4NCL - The Four Nations League

Last updated - Sunday, February 7th

Recent updates
7/2	e2e4 Uxbridge International Womens Invitational From Lawrence Cooper I am sorry to report that due to a lack of entries I have been forced to cancel the event. Despite inviting over 50 players I received only five confirmed entries and this was clearly insufficient with just 10 days left before the event. There are still places remaining in the Major and Challengers event and I would encourage anyone wishing to play to contact Sean Hewitt here. There is also a simul with Grand Master Keith Arkell on the Friday evening.
31/1	Division 3, Weekend 3 The draw for Rounds 5 & 6 is now available ... click here. With thanks to Dave Thomas.
28/1	Weekend 2 Division 1A, Round 3 results Division 1B, Round 3 results Division 1A, Round 4 results Division 1B, Round 4 results Division 1A score table Division 1B score table Division 1, Round 3 games in PGN or in game viewer Division 1, Round 4 games in PGN or in game viewer Division 2A, Round 3 results Division 2B, Round 3 results Division 2A, Round 4 results Division 2B, Round 4 results Division 2A score table Division 2B score table Division 2, Round 3 games in PGN or in game viewer Includes correction to McMahon vs. Fishburne. Division 2, Round 4 games in PGN or in game viewer Division 3, Round 3 results Division 3, Round 4 results Division 3 score table Division 3, Round 3 games in PGN or in game viewer Division 3, Round 4 games in PGN or in game viewer With thanks to Neville Belinfante, Jack Rudd and Paul McMahon.
28/1	Solihull Chess Club From John Green Solihull Chess Club based in the Solihull area of the West Midlands region U.K. invites and welcomes you to join our club and play in the Birmingham and Leamington Leagues. The club is well established, holds a high degree of respectability and standing within chess circles at local and national level. We are a friendly club and still very competitive with teams at all levels in the two above mentioned leagues. Our success is based on team / player enjoyment, loyalty and dedication. Our intentions are always to promote the game of chess and strengthen our player/team potential. Our club is successfully moving forward in acheiving those objectives. On behalf of the club and as chief scout / 2nd team captain I am seeking players of all strengths. My immediate wish list is - two players of plus 160 grade ( ie. in the 180's 200's would be most welcome) - two players of the 155 - 160 grade - and one player of the 130 - 135 grade. Please contact myself John Green. Chief Scout and 2nd Team Captain or our Club Secretary Rob Anderton (details as below) for further information and / or view our website here. We wish you all an enjoyable and prosperous chess season. Contact details - John Green - Mobile 07976 832 517 or email. Rob Anderton - Mobile 079667 24235 or email
26/1	Captains' meeting From Mike Truran A brief summary of what was discussed at the captains meeting at the last 4NCL weekend:- 4NCL Northern League: This is planned to start in season 2010/2011 and venues have been booked. The 4NCL website (news entry 31 December) gives more information. Fifteen teams from the north and Scotland have so far expressed interest to varying degrees. 4NCL Team Rapidplay: There seemed to be some appetite to resurrect this at a more suitable time in the season, probably as a curtain-raiser to the new season. I will investigate potential venues. Using the most recent FIDE rating list for board order purposes: This was agreed in principle, subject to confirmation from Dave Thomas that there were no significant implementation issues. I have since talked to Dave and confirmed that this can be done. We agreed that we would use the FIDE rating list extant at the registration deadline under rule 3.3, i.e. nine days before the relevant weekend. Prohibition on using players for the first time in rounds 9-11 who have a higher FIDE rating than the players who have played in rounds 1-8: There was a general consensus that this would be unnecessarily restrictive and should not be introduced. Relaxation of rule 7.1 (In Division 1 each match shall be played over eight boards and each team must include at least one male and one female player): It was agreed that this should be looked at again for season 2010/2011. I will send something round nearer the time (probably a range of options for Divisions 1 and 2, with captains voting for their preference).
24/1	Photos Many thanks to Meri Grigoryan for these photos from last weekend at Hinckley Island - click here.
22/1	Daily Telegraph Malcolm Pein writes a daily column in the Telegraph. You can read his latest articles on the 4NCL here and here.
15/1	Live games ... will be available here during the weekend. With thanks to Dave Clayton.
14/1	British Universities' Chess Association (BUCA) The 2010 British Universities' Chess Association (BUCA) Championship will be played at the Barcelo Hotel in Oxford on Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th February 2010. It will be the first event of the reformed BUCA, which lapsed in the early 1990s shortly after the death of its founder, B.H.Wood. The event will be open to all British University chess societies. Each society can enter teams of four players. It will be a five-round Swiss, with time limits of 30 moves in 60 minutes, with a 15-minute quickplay finish. Four-star accommodation at the venue is provided at discounted rates; the same rate as would be paid at the 4NCL. Societies can find all entry details on the BUCA website and can email here for more information. With thanks to Alex Holowczak.
