Category: 2016-17

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Ox4NCL News – July/August 2017

As you can see, webmaster K has rashly given your skip update access to the Ox4NCL website and told him to “fire away”. So. It’s been a while since we posted updates of any sort, so just the headline summer news:

Marcus IM Norm

Marcus scored his first IM norm with 5.5/9 at the Paracin Open in Serbia in mid-July – well done to him! He met five IMs and three GMs, remaining unbeaten throughout. Justin was also there and scored 5/9.

Justin near-miss GM norm

Justin almost bagged a GM norm at the Malaysian Open just concluded, finishing on 6/9 unbeaten; he tells me he had a great position against his GM opp in R9 but said GM wriggled out for a draw. A win would have got him a norm – unlucky!

TeraFinal

Zoe was a joint winner of the Challengers B section in the TeraFinal in August, scoring 5/6 to tie with two others. Her round 6 game was a model draw in the Sicilian: 1. e4 c5 draw agreed! Elsewhere, Dimitrios Z recorded 3.5/6 in the TeraFinal proper to take the U8 prize , while Anna Wang scored 4/6 to take the “best girl” prize.

Phil N says he tackled a tournament in Hourtin, Bourdeaux where the main feature of the prize structure is that winners do not receive cash: instead, they receive their weight in wine, divided by their finishing position. Phil says he got “four bottles for being highest senior”. This must be an incentive to put on as much weight as possible!

Mike H is currently tackling the Heraklion Open in Greece and driving his fan club back home to apoplexy with his play, as is his wont. He can at least say he got in a random … b5 against a GM – he’ll say it was “positionally motivated”! Also in Greece, David Z has just finished the Apokoronas tournament, scoring 6/9 (+6 =0 -3), having the misfortune to meet three GMs with Black.  Dimitrios, playing in the same event, matched his father’s 100% White score with 4/4 but was rather less effective with the Black bits, scoring 1/5 – still, a creditable 5/9 for an eight-year-old!

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Weekend 5

[games, pgn]

Tim writes:

All, the final three rounds of 4NCL for 2016-17 have completed. Oxford’s teams scored these results:

  • Oxford 1 lost 3-5 & 2-6 to Kings’ Head & Blackthorne Russia, then bashed Celtic Tigers 6½-1½;
  • Oxford 2 drew 3-3 with both Brown Jack 2 & Wood Green Midland Monarchs 2, then beat Milton Keynes Phoenix 2 4-2;
  • Oxford 3 had only one match v Sussex Martlets 3 and lost that ½-5½.

Oxford 1 flirted dangerously with relegation as we lost the Saturday match to Kings’ Head on a day when all four teams in the bottom half of the relegation pool beat the four teams in the top half to blow the pool open. Happily we were able to win today’s match v Celtic Tigers. One of the players was confident enough to assert pre-match “we’re not going to lose, let alone by 6-2” (which might have seen us go down). Thankfully, he was right!

Oxford 2 were not as strong as previously this season but the players we put out did very well indeed to maintain our unbeaten record (+8 =3 -0 in the end) – particular mentions for Ian & Ross who scored bottom-board wins on their second-team debuts. Unfortunately that left the door ajar for Barnet Knights 1 to overtake us and they took the title by the narrow whisker of 1 game-point. Still, Oxford 2 are promoted [“for the first time in 14 years” – Kieran] and we take a cash prize of £200. Well done to everyone who who contributed this season. One of you suggests we spend the prize on a team kit of “yellow & blue onesies” … hmm. Perhaps not?

Our player of the weekend was undoubtedly Zoe: after requiring arbiter intervention to salvage a 3-fold repetition on Saturday, she scored back-to-back wins on Sunday & Monday for 2½/3. Yes, yes, skip scored 2½ as well but his best game was his 14-move draw on Sunday: his Lopez wins were streaky. Oddly, skip’s last three 1. e4 games have all been Ruys after many years of not having a single one of the things.

