Last season the 4NCL ran two congresses in Wakefield, which does not have its own locally-run congress at the moment. This season, on dates corresponding to those of last season’s Wakefield events, the 4NCL is running two congresses in Doncaster.

Whether the change of venue represents a problem having arisen for 2017-18 with the Wakefield venue, or whether a peripatetic event is an intrinsic part of NCL’s strategy is unclear. Either way, with the home-grown “Real” Doncaster Congress (to borrow from Noel Boustred’s “Real” Harrogate Congress’s designation), there are set to be three weekend chess congresses in Doncaster in 2017‑18!

The venue is right by junction 36 of the M1.

Somewhat unusually, by comparison with locally-run congresses, there were only three sections, attracting 127 participants in all.

The advertised prizes were as follows:

	1st	2nd	3rd	Performance
Open	£400	£200	£100	£50
Major (Under ELO 2000 / ECF 175)	£400	£200	£100	£50
Minor (Under ECF 135)	£400	£200	£100	£50

Links above are to separate sections’ results, showing prizes as described on the congress website: http://www.4ncl.co.uk/fide/information_15.htm.