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

Press Release

2003/04 season
Weekend 2
Divisions 1 and 2

It was a weekend of surprises at the Telford Moat House on January 17th and 18th, where Divisions 1 and 2 played rounds 3 and 4.

Surprise number 1 was an unwelcome one for all concerned ...after about 2 hours play on Saturday, the hotel fire alarm went off. Play was immediately suspended and the building was evacuated whilst fire fighters attended. At first players and spectators had to mill around in the hotel car park – not pleasant considering the Arctic conditions. Although everybody was let back into the hotel, it was over an hour and a half before we were allowed back to our seats and play resumed.

Surprise number 2 was the poor performance of red-hot favourites Wood Green 1, although all the credit should go to their opponents Betsson.com and Slough. Wood Green could only manage two 4-4 draws, and in truth can count themselves rather fortunate not to lose both matches.

In fact 4-4 proved a very popular score during the weekend. 4 out of the 6 matches in round 3 ended tied, with only Guildford-ADC 1 and Richmond advancing. By the end of the weekend Betsson.com had taken the lead with a round 4 win over Micro Markets NWE 1. Although Wood Green and their connections might not agree, this has got to be great news for the 4NCL with Division 1 wide open. Betsson must now fancy their chances of taking the title, though Guildford-ADC, Barbican 1 and Wood Green are still well in the reckoning.

In Division 2, Perceptron Youth scored a stunning 5˝-2˝ win over Wessex 1 in round 3, despite being outrated by over 150 points per board. This win moved Perceptron to the top of the table, but they succumbed on Sunday to Barbican’s third team. Perceptron still lead the table on game points, but King’s Head and Wessex 1 have also won 3 matches out of 4.

Selected games

Luke McShane vs. Richard Pert
Wood Green 1 vs. Betsson.com, board 2
Division 1, round 3

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 d6 4.O-O Bd7 5.Re1 Nf6 6.h3 g6 7.c3 Ne5 8.Bxd7+ Nfxd7 9.Nxe5 dxe5 10.d4 exd4 11.cxd4 Bg7 12.d5 O-O 13.Nc3 Rc8 14.Be3 Qa5 15.f4 Bxc3 16.bxc3 Qxc3 17.Qa4 Nf6 18.Bf2 b5 (Black offers a draw) 19.Qd1 Rfd8 20.Rc1 Qa3 21.Qd2 a5 22.f5 Qb4 23.Qe3 c4 24.Rb1 Qa4 25.Qh6 c3 26.e5

McShane vs. Pert

26...c2 27.exf6 exf6 28.fxg6 hxg6 29.Ra1 Rxd5 30.Qc1 Qb4 31.Qe3 Re5 32.Qc1 Rxe1+ 33.Bxe1 Qd4+ 34.Kh2 Qxa1 and White resigns.

Bob Eames vs. John Emms
Wood Green 1 vs. Betsson.com, board 7
Division 1, round 3

1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 e6 3.e4 h6 4.Bxf6 Qxf6 5.Nc3 Bb4 6.Qd3 d5 7.e5 Qd8 8.O-O-O c5 9.dxc5 O-O 10.f4 Nd7 11.Nce2 a5 12.Ng3 a4 13.a3 Bxc5 14.Nf3 b6 15.f5 Qc7 16.f6

Eames vs. Emms

16...Nxe5 17.Qe2 Ng4 18.fxg7 Rd8 19.Nd2 Ne3 20.Qh5 Bd4 21.Bd3 Bxg7 22.Rde1 d4 23.Kb1 Ba6 24.Rc1 Qe5 25.Qf3 Bxd3 26.cxd3 Rac8 27.Qb7 Rxc1+ 28.Rxc1 Qb5 29.Nc4 Qb3 30.Qe4 Rc8 31.Nh5 Nxc4 32.dxc4 d3 33.Nxg7 d2 and White resigns.

Tony Kosten vs. Martin Taylor
Guildford-ADC 1 vs. Barbican-4NCL 2, board 3
Division 1, round 3

1.Nf3 d5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 Nbd7 4.c4 e6 5.O-O Be7 6.b3 O-O 7.Bb2 c5 8.e3 b6 9.Qe2 Bb7 10.Nc3 Rc8 11.Rfd1 Qc7 12.Rac1 Rfd8 13.Nh4 Bf8 14.cxd5 exd5 15.d4 Qb8 16.dxc5 Nxc5 17.Nb5 Nfe4 18.Nf5 Ba6 19.f3 Ng5 20.f4 Nge6 21.Bxd5 Rxd5 22.Rxd5 Bxb5 23.Qxb5 Nc7

Kosten vs. Taylor

24.Rdxc5 Bxc5 25.Qc6 Ne6 26.Ne7+ Black resigns.

Helen Milligan vs. Heather Lang
Micro Markets NWE 2 vs. Guildford-ADC 2, board 8
Division 2, round 3

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Qh4 5.Nc3 Bb4 6.Be2 Qxe4 7.Ndb5 Bxc3+ 8.bxc3 Kd8 9.O-O Nge7 10.Bd3 Qh4 11.g3 Qf6 12.Re1 a6 13.Nd4 Ne5 14.Bf4 Nxd3 15.Qxd3 d6 16.Nf3 Bf5 17.Qd2 h6 18.Be5 Qg6 19.Nh4 Qh7

Milligan vs. Lang

20.Bxd6 Nc6 21.Nxf5 Qxf5 22.Bf8+ Qd7 23.Qxd7+ Kxd7 24.Rad1+ Nd4 25.Rxd4+ Kc6 26.Bxg7 Black resigns.

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