So ends another season – my thanks to all 43 players who played for us during the course of it, particularly to Phil N, Aidan, Zoe & David Z who played all 11 matches, and to Pavel, Graham C & David M for their ten appearances. Nick & Zoe were our highest-scoring players with 7½/9 & 7/11 respectively. Zoe splits as 6/9 in Div 1 and 1/2 in Div 4s; if we add in Francesca’s Div1 1½/2 , board 8 contributed 7½/11 to Ox1, so kudos to both Zoe & Francesca. Mike T had the highest percentage of players playing more than one game with 4½/5 – spoiling his 100% record today!

Oxford 1

Saturday

Kings Head 2137 Oxford 1 2216
w Kwiatkowski, Feliks J c 2223 0 – 1 Martins, David Pires Tavares f 2386
b Tukpetov, Evgeny 2199 ½ – ½ Zakarian, David f 2365
w Sun, Xinyue 2129 1 – 0 Asenov, Pavel 2335
b Guthrie, David 2163 1 – 0 Aguiar, Henrique Rui Neves 2186
w Foord, Dominic 2081 1 – 0 Rawlinson, Aidan M 2188
b Davey, Mark 2095 0 – 1 Dickinson, Tim R 2072
w Gilfillan, Andrew 2072 1 – 0 Hayward, Philip 1982
b Disu, Kayode 2087 ½ – ½ Varney, Zoe 1976
5 – 3

Sunday

Oxford 1 2269 Blackthorne Russia 2310
w Martins, David Pires Tavares f 2386 0 – 1 Gormally, Daniel W g 2465
b Zakarian, David f 2365 0 – 1 Ledger, Andrew J i 2371
w Asenov, Pavel 2335 0 – 1 Bates, Richard A i 2369
b Foo, Zhi Rong Benjamin c 2271 ½ – ½ Ansell, Simon T i 2355
w Hansen, Hans-Peter 2270 0 – 1 Webb, Laurence E f 2271
b Rawlinson, Aidan M 2188 0 – 1 Ledger, Dave J f 2207
w Dickinson, Tim R 2072 ½ – ½ Ledger, Stephen C 2132
b Varney, Zoe 1976 1 – 0 Atkins, Rita wi 2101
2 – 6

Monday

Celtic Tigers 2098 Oxford 1 2265
w Hoffmann, Hendrik f 2317 ½ – ½ Asenov, Pavel 2335
b Maciol, Ryszard 2139 0 – 1 Zakarian, David f 2365
w Pedersen, Carsten 2153 ½ – ½ Hansen, Hans-Peter 2270
b Haussernot, Cecile wf 2107 0 – 1 Rose, Matthew 2248
w Mitra, Roman C 2099 0 – 1 Gerlagh, Joris 2255
b Stevenson, James 2057 ½ – ½ Truran, Michael C 2194
w Larter, Nick J. 1815 0 – 1 Rawlinson, Aidan M 2188
b Buttell, David 1758 0 – 1 Varney, Zoe 1976
1½ – 6½

Oxford 2

Saturday

Brown Jack 2 1888 Oxford 2 1887
w Girdlestone, Paul C 2100 1 – 0 Matta, Francesca 1963
b Shaw, Meyrick 1944 ½ – ½ Terry, Sean 1917
w Tomboline, David 1943 1 – 0 Neatherway, A Philip 1858
b O'Byrne, Daniel 1742 0 – 1 Burrows, Nick 1889
w Headlong, Benjamin 1787 ½ – ½ Cole, Graham 1842
b Tombolis, Christopher 1817 0 – 1 Bush, Ian 1855
3 – 3

Sunday

Oxford 2 1881 Wood Green MM 2 1844
w Matta, Francesca 1963 0 – 1 Grigoryan, Meri wf 2057
b Cole, James 1982 0 – 1 Guha, Chirag 1922
w Cole, Graham 1842 ½ – ½ Metcalfe, Charlie P 1750
b Burrows, Nick 1889 ½ – ½ Lovell, William Pm 1817
w Neatherway, A Philip 1858 1 – 0 Gogna, Aman 1727
b Tselos, Aristotelis 1757 1 – 0 Gogna, Avi 1795
3 – 3

