4NCL Online League – Season 11 – Wessex squad Round 1 report
With Round 1, played on Tuesday 21st January, the 5 divisions got underway.
Our teams are in the same divisions as last season i.e.
Division 1 => Wessex A, Wessex B
Division 2 => Wessex C
Division 3 => Wessex D, Wessex E
Division 4 => Wessex F
Division 5 => Wessex G, Wessex H
At an individual level, we scored 13 wins, 2 draws and 17 losses which we converted to 2 match wins, 2 match draws and 4 match losses.
Apart from a single default against our Wessex A team all went well logistics-wise
Division 1
Wessex A were strong favourites and won very comfortably, helped by an early default win on board 3 followed by wins from Gavin, David & Richard. David had an incredible finish, sacrificing a rook to mate with a pawn on b3 with his opponent’s king far from home – see the position below – after Ra3+ bxa3 is forced when b3 checkmates !
Wessex B had a tough evening with John holding a tough position to draw his game against a much higher rated player while we lost on the other 3 boards.
Division 2
Wessex C had a reasonably balanced match grade-wise and lost narrowly despite a win from Hugo and a draw from Tim.
Division 3
Wessex D were always going to have a tough time against one of the strongest teams in the division. Simon had a great win on board 4 to get us on the scoreboard although we went down 3-1 overall.
Wessex E were heavily out graded on all boards but Robert D & Robert H notched up draws against their stronger opponents to keep it to a 3-1 loss. Interestingly, Black won every game !
Division 4
Our F team had an “easy match” on paper and won fairly comfortably with wins from Liam, Phil & Manuel – great Wessex debut wins from Liam & Phil
Division 5
Wessex G had a tough battle and managed to draw 2-2 with wins from Michal & Kevin.
Interesting that white won on every board ! |
Wessex H came up against one of the strongest Div 5 teams and got whitewashed 4-0
So, a tough evening overall, with …..
wins for Wessex A, Wessex F
a draw for Wessex E, Wessex G
losses for Wessex B, Wessex C, Wessex D, Wessex H
Stats-time
With 13 players winning their individual games there are too many to list for this season’s Golden Pawn contest.
Simon Redmill won the “biggest upset” award this round with his win, beating a player graded 238 points above him.
Keith Gregory – 4NCL Wessex captain, Jan 24th 2025