INDEX_4NCL

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Mar 08 - Rounds 7 & 8

Two drawn matches against Nottingham and AMCA Dragons at

Sunningdale means that we need 4 points from a possible 6 to

be sure of promotion on the final weekend in May. On Saturday

Peter made it clear that he had not particularly enjoyed his win

against his brother. From a team point of view, however, it was an

extremely important result, as was Richard's win on Sunday. The

key games on Sunday, on boards four and five, were the last to

finish in the playing hall. Johnathan took his opponent to the last

few minutes of the seven hour playing session, but could not quite

salvage a draw from a long queen and pawn endgame, two pawns

down. Richard played extremely well to turn a drawish-looking end-

game into a win.

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Feb 08 - Rounds 5 & 6

Captain's report:

The feature of our third 4NCL weekend was the outstanding

performance of our dynamic duo on the middle boards. Dan and

Pablo now have 9½ / 10 between them which is clearly the major

reason for our dominant position in the division. I was also pleased

with the responsible attitude of the supporting cast. Tim had to

battle for his draw, but with the possible exception of Nicola's

second move (1 e4 e5 2 f4 Nc6!?), the players showed remarkable

discipline to ensure two 4-2 victories.

Braille remain within 2 points but the rest of the field is now 4 points

adrift. Some scenarios exist where we could miss out in the three

way tie on 18 points - so, remembering 2003/4, it is too soon for us

to become complacent about promotion.

The Gloucestershire Gambits match always looked comfortable with

Nicola going well and Pablo simply winning out of the opening.

The Metropolitan match was tenser until the relatively late blunder

on move 15 in Dan's game.

View the game: Ian Calvert - Dan Hall