Round 6 on November 22nd saw a solid set of results for our Wessex teams.
As usual, we fielded 32 players across 8 teams, covering all 5 divisions.
#Geek_Stats_Warning
From the 32 games played, we scored 14 wins, 7 draws and 11 losses.
In match terms, this translated into 4 wins, 1 draw and 3 losses.
We were higher graded on 24 boards, where we scored 14.5 /24.
We were lower graded on 8 boards where we scored 3 / 8.
Now to the actual matches…
Division 1
Wessex A followed up their first win in Round 5 with a draw.
Gavin & Jamie had very solid draws with the White pieces whilst David had a long tough battle as Black to secure a win.
Interestingly, in the two draws I noticed Gavin & his opponent both scored 94% for move accuracy (as assessed by Stockfish) whilst Jaimie and his opponent both scored 89% !
With 4 points from 6 rounds we have risen to 6th place with a chance to stay up, although we face a crucial and tough round 7 match v Streatham A.
Wessex B faced a very strong Hackney Heffalumps team and lost a tight match, with a quick draw from Richard and a roller-coaster win from Mircea. Mircea’s opponent emerged better from the opening and then played a series of weak moves and was duly crushed.
With 8 points from 6 rounds Wessex B are now secure in 4th place and can only stay there or move up depending on Round 7 results, although a top 2 play-off place looks impossible.
Division 2
As in round 5, Wessex C outrated the opposition on every board and comfortably took the match 3.5 – 0.5 with wins from Raj, Mike & John and a draw from Roger. You can see Mike’s entertaining win, annotated by Peter Anderson, at the end of this report.
With 10 points from 6 rounds Wessex C are tied in equal first and looking near certain to go into the play-offs for the Division 2 title.
Division 3
Wessex D faced a strong Overlord team and lost 3-1, with our win coming from Jamie – in a balanced position his opponent left a rook en prise and then resigned.
With 8 points from 6 rounds we’ve secured 4th place (at least) although we are very unlikely to get into the play-offs.
Division 4
Our Wessex E team edged their match 2.5 – 1.5
Joe drew on board 1 although not for want of trying as he battled for 105 moves to grind out an endgame win yet was frustrated by his stubborn opponent (interestingly both Joe & his opponent scored 87% for move accuracy)
Gillian was unlucky to lose a promising position by overlooking an en prise rook.
Chris was slightly better until his opponent overlooked a knight fork which cost him a rook, while Phil had an easy win with his opponent losing on time on move 18 (!) Phil had a move accuracy of an impressive 91%
With 10 points from 6 rounds we are currently 2nd and looking a reasonable bet to take a top 2 place and go into the Div 4 play-offs as long as we can avoid defeat in our Round 7 “double-pointer” against Charlton Cobras B.
Our F team looked to have a winnable match on paper. However, it was not to be with Rob providing our only win and a draw from Doug leaving us 2.5 – 1.5 down.
With 2 points from 6 rounds and strong opposition in Round 7 we are likely to be dropping to Division 5 next season.
Division 5
Wins from Ashraf & Stephen plus a draw from Kevin saw our G team edge a balanced match.
With 7 points from 6 rounds, we stay in our natural home mid-table in Div 5.
Our H team won very comfortably, scoring 3-1, in a match that had, on paper, looked pretty tight. Our wins came from Tim, Florence and Manuel.
With 6 points from 6 rounds the H team will also finish somewhere near mid-table.
As it is too large to show here, please follow the link to the Division 5 Table.
A quick look at the “individual stats” shows our top scorers are
4.5 – John Weatherlake
4 – Mircea-Marius Mesesan, Phil Pinto, Mike Krawczuk, Chris Leeson, David Pye & Manuel Herrera
So the “golden boot” will go down to the wire 😊
Keith Gregory, 4NCL Online League Wessex captain, 25th November 2022
Game
Mike Krawczuk has had a few tough battles in previous rounds. This was a somewhat less taxing cruise to victory for him. Nonetheless, it is an entertaining game and you can enjoy seeing how cleanly he dispatched his opponent. You can also have fun looking for all the other tactical options throughout the game, only some of which I have included in the annotations.
