Weekend three (rounds five and six) of Britain’s 4 Nations Chess League (4NCL) 2016-17, took place 11-12 February. Division one would play at the Park Inn, Northampton. The Division contains sixteen teams, which are split into two ‘pools’ of eight. The same goes for Division Two, who also played at the same venue. For reasons of time and space, this blog will concentrate on Division One, currently being commanded by Cheddleton 1 and Guildford 1.
Round Five
Round five of division one Pool-A, saw Cheddleton 1 in dominating form against South Wales Dragons, drubbing them 8-0! This was no huge surprise on paper as Cheddleton 1 vastly out-rated their opponents. And to make matters even harder for South Wales Dragons, they were also a player short and defaulted on their bottom board during the weekend.
Top board for Cheddleton 1, was Grandmaster, David Howell, who got the better of Katarzyna Toma as White in a Neo-Grunfeld. The game was going quite ok for Black until she had an awkward knight on b4, which led to the loss of a pawn. From here, Howell piled on the pressure and exchanged into a much superior endgame in which Black was powerless.
[Event “4NCL Division 1a”]
[Site “Northampton, ENG”]
[Date “2017.02.11”]
[Round “5.11”]
[White “Howell, David W L”]
[Black “Toma, Katarzyna”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “D77”]
[WhiteElo “2657”]
[BlackElo “2242”]
[PlyCount “87”]
[EventDate “2017.02.11”]
[WhiteTeam “Cheddleton 1”]
[BlackTeam “South Wales Dragons”]1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nf3 Bg7 4. g3 O-O 5. Bg2 d5 6. O-O dxc4 7. Na3 Nc6 8.
Nxc4 Be6 9. b3 Bd5 10. Bb2 a5 11. a4 Nb4 12. Qc1 c6 13. Rd1 Ne4 14. Nfe5 Nd6
15. Bh3 Be4 16. Nd7 Re8 17. Nc5 Bf5 18. Bxf5 gxf5 19. Rb1 Nd5 20. Qc2 Rb8 21.
Rbc1 e6 22. e3 Nb4 23. Qe2 Ne4 24. f3 Nd6 25. Ne5 {after initially doing well,
Black is starting to struggle, here. White has the upper hand when it comes to
piece quality — Black’s Nb4 being especially vulnerable.} Bh6 {This is too
slow, …f6 would have been a good option, probably allowing Black to exchange
off her Nb4.} (25… f6 26. Ned3 Nxd3 27. Nxd3 Bh6 {but White is still very
much better here, with the more potential in the position.}) 26. Bc3 f6 {
? a blunder which hands White a pawn.} (26… Nd5 27. Bd2 f6 28. Nc4 Nxc4 29.
bxc4 Nb4 {and White has choices here, Rb1, Bc3 or even Bxb4, depending on
taste.}) 27. Bxb4 axb4 28. Ned3 {Winning. All that remains now is to convert
and Howell experiences no problems.} Qe7 29. Nxb4 e5 {? this is inappropriate
for one who is defending, Black has little counter chances and really needed
to hunker down. This just allows White to increase his grip.} 30. d5 Rbc8 31.
dxc6 bxc6 32. Rc2 Kh8 33. Kg2 Red8 34. Rcd2 Nf7 35. Rxd8+ Nxd8 36. Nba6 Ne6 37.
Rd7 Qe8 38. Qd3 e4 39. fxe4 Nxc5 40. Nxc5 Bf8 41. Qd4 Qe5 42. Qxe5 fxe5 43. Ne6
fxe4 44. a5 {and Black resigned. The White a-pawn is nigh impossible to stop
without extremely heavy losses.} 1-0[/pgn]
Howell’s teammates also won their games, including Tamas Fodor, who won a rather comfortable English Bremen as Black when White just seemed to focus too much on his own intentions and got caught out. Keith Arkell won a dominating Queen’s Indian against David James, who got a combination wrong early on and never recovered. Fiona Steil-Antoni, had a very relaxed round, profiting from her opponent not showing up to claim a default point.
[Event “4NCL Division 1a”]
[Site “Northampton, ENG”]
[Date “2017.02.11”]
[Round “5.15”]
[White “Arkell, Keith C”]
[Black “James, David J”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “E12”]
[WhiteElo “2406”]
[BlackElo “2123”]
[PlyCount “53”]
[EventDate “2017.02.11”]
[WhiteTeam “Cheddleton 1”]
[BlackTeam “South Wales Dragons”]1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 e6 3. c4 b6 4. a3 d5 5. cxd5 exd5 6. Nc3 Be7 7. Bg5 O-O 8. e3
Be6 9. Be2 c5 10. O-O Nc6 {? Slightly inaccurate, this as White demonstrates.
Instead, 10…Ne4 is about equal.} 11. Ne5 {The problem for Black, here, is
that defending the Nc6 leads to a gain of time for White (11…Qc7 12.Bf4; 11..
