The final weekend of 4NCL concluded yesterday at Telford & Wokefield Park. Our three teams (sadly not 4 due to insufficient first-team numbers) recorded these results:
- Oxford 1 were whitewashed 0-8 by Cheddleton 1, then lost 3-5 to Guildford 2 and 1-7 to Barbican 1;
- Oxford 2 lost 2 ½-3½ to Wessex A before bouncing back to beat both Rhyfelwyr Essyllwg & Cambridge Uni 2 by that same scoreline;
- Oxford 3 were the real victims of our Div 1 shortage of players and dropped out of the promotion race with 2-4 losses to Throw In The Tal & eventual champions Surbiton, followed by a 1-4 loss to KJCA Kestrels (default-related scoreline).
There is a separate report by Sean on the Wokefield Park proceedings, mainly focussing on Ox2.
At Telford, Ox1 found themselves heavily outgunned by Cheddleton 1, giving away nearly 400 FIDE per board. It was remarkable that we fielded a team at all – thanks to Jason, Eldar, Nick and Maria for filling in lower down the order. We did get massacred but I thought Maria was a smidge better in the middlegame until allowing … Rd2 swinging the game Cheddleton skip Fiona’s way, while Will on top board kept super-GM David Howell occupied past the time control before going down.
Will was by far our best Ox1 player of the weekend, following that loss with a fine win over GM Mark Hebden on Sunday and salvaging what looked like a lost R+P endgame on Monday to avert a second whitewash. He goes to Exeter University next season; skip very much hopes to see him at the board for us while he’s reading up everything he can about history (cue Rudge in The History Boys: “History? It’s just one ****** thing after another.” Hector: “Hit that boy!”).
Skip managed to score a draw in the Barbican match as well, but he got lucky: his 39. … Kh6?? was an utter howler, as opp Martin Taylor in time pressure promptly played the critical 40. Qb8!. Chess24 says “no problem, it’s always 0.00 from there” but it doesn’t mention 41. Qg8 g5 42. Qe6 Kg6 43. Qxg4 after which White is doing quite well. 42. … Qxe6 43. dxe6 Kg6 44. hxg5 Kg7 draws, but 44. h5+! wins – both of us had spotted this trick during the game.
Justin T “popped in” to Telford briefly to pick up a quick draw with Yang-Fan Zhou on the Sunday to wrap up his third GM norm and (virtually) the GM title – he just needs to gain ~15 more FIDE to get here. Congratulations to him! Doubtless he’ll be watching the “live” ratings in his next tournament, for it is possible to claim a title with a rating achieved in mid-event.
In Ox2/3, Phil H scored three straight wins to take his winning streak to … now, skip has lost count. Is it five? Justin H, like his namesake Justin T, completed an unbeaten season with 2/3 having – again, like his namesake – spent most of the season on board 1. This weekend, though, he was on top board of the seconds rather than the thirds.