4NCL – 2005–06

Nottinghamshire fielded two teams in Division 4 of the Four Nations Chess League (4NCL) in 2005–06. Match results and reports are listed below.

Full details of the 4NCL can be found at the 4NCL web site. You can also check the current Division 4 results and standings.

First weekend

Richard Truman:

Thanks to everyone who turned out at the weekend, when we had mixed fortunes. The first team kicked off by drawing with Warwicks Select 2, by no means a bad result: there was very little difference in overall strength, so a close match was on the cards. It didn’t help, though, that yours truly missed a win that everybody else saw! The second team lost 5–1 to Brown Jack, and whilst the overall result was probably expected, it was tighter than the score suggests.

The Sunday went well for the second team, who won 4½–1½ against Oxford 3: we did outgrade them, but on the run of play we could possibly have done even better. The first team, however, weren’t so fortunate, as we went down 2½– 3½ to Slough Sharks 4, whom we beat last season. We had a stronger team than last year, they had a weaker one, but...

Things could be worse: at least our two teams haven’t been drawn together in the next round!

David Levens:

Notts 2–Brown Jack

My initiation into the 4NCL started with an accident on the M6, which gave me a most frustrating journey to the Park Hotel (ex Moat House Hotel) in West Bromwich. In consequence my brain didn’t settle down until after the first 12 moves or so had been played, by which time I found myself struggling in an unfamiliar variation of the Sicilian against a very strong junior with a BCF grade of 166 – in reality probably more like 180! For all that, I managed to get a look at some of the other Notts games going on. Most of my colleagues in Notts 2, except for Brian Thompson, seemed to be having the worst of it: Richard Webster lost fairly quickly against the Albin–Chatard attack; I think I was the next to succumb; and Anjali Lakhani lost to the London System. This is not an easy system to deal with if you’re an experienced adult player and, unfortunately it proved too much for Anjali, who is only 12, even though she put up some spirited resistance. Tony Wright faced the sacrifice of a piece for three pawns, the pawns eventually proving the better. That left Boards 1 and 4 still battling on. Tim Walker, outgraded by 155 ELO points, put up strong resistance but was finally overwhelmed, while Brian secured our only point of the day.

Notts 1–Warwicks 2

Notts 1, with a side graded marginally better than their opposition, Warwickshire Select 2, managed a close-fought draw. Mike Barnes won impressively while Kishan Lakhani lost. Kishan thought he missed a win earlier; this was certainly quite possible as this was a very complicated game – Kishan’s opponent, with an ELO of 2080 (BCF 166) had sacrificed his queen for three minor pieces and eventually crashed through, though it was unclear for some time who was actually winning! I didn’t see much of the other games, but Andy Walker’s game came down to a drawn rook and pawn ending; Richard Truman’s game culminated in a bishop and pawn ending resulting in another draw (but where he seemingly missed the win); and Pete Mercs did well to hold his ending: two rooks vs. a rook, bishop and four pawns!? The most entertaining, however was Bob Richmond’s game. In very severe time trouble Bob managed to find not only the best moves but caused his opponent, a pawn up, quite a few problems too.

Notts 2–Oxford 3

On Sunday I was much more settled in my mind, but turned up to find that Richard Truman had ‘punished’ me for my loss the previous day by putting me on Board 1! I soon found myself facing a Colle System, but 12 moves later had scored a convincing win – my opponent was either losing his queen or about to be mated! [This game can be seen on the West Nottingham site – ed.] I confess that I didn’t watch much more after that, though I had the strong impression that Anjali should probably have won. However, Richard Webster and Tony Wright also reversed their scores of yesterday, while Brian Thompson scored a second win to be the only Notts player to finish with a 100% score for the weekend.

Notts 1–Slough Sharks 4

This time the first team were playing in another room so I saw very little of the games. They must have been disappointed to lose when they had the grading edge.

