NB Beeson Gregory were previously IndexIT

Round 4 - 26 November 2000¹

Barbican 4NCL 1 4-4 Guildford-ADC
Wood Green 5½-2½ Thistle Birmingham White Rose
Index-IT 1 4½-3½ Slough
Index-IT 2 4½-3½ South Wales Dragons
Richmond 3½-4½ Midland Monarchs
Barbican 4NCL 2 5-3 Poisoned Pawns

There were two heavy weight clashes in this Round from the 'big five': Barbican 4NCL 1 vs Guildford-ADC and Index-IT 1 vs Slough and as expected both were close.

Slough brought in Khenkin (GER) on top Board who plays for Tegernsee in the German Bundesliga but to no avail losing 4½-3½ with Hennigan making up for a mediocre season so far by beating Kosten on Board 3. The Barbican 4NCL 1 - Guildford-ADC match resulted in honours being shared including six draws.

Wood Green used the opportunity to gain some ground by beating Thistle Birmingham White Rose 5½-2½ with Tiller scoring his second win of the weekend.

The rest of the matches will play an important role at the end of the season when it comes to relegation time ... and all were close. Index-IT 2 just beat South Wales Dragons where the arrival of Cooper on Board 1 making all the difference. Midland Monarchs cemented their mid-table place after beating Richmond despite the young Thiruchelvam winning his second game. Barbican 4NCL 2 beat Poisoned Pawns who were out-rated and did well to obtain 3 points.

Play through the games at NetChess News.

Round 3 - 25 November 2000¹

Poisoned Pawns 1-7 Barbican 4NCL 1
Midland Monarchs 2½-5½ Wood Green
South Wales Dragons 0½-7½ Index-IT 1
Thistle Birmingham White Rose 5½-2½ Richmond
Slough 6½-1½ Barbican 4NCL 2
Guildford-ADC 7-1 Index-IT 2

Round 3 saw several David and Goliath clashes but unfortunately the little guy didn't quite have his sling working properly ... with convincing wins for Index-IT 1, Guildford-ADC, Slough, Barbican 4NCL 1 and Wood Green. These are a cut above the rest with Index-IT 1 and Slough the best of the bunch.

Poisoned Pawns brought in a new player Hadzimanolis to no avail and without B Lalic and Shaw had no chance against Barbican 4NCL 1, however one bright spot was the draw Vann obtained against Lauterbach even though she is more than 600 (sic) ELO points less! Knott and Ferguson both won to put them on 2½/3.

Wood Green had a solid win against the former champions Midland Monarchs with wins from Turner, Littlewood and Tiller while drawing the remaining games. Wood Green had their top 2 boards missing with Speelman in India for the FIDE WC and Baburin playing in Ireland.

Index-IT 1 thrashedput the fire out against the South Wales Dragons after only surrendering a single draw. The match was noticable for the first appearance of Mortazavi playing on Board 7 but higher graded than South Wales Dragons Board 1.

White Rose have renamed themselves Thistle Birmingham White Rose (why do some teams insist on turning their names into a tongue-twister?) and recruited Arkell and H Hunt to bolster their top boards. The result was a win against Richmond with a 4½/5 performance on the top 5 Boards.

Slough made short work of Barbican 4NCL 2 but young Hanley must have been pleased to draw against super-GM Ftacnik. The ever solid Miles chalked up his third straight win; Summerscales, McNab and S Lalic have 2½/3.

The final one-sided match was the 7-1 win for Guildford-ADC against Index-IT 2 even Index-IT's Olympian Richards was unable to win.

Play through the games at NetChess News.

Round 2 - 24 September 2000²

IndexIT 1 6-2 Barbican 4NCL 1
Slough 5-3 Wood Green
White Rose 1½-6½ Guildford-ADC
Midland Monarchs 5½-2½ South Wales Dragons
Poisoned Pawns 2-6 Richmond
Barbican 4NCL 2 3-5 IndexIT 2

The match of the Round was undoubtably Slough's win against Wood Green where despite Slough being outrated on every board they still managed to win!

IndexIT 1 easily despatched Barbican 4NCL 1 with both Nunn and Hebden clocking up 2 wins for the weekend, where the Barbican 4NCL could only be satisfied with Knott's win against Hennigan.

Guilford-ADC won again to stay on maximum with a very strong top 4 boards. Midland Monarchs bounced back to beat South Wales Dragons and Poisoned Pawns lost despite a spirited dsiplay on the top boards.

The battle of the second teams (Barbican 4NCL and IndexIT) could prove to be important later in the season with IndexIT winning.

