Oxford 4NCL

Onliners, we recorded these results tonight:

Our games are available for persual/analysis here.

Ox1: first, what happened to Tashika? Well, her opponent was barred by the arbiters pre-match for Fair Play reasons. The Shropshire skip listed him anyway. Said skip had been emailed by the Chief Arbiter eight days ago that he’d be barred, so this was a selection-??-blunder. I promptly defaulted him. Tashika wasn’t put out by this: “good, I have 

Parents’ Evening tonight, a test tomorrow, and I want to watch POR v SWI!” [skip hopes it was better than MOR v SPA?]

On the board, once skip settled into watching games, he found Jan & Tomasz involved in rook+pawn endgames. Tomasz’s transposed into a quick draw, Jan had rather more work to do before he could secure his draw, and ran into a neat trick. Edgar maintained a plus throughout his game and wrapped his point up in a R+P endgame. That secures Division One football for our firsts in Season 7.

Ox2: Neil completed an unbeaten 5/6 season with a draw – the only regular Ox4NCLer to end up plus (apart from K & Phil, both +1 =0 -0). Chris & Graham overpressed, these things happen, while Asif registered a very cagey draw. We weren’t in the hunt for promotion, Barnet A & Guildford 1 won, and we drop to fourth after Plymouth won. It will be Division 2 football in Season 7.

Ox3: Shambavi grabbed an early draw offer from her opponent – fair enough, Ox3 were outgunned by 430+ ECF-O per board! Andrey followed with a big win, unexpectedly trapping the White queen while it was busy harassing his king. That left Simon who, after sacrificing an exchange, had a sizeable initiative and skip liked his position. Sadly White found a way to confuse matters and nicked the point – undeservedly!
This means Ox3 are in a relegation position when the music stops, Barnet Knights B having a better goal-difference. Ho hum. 

Still, skip reckons 1.5-2.5 v Dundee B was an excellent result against the Pool winners. It was only the Pool runners-up Wessex C dropping a 2-2 draw with Barnet B this time that sends Ox3 down. Division 3 football in S7 might be a good thing for our thirds?
That’s all, folks, for this season. Thank you for joining us and surviving! After Neil’s 5/6 others on 50% were Tashika, Asif, Andrey, Alex, James, Chris, Kenneth, Dima. There were an equal number of you on “-1”: Graham, Jan, Edgar, Tomasz (“draw-meister”, +0 =4 -1), Kev, David, Amaan, Sean.

Onliners, we recorded these results tonight:

Our games are available for persual/analysis here.

Ox1: Tomasz took a perpetual; James beat off an enterprising queen sacrifice but there was no joy elsewhere, so a loss it was. It will be a nervous Round 7 as SoA join us on 4 match points. Tie-break rules will need to be re-checked closely by your skip before that.

Ox2: Graham got into a dead-level knight endgame but at the point where he took a perpetual skip felt he was on top? Neilmade it four straight wins but Edgar couldn’t quite convert an extra piece. Elsewhere, events conspired against us, for Atticus conveniently forgot to submit their team for tonight and capitulated 0-4 to Guildford 1. Silly them. As Barnet Knights A also won that is goodbye, promotion.

Ox3: Asif was back and with a bang as he despatched his opponent who wasted too much time in the opening, castled “into it” and saw his a6 pawn executed. Alex survived some horrendous time-trouble to win. A 2-2 draw moves us up to 4 points but with leaders Dundee B on the horizon, we may need favours from tonight’s oppo in Round 7.

Personal Scores

Neil is way ahead on the individual scores front, having 4.5/5 with Alex having 2.5/4, Graham, Asif & Jan 2.5/5, Chris 2/3.

Onliners, we recorded these results tonight:

Our games are available for persual/analysis here.

Oxford 1: Kenneth played a Benoni, but it wasn’t a Benoni as your skip knows it. The kingside pawns disappeared by move 21 and shortly after that the Black position had disappeared as well. How does that happen? Skip hopes Tashika & Dima have looked at this one for future anti-Benoni weapons? James foxed our kibitzers by starting a fake game 1. Nh3 before kicking off the real one! He wound up with a perpetual, as Tomaszgrabbed an early draw offer. David’s game attracted a large crowd, well, as “large” as goes for online chess (12 kibbers). Some thrills & spills went opp IM Murphy’s way, so 1-3 it was.

Oxford 2: After a prelude of multiple exchanges, Neil’s king went up for the endgame in big style, but what on earth was White’s king doing dozing on f1? His Majesty’s arrival on e3 caused oppo paralysis. Three wins on the trot for Neil. Chris scored a back-rank mate variant and Edgar registered his first point of the season.

Oxford 3: after our unfortunate default, nothing went right. Andrey engineered a nice position with connected passers Q-side and his dark-squared bishop covering the queening square. Skip liked it, but less so the piece sac that followed when White managed to halt the passers. Still, a good effort from Andrey against one of the players who’s regularly up near the top in 4NCL-O Opens, I’m sure he was worried at move 27.