Epsom Salties: 4NCL Online - Season 12, Round 7

4NCL Online - 2nd December 2025 - Division 4 - Round 7

4 boards, Online

Epsom Salties 1    3 - 1    Witney Huston

Epsom Salties 2    2.5 - 1.5   Wessex H

Epsom Salties 3    2 - 2 Hertford 3

	I am grateful for Marcus to step in to play his first match for the Salties. He held good space through large chunks of the match. Here Marcus finished the game with a 3-fold repetition Kg4 Nf2+ and back to the position. In fact White should have used RxNd3 – when the dust settles from the exchange, white is ahead – you certainly have to be a lot better player than me to see that.
	Ethan continues to be a star. This was a closely fought match, Ethan had to defend accurately, just as he got the match on equal footing, he missed this tricky move – as a puzzle I am sure many will see it, but over the board??? Answer below. As the time ticked down, Ethan kept his cool and managed to get the win.
	Mike has been a steady hand this season, but he had a wild night of chess as he suffered from a cold. There are certainly some moves that I can find no explanation for. Still even while off his best, he still had the overall best of the game. A result was probably a fair result, Mike had a slight advantage, but since he was low-ish on time and the draw gave us promotion then it was the right decision
	Trevor had a difficult evening, here the exchange is a Bishop for 3 pawns, but a6 was the killer blow to Trevor’s chances, as it allowed his opponent to double his rooks and the loss of significant material was inevitable.
	Tiara used the Jobava London and her opponent clearly didn’t know the opening and played it as a London, c5 is usually good against the London but needs some preparation (e.g. a6) against the Jobava. He fell into a standard line, though Tiara missed the last move in the sequence – answer below. But she didn’t need it and finished the game in 13 moves.
	Haris’s game had some wild swings, where opportunities were missed, but he was either ahead or more or less equal. Haris passed by a chance of a threefold in an equal position. We reached this position where Haris is actually in zugzwang (+16), but white offered a draw and Haris sensibly accepted.
	Alex came out with a Bird opening and into a wild game. Here his knight stepped on a landmine, that luckily did not go off as his opponent missed one of my favourite tactics (see answer below).
	Trevor faced 1.b3 as black, objectively weaker but it is not necessarily clear how to progress. The game was close until Trevor’s 18th move (left). Trevor saw the opportunity to grab the d-pawn, presumably expecting QxN and then he can take whites Bishop. However, white does not need to take it immediately and attacked the queen first with h4 (f4 was slightly better). Trevor did fight back until a6, then white has a standard devastating attack. Answer below.
	Dom rolled out his Caro-Kann, he quickly built up a small lead that he was comfortably holding onto it, until a super blunder by white as he abandoned the defence of his h2 pawn. Dom doesn’t miss that, not with 43 minutes on the clock.
	Leia was having a difficult night as black slowly built up a strong lead until allowing Leia Rxc6 and forked the queen and Bishop. And then seven moves later allowing Leia to take Black’s rook with discovered check. Two simple tactics well spotted by Leia and gave her victory.
	Lucy’s game followed a similar pattern to her previous games. An early error and then fighting like a lion to make her opponent work hard for their victory, in this case 75 moves. Here Lucy unfortunately allowed a fork on her King and Knight. She did not find the saving move for the Knight with c3 – admittedly a tricky move to spot. Opportunities did appear, for example the f pawn is actually undefended and black would need to sacrifice material to avoid the checkmate, if she had taken the f-pawn.
	Gary was not playing but still we got an 2…f6?! From Andrew, next season I need to have a f-ing charity box for those who play f3 or f6 within the first 5 moves. And why not play f6?? Well 12 moves later it meant that his knight got pinned by white’s Queen and there was no way back for Andrew.

The common theme of this round was draws there were quite a few offers or possibilities. They do show the difficulty in when to offer or force a draw.

Marcus’s position could have lost his game when trying for the 3-fold repetition.

Mike played as a team player and got the necessary draw. Though a win would have been tricky to get.

Haris passed by a draw in an even position. While his opponent offered a draw at the only point in the game he was ahead, this may be an indication that having spent most of the game behind, it is difficult to adjust that he was ahead.

Alistair Mackenzie

Solutions: 

Ethan puzzle: Qe4!, if QxQ then BxQ traps the knight.

Tiara puzzle: Qxd5!, if QxQ then Nf7+ capturing the crucial central pawn

Alex game: NxNe5! And black will be up a minor piece.

Trevor’s game: Rdh1 and then Rh8 is unstoppable and either checkmate or win a Rook.