Monday

MK Phoenix 2 1909 Oxford 2 1937
w Lambourne, Dan M 1989 0 – 1 Healey, Michael W 2163
b Valentine, Brian J 1943 0 – 1 Dickinson, Tim R 2072
w Adebajo, Olufemi 1918 1 – 0 Neatherway, A Philip 1858
b Meichel, Eric B 1922 0 – 1 Terry, Sean 1917
w Matthews, Adrian M S 1858 0 – 1 Staples, Neil 1855
b Whiteside, Robert 1824 1 – 0 Tselos, Aristotelis 1757
2 – 4

Oxford 3

Monday

Oxford 3 1713 Sussex Martlets 3 1590
w Hameed, Asif 1802 0 – 1 Neale, George 1671
b Panicker, Raj 1795 0 – 1 Samworth-Calvier, Juju 1633
w Rowan, Daniel 1828 0 – 1 Woods, Timothy J 1645
b Gentry, Alan E 1750 0 – 1 Bennet-Stevens, Lucy 1643
w Langham, Rod E 1709 ½ – ½ Hedger, Alec 1517
b Matilal, Tamal 1397 0 – 1 Kaya, Batuhan 1432
½ – 5½

Games

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Final Tables – 2016-17

Division 1

Demotion Pool

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 GP Pts
1 Blackthorne Russia 4½-3½ 6-2 4½-3½ 3-5 4½-3½ 5½-2½ 5-3 33 12
2 Barbican 4NCL 2 3½-4½ 6-2 2-5 6-2 5½-2½ 5½-2½ 5½-2½ 34 10
3 Oxford 1 2-6 2-6 6-2 5½-2½ 6½-1½ 3-5 6½-1½ 31½ 8
4 South Wales Dragons 3½-4½ 5-2 2-6 5½-2½ 4-4 5½-1½ 3½-4½ 29 7
5 North East England 5-3 2-6 2½-5½ 2½-5½ 5½-2½ 4½-3½ 3½-4½ 25½ 6
6 Anglian Avengers 1 3½-4½ 2½-5½ 1½-6½ 4-4 2½-5½ 5½-2½ 6½-1½ 26 5
7 Kings Head 2½-5½ 2½-5½ 5-3 1½-5½ 3½-4½ 2½-5½ 5½-2½ 23 4
8 Celtic Tigers 3-5 2½-5½ 1½-6½ 4½-3½ 4½-3½ 1½-6½ 2½-5½ 20 4

Pool B

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 GP Pts
1 Guildford 1 5-3 7-1 7½-½ 7½-½ 7-1 7½-½ 6-2 47½ 14
2 White Rose 1 3-5 5-3 4-4 7½-½ 7-1 7-1 5½-2½ 39 11
3 Wood Green HK 1-7 3-5 5-3 6-2 5½-2½ 6-2 7-1 33½ 10
4 Grantham Sharks 1 ½-7½ 4-4 3-5 5-3 4½-3½ 5½-2½ 5-3 27½ 9
5 Barbican 4NCL 2 ½-7½ ½-7½ 2-6 3-5 6-2 6-2 5½-2½ 23½ 6
6 Oxford 1 1-7 1-7 2½-5½ 3½-4½ 2-6 5½-2½ 6½-1½ 22 4
7 North East England ½-7½ 1-7 2-6 2½-5½ 2-6 2½-5½ 5½-2½ 16 2
8 Anglian Avengers 1 2-6 2½-5½ 1-7 3-5 2½-5½ 1½-6½ 2½-5½ 15 0

