Metropolitan Chess Club 4NCL Team

This season is our first season in the 4NCL, and we are playing in division 4. Unlike the other divisions, fourth division sides will no longer be required to include a female player and sadly will be only 6 boards.

High noon! - we were playing our two leading rivals for a place in Division 3. A win against either would suffice, likewise both needed to beat us - so the matches were as tense as they could be.

We knew that both of our opponents would be fielding strong teams - to date, they had generally fielded teams with BCF average about 175-180.

So we revised our board order slightly in the first match against Hilsmark Kingfisher, with the aim of giving the attacking players White in order to maximise our chances of an upset.

And the match got off to a reasonable start. Norbert's game looked very dull, and it was, but he was playing well and looked in no danger of getting anything but a draw against his FM opponent. Nick's opponent got into a tangle in the opening - Nick looked to have a promising attack on the Qside against the king. Ian looked to have a solid position in his favourite Slav, and was well ahead on the clock. George's opponent had dropped a pawn, and we were looking good for a win. Zaf had a very promising position as Black with a large lead in development. Robert's game was still in the early stages, but looked to have the advantage in a closed middlegame.

Noone said anything, but we knew they were in trouble. Then, our opponents seemed to pull up their collective socks, and it all started to go wrong.

Inaccuracies, and then errors, on boards 2 and 5 meant the promising positions disappeared, and then turned sour. Norbert cashed in his draw, and George's position became clearly won. But the tide had turned, and Ian's position started to drift very slowly in a slightly worse endgame, while Rob's opponent toughed out the opening and eventually broke through on the queenside.

The final reckoning was 4.5-1.5 to Hilsmark. You can link directly to the games by clicking on the names..

So it all came down to our last match against Wood Green - a must-win match for both sides. This time the match score was closer, but we never felt we were ahead.

Early indications did not auger well - Norbert was in trouble early on v Graham Lee in a peculiarly complicated Caro-Kann. Nick looked slightly worse from the opening - Ian looked to have a sharp position - George looked slightly worse on 4 - Zaf about level on 5, Robert was in trouble on 6 - so 2 games looked to be going down, without any board with obvious winning prospects.

Nick lost a pawn and was unable to get anything much for it, so it shifted to 3 games looking lost. To credit our opponents, they played very calmly on most of the boards and made the most of their favourable start - except on board 3 where the position had become very wild.

George held his opponent to a hard-fought draw, and Zaf somewhat fortuitously got the same result having misplayed the ending. Norbert and Rob had lost, so this meant the end of our promotion hopes - we needed to win the match. On board 2, Nick was now 2 pawns down in a knight endgame, while Ian's board was too messy to assess confidently, but it didn't look too good. Happily however, his opponent missed a brilliant shot a few moves later - Rxg7!! - which turned it all around ( see here). And for a moment we all forgot we'd lost the match, so pretty was the final position.

In the end, the high scorer for the team was George (8/10) - this made him also the top scorer in division 4 - followed by Zaf (6.5/8) and Rob (6.5/10). Overall we scored 37/60, and although a little outclassed by Wood Green and Hilsmark we ended head and shoulders above the others, against whom we scored 75%. It's been a very promising start for our first season in the 4NCL - thanks and well done to all who played!

Metropolitan lead the division with 2 rounds to go ! Facing Slough in the final round proper of the 4th division, Metropolitan secured their place in group A with a decisive victory. Indeed, we started the match with a 3-0 scoreline.. Nick had a good win on board 1, against his opponent's Grand Prix attack he always seemed better, and soon showed up the flaws in his opponent's position. George got an excellent king side attacking position from his Pirc Defence and showed no mercy in his assault. Zaf went a piece astray - as he often does in his 4NCL games - but his b-pawn proved more than worth it.

However, at this point the other 3 boards were not looking healthy, and with Slough looking like they might hold the draw, the match remained in the balance for some time.

Luckily, the tide turned when Norbert managed to survive his endgame - where he was a rook down for two (underestimated) passed pawns. Ian had to fight hard throughout his game, which seemed to have several phases as the action shifted to different parts of the board- but in the end also drew. Robert complicated in a position where he was worse, and turned it round so he was first drawing, then finally winning!

The other teams that qualifed for Group A are : Wood Green, Hillsmark KingFisher and the AD's . Wood Green and Hillsmark both scored heavily against their opponents, while the AD's took the final spot despite losing to Wood Green as we beat their main rivals Slough 3.

Round eight saw us facing a weaker team (on paper) in the form of the AD's 3rd team, whom we had faced two rounds earlier. We won again, but the score was closer this time. The boards we won, we did so smoothly: George won in positional style, giving up the exchange in the endgame for the 2 bishops and a passed pawn, and Zafer punished his opponent's opening errors severely.

However, there was a big upset on Nick's board, as he let himself fall too far behind on the clock. His opponent rightly went on the offensive, and set Nick too many defensive problems to solve in his remaining time. Also Ian found himself unable to break through against his talented junior opponent, who played very solidly throughout. Norbert looked better early on, but may have simplified at the wrong time, as the game drifted towards a draw.

In the key game of the round - Wood Green against Hilsmark Kingfisher - the latter wheeled out GM Aaron Summerscale as a "wildcard"! He was held to a draw by Wood Green's board 1, but Hilsmark won the match 4½-½, which pushed us into first place!

The bad news is that we still have to face our two strongest rivals in the last two rounds. A win against either would be sufficient to ensure promotion to division 3 - and likewise, both will be trying to beat us to guarantee the same thing in the dog-eat-dog finale to the season....

Two wins - and what wins! - this weekend have moved us up into clear second place after 6 rounds. Our first match was against old rivals Athenaeum's second team. Two defaults on the bottom boards put the match almost within grasp, although initially Athenaeum seemed to be getting back into the match, as Norbert looked busted from the opening, and George seemed uncomfortable with his position. However, soon Zafer's position started to look up, as his opponent grabbed some material, but at too high a cost to development - and king safety!. The win on Zaf's board was followed by a draw on Ian's which sealed the match. Meanwhile, George's position had improved a lot. What had earlier looked like a closed King's Indian type of position with black pawns advancing on the kingside, now looked like a very open position indeed, with George's pieces in the centre aiming directly at the Black King! During all this Norbert had gone from a lost endgame to a bad position to a slightly worse endgame. We thought a draw might follow, but he surprised us all by hanging on and keeping the tension in the position long enough to exploit his opponent's final mistakes.

Elsewhere, Wood Green went into a clear lead by beating Nidum Knights, while the ADs were held to a draw by Slough, which put them in second place alongside us. Meanwhile Hilsmark Kingfisher continued their winning run, and moved up to third place by beating Sussex Mindsports.

Round six saw us repeat the previous day's scoreline exactly, this time against the ADs. An important match to win, as the teams are vying to make sure they finish in the top 4 after 7 rounds, and make the cut into Division 4A. Somehow it all came together today - George won a very sharp game as Black in 15 moves, both kings in the open in the final position! Zaf was able to get a strong pawn centre and took control of the game after that. Collins had a quieter game but was able to steer into a winning endgame, while Norbert's build-up on the g-file and shutdown of his opponent's counterplay bought the same result. Robert played a controlled attacking game, and was able to mate his opponent's King on f5 just before the time control!

Curiously, all the other matches of this round were won by the same margin! Wood Green defeated Athenaeum (who defaulted 4 boards this time). Sussex did the same to Nidum Knights, while Hilsmark defeated a somewhat weakened Slough 3, conceding only a draw on board 2.

For more information e-mail the 4ncl captain