Round 1: 5 November 2005

Nottinghamshire 1 2113 – Warwickshire Select 2 2098
1 Barnes, Michael H. 2200 1 – 0 Baruch, Andrew J. D. 2180
2 Richmond, Robert J. 2190 ½ – ½ Hunt, Malcolm A. 2090
3 Mercs, Peter J. 2110 ½ – ½ Lloyd, Alan D. 2110
4 Truman, Richard G. 2070 ½ – ½ Emanuel, John 2070
5 Walker, Andrew N. 2095 ½ – ½ Gordon, Callum 2060
6 Lakhani, Kishan 2010 0 – 1 Cooper, David M. 2080
      3 – 3    

Nottinghamshire 2 1967 – Brown Jack 2056
1 Walker, Tim D. 2050 0 – 1 Headlong, Timothy 2205
2 Webster, Richard J. 2080 0 – 1 Richmond, Jane (F) 2090
3 Levens, David 2025 0 – 1 Hall, Daniel J. 2080
4 Thompson, Brian 2015 1 – 0 Hall, Joshua D. 2020
5 Wright, Antony J. 1855 0 – 1 Cabero, Pablo Padilla 1955
6 Lakhani, Anjali (F) 1820 0 – 1 Tomboline, David 1985
      1 – 5    

Round 2: 6 November 2005

Slough Sharks 4 2057 – Nottinghamshire 1 2108
1 Ufodike, Bel 2090 1 – 0 Barnes, Michael H. 2200
2 Cox, Tristan 2095 ½ – ½ Richmond, Robert J. 2190
3 Varnam, Liam D. 2110 1 – 0 Mercs, Peter J. 2110
4 Makepeace, Philip J. 2050 0 – 1 Truman, Richard G. 2070
5 Foster, Cyril 2005 ½ – ½ Burke, Stephen J. 2065
6 Lewis, Andrew 1990 ½ – ½ Lakhani, Kishan 2010
      3½ – 2½    

Oxford 3 1897 – Nottinghamshire 2 1947
1 Harrison, Pete R. 1915 0 – 1 Levens, David 2025
2 Smith, Jonathan 1935 0 – 1 Webster, Richard J. 2020
3 Hadi, Justin 1895 0 – 1 Thompson, Brian 2030
4 Bull, Philip 1865 ½ – ½ Graham, Neil 1930
5 Henbest, Kevin B. 1855 0 – 1 Wright, Antony J. 1920
6 Zhang, Marco 1915 1 – 0 Lakhani, Anjali (F) 1755
      1½ – 4½    

Second weekend

Richard Truman:

Thanks to everyone who turned out at the weekend, which proved ‘interesting’ (!) The first team managed to win both matches against lower rated opposition, and are now 13th out of the 32 teams. However, it’s so tight that we’re only 1.5 board points off a promotion spot (four teams go up), so a couple of big wins could push us a long way up the table (have a look at the 4NCL website if that sounds improbable). We still had to put in a lot of hard work and also had some good fortune. Mike’s Saturday opponent and Pete’s Sunday opponent insisted on playing on interminably in completely drawn positions, whilst my own game on the Saturday was dead level until my opponent made a huge positional blunder. Andy had a nice win on the Sunday.

The second team did very well on the Saturday, despite being outgraded on every board: in fact, we came very close to winning. However, the Sunday was more of a struggle, and both matches had a number of blunders (I think there were three in Brian’s Sunday game alone), and the final blunder never seemed to go our way. One comment was that the players who had played on the Saturday seemed to be tired and a bit jaded on the Sunday: I can only say that if this was the case, it wasn’t due to a late night! Going out on the town is not that easy in West Bromwich...

Round 3: 3 December 2005

Nottinghamshire 1 2127 – Cavendish 2035
1 Barnes, Michael H. 2200 ½ – ½ Harman, Kenneth B. 2160
2 Richmond, Robert J. 2190 1 – 0 Scrimgour, Alan. 2120
3 Mercs, Peter J. 2110 0 – 1 Crichton, Martin. 2035
4 Halfpenny, Glenn 2125 ½ – ½ Hamblin, David J. 2025
5 Truman, Richard G. 2070 1 – 0 Tart, Peter 2015
6 Burke, Steven J. 2065 ½ – ½ Chapman, Timothy J. 1855
      3½ – 2½    

