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

Daily Telegraph

Malcolm Pein's daily chess column is available at the Telegraph's web site. You need to register, which is free. The daily chess column can be found by clicking the "Chess Club" link in the Arts section.

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

The enduring success of the 4Nations Chess League is reflected in the demand for a berth in the competition. A new team from Gloucestershire has already registered for the 2004-2005 season. The 4NCL fourth division is now so big it can no longer be run as an all play all and so the organisers have to run it using the Swiss system.

There are some unusual team names in the fourth division including Brown Jack, co leaders after six rounds with Metropolitan. A team intriguingly called Grendel's Mother has three wins and three losses.

The division two the lead changed hands during rounds five and six as Perceptron Youth could only manage one 4-4 draw from their two matches.

Division two

Team Won Drawn Lost Points
Kings Head 4 1 1 9
S Wales Dragons I 3 2 1 8
Wessex I 4 0 2 8
Bristol I 3 1 2 7
Perceptron Youth 3 1 2 7
Micro Mark. NWE II 2 2 2 6
Guildford-ADC II 2 2 2 6
White Rose 2 1 3 5
Mindsports I 2 1 3 5
Numerica 3Cs II 1 2 3 4
Poisoned Pawns I 1 2 3 4
Barbican 4NCL III 1 1 4 3

An entertaining game from Division 2. Team sponsor Nigel Povah despatched his opponent from Wessex in style but to no avail, his Guildford ADC II team lost 2.5-5.5 . Black is well ahead in the attacking race when White tries to catch up with 15.b4 only to find the pawn removed with 15…Bxb4! and if 16.cxb4 Nxd4 forking queen and bishop. If 19.g3 fxg3 and White has to give up the bishop on g4 anyway. 21.cxb7+ while tempting was the decisive error because White needed the check on f5 after 20.cxb4 gxh3 21.Qxe4 Rd4 22.Qf5+ and Qxh3. In the final position White is losing a rook.

R.Webb - N.Povah
4NCL Div 2 (6.2)
Scandinavian Defence

1 e4 d5 2 exd5 Nf6 3 d4 Bg4 4 Nf3 Qxd5 5 Be2 Nc6 6 h3 Bxf3 7 Bxf3 Qd7 8 c3 0-0-0 9 0-0 e5! 10 Qb3 e4 11 Be2 Nd5 12 Qc2 f5 13 Nd2 Nf4 14 Nc4 g5! 15 b4 Bxb4 16 Bxf4 gxf4 17 d5 Qg7! 18 dxc6 Rhg8 19 Bg4 fxg4 20 Qxe4 gxh3 21 cxb7+ Kb8 22 Ne5 Rd6 23 Rfd1 Bxc3 24 Rxd6 Bxe5 0-1

Final position after 24...Bxe5

board