The new Second Division of the Four Nations Chess League got off to a farcical start when the equipment failed to turn up. The First Division teams also had to kick their heels as the start time of 2pm came and went on Saturday 25th October. By 5:30pm enough boards, sets and clocks had been rounded up from local clubs to get the First Division matches started, but there was no option but to cancel the Second Division games.
Arbiter Richard Furness made a dash north overnight and returned with enough equipment to rescue Sunday's play. However, there were a number of defaults which meant that some people who travelled to Telford did not play at all. Not an auspicious beginning.
When play did finally get underway, Bristol 2 made a great start, beating Wessex by 6-2. Bristol 1 lost to Wood Green in the Saturday First Division tie by 5-3, but got an important two points by beating Guildford 5-3 on Sunday.
The following results, games and tables have been extracted from the wealth of information on the 4NCL web site.
Division 1
Wood Green Bristol 1
1 w J Emms 2530 1/2 S Ansell 2390
2 b C Ward 2485 1-0 K Mah 2365
3 w M Pein 2430 1-0 C Beaumont 2345
4 b P Littlewood 2435 1/2 CW Baker 2295
5 w J Poulton 2365 1-0 G Burgess 2315
6 b P Sowray 2350 1/2 C Cobb 2290
7 w A Law 2330 0-1 D Collier 2235
8 b A Shah 162 1/2 M Buckley 2025
5-3
Pein Malcolm (Wood Green) 1-0 Beaumont Chris (Bristol 1), Board 3, Round
1
1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 g6 3.Nf3 Bg7 4.d4 cd 5.Nxd4 Nc6 6.Be3 Nf6 7.Bc4 0 0 8.Bb3
d6 9.h3 Bd7 10.0 0 Rc8 11.Re1 Ne5 12.Qe2 Rxc3 13.bc Nxe4 14.f4 Nc6
15.Qd3 Nc5 16.Nxc6 Nxd3 17.Nxd8 Nxe1 18.Nxf7 Rxf7 19.Bxf7+ Kxf7 20.Rxe1
Bxc3 21.Rd1 a6 22.Bd4 Ba5 23.c3 Bc7 24.Kf2 Bc6 25.Re1 Bd5 26.a3 e6 27.g4
Bc4 28.Kg3 Bd5 29.g5 Bc4 30.Re3 Bb3 31.h4 Ke7 32.Re1 Kd7 33.h5 Kc6 34.f5
e5 35.fg hg 36.h6 Bg8 37.Be3 Bd8 38.Rh1 1:0
Poulton James (Wood Green) 1-0 Burgess Graham (Bristol 1), Board 4,
Round 1
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 0 0 5.0 0 d6 6.Nc3 Nc6 7.d5 Na5 8.e4 c6
9.Qe2 Bg4 10.Rd1 b5 11.dc b4 12.Nd5 Nxc6 13.h3 Nxd5 14.hg Nb6 15.a3 ba
16.Rxa3 Qc8 17.g5 Qe6 18.Bf1 Rfc8 19.c3 Ne5 20.Nxe5 Qxe5 21.Bf4 Qe6
22.Rda1 Rc7 23.Be3 Nc8 24.Qb5 Qe5 25.Qb4 Qe6 26.Ra6 Qd7 27.Bb5 1:0
Guildford 1 Bristol 1
1 w N Povah 2325 0-1 S Ansell 2390
2 b R Webb 2290 1/2 C Baker 2295
3 w C Kennaugh 2300 1/2 C Beaumont 2345
4 b M Anderton 2240 1/2 G Burgess 2315
5 w I Thompson 2260 0-1 K Mah 2365
6 b R Abaysekera 2230 0-1 C Cobb 2290
7 w M Singleton 185 1-0 D Collier 2235
