select had an impressive victory against Blackthorne Russia with wins for John Pitcher (against IM Richard Bates), Henrik Stepanyan (against FM Bob Eames) and Ali Roy whilst South Wales Dragons overcame an average rating deficit of 95 points to triumph 4.5-3.5.

In Division Two Pandora’s Box Grantham and Wessex are the only teams with two match victories in Division 2a. Wessex overcame Spirit of Atticus 5-3 and Pandora’s beat Anglian Avengers 4.5-3.5. Oxford and Rhyfelwyr Essyllwg got off the mark with wins against Poisoned Pawns 1 and e2e4.org.uk 2 4.5-3.5 and 5.5-2.5 respectively.

In Division 2b Kings Head finished the weekend with two match victories after defeating The ADs 5.5-2.5. Bristol were held 4-4 by White Rose 2 despite their two IMs winning the top two boards. 3Cs bounced back from their narrow defeat on Saturday with a 5.5-2.5 victory over KJCA Kings whilst Barbican Youth overpowered North East England.

Division Three South:

Play took place at Wokefield Park as a thirty-seven team swiss. After the first weekend the following teams recorded two match victories: Fermented Sharks, FCA Solutions 1, Cambridge University 2, Anglian Avengers 2, Leeds University Old Boys, Guildford 3, Brown Jack, Ashfield-Breadsall, Rhyfelwyr Essylwg 2 and BCM Rhinos (2) whilst Oxford 2 and Celtic Tigers 1 have three points.

In round 1 Brown Jack whitewashed Banbury Bulldogs albeit the latter team defaulted on bottom board giving an unusual match score of 6-0.5 as a half point is deducted for each defaulted board. They then rattled up a 6-0 score line on Sunday with e2e4.org.uk being the unfortunate victims for whom Joshua Altman, who won the bronze medal at this August’s European Youth and was recently awarded the Candidate Master title, made his debut for e2e4.org.uk 4.

In conclusion:

I would like to thank both venues for providing excellent playing and accommodation facilities and the arbiters, game inputters, live board operators and webmaster for ensuring the chess ran smoothly and that the website was regularly updated. The weekend’s results and league tables can be found via the following link: www.4ncl.co.uk All the games from the weekend should be on the website to download and

The next weekend is on 13th and 14th January with Staverton Park hosting the top two divisions and Division Three South being held at the Daventry Court Hotel.

User avatar
Christopher Kreuzer
Posts: 8806
Joined: Fri Aug 06, 2010 2:34 am
Location: London

Re: 4NCL November 3-4 round-up

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Mon Nov 05, 2012 3:42 pm

Thanks for this report Lawrence, an enjoyable read.

One pedantic correction, the score between Brown Jack and Banbury Bulldogs should read 6 - -0.5 (the minus sign and the separator look the same).

Illustrated report here:

http://www.4ncl.co.uk/report_weekend1_1213_Nov_2012.htm

Jonathan Rogers
Posts: 4640
Joined: Tue Nov 18, 2008 9:26 pm

Re: 4NCL November 3-4 round-up

Post by Jonathan Rogers » Mon Nov 05, 2012 4:54 pm

LawrenceCooper wrote: ...
The first real clash of the season was between Cheddleton & Barbican 1. Apart from Wood Green & Guildford these were the only two teams with a realistic chance of competing for the title. ....
I can see why White Rose - third in the last two seasons, and conquerors over a full strength Guildford side last season - feel unjustly neglected at times!

Krishna Shiatis
Posts: 667
Joined: Thu Apr 22, 2010 1:08 pm

Re: 4NCL November 3-4 round-up

Post by Krishna Shiatis » Mon Nov 05, 2012 7:21 pm

Lovely report Lawrence and some good photos from Chris and John - you could put these in a book and sell it at the end of the season to feed the poor/pay for some coaching at the end of the season! :)

User avatar
Christopher Kreuzer
Posts: 8806
Joined: Fri Aug 06, 2010 2:34 am
Location: London

Re: 4NCL November 3-4 round-up

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Tue Nov 06, 2012 10:45 am

Krishna Shiatis wrote:Lovely report Lawrence and some good photos from Chris and John - you could put these in a book and sell it at the end of the season to feed the poor/pay for some coaching at the end of the season! :)
Not sure which Chris you are referring to here, but in case it was me, I didn't take any photos. I linked to an online version of Lawrence's report illustrated with photos (the photographer isn't credited), and I also linked in another thread (the one started by John Upham) to some pictures taken by Sean Terry. Not sure how much of a market there is for chess photos, but the better ones not used elsewhere could maybe be collected together at some point.

Krishna Shiatis
Posts: 667
Joined: Thu Apr 22, 2010 1:08 pm

Re: 4NCL November 3-4 round-up

Post by Krishna Shiatis » Tue Nov 06, 2012 12:07 pm

Christopher Kreuzer wrote:
Not sure which Chris you are referring to here, but in case it was me, I didn't take any photos. I linked to an online version of Lawrence's report illustrated with photos (the photographer isn't credited), and I also linked in another thread (the one started by John Upham) to some pictures taken by Sean Terry. Not sure how much of a market there is for chess photos, but the better ones not used elsewhere could maybe be collected together at some point.
Thanks Christopher for clarifying about who took/didn't take the pictures - I was referring to the ones you and John Upham kindly posted on the forum in the other thread.

