Oxford 4NCL

Onliners, we recorded these results tonight:

Our games are available for persual/analysis here.

Ox1Nakul suddenly picked up either rook or knight depending on which king went left or right. Tomasz drew, David found his knight threatened against his king h1, Edgar dropping a knight similarly. 

Ox2 were quick with their wins and defaults. The Uxbridge board 1 player was not ready, theiir captain faux pas; Dimi & Seanadded wins for 2 & 3 to make it 3 v -0.5. Jan was taken a while before his queen was trapped.

Ox3 Shall we gloss over this week’s games, and focus on two week’s match against Harrow 1. Yes, that seem best for tonight.

Ox4 It was a long match, none of the games finished any soon. Suddenly all matches went in favour for Streatham B, only Andrey scored a draw with everyone else ended mate / lost queen.

Onliners, we recorded these results tonight, with 1½-2½ being a popular match scoreline:

Our games are available for persual/analysis here.

Start at the bottom with Ox4: Amaan posted our first point of the new season after his opponent’s pawns went into voluntary isolation and his knights ran riot. Debutant Andrey quickly got to grips with the format and benefitted from his opponent leaving a knight en prise. Alex pinched a lucky win when his opponent got careless.

Ox3: we were perhaps a bit pessimistic about our general Div 1 chances as skip grumbled “GYG, Catford, Alba, Broadland all in the same pool”. It seems skip misread Alba, they aren’t the Alba he thought they were (although they do have that scary kid Freddy Gordon), and average ratings in general mean there is some chance of staying up. Round 2 is the dreaded match against GYG but after that, maybe we can nick a win or two?

Ox2: Jan’s winning run came to an end with a 16-move draw against the experienced Andrew Stone. Tashika attracted a kibitzer’s attention when a pawn grab became possible at move 23. Was it on? Skip thought so, but wasn’t sure. Still, she nobbled the pawn later at move 31 as wBa1 was a tactical liability, and nobbled the bishop at move 40. Terrific win for her – well done! After Dimitrios lost a difficult R+P endgame, this left Kenneth whose king marched from g8 to e1 over the course of ten moves in the middlegame. Ooo-er. Her Maj had to sacrifice herself to save His and that was that.

Ox1: David’s 32. Bxg7, 33. Bh6 was a neat trick for a draw. After solid-ish draws from James & Nakul (not that skip knows what on earth was going on) Blackthorne took the points when Edgar lost. Still, we improved on last season’s 1-3 against the same oppo at the start of last season. Maybe we can score up 2-2 next season in Round One?

All, these are our results for Round 7:

Our games are available for scrutiny here.

Ox1: Who knew utter madness could occur after only 13 moves of a French Exchange? Tomasz went pawn-grabbing, invited Black to have a go at his king and calmly parried all sacrificial attempts. Nakul looked good for a while but ultimately had to settle for a draw. How are Broadland Kestrels doing? Sadly they are sunk, for their board 3 defaulted and their board 4 has lost, so -½ v 2 as skip types and that means Ox1 are down.

Ox2: Dimitrios was quickly in the clubhouse, delivering mate at move 22. After Kenneth had also won, Tashika brought home the match after quite a scare when her opponent achieved a strong position in the middlegame, the knight on d2 being a thorn in her side for some time. Well done her. Graham drew admiring comments from the kib early in his game as he wrested the two bishops and a pawn from his oppo in the early middlegame and he completed the whitewash. All to no avail for the three teams ahead of us all won so Ox2 finish fourth.Ox3: Chris was quickly in the clubhouse as he flattened his opponent, reaching 5½ from six games for the season. WIth Asif‘s game going horribly wrong early doors (his season score of 2/6 feels to skip more like 4/6) Phil made an enterprising attempt to win his game with 40. … Nb4. That too went wrong somewhere (perhaps 42. … Rc2 instead of Kf7?) and it was left to Ian to rescue the match, which he did to “nerves of steel” comments from the kib. Results elsewhere mean Ox3 also finish fourth (in a three-way tie for second).

Ox4: Jan’s game had ebb and flow, he picked off both the oppo’s rooks on their starting squares before Black countered with a dangerous-looking kingside attack. A rook sacrifice led to mate and leaves Jan’s perfect winning record intact. Terrific season, Jan! Everyone else went down so we must wait and see if nine points is sufficient for promotion. Skip thinks not, but he would like to put on record that Ox4 have done far better than he expected them to do.

End Of Season Player Stats (all from six games unless stated)

Jan 6, Chris 5½, Dimitrios 5, Ian, Graham 4½, Nakul 4/7, Neil 3½, Tashika 3½/7, Amaan 3, Phil 3/5, Kenneth 2½/4, Tomasz, Sean 2½, Asif, David 2, Simon 1½/3, Alex 1½/5 and we will stop there.

Onliners, these are our results for Round 6:

Our games are available for scrutiny here.

There was pre-match panic when the 4NCL software somehow transposed James & Nakul. We have no idea what happened but skip knows something strange also happened in the Kestrels 1 match where the wrong board 3 showed in the pairings – that game didn’t start until 20:08! Apologies again to James & Nakul. Someone will investigate.

On the pitch, David enjoyed a quick win over his IM opponent. He’s in good form having co-won the Scarborough Open with 5/5 at the weekend. Tomasz may have been inspired by K’s win last round: he similarly grabbed a pawn (ok, two) and held onto them, scoring his first win of the season. Nakul then settled for a draw in a better position to secure the points. A good win for the first team, assuring Division 1 chess next season!

Ox2‘s fortunes dipped when Dimitrios, hitherto on 4/4, ran into a fork. That set the tone for the match and Tashika salvaged our lone half-point when her opponent made a generous draw offer. With Wessex C & Kestrels 2 winning, Ox2 drop to fourth in the Pool.

Ox3: more strange happenings elsewhere as top-of-the-Pool Shropshire & Friends 2 defaulted. Apparently they had a team but their captain failed to enter it online – though he successfully entered his other six(!) teams. Ian & Graham had late wins to complement draws lower down. The division order is unchanged but much tighter: S&F 2 9, Plymouth, Ox3, Phones Pals A 8. All to play for in Round 7!Ox4: 

Chris continued his unbeaten season, picking off White’s undefended bishop with a fork. He’s on 4½/5 for the season. Jan is doing even better, on 5/5 – 36 … Bb1+ was a neat finish. Losses on the other two boards pegged the team back to 2-2; your skip thought Asif had a terrific game and deserved more for his efforts. Ox4 remain in the top 8 and have a big Round 7 match for promotion.