After their emphatic win in Round 2, Dorset Juniors followed this win another great win in Round 3. The round wasn’t without incident however, due to defaults by the opposition and a wrong time control leading to a game being nullified.

The team for this round comprised Zander Booth, Ellis Fretwell, Sam Hooks, and Jacob Uphill. Ellis, Sam, and Jacob had sat out the previous round so were swapped in for this one.

Unfortunately, Ellis’ opponent failed to arrive online for the match and Ellis was awarded two defaults. Whilst it was good to get the points, Ellis was looking forward to playing in this round for the first time. Sam’s opponent also defaulted in the first match, only arriving online just in the nick of time before the default time for the second match. Sam played a strong game, winning with relative ease.

On board 4, Jacob had a strong win against his opponent in the first match. The second match however was played under the incorrect time control, an easy mistake to make, which neither player noticed until the game was finished. The game ended in a draw by threefold repetition but was later nullified due to the incorrect time control, although coincidentally they had completed it well within the correct time control of 10 minutes + 5 each.

On Board 1 there were two solid wins for Zander – the only pairing in the match to not have some drama!

The final score was 7 to -1.5 to Dorset Juniors. Under the 4NCL rules, teams are deducted 0.5 points for each default so the opposition team unfortunately ended on a score of minus 1.5.