Nottinghamshire 2 1955 – Warwickshire Select 2 2054
1 Webster, Richard J. 2020 ½ – ½ Baruch, Andrew J. D. 2180
2 Thompson, Brian 2030 ½ – ½ Hunt, Malcolm A. 2105
3 Harrison, John 2015 0 – 1 Emanuel, John 2070
4 Graham, Neil 1930 ½ – ½ Cooper, David M. 2080
5 Wright, Antony J. 1920 1 – 0 Malik, Dani 1955
6 Lavelle, Terry W . 1815 0 – 1 Malik, Kaiser 1935
      2½ – 3½    

Round 4: 4 December 2005

FCA Solutions 1978 – Nottinghamshire 1 2113
1 Elwin, Adrian G. 2070 0 – 1 Barnes, Michael H. 2200
2 Kendall, Paul S. N. 2075 1 – 0 Richmond, Robert J. 2190
3 Valentine, Brian J. 1990 ½ – ½ Mercs, Peter J. 2110
4 Matthews, Adrian 1995 0 – 1 Walker, Andrew N. 2095
5 Shaw, John S. 1935 ½ – ½ Truman, Richard G. 2070
6 Billsberry, Jon 1800 0 – 1 Lakhani, Kishan 2010
      2 – 4    

Cavendish 1985 – Nottinghamshire 2 1968
1 Harman, Kenneth B. 2160 1 – 0 Webster, Richard J. 2020
2 Hamblin, David J. 2025 ½ – ½ Burke, Steven J. 2065
3 Crichton, Martin 2035 ½ – ½ Harrison, John 2015
4 Tart, Peter 2015 1 – 0 Thompson, Brian 2030
5 Chapman, Timothy J. 1855 1 – 0 Wright, Antony J. 1920
6 Upham, John E. 1820 ½ – ½ Lakhani, Anjali 1755
      4½ – 1½    

Third weekend

Richard Truman:

Thanks to everyone who turned out at the weekend, when once again we had mixed fortunes. Both teams won by decent margins on the Saturday against weaker opposition: although the first team made heavy weather of it, we got there in the end, whilst the second team appeared to win very comfortably. On the Sunday it was a different matter. The second team did well against higher rated opposition, with Anjali clinching the match by winning what was the penultimate game of the entire round to finish (five hours and 60 moves plus!). The first team’s match proved, unfortunately, that Mr Murphy is alive and well, and his law definitely applies! Robert, Steve and myself all went badly wrong in good positions, with the result that we missed out on being in the top four by the end of the weekend.

Round 5: 11 February 2006

Nottinghamshire 1 2119 – Grendel’s Mother 1972
1 Richmond, Robert J. 2190 0 – 1 Osborne, David C. 2085
2 Barnes, Michael H. 2200 1 – 0 Bass, John W. 2050
3 Mercs, Peter J. 2110 1 – 0 Greely, Simon 2010
4 Walker, Andrew N. 2095 0 – 1 Hibbitt, Arthur M. 1950
5 Truman, Richard G. 2070 1 – 0 Butterworth, Paul 1890
6 Walker, Tim D. 2050 1 – 0 Flexman, Patrick 1845
4 – 2

Nottinghamshire 2 1989 – Pontypridd 1816
1 Levens, David 2025 1 – 0 Adams, Mark A. 2079
2 Lakhani, Kishan 2010 ½ – ½ Taylor, Robert G. 2002
3 Webster, Richard J. 2020 ½ – ½ Davies, Peter L. 1929
4 Thompson, Brian 2030 ½ – ½ Lobo, Richard 1945
5 Wright, Antony J. 1920 1 – 0 Lobo, Robert J. 1565
6 Graham, Neil 1930 1 – 0 Warden, Peter 1378
4½ – 1½

Round 6: 12 February 2006

Athenaeum 1 2148 – Nottinghamshire 1 2127
1 Johansson, Toni 2185 0 – 1 Barnes, Michael H. 2200
2 Pedersen, Carsten 2175 1 – 0 Richmond, Robert J. 2190
3 Stevenson, James A. B. 2195 ½ – ½ Mercs, Peter J. 2110
4 Roberts, Paul 2200 ½ – ½ Halfpenny, Glenn 2125
5 Gruettner, Ralf 2105 1 – 0 Truman, Richard G. 2070
6 McLaughlin, Noel 2030 ½ – ½ Burke, Steven J. 2065
3½ – 2½

