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

Daily Telegraph

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This article is used on the 4NCL web site with permission.

There is less than a week to go in the BCF Grand Prix and International Master Danny Gormally heads the race for the pounds five thousand first prize with very few events remaining. Some tournament results may not yet have reached the BCF office but Gormally edged further ahead with success at the recent Coulsdon Open and leads the weekend specialist Mark Hebden by two points.

The Grand Prix reaches a climax with the London Open this weekend at Harrow and a 100% result for second placed Mark Hebden would still enable him to snatch the big prize. Grand Prix points are amassed by multiplying a score in a tournament by a multiplier that is determined by factors such as the prize fund. Bonus points can be added to the score for facing a strong field.

Grand Prix standings
Scores are out of a maximum of 200.

1 IM D Gormally 193.2
2 GM M Hebden 190.9
3 GM N Pert 186.5
4 GM P Wells 184.6
5 GM N Davies 177.7
6 GM K Arkell 173.1

Prixette

S Khoo 63.0
K Arakhamia-Grant 61.9
M Lyell 58.4
S Hegarty (U18) 57.8
N Miller (U14) 55.5
C Robson 48.3

Junior Prix

C Hanley 81.5
S Haslinger 78.7
L D'Costa (U18) 76.0
S Gordon 71.3
A Ghasi 70.3
T Seymour (U16) 59.

The prize fund for the Grand Prix is as follows

1st Ł5000 plus the BCF Grand Prix Trophy
2nd Ł2,000
3rd Ł1,000
4th Ł600
5th Ł400
6th Ł200 and for the Prixette
1st Ł500 plus the BCF Prixette Trophy
2nd Ł250
3rd Ł150

A nice game from the 4NCL in which central pawns prevail over a queenside majority. Readers may recall the game between Garry Kasparov and Ruslan Ponomariov from Linares this year in which the exchange on c3 in a similar position only served to strengthen White's centre. Black should wait for dxc5 before playing Nxc3 and instead 15...Nc7 and later ...f5 was better. Grandmaster Nigel Davies uses his new 'c' pawn to exchange the black 'd' pawn and the two central passed pawns advance. There is no stopping the avalanche, if 30...Rd6 31.Rf1 b3 32.axb3 cxb3 33.e7 Re8 34.Rf8+! Rxf8 35.e8(Q)

N.Davies - M.Quinn
4NCL Div1 (2.2) Richmond v 3Cs I West Bromwich

1 Nf3 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 g3 b6 4 Bg2 Bb7 5 d4 Be7 6 0-0 0-0 7 Re1 d5 8 cxd5 exd5 9 Nc3 Na6 10 Bg5 Ne4 11 Bxe7 Qxe7 12 e3 c5 13 Ne5 f6 14 Nd3 Rfd8 15 Nf4 Nxc3 16 bxc3 Nc7 17 c4! Rab8 18 cxd5 Nxd5 19 Nxd5 Bxd5 20 e4 Bf7 21 d5 b5 22 f4 Qd7 23 Qc2 Qc7 24 Rad1 c4 25 e5 fxe5 26 fxe5 b4 27 Kh1 Qc5 28 e6 Bg6 29 Be4 Bxe4+ 30 Qxe4 Rb6 31 Qf4 Rb7 32 d6 Qc6+ 33 Qe4 Qxe4+ 34 Rxe4 c3 35 e7 1-0

Final position after 35.e7

board