Final Four Nations League Weekend – Part three

The Four Nations League is a team tournament over three divisions, with over 850 players
registered to take part and over £10,000 in cash prizes on offer. It is the most prestigious
team chess event held in the United Kingdom. It is held over various weekends from
Oct to May 2013/14, in several venues (for the 2013/14 season).

Final 4NCL Weekend Report – 3-5 May 2014

By John Saunders

Round 11 (Final) Championship Pool

So the denouement, and the showdown between the holders Guildford 1 and Wood Green 1. The one personnel change to the two line-ups subsequent to round ten was the inclusion of Luke McShane in the Wood Green team in place of Nick Pert, with some adjustments made to board order. Guildford’s average rating was 2656 and Wood Green’s 2647, with Guildford players out-rating their opponents on five of the eight boards (by as much as 61 points in the case of Giri and McShane). Remember also that a 4-4 draw would be good enough for Guildford to take the championship on tie-break. Nine nations were represented amongst the 16 GMs on both sides: there were six Englishmen, two Frenchmen, two Dutchmen, one player from each of the Czech Republic, Scotland, Norway and Latvia, plus women players from Bulgaria and Sweden.

Wood Green 1 2-6 Guildford 1: the scoreline suggests an overwhelming win for the champions but it did look fairly close – maybe even better for Wood Green – about halfway into the first session. Rapidly improving French GM Romain Edouard set the tone for his team with an adventurous display of counterattacking chess against Jon-Ludvig Hammer.

Jon Ludvig Hammer (Wood Green 1) and Romain Edouard (Guildford 1)

Jones-Laznicka was a very interesting game and a good example of why you shouldn’t always put your faith in digital engines. Fortunately for me, I had one of the all-time great organic engines at my disposal at an important juncture during the game. Speelman version 1 (a.k.a. Spess or Speelwolf), sitting close to my left elbow and looking over my shoulder at the game on my laptop, took nanoseconds to assess Gawain’s position as close to winning at a stage when his electronic rivals still seemed to think Black was either OK or even better.

Foreground: Gawain Jones (right, Guildford 1) v Viktor Laznicka (Wood Green 1)

Of the six English players involved in the match, Gawain Jones was the only one to record a win. Nigel Short and David Howell played out a tense draw, with the older player pressing a little harder for much of its duration. Luke McShane was perhaps Wood Green’s best hope of a win but his edge gradually dissipated and was turned round completely by Anish Giri. Mickey Adams was also ground down by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who is becoming stronger and stronger all the time, comparable to a young Adams, or Petrosian in his prime. The other games were drawn, leaving Guildford the winners by a comfortable margin.

Congratulations are due to Guildford and their genial manager, Roger Emerson, who clearly engenders a relaxed and friendly atmosphere in his squad, and in this way he is not unlike his Wood Green rival, the equally affable Brian Smith. One of the pleasures of a 4NCL weekend is to chat with team managers and captains, and this is perhaps a good time to pass on my thanks to all of them for helpfully answering my questions and feeding me stories and info. The league appears to be in rude health and much of this is down to the enthusiasts who give so much time to running teams.

White Rose 4-4 Grantham Sharks 1: not too much was at stake here, with White Rose having wrapped up third place in the penultimate round, and Grantham just playing for the honour of finishing fifth or sixth. Having said that, there was a tangible achievement in the match, with James Adair winning a game against Tom Rendle, thereby completing his requirements for the IM title (subject to confirmation, as the officials always insist on me adding). Very well done to him. 1-6½ Cheddleton: the latter team finished a creditable fourth in the table after a comfortable victory over Sean Hewitt’s domain name club, who defaulted a board.

Guildford 2 6-2 Barbican 2: the Guildford side had the third highest rating average on the day and cruised to a big win. Alberto Suarez Real completed his requirements for an IM norm with a smooth victory over Jonathan Rogers (he obviously likes playing Jonathans, having defeated Jonathan Hawkins in round 9).

Division 1, Championship Pool, Final Scores

– Part four (final) of John Saunders' report will follow soon –

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN You can use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs to replay the games in PGN. You can also download our free Playchess client, which will in addition give you immediate access to the chess server Playchess.com.