| Four Nations Chess League :: 1997/1998 |
<< [ Information || Division 1 || Division 2 || Statistics ] >>
| Four Nations Chess League 1997/98 (see all-time tournament summary) |
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| Dates: | October 1997 - May 1998 |
| Cities: |
Rounds 1-2: Telford, Rounds 3-4: Kenilworth, Rounds 5-11: Birmingham |
| Tournament Director: | Mr. Chris Dunworth (ENG) |
| Chief Arbiter: | IA Richard Furness (ENG) |
| Teams participating: | Division 1: 12 (teams ranked 1-12 in recent Div/1; 3 down) Division 2: 12 (teams ranked 13-18 in recent Div/1 + all the newcomers; 3 up) Total of 24 teams from 20 clubs. |
| Players participating: | Division 1: 171 (incl. 24 GMs, 29 IMs, 5 WGMs, 28 FMs, 4 WIMs and 1 WFM) |
| Games played: | Division 1 and 2: 528 |
| Competition format: | Division 1 and 2: Eight board round robin. |
| Final order decided by: | 1. Match points; 2. Game points; 3. Direct match result (Bristol avoided relegation because of 5-3 win v Guildford) |
| Time control: | N/A |
| Website: | 4NCL |
| Other Websites: | Round reports by J.Saunders: r1, r2, r3, r4, r5, r6, r7, r8, r9, r10, r11 Fixtures and Results List |
| Downloadable game file: | Division 1: 98-4ncl.zip Division 2: 98-4ncl_2.zip |
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Black to play and win. The position comes from a game in the latest round of the 4NCL, which was played in Birmingham a couple of weeks ago. Neil McDonald, playing Black, found the best way to cope with White's threat of mate on g7 - he forced mate himself first: 30...Nf1+! 31.Kh1 Qh2+! and White resigned. 32.Nxh2 Ng3 is mate. Here are the full moves of the game. When White played 18.b5, he must have missed Black's reply which forced the win of a pawn. 19.bxc6 Qxf2+ 20.Kh2 Bxf3 leaves White doubly pinned and unable to recapture on f3, while 20.Kh1 Bxf3 makes 21.gxf3 legal, but allows mate on g1. Black's 27...Qf8 encouraged White to dream of playing Nd4 and Nf5, but his 28.Nd4? allowed the winning combination that followed. |