Tough baptism for CSC/Kingston 1 in Div 1 of 4NCL

CSC/Kingston 1 lose their opening matches on the first weekend of the 4NCL season, but the second and third teams both get off the mark

We knew it was going to be tough on our first weekend in division 1 of the 4NCL – the UK’s national chess league – and so it proved. Played 2, lost 2, though on Sunday against Blackthorne we came within a whisker not just of drawing the match but even winning it. Lessons learned, positives taken, we will come back stronger in January!

On Saturday we were up against the massed GMs of Manx Liberty and a loss by 6.5-15 was about as good as we could expect on rating. The high spot was a draw for 14-year-old Zain Patel (pictured above) against Hungarian grandmaster Miklos Galyas, though 10-year-old Supratit Banerjee almost went one better than that. He had a winning position against Polish GM Lukasz Cyborowski and even turned down a draw to press for the win, but then blundered in the position below.

The match on Sunday against Blackthorn was much closer: seven games were drawn – though Zain, who again played extremely well, and David Maycock had excellent winning chances – and the only win was by FM Dave Ledger against Supratit, a skilfully played positional game by Ledger from which Supratit will again have learned a great deal. We have a young team and hope that this experience of playing against the best in division 1 stands them in good stead for their future chess careers. Though that does not mean we have given up hope of surviving in Div 1. We will come out fighting at Peterborough in January.

These division 1 matches were played on the weekend of 23/34 November in Daventry. CSC/Kingston 2 and 3 had made their seasonal reappearance two weeks earlier in Peterborough, both winning on the Saturday and losing on the Sunday. The personal high spots were Peter Finn’s two wins from two games in Div 3, debutant Sanjit Kumar’s draw against the very strong Sussex Martlets player Russell Granat (also in Div 3), and a truly tremendous weekend for Petr Vachtfeidl, who beat Adam Cranston to secure the match win for the third team against Celtic Tigers on Saturday and then drew with the 2213-rated Ethan Norris in Sunday’s match in Div 4. A wonderful effort by Petr, who is a talisman for the CSC/Kingston team.

Thanks to all the players who took part in both weekends – these matches involve long treks to motorway hotels in the Midlands and east of England – and to Kate and Charlie Cooke for organising the teams with their usual calm efficiency. Now for 2025 and weekend 2! You ain’t seen nothing yet.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain

CSC/Kingston 1