Oxford 4NCL

Onliners, Oxford’s three teams recorded these results tonight:  

Our games have been gathered in here for perusal.

Ox1: Skip understood absolutely nothing of David’s game, other than that he won. Better minds than his can explain it for him. Nakul made a well-timed draw offer; I daresay he had one eye on Ben’s game where an (accidental?) exchange sacrifice worked out well and Ben had 2B+P for R. He duly converted and that’s nine match wins on the bounce, six of them (including the last three ) being 2.5-1.5. Surely this form can’t last?! We must enjoy it while we can: currently second on goal difference in Pool B. Next up are bottom-of-the-table Wood Green Youth but that doesn’t guarantee anything.

Ox2: No joy again for the seconds, debutant Otto averting the whitewash on this occasion with a perpetual. The next four rounds look winnable, and we must remember that Ox1 lost four straight at the start of last season before recovering to third place. All hope is not yet lost!

Ox3 scored quick wins of differing lengths on the top two boards. Tashika’s 19. Re1 looked like a defensive move and her opponent forgot about his queen being a bit stuck. Ironically his passer on c2 shut off the only escape square for Her Majesty (albeit 20. … Qc2 21. Rac1 is still a problem). Graham benefitted from a strange piece donation by his opponent. His final position was King’s Indian heaven. We remain third in Pool B, chasing Dorking and Bolton.

Onliners, Oxford’s three teams recorded these results tonight:

Our games have been gathered in here for perusal.

Ox1: Beating Atticus A is an important result in the relegation battle. There are no easy matches from here, but hey, we’re on a winning streak of … now, let skip count … eight in a row after starting Season One with four losses on the bounce. Nakultook us all back to the mid-1970s and Karpov-Korchnoi Dragons. There was no Fischeresque “sac, sac” but there was a mate. James had a smooth win, his early b4 to indirectly defend the c5 pawn was probably a surprise to his opponent. K took a stodgy draw to secure the points.

Ox2: Not much joy for the seconds tonight – Andrejs looked like “saving the whitewash” at one point with his draw but Edgarsomehow navigated into a favourable R+P endgame and was held to a technical draw.

Ox3: Debutant Chris E galloped to a win in a Najdorf Sicilian. Skip was surprised to see Graham pick off his opponent’s a- & b- pawns, only for a White pawn to appear on a6 four moves later. Where did that come from?! Tashika won a super-hairy game to pinch the match. Skip wrote her game off at move 33 (Rxb6) but she found a lot of play from somewhere. Well done, her!

There were apparently some football matches on tonight but at least one of our spectating number found the chess much more fun: “I must say that following the lads and lass is a lot more interesting than the football!“.

Onliners, the League season resumed tonight and Oxford’s three teams recorded these results:

Our games have been gathered in here. 

David kicked off the new season with a King’s Gambit, his entire kingside disappearing in the first ten moves. That’s what I call a King’s Gambit! The other three games saw high drama: Ben was booked for a draw in a totally stodgy endgame, K “couldn’t lose” while James’s opp blundered a piece very early doors so I’d earmarked a win there. None of the games went that way: Ben somehow won his utterly-dead endgame, K likely made the same miscalculation skip did [40. … Re2], and he did lose, and James had to dig in manfully to create a fortress just to save his game. It’s a win, but chaps, can you please make it less hair-raising next time?!

Ox2‘s match with Ashfield was an immediate re-match of Season 1 Round 10. We “had” them last season but they wriggled out with a 2-2 draw. They had us this time; unfortunately we couldn’t wriggle out, Dimitrios scoring our only draw – his first-ever draw in the 4NCL-O League.

Like Ox2, Ox3 had drawn 2-2 with tonight’s oppo in Season One. Phil’s connection stood up well and he was our only winner; Tashika looked likely to follow suit but her opponent whipped up too much counterplay.

Onliners, here are some deep and meaningfulless end-of season individual statistics:

Top Scorers

Stand well back, please, for a long list of players scoring 5½: Sam, Arya & Phil N (eight games), Tashika, Kenneth, K and David (nine).

Other scores: Chris & Dimitrios scored 5/8, Nakul 4½/8, Graham 4½/9, Andrejs 4/8, Ian & Edgar 4/9, James 2½/5, Ben 2½/9 and we will tactfully stop there.

Most Wins

was 5, scored by Tashika, Sam, Phil N & both Zakarians. David’s 5 wins came in rounds 6-10 and represent our longest individual winning streak.

Drawmasters (or not)

Dimitrios’s R10 win keeps him draw-free for the season, while R10 draws for Andrejs & Ian tie them with Chris on 4 for equal drawmaster status.

While I’m on, final divisional tables have been updated online (bottom of “4NCL-O Pairings & Results” at the 4NCL homepage). When perusing, remember that all three Surbiton teams are deemed to finish 8th in their group.

Finally, many thanks to all of you for participating. We settled into a consistent squad of 18-ish players and as such, I turned ~3 potential recruits away mid-season. I was already dropping one or two of you each round and didn’t want to further deprive you of your Tuesday evening lockdown classical chess fix.

I hope to see you all in Season Two, whenever that starts; maybe we’ll expand to five teams or more? Depends on the format, of course.

All, these were our results from Round 10 just concluded. 

Games are available for perusal here, including Andrejs’s 122-move marathon.

Nakul showed us why skip isn’t playing. Skip did some “live” analysis atter 20. … Ng6, concluding that he liked 21. Bxc6+ bxc6 22. Qa6 but 22. … Qa4 and Black would be OK, so decided that a quiet move of some sort was in order. Nakul played “skip’s sequence” then produced 23. Rb4. Aaah. Carnage followed, victory being banked eight moves later. David’s win was his fifth straight, K  & Ben closing out the match comfortably. Ben’s IM opp did well to find 50. Rbe4 for the draw.

Unfortunately Ox1’s win isn’t enough to get into the play-offs, for Anglian Avengers 1 beat King’s Head 3-1. Ho hum. Still, third spot after our super-slow start is pretty good!

Ox2 at one point looked like matching the first team’s scoreline, but had to settle for four draws through gritted teeth.

Dimitrios’s game descended into utter mayhem in the space of five moves from a normal-looking Nimzo-Indian at move 10. Dust settlement left him a passer up in an endgame and he converted. Chris ended his drawing streak with an emphatic win, Black allowing mate in one at the finish. Ian cashed in a draw in a 2P+ position “making sure to avoid any cock-ups after last week”, he says!

Ox4 scored their second match draw of the season, wins coming from Phil N & Kenneth. We had a Move Of The Evening last week. Let’s have another one: Kenneth’s 18. … Na1-b3.