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

Betsson results, European Club Cup 2008/10/17-23

For further details of the venue, conditions and massive strength of the tournament, I can only recommend Max Devereaux’ thorough report, or others available elsewhere! Below is some detail of Betsson’s excellent performance in which as the 36th seeded team (though this did include the absent Richard Pert which bumped up the seeding average a bit – we should probably have been about 44th seeds of 64 teams) we finished 22nd on tiebreak. To give some indication of the strength of it, the winners were URAL, headed by Radjabov, Kamsky, Shirov and with 2670-rated Dreev a reserve on Board 7! Also present, amongst others, were Carlsen, Aronian, Ivanchuk, et al. More details are available from the official site.

Round 1
Betsson.com - Economist SGSEU-1 Saratov ˝ :5˝.

4.1	IM (W) Ledger Andrew J	2429	GM Alekseev Evgeny	2715	0 – 1
4.2	IM Ansell Simon T	2410	GM Tomashevsky Evgeny	2646	0 - 1
4.3	FM Eames Robert S	2329	GM Roiz Michael	2677	˝ - ˝
4.4	FM Duncan Chris R	2294	GM Galkin Alexander	2624	0 - 1
4.5	FM Ledger Dave J	2254	GM Andreikin Dmitry	2603	0 - 1
4.6	Ledger Stephen C	2151	GM Khairullin Ildar	2575	0-1

Rather outclassed by a “weakened (!)" 4th seeded team. Weakened because 2 more 2700+ players, Wang Yue and Ni Hua were still busy winning gold medals for China in the Mindsports Olympiad in Beijing which unfortunately overlapped with the first couple of rounds here. Mind you, Betsson were also suffering from the absence of Richard Pert, which would surely have had Russian Super-final co-winner, Alekseev trembling in his boots. Hmm. Some games were close, 2 weren’t, but all in all, we were pretty much out-grinded/played, with the notable exception of Robert Eames, who correctly turned down a draw, obtained a winning attack but didn’t manage to follow it through. A solitary draw was about our expected score, mind you!

Round 2
Merida Patrimonio de la Humanidad - Betsson.com ˝ :5˝

21.1	(W) Zarzo Lopez Tomas	2281	IM Ledger Andrew J	2429	0 – 1
21.2	Garcia-Ortega Mendez Jose M	2223	IM Ansell Simon T	2410	0 - 1
21.3	Sanchez Silva Luis Agapito	2092	FM Webb Laurence E	2347	˝ - ˝
21.4	Rubio Nevado Pedro	2083	FM Eames Robert S	2329	0 - 1
21.5	Hernandez Cid Cesar	2065	FM Ledger Dave J	2254	0 – 1
21.6	Delgado Palomeque Ruben	0	Ledger Stephen C	2151	0 – 1

A little easier this one, after a tough introduction. Only Lawrence couldn’t quite manage to convert a tricky rook ending (5 pawns up, but hey). He allowed his opponent to queen his last pawn to keep it exciting, but the planned double-rook mate wasn’t quite there. Competently done all round. Simon won a very nice miniature with a queen sac on move 15

Round 3
Betsson.com - Vilnius Chess-Bridge Club 3 : 3

16.1	(W) IM Ledger Andrew J	2429	GM Kveinys Aloyzas	2533	0 – 1
16.2	IM Ansell Simon T	2410	IM Zagorskis Darius	2509	0 - 1
16.3	FM Webb Laurence E	2347	GM Malisauskas Vidmantas	2479	1 – 0
16.4	FM Eames Robert S	2329	IM Dambrauskas Virginijus	2338	˝ - ˝
16.5	FM Duncan Chris R	2294	Novikov Vitalij	2325	˝ - ˝
16.6	FM Ledger Dave J	2254	Rocius Marijonas	2188	1 - 0

A decent draw this one against a team outrating us fairly significantly. Lawrence bounced back with a great win and the mighty FMs grabbed some points to make up for the shortcomings of the IMs up top. An entirely unfair comment of course, but then I’m one of the FMs in question. As will be seen, Andy and Simon were solid throughout (which is more than can be said for one of Simon’s fingers at a later stage, but that’s another story).

Round 4
SK Hohenems - Betsson.com 3˝:2˝

15.1	(W) GM Baramidze David	2557	IM Ledger Andrew J	2429	0 – 1
15.2	IM Braun Arik	2567	FM Webb Laurence E	2347	˝ - ˝
15.3	GM Naumann Alexander	2518	FM Eames Robert S	2329	1 – 0
15.4	IM Atlas Valery	2465	FM Duncan Chris R	2294	0 – 1
15.5	GM Bezold Michael	2513	FM Ledger Dave J	2254	1 – 0
15.6	FM Atlas Dimitry	2322	Ledger Stephen C	2151	1 – 0

A narrow defeat in round 4 against a strong team, with a fine win on Board One for one of those IMs against a strong up-and-coming German GM and with the black pieces. Eames missed a suicidal-looking king move early on to have a good chance of something or other (this kind of vagary is usually the case with most of his games), Dave Ledger missed a chance that his opponent thought was “winning" after about 15 moves, but then “winning" and “won" are two different tenses and don’t always follow logically, especially where pesky GMs are concerned. Chris chipped in with a great win, (which was to become a feature), and Lawrence with a nice draw, but unfortunately the team went down to a narrow defeat.