Nottinghamshire 2 1965 – Braille Chess Association 2016
1 Levens, David 2025 ½ – ½ Mordue, A. Tyson 2225
2 Lakhani, Kishan 2010 0 – 1 Ross, Chris 2165
3 Webster, Richard J. 2020 1 – 0 Hilton, Steve 2045
4 Walker, Tim D. 2050 ½ – ½ Armstrong, William G. 1985
5 Graham, Neil 1930 ½ – ½ Gallagher, John 1890
6 Lakhani, Anjali (F) 1755 1 – 0 Thacker, Steve M. 1785
3½ – 2½

Fourth weekend

Richard Truman

The weekend went well for the first team, who drew against Suffolk (a team with an almost identical average rating) on the Saturday and beat SCS comfortably on the Sunday. Peter had the misfortune to find himself playing out long endings in both matches! The second team did struggle a bit on the Saturday against Conquistadors (who drew with the first team last season) but on the Sunday did very well against a higher rated Cambridge team and could well have drawn with a bit more luck. The last weekend involves three games, and I imagine this could be difficult for a number of you.

Incidentally, at a captains’ meeting at the Nottingham weekend, we were unanimous in saying that we wanted the three-day weekend scrapped [the last three matches are to be played on 27–29 May – ed.], but we’re stuck with it for next year as well, and I guess this was because the dates had already been set.

Round 7: 18 March 2006

Nottinghamshire 1 2100 – The Suffolk Punches 2104
1 Richmond, Robert J. 2190 1 – 0 Munson, Shaun D. 2225
2 Mercs, Peter J. 2110 0 – 1 Gregory, Stephen J. 2155
3 Walker, Andrew N. 2095 ½ – ½ Wallis, Ian 2100
4 Halfpenny, Glenn 2125 ½ – ½ Gray, Mark S. 2105
5 Truman, Richard G. 2070 ½ – ½ Feavyour, John 2035
6 Lakhani, Kishan 2010 ½ – ½ Clapham, Michael 2005
3 – 3

The Conquistadors 1924 – Nottinghamshire 2 1935
1 Osborne, Marcus E. 2230 1 – 0 Webster, Richard J. 2020
2 Prizant, Michael 2135 ½ – ½ Harrison, John 2015
3 Foster, James C. 1950 ½ – ½ Thompson, Brian 2030
4 Cork, David J. 1955 1 – 0 Graham, Oliver 1975
5 Sathirathu, Phanikumar 1604 0 – 1 Lakhani, Anjali (F) 1755
6 Auckland, Elliot 1670 1 – 0 Lavelle, Terry W. 1815
4 – 2

Round 8: 19 March 2006

SCS 2050 – Nottinghamshire 1 2078
1 Moyse, Nigel 2160 0 – 1 Richmond, Robert J. 2190
2 Reynolds, D. Ian 2125 ½ – ½ Mercs, Peter J. 2110
3 Lutton, E. Josiah 2125 ½ – ½ Truman, Richard G. 2070
4 Kilpatrick, Callum 2070 ½ – ½ Levens, David 2025
5 Heard, Andrew H. 2030 ½ – ½ Burke, Steven J. 2065
6 Lowry-O’Reilly, Hannah (F) 1790 0 – 1 Lakhani, Kishan 2010
2 – 4

Cambridge University 2 2012 – Nottinghamshire 2 1945
1 Gooding, Ian 2100 0 – 1 Webster, Richard J. 2020
2 Cooley, Oliver 2085 1 – 0 Harrison, John 2015
3 Campbell, Mark 2005 ½ – ½ Thompson, Brian 2030
4 Gallagher, Ian G. 2010 ½ – ½ Graham, Neil 1930
5 Webster, Peter 1995 1 – 0 Wright, Antony J. 1920
6 Kapadia, Sujit 1875 ½ – ½ Lakhani, Anjali (F) 1755
3½ – 2½

Fifth weekend

Richard Truman

Thanks to everyone who turned out at the Bank Holiday weekend, when as usual we had a mixture of the good and the not so good. The first team kicked off with a draw against Guildford, who ended up getting promoted, which was a decent result (and thanks here to Michael McBeth for stepping in at what seemed like very short notice). We then came badly unstuck against Cheddleton (typified by yours truly making a fingerslip on move three (yes, 3!)), but recovered to thrash Monmouth and end up sixth, missing a promotion place by 3 points. This was really a fair bit adrift considering that we only played two of the five teams above us and how tight the division was. See the final table for details.

