Weekend 3

Tim writes:

All, two more rounds of 4NCL were played at the weekend and Oxford recorded these results:

• Oxford 1 unfortunately lost both matches 3½-4½ v Grantham & 2½-5½ v WGHK;
• Oxford 2 beat West Is Best 2 4-2 and drew with Full Ponty 3-3;
• Oxford 3 scored a tremendous 5½-½ win over Iceni 2, then lost 2-4 to Brown Jack 2.

I’ll start with the best bit, Oxford 3’s fantastic Saturday performance. Iceni 2 put out a similar team to the one that lost 5-1 in round two to Oxford 2, so hats off to Phil N, Seans T & L, Tim F, Graham C and especially Andrew who I thought produced the game of the weekend, sacrificing both rooks for three pieces and a big passed pawn. That win put the thirds into seventh place overnight and inevitably a tough pairing followed which they lost, but without disgrace.

Oxford 2 maintained their top-of-the-table status (despite skip’s best efforts) and end the weekend joint-top with Full Ponty and the dangerous Barnet Knights 1. As a Caro-Kann man himself, skip enjoyed Nick’s win in the “Capablanca” variation: the moment he forked his own B&N on a3 & c3 to the White pawn on b2 is worth looking out for.

Oxford 1’s results could have been much better with more luck: from a cursory glance over the PGN files, skip reckons we might have reversed the Saturday result and might have drawn with WGHK. “Might” isn’t the same as “in reality”, though, and we enter the relegation pool which starts in round 7 with our last Pool B match against Barbican 2. We do take 4 points into it; past history suggests 2 further match wins will be enough for Div 1 safety.