.Rc8 12.Qa4) and there is not a good place for the knight to go to. On the
other hand, exchanging on e5 works out well for White, so Black is in effect,
stuck between a rock and a hard place.} Nxe5 12. dxe5 Ne4 13. Bxe7 Nxc3 {
Perhaps this was Black’s idea, but it is unlikely to be prepared as James
would know that things work out favourably for Arkell from here. 13…Qxe7
would lead to 14.Nxd5 of course.} 14. Bxd8 Nxd1 15. Bxb6 Nxf2 {? after 15…
axb6 16.Rfxd1, it is very clear to see that White has the upper hand by quite
some way, but it is still preferable to this which just loses.} 16. Bxc5 Rfc8
17. Bd4 Ne4 18. Ba6 {! A very good positional move, technically gaining
control of the c-file.} Rc7 19. Rac1 {With his Queenside pawn majority and his
two bishops, White would love to exchange down here. This is why he is assured
of the c-file, Black cannot support his rook due to White’s Ba6.} Re7 {To
exchange down would be a serious concession in this position.} 20. Rc2 g5 21.
Rfc1 Rd8 22. Rc7 {The situation is becoming very passive for Black, who is
finding himself with less and less to play with.} Rdd7 23. Rxd7 Rxd7 24. Bc8
Re7 25. Bxe6 fxe6 26. Rc8+ Kf7 27. Ra8 {and in this situation, where White
will soon have two passed pawns, Black resigned.} 1-0
[/pgn]
In other results, Guildford 2 also won their round against Kings Head, with an 8-0 whitewash. 3Cs 1 narrowly defeated Barbican 1 4.5-3.5 — a win for Stephen Gordon on board 2 was the decider there with the rest of the games drawn. Celtic Tigers lost 3-5 to Blackthorne Russia.
In Pool-B, Guildford 1, were in fine form against Wood Green HK, beating them comprehensively, 7-1. White Rose 1 had a similar result against Barbican 4NCL 2, taking a 7.5-0.5 victory. North East England got a very good 5.5-2.5 win over Anglian Avengers 1, who out-rated them on paper but were outplayed over the board. Oxford 1 lost narrowly to Grantham Sharks 1, 3.5-4.5.
Round Six
Round six of Pool-A, saw the two white-washing teams of round five, (Cheddleton 1 and Barbican 1), facing each other. This saw Cheddleton 1 come out on top 5-3.
There were four decisive games, with Cheddleton taking three of them. Vladimir Hametivici overcame Lorin D’Costa with the Black pieces, but this was balanced out by Cheddleton’s GM Tamas Fodor losing with White to Barbican’s IM Alan Merry. Deciding the day were Cheddleton 1’s FM Ezra Kirk, who took a point at the expense of FM Samuel Franklin and GM Simon Williams, who completely butchered FM Peter Sowray in a Modern Defence. The game, which doesn’t really need any comment, is below. An absolutely vicious assault by Williams.
[Event “4NCL Division 1a”]
[Site “Northampton, ENG”]
[Date “2017.02.12”]
[Round “6.14”]
[White “Williams, Simon K”]
[Black “Sowray, Peter J”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “B06”]
[WhiteElo “2448”]
[BlackElo “2312”]
[PlyCount “47”]
[EventDate “2017.02.12”]
[WhiteTeam “Cheddleton 1”]
[BlackTeam “Barbican 4NCL 1”]1. d4 g6 2. e4 d6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. f4 a6 5. Nf3 b5 6. Bd3 Nd7 7. a4 b4 8. Ne2 a5
9. O-O Ngf6 10. e5 Nd5 11. Ng5 h6 12. Ne6 fxe6 13. Bxg6+ Kf8 14. Ng3 Kg8 15.
Qh5 Rh7 16. Bxh7+ Kxh7 17. f5 Nf8 18. Qf7 Nd7 19. Bxh6 Qg8 20. Qg6+ Kh8 21.
fxe6 Nf8 22. Bxg7+ Qxg7 23. Rxf8+ Qxf8 24. Rf1 1-0
[/pgn]
Other results were, Guildford 2 who showed some authority over Blackthorne Russia, with a 5.5-2.5 win. South Wales Dragons (defaulting a board again) suffered another heavy defeat, 6-2, at the hands of 3Cs 1, and Kings Head won their match against Celtic Tigers 5.5-2.5.
As for Pool-B, Guldford 1 continued their good form, drubbing Grantham Sharks 1 by 7.5-0.5. White Rose 1 also dominated their match with North East England, taking victory 7-1. The other matches were a little closer, Barbican 4NCL 2 and Wood Green HK taking 5.5-2.5 victories over Anglian Avengers 1 and Oxford 1, respectively.
Standings:
Approaching the crucial seventh round, (as detailed in the 4NCL basics, below), the Division one standings after six rounds are as follows:
Pool-A: Cheddleton 1 — 12; 3Cs — 10; Guildford 2 — 8; Barbican 4NCL 1 — 6; Blackthorne Russia — 6; South Wales Dragons — 2; Celtic Tigers — 2; Kings Head — 2.
Pool-B: Guildford 1 — 12; White Rose 1 — 10; Wood Green HK — 8; Grantham Sharks 1 — 8; Oxford 1 — 4; Barbican 4NCL 2 — 4; North East England — 2; Anglian Avengers 1 — 0.
4NCL Basics: Official Website
– contains four divisions based on strength.
– The top two divisions each contain sixteen teams, split into two pools of eight (approximate matching strength) by the 4NCL committee.
– After round seven, two new pools are made, combining the top half of each pool to make a ‘Championship’ group and the bottom half to make a ‘Demotion’ group.
– Only points earned against each other are carried forward for following rounds.
– At the end of the Championship, four teams will be demoted from division one to division two and for teams from division two will be promoted to division one.
– Other divisions play according to the Swiss format.
– The 4NCL also contains a separate Junior competition.
