Category: 4NCL-O Season 6

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.

Onliners, we recorded these results tonight:

Our games are available for persual/analysis here.

Ox1: Jan sent his king up for the endgame prontissimo. His Maj executed two Black pawns for nothing more than being there. K won, after a bit of heavy breathing in a game skip didn’t understand. As usual. Kenneth won efficiently, but his game caused skip some concern as he had not watched moves 12, 13. “He’s a pawn down. Why is he swapping everything off?” It was only when three minor pieces each were on the board that it occurred to skip to count those pieces. One more for Kenneth, as of move 13. Aha. Understanding dawns.

Ox2: Graham drew with Julien Shepley as our first result of the evening. Probably Julien was relieved to escape unscathed from a second meeting with Oxford troops after Shambavi’s demolition last round! Phil, in his first game of the season, picked up a free bishop after Black forked himself. Neil won an exchange & change with 26. Nxd5, a manoeuvre that reminds skip of his similar OTB tactic at the weekend. Skip’s trick was only for a pawn, though. Note to self: must learn how to make these tricks more effective. But hey, Oxford 2 beat Guildford 1! Enjoy it while it last, troops.

Ox3: Andrey’s opponent slipped up with the unnatural 15. … Rxc5. That had a flaw exploited by Andrey, who picked up an exchange. Kev (B) lost an exchange but his Q-side counterplay caused White’s Maj to evacuate to the kingside. While Operation King was in progress White’s knight found itself stranded offside. More (mis)adventures later led to an endgame where Kev was sunk, but White was blissfully unaware of this fact and contented himself with a perpetual. Phew!

All in all, a good round for Oxford – two match wins, one draw.

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Oops, skip pressed the wrong button in the Ox2 result. It should be 2.5-1.5:

Onliners, we recorded these results tonight:

Our games are available for persual/analysis here.

Ox1: James held a difficult rook endgame. Skip thought Tomasz was doing well, a pawn up for a bit of suffering, but maybe skip was over-optimistic? The suffering was too much in the end and a rook dropped.

Ox2: No luck tonight as Ox2 were almost wiped out by a strong Barnet A team. Hopefully Ox1 will gain revenge in eleven days’ time in real life! I liked the pairing Brozel v Staples – two super-nice chaps, but unfortunalely Sacha is also super-strong. Where did it go wrong for Neil? I suspect 18. … 0-0 which Sacha jumped on immediately with a quick king-side attack – by move 22 there were holes everywhere.

Still, at move 25 the opp skip opined “your guy’s defending pretty well.” And Sacha lost the thread of it somewhere, by move 31 it was Neil who held all the chips despite his king wandering around in no man’s land and it was all over at move 41, as the king was back safe at home. What a game, Neil.

Ox3: No sooner had skip settled down to watch our games than Alex had won, a King’s Gambit via Caro-Kann gone very, very wrong for White. Simon scored his first win after Black shut the door on his own bishop. Shambavi picked up an exchange – was it sacrificed rather than lose Pa7 at move 17? Later, she found Bxc5 Bxc5 b4 to hoover the c8 bishop and that was 3-0! Andrey dropped a piece to a (near-)Excelsior pawn which was only halted at h7 having gone f2-f4-f5-fxg6-gxh7+. Some chaos later saw White return the piece leaving Andrey well on top and he converted – 4-0! Well done, third-teamers!