Round 5
Betsson.com - HMC Calder 5 : 1

23.1 (W)	IM Ansell Simon T	2410	IM De Jong Jan-Willem	2408	˝ - ˝
23.2	FM Webb Laurence E	2347	FM Abeln Michiel	2329	1 – 0
23.3	FM Eames Robert S	2329	FM Broekmeulen Jasper	2325	1 - 0
23.4	FM Duncan Chris R	2294	WGM Muhren Bianca	2278	1 - 0
23.5	FM Ledger Dave J	2254	Muhren Willem	2222	1 - 0
23.6	Ledger Stephen C	2151	CM Huizer Mark	2195	˝ - ˝

Betsson well and truly bounced back today in a pretty evenly-rated match, with a fine 5-1 win and this with top board Andy succumbing to the manager’s ruthless rotation policy and grudgingly being forced to languish by and in the swimming pool with a beer in one hand (unless under water) under the Greek sun. Solid shows from the top and bottom with the FMs hoovering up the points in the middle-order. Chris won (zzzzzzzz) and Rob Eames’ game was probably very unclear.

Round 6
CRE Charleroi - Betsson.com 3 : 3

18.1	(W) IM Gharamian Tigran	2555	IM Ledger Andrew J	2429	1 - 0
18.2	IM Eliet Nicolas	2435	IM Ansell Simon T	2410	˝ - ˝
18.3	IM Laurent Bruno	2370	FM Webb Laurence E	2347	˝ - ˝
18.4	Akhayan Ruben	2262	FM Eames Robert S	2329	˝ – ˝
18.5	Israel Gregory	2159	FM Duncan Chris R	2294	0 – 1
18.6	Romanelli Robert	1970	Ledger Stephen C	2151	˝ – ˝

Again, a good solid draw, as shown by all those 1/2 s. Andy’s opponent ended up winning the Board One prize with 5.5/6, so he can possibly be excused; the middle order was solid and Chris won again (yawn). The team’s overall performance can maybe be well summed up by the thought that this was probably our worst result and that we saw it as a point dropped. Clearly Dave Ledger must never be dropped again. Sadly, Steve couldn’t quite use his rating advantage to nick it on bottom board. Simon, it should be pointed out, was by this point playing with a finger swollen to the size of, well, a quite-swollen finger. Either way, it was a brave performance playing through the pain barrier and details of the lancing of this digit and the resulting outpourings can be obtained by request.

Round 7
Betsson.com - Mendrisio 3˝ : 2˝

18.1	(W) IM Ledger Andrew J	2429	GM Godena Michele	2517	˝ – ˝
18.2	IM Ansell Simon T	2410	IM Bellini Fabio	2489	˝ - ˝
18.3	FM Webb Laurence E	2347	IM Sedina Elena	2365	0 – 1
18.4	FM Eames Robert S	2329	IM Mantovani Renzo	2359	1 - 0
18.5	FM Duncan Chris R	2294	FM Aranovitch Emiliano	2385	˝ - ˝
18.6	FM Ledger Dave J	2254	Pedrini Pier Paolo	0	1 - 0

And a fine win to finish with! Again, we were comfortably outrated and again came flying through with flying colours, for want of a better non-repetitive word. Captain Steve Ledger generously dropped himself for a second time so that Rob could play his 7th game, needing a win for an IM-norm (7 rounders being obtainable from closed tournaments such as this). Bob (see, even his name’s unclear) duly obliged coming through a messy opening (presumably), a very unclear middlegame (I would imagine) and a seriously murky endgame. But if there’s one thing Eames is noted for, it’s his endgame technique. Well, probably in a parallel universe somewhere anyway. Well done to Robert (SEE!!) for his first norm and a fine all-round performance, underpinned by the great first round draw. Elsewhere Lawrence went down to his first defeat of the 6 games, Chris let everyone down by failing to win for the 4th time in succession, but the IMs were solid and Dave Ledger saw home his rating edge to grab the match.

A great series of results, all in all, with Lawrence (whose real name appears to be “Laurence", but I’d best be consistent now) (3.5 /6), Rob/Bob/Robert (4.5 / 7) and Chris (4/6) all putting in 2400+ performances (Chris’ nearer to 2500), Dave (4/6) comfortably over 2300 (excluding the 0 in the last round), the IMs up top performing admirably against strong players and gaining a few points and the captain chipping in half marks at the bottom (well, nearly).

Admirably captained, very well organised and a great time was had by all (Simon’s finger and the odd headache apart). Many thanks are due to BETSSON for their generous sponsorship and to the ECF for arranging entry fees, etc.

Dave Ledger