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.

Wood Green I and Guildford ADC I headed into their decisive eleventh round battle at the head of Division one with 20/20 match points each after winning their tenth round ties at the final 4 NCL weekend held at the West Bromwich Moat House Hotel.

The big guns were out for both sides with Guildford ADC bringing in Emil Sutovsky of Israel, Zahar Efimenko of Ukraine and the Canadian Pascal Charbonneau. Each team has to have one female player under league rules and Guildford ADC moved Susan Lalic to the second team and played the American Irina Krush in their first team.

Wood Green captain Brian Smith had two of the world's top twenty in his side and played Michael Adams on board one and Alexey Shirov on board two. Wood Green needed a strong squad to overcome Guildford ADC II who fielded six Grandmasters in an attempt to derail Wood Green I's title challenge. Wood Green I clinched the match with victories from Shirov and Danny Gormally.

Round ten

Guildford ADC II 3-5 Wood Green I

Charbonneau draw Adams
Flear 0-1 Shirov
Kosten draw B Lalic
Gallagher 0-1 Gormally
Hebden draw Baburin
Howell draw Speelman
Shaw draw Turner
S. Lalic draw P Cramling

Wood Green I's lead on board points means they need just a 4-4 draw against Guioldford ADC I in the last round but Guildford captain IM Nigel Povah is determined to retain the title and added world number ten Peter Svidler of Russia for the last round. Brian Smith brought in Viktor Bologan, Peter Heine Nielsen and Ivan Sokolov for what was one of the strongest matches in the history of British chess with nine of the sixteen players ranked in the world's top 100.

The line up was:

Wood Green I names first.

Michael Adams (w) - Peter Svidler
Zahar Efimenko - Alexey Shirov
Viktor Bologan - Joel Lautier
Emil Sutovsky - Ivan Sokolov
Peter Heine Nielsen - Jonathan Rowson
Luke McShane - Mark Hebden
Danny Gormally - Pascal Charbonneau
Pia Cramling - Irina Krush

Full results tomorrow.

There was a wild game on top board in the tenth round match between Betsson and Northwest Eagles. The early kingside attack does not work and the white king ends up the more exposed.

S.Williams - C.Hanley
4NCL Div 1 (10) West Bromwich
King's Indian Defence

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 Bg7 4 e4 d6 5 Be2 0-0 6 Be3 Na6 7 g4 c5 8 d5 e6 9 g5 Ne8 10 h4 exd5 11 cxd5 f5 12 gxf6 Nxf6 13 e5 dxe5 14 d6 Bf5 15 Nf3 Nb4 16 Rc1 e4 17 Ne5 Qe8 18 Nb5? Qxe5 19 Rxc5 Nfd5 20 Bd4 Qe6 21 Rc7 Nd3+! 22 Qxd3 Nxc7! 23 Qc2 Nxb5 24 Bc4 Nxd4 25 Bxe6+ Bxe6 26 Qxe4 Rae8 27 0-0 Rf4 28 Qxb7 Rg4+ 29 Kh1 Rxh4+ 30 Kg2 Bh3+ 31 Kg3 Nf5+ 32 Kf3 Bh6 33 Qb3+ Kf8 34 d7 Rf4 mate 0-1

a) 11.exd5 is certainly more suited to limiting Black's counterplay then if 11...f5 12.Nh3 intending Nf4 and h4-h5; 12.Qd2 is also possible but 12...f4!? 13.Bxf4 Nb4 idea Rxf4 gives Black some play for the pawn.

b) 18.Nb5 was the fatal error although the White position was probably beyond salvation. 18.Bxc5 might have created some more confusion after 18.Bxc5 Nd3+ 19.Bxd3 exd3 20.f4 Nd7 ( 20...b6!? ) 21.Nd5

c) 22...exd3 was also good 22...exd3 23.Rxg7+ Kh8 24.Re7+ Qf6 25.Bxf6+ Rxf6 26.Bf3 Nxe7 27.dxe7 Re8

d) 23.Nxc7 exd3 24.Nxe6 Bxe6 25.Bxg7 Kxg7 wins

e) 26.Qa4 Rac8 27.0-0 Nf3+ 28.Kg2 Rf4 29.d7 Rg4+ 30.Kh3 Rg1 mate

Final position after 34...Rf4 mate

board

The Czech WGM Jana Jackova played a fine game to defeat Adam Hunt who seemed taken aback by 15...Nxe4 or else he would surely have tried 16.Qh5 Ng5 ( 16...Nd6 17.Ng4) 17.Ng4 when the pawn is regained and Black must play accurately for example 17...d5 18.Nxe5 g6? (18...Qf6) 19.Nhxg6 fxg6 20.Qxg6+ Bg7 21.Ng4; White creates a few threats but they are efficiently dealt with and the bold 24...Qxf5! was rewarded; 24...Qc6 was safer but after 25.Qxc6 Nxc6 26.Ne3 regains the pawn and White is slightly worse but not 25.Qg4 g6) Jackova then exploits the misplaced Rg3 and two more brave moves 27...g5! and 28...f5 lead to a rout.

A.Hunt - J.Jackova
4NCL Div 1 (10) West Bromwich
Ruy Lopez
Anti Marshall 8.h3

1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 Nf6 5 0-0 Be7 6 Re1 b5 7 Bb3 0-0 8 a4 Bb7 9 d3 Re8 10 Nbd2 Bf8 11 Nf1 Na5 12 Ba2 c5 13 Ne3 h6 14 Bd2 b4 15 Nh4 Nxe4 16 dxe4 Qxh4 17 Nf5 Qf6 18 Qh5 c4 19 Re3 Kh7 20 Qh3 Qe6 21 Rae1 d5 22 Rg3 dxe4 23 Qg4 Bc8 24 Qxe4 Qxf5! 25 Qxa8 e4 26 Qb8 Qd5 27 Bf4 g5! 28 Be3 Bd6 29 Qb6 f5! 30 Bxg5 hxg5 31 Rxg5 Qd2 32 Qe3 Qxe3 33 fxe3 Be5 34 g4 fxg4 35 h4 gxh3 36 Kf2 Rf8+ 37 Ke2 Rf5 38 Rgg1 h2 39 Rg2 Rh5 40 Rh1 Bh3 41 Rf2 Bg4+ 0-1

Final position after 41...Bg4+

board