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

Daily Telegraph

Malcolm Pein writes a daily chess column in the Daily Telegraph. This article is used on the 4NCL web site with permission.

Guildford A&DC 1 continued their winning streak in Weekend 2 of the 4NCL Division 1 although with the split division format in use this year they will face a renewed challenge after the seventh round. Guildford A&DC 1 won both their matches comfortably, defeating Barbican 4 NCL 2, whom they out-rated by 250 points aboard, 7-1 and The Gambit Ads 6-2. In the latter match Jonathan Rowson drew with Jon Speelman while David Howell defeated New Zealand GM Murray Chandler who had remained in Europe after the Chess Olympiad.

After round seven the two groups below will be split, with the top four from each going into Pool A and the bottom four into Pool B. Results will be carried forward and each time will face only the teams coming from the other group. Guildford A&DC’s principal challenge will come from the newly combined Wood Green and Hilsmark Kingfisher team who like Guildford have won all four matches. WGHK narrowly defeated Guildford A&DC’s second team in round four.

	W	D	L	Pts
Wood Green Hilsmark 1	4	0	0	8
White Rose 1	3	0	1	6
South Wales Dragons 1	2	2	0	6
Barbican 4NCL1	2	1	1	5
Guildford-A&DC 2	2	0	2	4
Richmond 1	1	0	3	1 *
Cambridge University 1	0	1	3	1
Sambuca Sharks	0	0	4	0

	W	D	L	Pts
Guildford-A&DC 1	4	0	0	8
Pride and Prejudice	3	1	0	7
Wood Green Hilsmark 2	2	1	1	5
The Gambit Ads	2	0	2	4
Betsson.Com	1	0	3	2
Barbican 4ncl 2	1	0	3	2
Bristol 1	1	0	3	2
North West Eagles	1	0	3	0

E Prie (2491) - E Dearing (2383)
4NCL Hinckley (3)
Modern Defence
1.d4 g6 2.e4 Bg7 3.f4 d6 4.Nf3 Nf6?! (Now Black gets a bad Alekhine's Defence in which he cannot fight for the centre adequately. 4...Bg4 5.c3! defends the d4 square but 4...c5 5.dxc5 Qa5+ 6.c3 Qxc5 is playable) 5.e5 Nd5 6.c4! Nb6 7.Nc3 0-0 8.Be3 Bg4 9.h3 Bxf3 10.Qxf3 dxe5 11.dxe5 Nc6 12.Rd1 Qc8 13.c5 (White has two bishops and a big advantage in space and development. All the preconditions for a kingside attack are present) 13...Nd7 14.Bb5 Ndb8 15.Qe4 f6 16.Bc4+ Kh8 17.h4! fxe5 18.h5 Qg4 19.hxg6 h6 20.f5 Qxe4 (20...Qxf5 21.Qxf5 Rxf5 22.Bxh6 is no better despite the queen exchange) 21.Nxe4 Rxf5 22.g4 Rf3 23.Ke2 Rxe3+ (23...Rf8 24.g5) 24.Kxe3 Nd4 25.Rdf1 Nd7 26.g5 1-0

Dearing

board

Prie

Final position after 26.g5

The Modern Defence suffers again. White plays to limit Black’s counterplay with 7.d5 but 7...e5 leads to weaknesses on the white squares. Black is delayed in playing his bishop to b7 because e6 is vulnerable but 12...Bb7 13.Bxg7 Kxg7 14.Ng5 Nc5 15.Ng5 h6 15.b4 was preferable to allowing the doubled e pawns. White has annoying pressure when Black misses a tactic and resigns a pawn down with Rd7 hard to prevent.

M Chandler (2515) - J Rudd (2344)
4NCL Hinckley (3)
Modern Defence
1.e4 d6 2.d4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.Be3 Nd7 5.Nf3 a6 6.a4 b6 7.d5 e5?! 8.dxe6 fxe6 9.Bc4 Qe7 10.0-0 Ngf6 11.Qd2 0-0 12.Bh6 Ne5 13.Nxe5 dxe5 14.Bxg7 Kxg7 15.Rad1 h6 16.Qe3 Bd7 17.Rd2 Qb4 18.Bb3 Rae8 19.Rfd1 Bc6 20.f3 Qe7 21.Bc4 Bb7 22.b3 Bc8 23.Ne2 Nh5? 24.Bxa6 1-0