It was tough this evening of chess in the Online Junior 4NCL on Thursday

In both the Division 3 and Division 4 matches, our opponents out-rated our Dorset Juniors teams. In the case of Dorset Juniors 2, the team was out-rated by a massive 364 points (and that doesn’t reflect their Lichess ratings!).

Nevertheless, the teams fought well and both achieved a 4-4 draw.

Dorset Juniors 1

Sam Hooks did extremely well with two wins over his opponent, gaining 164 rating points on Lichess in the process. Well done Sam!

Sam nearly didn’t play the second match as his opponent was late arriving (due to dinner at his boarding school running late) and so they began with the second round. Suffolk Juniors’ captain however reached out to me and asked if Sam could still play the return game, rather than recording a default. Sportingly abandoning his own dinner, Sam came back to the chess and promptly won the second match very quickly.

There were draws for both Jason Wang and Hugo Melling, who both won their first round but then their opponents got the better of them in the rematch.

It wasn’t the best evening for Zander, who had only recently arrived in South Africa (from where he was playing) and was feeling rather tired after the journey. We appreciate your commitment!

This result means that we are still top of Group A in Division 3 but now tied with our opponents of today on 7 points but with a better game point score.

Next up, in two weeks time, we’ll be playing Warwickshire Bears E.

Dorset Juniors 2

There were double wins for Jack Baskett and Arthur Hayward against their higher rated opponents, whilst Ollie and Michael struggled today. Not reflected in the scorecard below but both Ollie and Michal’s opponents had online Lichess ratings of 1900 plus so don’t be too disappointed.

This leaves Dorset Juniors 2 as part of a chasing pack of 6 teams on 6 points, behind the top two teams and well ahead of most of the 33 teams in the division.

Nikki Forster 19/10/2023