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

Press Release

2004/05 season
Weekend 2
Divisions 1 and 2

Divisions 1 and 2 played their third and fourth rounds at the West Bromwich Moat House on the weekend of 20th and 21st November.

The top division remains dominated by the big hitters Wood Green 1 and Guildford-ADC 1, who both maintained their 100% records. Wood Green now head the table by a meagre half of a game point. But whilst Guildford racked up heavy wins against Numerica 3Cs 1 and Bristol 1, Wood Green’s team selection provided one of the talking points of the weekend. The 4NCL rulebook states that each team must consist of at least one female player, but never before has a team fielded 7 women players in a single match. The Wood Green team consisted of world (male) ranked number 10, Alexei Shirov and then 7 top international female players. The surprise effect of Wood Green’s team selection did not seem to disturb their opponents, North West Eagles, who despite being heavily out-rated, looked likely to pull off a surprise victory. It was only in the sixth hour of play that things started to swing Wood Green’s way.

Alexei Shirov will no doubt remember his tough introduction to the 4NCL. Both his weekend opponents, Craig Hanley and Simon Williams, gave an excellent account of themselves and will be left thinking “what might have been”.

Elsewhere in Division 1 there were many close matches and much jockeying for position. Remarkably a single match point covers the bottom 8 teams (!) – so the battle to avoid relegation is bound to go to the final weekend.

Division 2 saw an all-star match of its own with the top seeds Hilsmark Kingfisher 1 and Slough Sharks 1 facing off against each other. In another first for the league, all 8 games were transmitted live on the Internet – you can see the games here. A very tight match was eventually drawn 4-4. We appreciate the help received from Dave Clayton, the British Chess Federation, Stewart Reuben and the Lancashire Chess Association in providing the transmission.

Whilst Hilsmark continued their winning ways on Sunday, Slough Sharks were surprisingly held to a draw by Perceptron Youth. So the leaderboard now shows that Barbican 4NCL 2 have picked up maximum points so far, with Hilsmark and Sharks in hot pursuit.

The 4NCL now takes a break until the New Year, with Divisions 3 and 4 playing on 15th and 16th January (Telford Moat House) and Divisions 1 and 2 meeting at the new venue of Nottingham Moat House on 22nd and 23rd January.

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