4NCL Online League – Season 11 – Wessex squad Round 3 report

With Round 3, played on Tuesday 18^th February the divisions have now taken shape and, as usual, it looks like we will be involved in a few promotion/relegation battles

Our incredible Round 2 results of 7 match wins and 1 match loss were (almost) repeated – this time we scored with 6 match wins , 1 match draw and and just 1 match loss.

At an individual level, we scored 18 wins, 4 draws and 10 losses.

Sadly, we faced a number of defaults, including our Wessex F team, who won 4-0 without picking up a pawn in anger. I’ll send my usual complaint emails to the relevant captains seeking apologies…..

A few logistics problems (apart from the defaults)

• One game started late (our bad) and was then aborted by our opponent – the arbiter scored it as 0-0
• One game started with the wrong time control and luckily, we were able to re-start it with the correct time control without any penalty.

Division 1

Wessex A faced a strong Jurassic Coast team, with an IM on board 1 and a very strong junior on board 2 – we were 2-0 down by 21:00 before a great fight-back from Peter & Christian saw us level the match.

Wessex A remain top of their Div 1 section with 5 points from 6 – we have yet to face the 2^nd & 3^rd teams which I suspect will be “double pointers” to determine the play-off places.

Wessex B also faced tough opposition in Ashfield Anonymous A – wins from Richard & Raj plus a draw from Roger saw us over the line to a narrow victory. This win took us from 8^th to 5^th place , with 2 points from 6, and removed us from the relegation battle (for the moment!)

Division 2

Wessex C faced a strong Barnet Knights A team and were heavily out graded on the top 2 boards. Even the win from Tim still saw us go down 3-1, although Hugo played well and battled long and hard before finally succumbing in the last Wessex game to finish.

With 2 points from 6, Wessex C are now in 5^th place so mid-table – having played the top 2 teams I’m hoping for some easier matches to come

Division 3

Wessex D took on Atticus who out graded us although they did give us a one point start by defaulting on board 4. Further wins from Simon and Damon saw us cruise to a 3-1 win.

A special thank you to Phil Pinto who seems to be “taking one for the team” over each of the first 3 rounds and was, yet again, heavily out-graded – surely the “luck of the draw” will see some easier opponents soon ?

With 4 points from 6 Wessex D are currently in 3^rd place and, having already played the 1^st placed team, are in with a shout for the promotion play-offs.

Wessex E faced a tough match and were out graded on every board – despite this, some great wins from Tom & Stephen, combined with a draw from Doug, allowed us to take the match. The arbiter ruled board 2 as a 0-0 after a late start from us and a game abort by our opponent left things in limbo.

With 5 points from 6 Wessex E are currently in 2^nd place with a great chance of reaching the Division 3 play-offs.

Division 4

Sadly, our F team had a “walkover” so no games played.

With 6 points from 6 we are in 2^nd place and yet to play the 1^st & 3^rd placed teams so some great battles to come.

Division 5

Wessex G faced a tough match and were outgraded on every board – they rose to the occasion and with wins from Steven & Sofia (making her season debut) and a draw from Tim we took the match. With 5 points from 6 we are currently in 3^rd place from 25 teams with a shot at making the play-offs.

Wessex H had a strange match with 2 unplanned default wins (so penalties for our opponents which meant we had already won the match by 19:45 ) followed by Rose drawing by stalemate when her opponent had a one move checkmate. So the match win takes us to 4 points from 6 and the dizzy heights of 10^th place from 25 teams

Overall, another incredible evening of results, with wins for Wessex B, D, E, F, G, H , a draw for Wessex A and a loss for Wessex C

Stats-time

With 3 rounds completed we still have 2 players on 100% with 3/3, closely followed by 3 players with 2.5/3 in the race for the “Golden Pawn”

1. – Phil Stevens, Liam Rowe

2.5 – Richard Allis, Doug Blythe, Tim Jones

19 players have played in all three rounds, with 44 different players already in action this season.

Steven Charles won the “biggest upset” award this round with his win, beating a player graded 159 points above him.

Keith Gregory – 4NCL Wessex captain, Feb 19^th 2025