    Index-IT 1                  Barbican 4NCL 1

1 w Nunn, John       2578  1-0	Parker, Jonathan  2539
2 b Chandler, Murray 2526  1-0	Collinson, Adam   2404
3 w Gallagher, Joe   2514  1-0	Kelly, Brian      2426
4 b Flear, Glenn     2480  ½-½	Crouch, Colin     2448
5 w Hebden, Mark     2505  1-0	Dishman, Stephen  2364
6 b McDonald, Neil   2439  ½-½	Ferguson, Mark    2374
7 w Hennigan, M      2455  0-1	Knott, Simon      2381
8 b Bellin, Jana (F) 2190  1-0	Kieran, R (F)     2106
                           6-2

    Slough                      Wood Green 
1 w Wells, Peter     2505  ½-½	Speelman, Jon     2623
2 b Miles, Tony      2584  1-0	Baburin, A        2590
3 w Wohl, Aleksandr  2461  ½-½	Emms, John        2527
4 b Summerscale, A   2465  ½-½	Ward, Chris       2510
5 w McNab, Colin     2416  1-0	Levitt, Jonathan  2438
6 b Buckley, Graeme  2351  0-1	Martin, Andrew    2445
7 w Lawton, Geoff    2378  1-0	Littlewood, Paul  2394
8 b Lalic, Susan (F) 2315  ½-½	Arakhamia, K (F)  2405
                           5-3

    White Rose                  Guildford-ADC 
1 w Mah, Karl        2411  0-1	Conquest, Stuart  2529
2 b Dunnington, A    2391  ½-½	Rowson, Jonathan  2494
3 w Dearing, Eddie   2267  0-1	King, Daniel      2525
4 b Gayson, Peter    2273  0-1	Gormally, Daniel  2504
5 w Townsend, Paul   2230  0-1	Baker, Chris W    2372
6 b Barrett, Steve   2217  1-0	Povah, Nigel      2359
7 w Jones, Gawain    2168  0-1	Webb, Richard     2353
8 b Keeling, K (F)   1688  0-1	Yurenok, M (F)    2058
                          1½-6½

    Midland Monarchs            South Wales Dragons

1 w Pert, Nick       2455  1-0	Cooper, John      2341
2 b Ledger, Andrew   2441  ½-½	Dineley, Richard  2273
3 w Williams, Simon  2353  1-0	Zeidler, Sven     2255
4 b Ledger, David    2302  1-0	James, David      2238
5 w Pert, Richard    2239  ½-½	Saunders, John    2199
6 b James, Russell   2209  ½-½	Richmond, Peter   2220
7 w Ledger, Stephen  2200  1-0	Binks, Michael    2155
8 b Tidman, S (F)    2042  0-1	Cast, Abigail (F) 2114
                          5½-2½

    Poisoned Pawns              Richmond

1 w Shaw, John       2435  1-0	Rossi, Carlo *    2346
2 b Devereaux, Max   2269  ½-½	Wall, Gavin       2384
3 w Swanson, Stephen 2281  ½-½	Quinn, Mark       2381
4 b Smith, A P *     2252  0-1	Bates, Richard    2357
5 w Hammond, Andy    2213  0-1	Webb, Laurence    2257
6 b Rosen, Daniel    2221  0-1	Phillips, Roy     2240
7 w Moore, Gerald    2206  0-1	Franklin, Michael 2253
8 b Turvey, S (F)    1520  0-1	Buckley, M (F)    2124
                           2-6

    Barbican 4NCL 2             Index-IT2

1 w Palliser, R      2322  0-1	Mestel, Jonathan  2488
2 b Duncan, C        2310  ½-½	Bellin, Robert    2369
3 w Rogers, Jonathan 2329  1-0	Richardson, John  2348
4 b Hanley, Craig    2294  ½-½	Giddins, Stephen  2315
5 w Plueg, Andreas   2313  0-1	Hassabis, Demis   2237
6 b Twyble, Michael  2229  1-0	Friedgood, David  2235
7 w Lewis, Andrew    2259  0-1	Wade, Robert      2213
8 b Rutherford,E (F) 2050  0-1	Richards, H (F)   2109
                           3-5

Round 1 - 23 September 2000²

IndexIT 2 1½-6½ IndexIT 1
Guildford-ADC 5½-2½ Midland Monarchs
Richmond 1-7 Slough
Wood Green 7-1 Poisoned Pawns
South Wales Dragons 2½-5½ White Rose
Barbican 4NCL 1 4½-3½ Barbican 4NCL 2

There were no upsets in the first round which saw the first and second teams battle it out where Index-IT 1 heavily outgunned their second team and Barbican 4NCL 1 were stronger but needed to be wary in case of an upset. Index-IT 1 proved too strong and apart from a good win by Heather Richards the second team were well beaten. The Barbican 4NCL match ended close with the first team just winning.

