The National Club Championship has not been held since 2018. Historically, it was run with teams in the early rounds playing at each other’s venues on dates agreed by the teams within the period (e. g. a month) allotted to the rounds. Also, there was a repêchage secondary knockout for 1st-round losers competing for a trophy in the form of a plate. That was of the order of 40 years ago. Changes in available chess competitions and player preferences meant numbers of entrants fell to the point where in recent years the whole event has been run as a weekend event: a sort of team weekend congress. One factor would indeed have been the formation by Sheffield-born Chris Dunworth of the original 4NCL, which was meant to be an improvement on the BCF’s National Club Championship.

The revival of the event in 2023 was held at the University of Hull’s Canham Turner Conference Centre, Cottingham Road, Hull, HU6 7RX, over five rounds from Friday 20th to Sunday 22nd October, for teams of four players (with a pool of six players allowed) from any club “that participates in a league in England, Scotland, Ireland or Wales.” For these purposes, a team in the 4NCL was permitted to enter. The only club which “Heffalump Hunters” players seem to have in common seems to be 4NCL Online, though what league they play in as a team is unclear.

The “Plate” competitions have been discontinued in the present format.

There were 14 clubs with She Plays To Win (of the 4NCL, and including Aashita RoyChowdhury of Leeds) fielding two teams and Hull Chess Club fielding 5, meaning the total number of teams entered was 19. In isolation, that could be seen as a pretty poor turnout for a “national” event, to put it mildly, but looking back at previous events, there were more teams than 2018’s apparent entry of only 16 teams. That said, eight of this year’s teams were from Hull & District. In 2017 there seem to have been 21 teams. Geographical location might have counted against Hull this year. In 2015 there were only two teams in the top section, who played each other in each of the four rounds!

(For records of past events see https://www.ecfresource.co.uk/national-clubs-championships-archive/.)

In the event, two of the 19 teams entered team did not materialise, which may have been due to the weather. Also, 3Cs’ top player Adam Ashton was missing in round 1, occasioning a default, suggesting his journey to Hull was subject to delays caused by adverse weather.

Teams in the three sections numbered 4 in the Open, 5 in the Under-2000 (average) and 8 in the Under-1700 (average). That meant a standard 5-round Swiss had to be replaced by a modified pairing system. In the Open, the odd number of teams meant “triangular” pairings were adopted whereby in one round 2 payers from team A play 2 from team B, while the other 2 from team B play 2 players from team C, and the other 2 from team C play the other 2 from team A. Then in another round the same is repeated with players playing ones they did not play the first time. That is manageable when played over two rounds, but round 2 of the Under 2000 saw local teams Beverley Patzers, East Hull Tigers, and Hull Chess Club 2 playing both legs of a triangular match in one round, and for some reason that involved five players playing a total of three games each in the one round. Presumably these games were played at a rapidplay rate. (The prescribed time control was 90 minutes plus 30-second increments from move 1, in a four-hour playing session.)

So, seemingly the event was a success when seen in context, though one wonders why more teams, from Yorkshire especially, had not entered. Did the fact that the event was to be FIDE-rated, necessitating players being ECF Gold members, play a part?

Final positions were as in the following tables. Regarding the match points scored by teams, one has to bear in mind that in the triangular matches, the two legs of teams meeting each other were counted as two matches each played for a single match point for a won match and half a match point for a drawn match.

	Open	P	W	D	L	MP	GP		Under 1700	P	W	D	L	MP	GP
1	3Cs (Oldham)	5	2	2½	½	6½	11½	1	Victoria Dock (Hull)	5	4	0	1	8	11
2	Heffalump Hunters	5	2	2	1	6	11½	2	DHSS	5	2	2½	½	6½	10
3	Warwick University	5	1½	2	1½	5	10	3	Hull Chess Club 3	5	3	0	2	6	13
4	Hull Chess Club 1	5	½	1½	3	2½	6½	4	She Plays To Win A	5	2½	1	1½	6	10
								5	She Plays To Win B	5	2½	½	2	5½	7
	Under 2000	P	W	D	L	MP	GP	6	Wanstead and Woodford	5	1	1	3	3	8½
1	Hull Chess Club 2	4	3	1	0	7	10½	7	Hull Chess Club 5	5	1	1	3	3	7½
2	Redditch Chess Club	4	2	1	1	5	9½	8	Hull Chess Club 4	5	0	2	3	2	8
3	Beverley Patzers	4	1	3	0	5	9
4	Ashfield	4	1	1	2	3	8½
5	East Hull Tigers	4	0	0	4	0	2½

Round-by-round results were as detailed on the Yorkshire News Website at http://mannchess.org.uk/YEvents/2023-10-22NationalClub.htm.