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.

As Guildford ADC I took the 4NCL first division title the relegation issues were also decided in the final weekend's play at the West Bromwich Moat House.

With Warwickshire Select already doomed, Slough, Richmond and Barbican 4NCL II were the three candidates for the remaining two relegation spots. Slough pulled off a fine 4-4 draw against Guildford ADC in round ten thanks to their lower boards Eddie Dearing and Maxim Devereaux who both defeated Grandmaster opposition.

Barbican 4NCL II and Richmond both suffered heavy defeats in round ten but Slough, despite their draw with Guildford ADC only had four match points and were down irrespective of the result of their last match.

Going into the final game Barbican 4NCL II had six points to Richmond's seven and needed to defeat The Ads, led by Grandmaster Ian Rogers of Australia, to avoid the drop. A tight match concluded in a 4-4 draw but Barbican might have escaped had they been able to field a female player. There were several defaults on the last weekend from teams unable to find a female and many teams brought in players from abroad.

Despite losing 2.5-5.5 to Wood Green II in the last round Richmond maintained their first division status by virtue of having scored 1.5 game points more than Barbican 4NCL II.

Maxim Devereaux was the brave chess player who took on the task of pretending to be a football manager in the television programme 'Faking It'. Although he did not succeed there I am sure you will agree he does a good impersonation of a strong chess player in the following game where he took his second GM scalp of the season. Sadly these heroics did not prevent his Slough team of suffering the agony of relegation.

G.Flear - M.Devereaux
4NCL Div1 West Bromwich (10.6)
Nimzo-Indian Defence

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Bb4 4 Nf3 c5 5 g3 Nc6 6 Bg2 Ne4 7 Bd2 Nxd2 8 Qxd2 cxd4 9 Nxd4 0-0 10 Nc2 Be7 11 0-0 d6 12 Rfd1 Qb6 13 Rac1 Rd8 14 b3 Bd7 15 Ne4 Be8 16 Qf4 Nb4 17 Nxb4 Qxb4 18 c5 dxc5 19 Qc7 c4 20 bxc4 Rac8 21 Rxd8 Rxc7 22 Rxe8+ Bf8 23 Rd1 g6 24 h4 Kg7 25 Rdd8 Be7 26 Rg8+ Kh6 27 g4 Rxc4 28 g5+ Kh5 29 Rd7 Qe1+ 30 Kh2 Rxe4 31 Bxe4 Qxf2+ 32 Bg2 Bc5 33 Rd3 Be3 0-1 (Time)

Final position after 33...Be3.

board