They are good quality pics. Combined with some interesting games, perhaps some puzzles (all from 4NCL) and Lawrence's reports, I think they would make a lovely record of the 4NCL week-ends. Judging by the interest in some of the historical photos recently on the forum, I think that people may well look at them with some nostalgia in the future and of course pictures/photos combined with commentary would make a wonderful historical reference.

Over time, we can literally watch some of our juniors (perhaps/hopefully) become GMs.

User avatar
John Upham
Posts: 7179
Joined: Wed Apr 04, 2007 10:29 am
Location: Cove, Hampshire, England.
Contact:

Re: 4NCL November 3-4 round-up

Post by John Upham » Tue Nov 06, 2012 1:26 pm

The ETTA has created a Press & Publicity Team for their events.

The team has:

A Manager
More than one photographer
An interviewer
A web site and Twitter updater
A gopher

We are adding live video feeds for the top tables.

The team covers British League of various forms including
Senior British League (equivalent to 4NCL roughly)
Junior British League (a bit like J4NCL but has most of the top juniors are present)
Veterans British League (for the over 40s such as myself)
Women's British League (no 4NCL equivalent)

J.
British Chess News : britishchessnews.com
Twitter: @BritishChess
Facebook: facebook.com/groups/britishchess :D

Krishna Shiatis
Posts: 667
Joined: Thu Apr 22, 2010 1:08 pm

Re: 4NCL November 3-4 round-up

Post by Krishna Shiatis » Tue Nov 06, 2012 3:46 pm

What is ETTA?

User avatar
John Upham
Posts: 7179
Joined: Wed Apr 04, 2007 10:29 am
Location: Cove, Hampshire, England.
Contact:

Re: 4NCL November 3-4 round-up

Post by John Upham » Tue Nov 06, 2012 4:20 pm

Krishna Shiatis wrote:What is ETTA?
http://etta.co.uk/: They are based in Hastings. :D
British Chess News : britishchessnews.com
Twitter: @BritishChess
Facebook: facebook.com/groups/britishchess :D

Krishna Shiatis
Posts: 667
Joined: Thu Apr 22, 2010 1:08 pm

Re: 4NCL November 3-4 round-up

Post by Krishna Shiatis » Tue Nov 06, 2012 4:33 pm

Ahh - I see table tennis. Are you suggesting a possible model for the ECF?

User avatar
Carl Hibbard
Posts: 6028
Joined: Fri Dec 08, 2006 8:05 pm
Location: Evesham

Re: 4NCL November 3-4 round-up

Post by Carl Hibbard » Tue Nov 06, 2012 4:59 pm

John Upham wrote:
Krishna Shiatis wrote:What is ETTA?
http://etta.co.uk/: They are based in Hastings. :D
Error establishing a database connection :oops:
Cheers
Carl Hibbard

User avatar
John Upham
Posts: 7179
Joined: Wed Apr 04, 2007 10:29 am
Location: Cove, Hampshire, England.
Contact:

Re: 4NCL November 3-4 round-up

Post by John Upham » Tue Nov 06, 2012 5:40 pm

Krishna Shiatis wrote:Ahh - I see table tennis. Are you suggesting a possible model for the ECF?
Yes, I think so. No doubt Stewart did all this 30 years ago but this model works well for the British League and could do for chess.

Interviews are, perhaps an unfamiliar thing after games although it happens in the commentary room and at FIDE events.
British Chess News : britishchessnews.com
Twitter: @BritishChess
Facebook: facebook.com/groups/britishchess :D

User avatar
John Upham
Posts: 7179
Joined: Wed Apr 04, 2007 10:29 am
Location: Cove, Hampshire, England.
Contact:

Re: 4NCL November 3-4 round-up

Post by John Upham » Tue Nov 06, 2012 5:42 pm

Carl Hibbard wrote: Error establishing a database connection :oops:
That is what in cached in Google but the site works for me.
British Chess News : britishchessnews.com
Twitter: @BritishChess
Facebook: facebook.com/groups/britishchess :D

Roger de Coverly
Posts: 21301
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 2:51 pm

Re: 4NCL November 3-4 round-up

Post by Roger de Coverly » Tue Nov 06, 2012 5:53 pm

John Upham wrote: Yes, I think so. No doubt Stewart did all this 30 years ago but this model works well for the British League and could do for chess.
Apart from being a voting member, the 4NCL is independent of the ECF.

So who is going to organise, and pay for a publicity team in the absence of the millions that ETTA gets from Sport England and other sponsors?

Krishna Shiatis
Posts: 667
Joined: Thu Apr 22, 2010 1:08 pm

Re: 4NCL November 3-4 round-up

Post by Krishna Shiatis » Tue Nov 06, 2012 6:21 pm

Roger de Coverly wrote:
John Upham wrote: Yes, I think so. No doubt Stewart did all this 30 years ago but this model works well for the British League and could do for chess.
Apart from being a voting member, the 4NCL is independent of the ECF.

So who is going to organise, and pay for a publicity team in the absence of the millions that ETTA gets from Sport England and other sponsors?
Interesting point. Similar questions were asked when I first suggested we send more juniors abroad and organise more training for juniors. I was told that there was not enough money and it would be practically impossible to send a large team abroad, that there were not enough people to administrate etc etc.

I suggested that the Junior Director might like to organise a team of volunteers around him.

When Phil Ehr came in, he did exactly that (I think Sabrina would have done the same also). It was a very smart move and he has not really looked back.

I am not really sure how the publicity machine for the ECF works, but I think that John's idea is a good one. Also working together with organisations such as 4NCL and London Chess Classic etc for publicity would not hurt anyone.

Post Reply