Slough had a good solid team without bringing in all their top players which still proved too much for Richmond who lost 1-7. White Rose came through with a comfortable 5½-2½ win against South Wales Dragons.

Guildford started with a strong team including 3 GM's and took no chances against Midland Monarchs winning 5½-2½. The same story with Wood Green who, as always, had a strong team out and it proved a baptism of fire for the Poisoned Pawns who managed just two draws.

    Index-IT 2                  Index-IT 1

1 w Mestel, Jonathan 2488  0-1  Nunn, John        2578
2 b Bellin, Robert   2369  0-1  Chandler, Murray  2526
3 w Richardson, John 2348  ½-½  Gallagher, Joe    2514
4 b Giddins, Stephen 2315  0-1  Flear, Glenn      2480
5 w Hassabis, Demis  2237  0-1  Hebden, Mark      2505
6 b Friedgood, David 2235  0-1  McDonald, Neil    2439
7 w Wade, Robert     2213  0-1  Hennigan, Michael 2455
8 b Richards, H (F)  2109  1-0  Bellin, Jana (F)  2190
                          1½-6½

    Guildford-ADC 1             Midland Monarchs

1 w Conquest, Stuart 2529  ½-½  Pert, Nick        2455
2 b Rowson, Jonathan 2494  1-0  Ledger, Andrew    2441
3 w King, Daniel     2525  ½-½  Williams, Simon   2353
4 b Gormally, Daniel 2504  1-0  Ledger, David     2302
5 w Baker, Chris W   2372  ½-½  Pert, Richard     2239
6 b Povah, Nigel     2359  1-0  Naylor, John      2241
7 w Webb, Richard    2353  1-0  Ledger, Stephen   2200
8 b Yurenok, M (F)   2058  0-1  Tidman, S (F)     2042
                          5½-2½

    Richmond                    Slough

1 w Rossi, Carlo *   2346  0-1  Miles, Tony       2584
2 b Wall, Gavin      2384  ½-½  Wohl, Aleksandr   2461
3 w Quinn, Mark      2381  ½-½  Wells, Peter      2505
4 b Bates, Richard   2357  0-1  Summerscale, A    2465
5 w Webb, Laurence   2257  0-1  McNab, Colin      2416
6 b Phillips, Roy    2240  0-1  Lawton, Geoff     2378
7 w Franklin, M      2253  0-1  Lalic, Susan (F)  2315
8 b Buckley, M (F)   2124  0-1  Buckley, Graeme   2351
                           1-7

    Wood Green                Poisoned Pawns

1 w Speelman, Jon    2623  1-0  Shaw, John        2435
2 b Baburin, A       2590  1-0  Devereaux, Max    2269
3 w Emms, John       2527  1-0  Swanson, Stephen  2281
4 b Ward, Chris      2510  1-0  Smith, Andrew P * 2252
5 w Levitt, Jonathan 2438  1-0  Hammond, Andy     2213
6 b Martin, Andrew   2445  ½-½  Rosen, Daniel     2221
7 w Littlewood, Paul 2394  ½-½  Moore, Gerald     2206
8 b Arakhamia, K (F) 2405  1-0  Turvey, S (F)     1520
                           7-1

    South Wales Dragons         White Rose 1

1 w Cooper, John     2341  0-1  Mah, Karl         2411
2 b Dineley, Richard 2273  ½-½  Dunnington, Angus 2391
3 w Zeidler, Sven    2255  0-1  Dearing, Eddie    2267
4 b James, David     2238  1-0  Gayson, Peter     2273
5 w Morris, Charles  2238  ½-½  Townsend, Paul    2230
6 b Richmond, Peter  2220  ½-½  Barrett, Steve    2217
7 w Binks, Michael   2155  0-1  Burnett, Jim      2213
8 b Cast, A (F)      2114  0-1  Keeling, K (F)    1688
                          2½-5½

    Barbican 4NCL 1             Barbican 4NCL 2

1 w Parker, J        2539  1-0  Rogers, Jonathan  2329
2 b Crouch, Colin    2448  0-1  Palliser, Richard 2322
3 w Kelly, Brian     2426  ½-½  Plueg, Andreas    2313
4 b Collinson, Adam  2404  ½-½  Duncan, C         2310
5 w Knott, Simon     2381  ½-½  Hanley, Craig     2294
6 b Ferguson, Mark   2374  1-0  Kenworthy, Gary   2283
7 w Dishman, Stephen 2364  1-0  Mack, Andrew      2261
8 b Kieran, R (F)    2106  0-1  Rutherford, E (F) 2050
                          4½-3½

¹ Source: Nigel Johnson - 4NCL Events Director
² Source: Official 4NCL Web Site