4NCL – Final Weekend

At the time of writing (late Sunday evening), the final weekend of this season’s 4NCL is two-thirds complete.   The 4NCL runs across five weekends in total, with two rounds being played on each of the first four weekends.   This weekend, however, is a three-day event, with Round 9 being held on Saturday, Round 10 on Sunday and Round 11 on the Bank Holiday Monday.

This programme creates a real problem for team captains, who have to find teams of eight (Division 1) or six (Divisions 2 and 3), for each of the three days.   Not everyone is prepared (or able) to commit to three days of chess (especially at a time of year when they should be busy in the garden!)

Five Suffolk-based teams are competing as usual – the three Anglian Avengers (captained by Ian Wallis) and the two Iceni teams (captained by John Feavyour).

After the completion of Round 10 today, Anglian Avengers 2 lie in second place in Division 3.   After Round 11, the top four teams in Division 3 will be promoted to Division 2.

This is the current top of Division 3:

Any three of eleven teams could accompany already promoted Guildford 3 into Division 2 next season.   The final column is match points, with two points being awarded for a team win (and one point for a draw).   The penultimate column is game points, which is the tie-break for teams on the same match points.   So if Anglian Avengers 2 can win their match tomorrow, they will definitely be promoted.   If they draw 3 – 3, they could still be promoted on the basis of the number of game points, which is greater than most of the opposition.

Tomorrow’s article on this website will give the full results for all the Suffolk-based teams, as well as the individual scores recorded over the weekend.