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Events |
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14/08/2021 10th 4NCL Online Congress
As over-the-board chess starts to re-emerge from lock-down, on-line chess continues unabated.
The weekend of 12th to 14th August 2021 saw the 10th on-line 4NCL Congress. Entrants to the 5 sections numbered as follows:
The total of 83 entries would be nothing special in terms of normal over-the-board congresses, so the absence of a need for transport and accommodation clearly does not attract hardened congress-goers to the on-line format. This is further illustrated by the highest rating in the Open being 1990 (= 172 grade) – more like an o-t-b major.
The U-1400 section looks much like an o-t-b Minor section, but the innovative idea of an Under-1000 section (not in the previous 4NCL OL congress) seems not to have attracted the entries which one imagines had been hoped for from the rank novices. In fact 3 of the 6 entrants shared the same surname, presumably being siblings. One wonders if this section will be run in later such congresses.
The only two Yorkshire players evident were Paul A Johnson of York, in the Open, and David W Adam of Ilkley and Rose Forgrove, in the U-2000.
Paul Johnson fared as follows: drew in round 1 (click here to play through the game on screen), lost in round 2 (opponent ending up with 3 passed pawns charging down the board shepherded by a pair of raking bishops), won in round 3 (click here to play through the game on screen), won in round 4 in 19 moves (click here to play through the game on screen), won in round 5 (click here to play through the game on screen), finishing 3rd-5th= on 3½ out of 5.
David Adam, who could have entered the U-1700 where he would probably have fared better, started with a win (click here to play through the game on screen), but lost in the next four rounds.
9th 4NCL On-Line Congress
In the previous 4NCL on-line congress, Miles Edwards-Wright of Sheffield won all his 5 games in the Open, but these results were in time reversed to losses, rather implying that the system had deemed him to have been cheating, for instance by using a computer to analyse his positon. On the basis of rating, Miles might have won the event, though maybe not with 5 out of 5. Whatever the facts of the matter, either way it is worrying that this turn of events seems fairly common, and detracts from the attraction of on-line chess for some. |
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