8 b A Ashby 2115 1/2 M Buckley 2025
3-5
Povah Nigel (Guildford) 0-1 Ansell Simon (Bristol) Div 1 1997 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 e6 3.e4 h6 4.Bxf6 Qxf6 5.Nc3 d6 6.Qd2 c6 7.f4 e5 8.de de 9.f5 Nd7 10.Nf3 Nb6 11.0 0 0 Bd7 12.h4 0 0 0 13.Nb1 Kb8 14.Qc3 Bd6 15.Qb3 Qe7 16.a4 Bc8 17.a5 Nd7 18.Nbd2 Nf6 19.Bc4 g6 20.fg fg 21.Bf7 Ng4 22.Rhf1 Bc5 23.Rde1 Ne3 24.Rxe3 Bxe3 25.Qxe3 Qxf7 26.Nxe5 Qa2 27.Nxg6 Rhg8 28.Qxh6 Rd6 29.h5 Rgd8 30.Qf4 Ka8 31.Nb1 Qxa5 32.g4 Be6 33.b3 Qc5 34.Kb2 a5 35.Nc3 Bxb3 36.Qe5 Qb4 37.Ra1 Bxc2+ 38.Kc1 Rd1+ 39.Nxd1 Qd2+ 0:1 Cobb Charles (Bristol) 1-0 Abayasekera Roger (Guildford) Div 1 1997 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 b6 4.Bg2 Bb7 5.0 0 c5 6.Nc3 d6 7.a3 Be7 8.b4 0 0 9.Bb2 Nc6 10.Qb3 Qd7 11.d3 Nd4 12.Nxd4 cd 13.Ne4 Nxe4 14.Bxe4 e5 15.Bxb7 Qxb7 16.e3 de 17.fe Bg5 18.Rae1 Kh8 19.e4 Rae8 20.Rf5 Bh6 21.Ref1 Qe7 22.Kg2 f6 23.R5f3 Qe6 24.a4 a6 25.b5 a5 26.Qc2 Rb8 27.Ba3 Rfc8 28.Qf2 Kg8 29.Rf5 Rc7 30.Qe2 Rbb7 31.Bb2 Rb8 32.Bc3 Re7 33.Be1 Bc1 34.Bxa5 Ba3 35.Bd2 Bc5 36.Ra1 Ra8 37.a5 ba 38.Rxa5 Rea7 39.Rxa7 Rxa7 40.Be3 Qc8 41.Rf2 Ra4 42.Bxc5 Qxc5 43.Qg4 Kf8 44.Qd7 Ra3 45.Qd8+ Kf7 46.b6 Rb3 47.Qd7+ Kg6 48.Qe8+ Kh6 49.Rf5 1:0
Division 2
Wessex Bristol 2
1 w Rossiter,Philip 2370 0-1 Mordue,Tyson 2255
2 b Upton,Ian 2245 0-1 Moskovic,David 2180
3 w Corkett,Anthony 2295 0-1 Rudd,Jack 2170
4 b Yeo,Michael 2210 1/2 Cooper,Andrew xxxx
5 w Noyce,Bob 2180 0-1 Buckley,Simon xxxx
6 b Neil,David 2260 1-0 Humphreys,Jerry xxxx
7 w Brameld,Arthur xxxx 1/2 Sellars,Martyn xxxx
8 b Howard,Emily xxxx 0-1 Tidman,Sophie xxxx
2-6
4NCL League Table Division 1 P MP GP MMonarchs 2 4 12.5 Wood Green 2 4 12.5 Barbican 1 2 4 10.5 Slough 2 4 9.5 Guildford 1 2 2 9.5 Bristol 1 2 2 8.0 Richmond 2 2 8.0 Invicta Knights 1 2 2 6.5 British Chess Magazine 2 0 6.5 North West Eagles 2 0 5.5 South Wales Dragons 2 0 4.0 Northumbria Vikings 2 0 2.0
P W D L MP GP 1 Midland Monarchs 12 10 1 1 21 62.5 2 Invicta Knights 12 9 2 1 20 59.0 3 Slough 12 10 1 1 20 64.0 4 Northumbria 12 9 2 1 20 61.5 5 Barbican 12 9 1 2 19 57.0 6 BCM 12 8 1 3 17 53.0 7 Bristol 12 7 0 5 14 47.5 8 North West Eagles 12 6 1 5 13 51.5 9 Wood Green 12 6 0 6 12 53.0 10 South Wales Dragons 12 5 1 6 11 43.0 11 Guildford 12 5 0 7 10 45.0 12 Richmond 12 4 1 7 9 44.5 13 R Wessex 12 4 0 8 8 45.5 14 R Croydon 1859 12 3 1 8 7 42.5 15 R Na Fianna 12 3 0 9 6 38.0 16 R Witney 12 2 0 10 4 37.5 17 R Hertford 12 2 0 10 4 32.5 18 R Celtic Knights 12 0 0 12 0 24.5 R = Relegated to Division 2.