Oxford 4NCL

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.

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.

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.

Tim writes:

All, rounds 3 & 4 of 4NCL took place over the weekend and Oxford recorded these results:

• Oxford 1 beat Anglian Avengers 1 6½-1½ and were whupped by Guildford 1 1-7;
• Oxford 2 won both matches 5-1 against Poisoned Pawns 2 & Throw In The Tal 2;
• Oxford 3 lost 1½-4½ to West Is Best 2 and bashed Barnet Knights 3 6-0.

It was generally a good weekend all round: Ox1 comfortably got the must-win we needed on Saturday and avoided a whitewash on Sunday. Ox2 consolidated their position at the top of Div 4s and the serious business for them starts in R5 in Telford – see below*. Ox3’s performance against BK3 was excellent, especially considering that elsewhere in the division a 500-per-board handicap was overturned by WG-MM3 against TitT 1. We must have some sympathy for the youngsters of BK3 who were 0-12 for the weekend.

Mike H and debutant Robin impressed with 2/2 (4/4 for Mike this season) in Ox2, and there are doubly-honourable mentions for Tom EW and Zoe who both scored 1½ in Ox1 and averted the Sunday whitewash. Phil N & Ian scored 1½ in Ox3. It was good to see Jon back in action for Ox2 although I hear his win wasn’t plain sailing!

* Future pairings in Div 4s are expected to be Swiss-style with game-points to determine “seeding” by match-point group, so Ox2 can expect to tackle two of WiB 2, Full Ponty & CSC Rhinos next [skip expects/guesses the first two in that order] while Ox3 are likely to face two of the other teams currently on 4 points.