Division 4 South

P W D L GP Pts
Barnet Knights 1 11 9 1 1 46½ 19
Oxford 2 11 8 3 0 45½ 19
West is Best 2 11 8 0 3 38½ 16
The Full Ponty 11 6 3 2 40 15
Brown Jack 2 11 6 3 2 39½ 15
Wood Green MM 2 11 4 5 2 35 13
Anglian Avengers 3 11 5 2 4 35½ 12
Poisoned Pawns 2 11 5 2 4 33½ 12
Shropshire 2 11 5 1 5 36½ 11
CSC Rhinos (2) 11 5 1 5 34½ 11
MK Phoenix 2 11 5 1 5 34 11
Throw in the Tal 1 11 4 3 4 31½ 11
Barnet Knights 2 11 4 3 4 28½ 11
The Pitstop 9 5 0 4 30½ 10
Cambridge University 3 11 4½ 1 5½ 28½ 10
Sussex Martlets 3 11 4 1 6 34 9
Kent Kestrels 11 4 0 7 32½ 8
Iceni 2 11 3½ 1 6½ 27 8
D&D Utd 8 3 1 4 21½ 7
Throw in the Tal 2 8 3½ 0 4½ 20 7
Oxford 3 9 2 2 5 25½ 6
Sandhurst Cadets 10 2 2 6 25½ 6
CSC Hippos (3) 5 1 2 2 14 4
Wood Green MM 3 7 2 0 5 13½ 4
Barnet Knights 3 11 1 0 10 11½ 2
Barnet Knights 4 3 0 0 3 1 0
Posted on

Weekend 4 – Oxford 2&3

[games, pgn]

Tim writes:

All, the second half of the split weekend 4 completed yesterday. Our teams recorded these results:

  • Oxford 2 beat CSC Rhinos 4½-1½ and Barnet Knights 1 3½-2½;
  • Oxford 3 lost to Milton Keynes Phoenix 2 1½-4½ and Anglian Avengers 3 2½-3½.

Well done to everyone involved in the second team, particularly on Sunday as we beat our main title/promotion rivals. Oxford 2 are two points ahead at the top of Division 4s with a healthy 4-point “goal-difference” plus, almost assured of promotion. One win in R9-11 should be enough for that, two wins will secure the Div 4s title.

Francesca had a terrific weekend. Her spectacular game on Saturday drew the crowds and she held a tricky pawn-down endgame with some ease on Sunday. Robin and Nick were our other best players, both winning on Saturday to assure the win there and holding rather dodgy endgames on Sunday. The Barnet skip agreed: he grumbled to me post-match “Barnet should have won all three of boards 4, 5 and 6”. As it was, a well-controlled victory by Hans on top board was enough to bring home the bacon with the other five games all drawn.

Oxford 2

Saturday

CSC Rhinos (2) 1873 Oxford 2 2058
w Head, Louise 2018 ½ – ½ Rawlinson, Aidan M 2196
b Foley, John P 1946 1 – 0 Healey, Michael W 2179
w Fowler, David 1898 0 – 1 Truran, Michael C 2183
b Lees, Fraser A 1865 0 – 1 Matta, Francesca 1950
w Homolka, Vincent 1779 0 – 1 De Vogelaere, Robin 1962
b Grey, Nicholas D 1734 0 – 1 Burrows, Nick 1881
1½ – 4½

Sunday

Oxford 2 2071 Barnet Knights 1 2158
w Hansen, Hans-Peter 2263 1 – 0 Villiers, Thomas 2245
b Healey, Michael W 2179 ½ – ½ Willmoth, Robert F c 2282
w Rawlinson, Aidan M 2196 ½ – ½ Brozel, Sacha 2132
b Matta, Francesca 1950 ½ – ½ Ethelontis, Alexandros N 2140
w De Vogelaere, Robin 1962 ½ – ½ Orgler, Philipp 2110
b Burrows, Nick 1881 ½ – ½ Pollack, Oscar 2042
3½ – 2½

