4NCL - The Four Nations League - www.4ncl.co.uk/pre2010

2009/10 Season

Dates and Venues

Rounds 1 and 2

24th/25th October 2009
De Vere Venues, Sunningdale
Divisions 1 and 2

24th/25th October 2009
Barcelo Hotel, Daventry
Division 3

Rounds 3 and 4

16th/17th January 2010
Barcelo Hotel, Hinckley Island
Divisions 1, 2 and 3

Rounds 5 and 6

20th/21st February 2010
Barcelo Hotel, Hinckley Island
Divisions 1, 2 and 3

Rounds 7 and 8

27th/28th March 2010
De Vere Venues, Staverton Park
Divisions 1 and 2

27th/28th March 2010
Barcelo Hotel, Daventry
Division 3

Rounds 9, 10 and 11

1st to 3rd May 2010
De Vere Venues, Sunningdale
Divisions 1 and 2

1st to 3rd May 2010
Wokefield Park, Berkshire
Division 3

The Hotels page on the website gives further information on the various venues.

Entry Requirements

All entries, whether for existing teams or for new entrants, need to be received together with the appropriate entry fee by Monday 31 August 2009. Entries should be sent to Mike Truran at The Old Farmhouse, 7 Church Street, Ducklington, Witney, Oxon, OX29 7UA. Please make cheques payable to '4NCL' and send along with your entry to Mike Truran at the above address. If you wish to pay your entry fee by BACS, please contact Mike Truran for 4NCL bank details. Please remember that all outstanding default fines, wild card fees etc still outstanding from the 2008/2009 season need to be settled as a condition of entry.

Confirmed team registration lists should be sent to Neville Belinfante by Wednesday 30 September (contact details on the Arbiters page of the 4NCL website). Team captains and managers should ensure that all players are members of the appropriate chess federation on the date of submission of the registration list. Many subscriptions expire on 31 August 2009 and may not be renewed immediately.

Entry fees are as follows. We have held these at 2008/2009 season levels in the light of the prevailing economic environment:

Div 1	First teams Ł300	Second, third etc teams Ł350
Div 2	First teams Ł275	Second, third etc teams Ł325
Div 3	First teams Ł150	Second, third etc teams Ł175

As usual, entry fees entitle teams to nominate up to 16 players (Divs 1-2) and 12 players (Div 3) in their team lists. Nominated players taking team lists over 16 (Divs 1-2) or 12 (Div 3) in total will be subject to the usual registration fee.

Registration fees (Ł5) and wildcard fees (Ł10) remain at the same level.

Prizes

The prize fund for the 2009/2010 season will increase to Ł10,625 (2008/2009: Ł10,150), made up as follows:

Div 1	First Ł3,000	Second Ł1,500	Third Ł750
Div 2	First Ł1,500	Second Ł750	Third Ł375
Div 3	First Ł1,000	Second Ł500	Third Ł250
Div 3 team rating prize *	First Ł500	Second Ł250
Best annotated game Ł250

* Based on the two highest placed teams with a team average FIDE rating for the season as a whole (and for at least seven matches) of less than or equal to 2000.

Other

The format for the 2009/2010 season will remain the same as for the 2008/2009 season, namely:

Divisions 1 and 2 will comprise 16 teams each.
Divisions 1 and 2 will comprise two preliminary pools of eight for the first seven rounds, with the two pools in each division of broadly equal strength as determined by the Management Board. The top four and bottom four teams in each preliminary pool will form two final championship/promotion and relegation pools respectively. With regard to the teams in each final pool, only matches played between themselves during the first seven rounds will be carried forward to the final pools (i.e. matches played by teams against teams in the other final pool during the first seven rounds will not be carried forward).
Four teams will be relegated from Division 1, four teams will be promoted from Divisions 2, four teams will be relegated from Division 2 and four teams will be promoted from Division 3.
Division 3 will be a Swiss format.

You are recommended to read the rules for the 2009/2010 season carefully. Please note in particular the changes to team registration list rules, to default penalty point rules, to tie-break methods and to mobile phone rules – and also that the rules now state explicitly that players will be defaulted if they fail to appear within one hour of the start of play.

It would be helpful if team captains/managers of entering teams could check their contact details in the Team Captains section of the 4NCL website and confirm that they are shown correctly. Please notify Peter Sowray of any updates required.

If entering teams would like a link to their own website from the 4NCL website, please let Peter Sowray know.

Queries

If there are any points that you wish to discuss further then please get in touch with Claire Summerscale or Mike Truran, contact details for whom can be found on the "Management Board" page of the 4NCL website.