There is, it turns out, one good thing about January—the 2nd weekend of the 4NCL! Fortunately, we only had to go as far as Coventry this time although we did take a somewhat scenic route through the valleys!

Wessex B were the team waiting to do battle. We were pretty well matched on boards 1 and 2 but hoped to pick up some points on the lower boards, where we appeared to have some rating edge despite the ECF ratings not being adjusted. Even our last-minute debutant, Glyn, was in with a shout! It was interesting to note that Dale was again the lucky team member to face off against the only junior in the opposing team, who was 9 years old. Sorry, Dale!

I’m not sure if Hywel was just excited to be back in the 4NCL, or if it was that for some reason the air conditioning in the venue was cranked up, but he managed to smash his opponent while Steve on the next board was still stuck trying to solve his opening problems. Hywel had managed to get a super-active position and in the end it was simply too much. Sam had an interesting position on 1 and it looked like he could play for a win. Steve, on the other hand, was still fairly sure he knew what move he was supposed to play, but couldn’t figure out how to play it without losing! Looking down the boards, I saw what appeared to be a suspicious queen move on board 6, so didn’t dare go look—Probably a Glyn Move™. Dale’s position appeared equal but slightly dangerous heading into an ending. Something went wrong on 5 as Andrew failed to sit on his hands and fell to a fairly brisk defeat against his lower-rated opponent.

Eventually Steve found an equal looking middlegame, by which time Glyn was crushing on board 6. Unfortunately though, Dale miscalculated and found himself in a lost pawn ending and his opponent showed him no mercy. Kids aren’t supposed to know how to play endings!  What is the world coming to‽  Sam’s game had also gone bad, and Steve had misplayed his game and had to settle for a draw, which is better than a loss!, but Glyn had eased to victory on 6. Unfortunately the match was lost narrowly 2.5-3.5, but a good effort.  As Buzz Aldrin once said, “Second comes right after first!”

Only one thing for it—A trip into coventry for curry and drinks, and to take the mick out of Dale!

Sunday’s match was another closely rated affair, but definitely winnable. We got off to a great start when Dale’s opponent turned up and wasn’t a child!  Andrew won quite comfortably against a lower rated opponent, but Hywel slipped up and fell to a quick loss against a slightly lower rated opponent. Perhaps he had still not recovered from his spicy curry; he should have come out-out for extra drinks! Dale had a fairly even draw on board 4, but Glyn showed the way with a very nice tactic to win material and his game on 6. Sam was a pawn down on 1, but there appeared to be only one way for his opponent to make progress, which he duly tried, walking right into a lovely Bishop mate right in the middle of the board!  The stupid award, however, went to Steve, who had been winning basically the whole game, blundered into a drawn ending in time trouble, inexplicably turned down a draw expecting to simply agree a move later, before realising he had miscalculated terribly and now had to hold a tricky queen ending on increment. He ultimately got off lightly and succeeded in holding the draw, and the match was won 4-2, but Glyn, confused, had to ask “I don’t understand—why did you let him go and take all your pawns?” Thanks, Glyn! Good question!

Clearly we should only use new players as it’s now 4/4 for the Castell Nedd debutants.