The second team had a relatively easy game against Addlestone on the Saturday, turned in a good result against Slough Sharks 4 (who beat the first team earlier in the season) on the Sunday, but on the Monday found SCS too strong: as one player commented, the first team ended up with then easier last round draw on paper.

Round 9: 27 May 2006

Guildford-ADC 4 2158 – Nottinghamshire 1 2114
1 Richardson, Keith B. 2240 1 – 0 Barnes, Michael H. 2200
2 Abayasekera, Roger 2185 0 – 1 Richmond, Robert J. 2190
3 Allinson, Julian 2205 ½ – ½ Mercs, Peter J. 2110
4 Punnett, Alan K. 2155 0 – 1 Truman, Richard G. 2070
5 Stimpson, Philip M. 2090 ½ – ½ McBeth, Michael 2050
6 Smart, Michael R 2070 1 – 0 Burke, Steven J. 2065
3 – 3

Addlestone 1913 – Nottinghamshire 2 1944
1 Dupré, Paul D. 2050 0 – 1 Lakhani, Kishan 2010
2 Gibson, Christopher 1970 1 – 0 Webster, Richard J. 2020
3 Klein, Cornelia (F) 1905 0 – 1 Thompson, Brian 2030
4 Albrecht, Theo 1855 ½ – ½ Graham, Neil 1930
5 Burgess, Thomas 1820 0 – 1 Wright, Antony J. 1920
6 Seale, Denis 1875 0 – 1 Lakhani, Anjali (F) 1755
1½ – 4½

Round 10: 28 May 2006

Nottinghamshire 1 2122 – Cheddleton 2090
1 Barnes, Michael H. 2200 ½ – ½ Wallace, Paul 2235
2 Richmond, Robert J. 2190 ½ – ½ Acey, Gerald 2140
3 Mercs, Peter J. 2110 0 – 1 Buxton, David E. 2110
4 Truman, Richard G. 2070 0 – 1 Bennett, Patrick 2080
5 Walker, Andrew N. 2095 ½ – ½ Soames, Anthony R. 2005
6 Burke, Steven J. 2065 ½ – ½ Laurence, Geoffrey 1970
2 – 4

Nottinghamshire 2 1958 – Slough Sharks 4 2030
1 Lakhani, Kishan 2010 ½ – ½ Varnam, Liam D. 2110
2 Webster, Richard J. 2020 ½ – ½ Sparkes, Daniel A. 2030
3 Thompson, Brian 2030 ½ – ½ Makepeace, Philip J. 2050
4 Harrison, John 2015 1 – 0 Coates, David 2025
5 Wright, Antony J. 1920 0 – 1 Edgell, Ben P. 2095
6 Lakhani, Anjali (F) 1755 ½ – ½ Winchcombe, Andrew 1870
3 – 3

Round 11: 29 May 2006

Monmouth 1985 – Nottinghamshire 1 2083
1 Varley, Peter 2172 0 – 1 Richmond, Robert J. 2190
2 Beveridge, Nigel K. 2050 0 – 1 Mercs, Peter J. 2110
3 Davis, Lee 2025 ½ – ½ Truman, Richard G. 2070
4 Waterfield, John 2035 0 – 1 Burke, Steven J. 2065
5 Roberts, Dave 1863 ½ – ½ McBeth, Michael 2050
6 Allford, Zane 1764 0 – 1 Lakhani, Kishan 2010
1 – 5

Nottinghamshire 2 1912 – SCS 2056
1 Webster, Richard J. 2020 ½ – ½ Reynolds, D. Ian 2125
2 Thompson, Brian 2030 0 – 1 Lutton, E. Josiah 2125
3 Graham, Neil 1930 ½ – ½ Kilpatrick, Callum 2070
4 Wright, Antony J. 1920 ½ – ½ Sen, Subin 2045
5 Lakhani, Anjali 1755 ½ – ½ Heard, Andrew H. 2030
6 Lavelle, Terry W. 1815 0 – 1 Lutton, J. Arnold 1940
2 – 4