Oxford 3

Saturday

MK Phoenix 2 1937 Oxford 3 1819
w Smith, Graham 2004 ½ – ½ Neatherway, A Philip 1860
b Elwin, Adrian G 2001 1 – 0 Foster, Timothy 1872
w Lambourne, Dan M 1985 1 – 0 Rowan, Daniel 1834
b Brown, Alan M 1964 ½ – ½ Cole, Graham 1850
w Matthews, Adrian M S 1863 ½ – ½ Gentry, Alan E 1744
b Whiteside, Robert 1807 1 – 0 Lim, Wei Xinq Sean 1757
4½ – 1½

Sunday

Oxford 3 1810 Anglian Avengers 3 1911
w Terry, Sean 1905 1 – 0 Gregory, Stephen J 2095
b Cole, Graham 1850 0 – 1 Cocks, Elliot 1990
w Neatherway, A Philip 1860 0 – 1 Lunn, Timothy 1937
b Bush, Ian 1855 ½ – ½ Hall, Antony C 1900
w Langham, Rod E 1713 ½ – ½ Sheerin, Alex 1855
b Willis, Graham 1682 ½ – ½ Woodcock, Keith D 1690
2½ – 3½

Games

Posted on

Weekend 4 – Oxford 1

[games, pgn]

Tim writes:

All, the first half of the SPLIT weekend for rounds 7 & 8 has just completed for Divisions 1 & 2. Oxfiord 1 lost to Barbican 2 2-6, bouncing back on Sunday by beating South Wales Dragons by the same score.

Barbican 2 agreed with me that the 2-6 scoreline flattered them somewhat: there were full-point swings on a couple of boards, skip’s being one of them. Sitting in his glass house, skip isn’t going to criticise the other one! [but will say in his defence that he had ONE clear winning chance, at move 51. You might like to work out what skip missed. My opp David Coleman saw half of it but not the other half; skip missed all of it and his choice 51. … Qc6 was the losing move – I’d missed 54. Rc7 which was a killer, 54. Rd6 was a draw.]

Marcus Harvey leads the “mentions in dispatches” with his 2/2 weekend; Joris played a la Marcus in pressing for victory in probably-drawn endings but ended with only two draws to show for his extended effort. Well done also to Mike T on his debut for Ox1, last to finish today and winning quite convincingly.

Div 1 safety requirements: one more match win against anyone. Next up are Kings’ Head in round 9, Blackthorne Russia in round 10 and Celtic Tigers in round 11.

Saturday

Barbican 4NCL 2 2237 Oxford 1 2310
w Rogers, Jonathan W f 2308 1 – 0 Martins, David Pires Tavares f 2393
b Sowray, Peter J f 2312 ½ – ½ Tan, Justin i 2453
w Franklin, Samuel G A f 2308 1 – 0 Zakarian, David f 2378
b Navarro Cia, Miguel f 2261 1 – 0 Asenov, Pavel 2335
w Chapman, Terry P D f 2251 0 – 1 Harvey, Marcus R f 2275
b Moss, Guy 2082 ½ – ½ Gerlagh, Joris 2266
w Coleman, David J c 2143 1 – 0 Dickinson, Tim R 2072
b Regan, Natasha K wi 1995 1 – 0 Varney, Zoe w 1988
6 – 2

Sunday

Oxford 1 2326 South Wales Dragons 2190
w Martins, David Pires Tavares f 2393 1 – 0 Toma, Katarzyna wg 2242
b Tan, Justin i 2453 ½ – ½ Cooper, John G i 2263
w Zakarian, David f 2378 0 – 1 Kett, Tim 2193
b Asenov, Pavel 2335 1 – 0 Redmond, John P. 2209
w Harvey, Marcus R f 2275 1 – 0 Zeidler, Sven P. f 2190
b Gerlagh, Joris 2266 ½ – ½ James, David J f 2123
w Truran, Michael C 2188 1 – 0 Jameson, David 2116
b Varney, Zoe w 1988 1 – 0 Wilson, Julie w 1870
6 – 2

Games