14/1	Teams and Players wanted A list of players looking for teams, and vice versa here ...
12/1	e2e4 Uxbridge International From Sean Hewitt The e2e4 Uxbridge International runs from 13th to 17th February 2010. There are three sections: Masters offering players the opportunity to play for an IM norm. THERE IS 1 PLACE LEFT for a titled player. Challengers is open to players rated 1900 or above (or graded above 150 ECF) and offers the opportunity to qualify for the next Masters event free of charge. Due to high demand a second Challengers section has been added to the event. Major is open to players of any strength and offers the opportunity to qualify for the next challengers event, improve your rating or even get your first rating. Any unrated player who plays in any of these events will get a full FIDE rating as long as they (and all other unrated players in their section) score at least one point, whilst rated players get 9 FIDE rated games of chess (even if they play unrated players). Visit the web site for further details.
8/1	Registrations Final registration lists, good for Weekend 2, are now available here. With thanks to Neville Belinfante, the League's Registration Secretary:- please contact Neville with any queries, errors, omissions, etc. 5/1 - includes addition to Pandora's Box Grantham squad. 8/1 - includes additions to Braille CA, Bristol, e2e4.org.uk, Jutes of Kent, Oxford & Wood Green.
14/1	Teams and Players wanted A list of players looking for teams, and vice versa here ...
31/12	4NCL Northern League From Mike Truran The 4NCL have recently been working to develop the idea of a 4NCL Northern League in response to the comment often made in the past that the 4NCL's choice of locations for its weekends has not always been conducive to northern teams playing in the 4NCL. After various discussions with the Barcelo and De Vere hotel/conference centre chains we have now been able to secure weekends for a 4NCL Northern League on the same terms and conditions as our other 4NCL venues as follows. Within the constraints of venue availability, venue willingness to host us, coordination with other 4NCL weekends etc we have tried to get an equitable geographical spread between the north-west and the north-east: 6/7 November 2010: Barcelo Redworth Hall (nr Darlington) 15/16 January 2011: De Vere Wychwood Park (nr Crewe) 19/20 February 2011: Barcelo Majestic Hotel (Harrogate) 26/27 March 2011: De Vere Wychwood Park (nr Crewe). These weekends are the same as those already booked for rest of the 4NCL for the 2010/2011 season to avoid the 4NCL taking up too many weekends in an already crowded chess calendar. We envisage all 4NCL teams (Divisions 1, 2, 3 and the Northern League) coming together at the fifth and final weekend on 30 April-2 May 2011 at the 4NCL's Hinckley Island venue (between Coventry and Leicester) for what would hopefully be a memorable and spectacular coming together of chess players from across the country. As regards format etc: 1. The Northern League would have a similar format to existing 4NCL Division 3 (six boards, no female player requirement, Swiss system, FIDE rated, ECF graded etc etc). There would be two matches a weekend as with the rest of the 4NCL. 2. Rules, entry guidelines etc would be the same as the 4NCL. You might want to visit these links for the 4NCL's rules and entry guidelines for the 2009/2010 season for an idea of what playing in the Northern League would entail: here and here. 3. Our current thinking is that the Northern League would be combined with the current 4NCL third division for the fifth and final weekend, with match and game points carried forward from the first four weekends. Promotion places to Division 2 would be from the combined Northern League/Division 3 league for those teams that wanted it. 4. As with the existing 4NCL, rules around the composition of teams would be as relaxed as possible. Teams can be existing clubs and teams, amalgamations of two or more clubs and teams, groups of friends, junior teams etc etc etc. I need now to gauge more specifically the level of interest for a Northern League that we would get from northern clubs and teams. Ideally we would need at least 12 teams from across the north to get things started (and if we did so, we could probably guarantee a prize fund of at least Ł1,000 to provide some further interest and incentive) - but by the same token if there is minimal interest in the idea, then the sooner I know the better so that I can cancel venue bookings in good time so as to give the venues a decent chance of finding alternative bookings. I have also emailed the various northern federations and associations directly, including as many individual clubs as I was able to find email addresses for, so if this project doesn't take off it won't be for lack of publicity. I look forward to hearing from you. Do feel free to contact me on 01993 708645 if there is anything you would like to discuss in more detail.

CONGRESS ORGANISERS
Whilst we are happy to display entry forms for forthcoming congresses at the 4NCL weekends, please send any such information to Dave Welch. You can find Dave's address here.

Previous news updates can be found in the Archive.