Epsom Salties: 4NCL Online - Season 13, Round 6

4NCL Online - 31st March 2026 - Division 3 and 4 - Round 6

4 boards, Online

Epsom Salties 1    2 - 2    Bishop Trojans

Epsom Salties 2    3 - 1    Parklangley

Epsom Salties 3    4 - 0 Colchester JFF C

Probably one of our best nights online. Salties 1 just fell short of getting a win.

	Mike was in a very tight game until he took advantage of some weak moves – in this position, Mike won’t miss this one – but neither do you.
	Sammy fought a tight game. The endgame required was very difficult and the advantage switched several times. Here white missed Ne4 forking g5 and the B. Black played Ba5?? Can you see black’s best move. This was a tricky endgame, even though Sammy had a small advantage of the Bishop v a Knight and pawns on both sides of the board. Sammy finally succumbed to some nice play.
	Here Robert was in a good position and the position improved after Kg7?? Here Robert did Rd1 which was OK, but missed the h4 to open up the position, with good attacking chances including a Rook uplift. But eventually the pressure was lost with an exchange of Queens and Bishop and Knight on f6. This left a weakness of the pawn on d4, this was saveable but another small error lost the pawn and the game wasn’t salvageable.
	John had a back and fro match after a Sicillian. You have got love this type of checkmate that John gave. He even had a move to spare – he could have played f2 and allowed h8Q and then had a choice of checkmates.
	This was the key point in Trevor’s game. Trevor unsurprisingly did Ra8 to protect the rook. Stockfish says Bxc5 is better – the c-(pass)pawn eventually queens, so it would have been important to take that pawn.
	Leia had a bit of a to and fro match – but she spotted a nice tactic (left) here to get an advantage (see below). She kept a good lead  - even though she missed the more obvious tactic (right), a pattern that should be recognised (see below). Her ending was very neat, she kept the focus on promoting her pawn, even leaving other pieces en-pris and then straight for the checkmate – even though she was low on time.
	Here Alex grabs the notorious b-pawn – is it poisonous? No way, Alex soon had the Rook as well and able to make his escape and finished the game in 12 moves.
	Gary faced a Scandinavian, he responded with an early Queen move (2. Qf3), that the Queen allowed to be chased around the board. Gary played solidly but he was left slightly behind in the match, really due to his second move – until remarkably black castled into trouble. It doesn’t take Gary long to get this one. That was the only blunder of the match.
	Daniel had a wild game. He dropped a piece early on and then missed the winning move here, answer below. But he soon won when black dropped his knight. The Coppinator had a good strong match, he played well and snapped up on the errors of his opponent.
	Aditya and his opponent went through a few bad moves. Aditya had safely castled to protect the crucial f-pawn. But then moved the Rook and lost the f-pawn. He missed Kh7 to protect the Knight. Luckily white took the Rook instead of the free Knight. Aditya was saved by some dropped pieces.  He got a winning position after f3??, forking 2 pieces – but Aditya just ignored that with Qc5+. White went Kf1 and so an easy checkmate, but Kh1 and there is a classic checkmate available (answer below).

So dropped pieces returns as a theme to the matches, but at least this time it was mostly our opponents. These reports are aimed at helping our players to improve, particularly the lower rated players. There are some basic tactics that have been missed throughout this season that could have affected outcomes. The biggest difference for many is simply checking if there are pieces to be taken and that your pieces are safe. As we have seen, even our better players can occasionally make these mistakes.

Alistair Mackenzie

Answers

Mikes match: Qh8#

Leia’s match: (left) Nxb5; Rd2and there is no way to protect both Bishops.

Gary’s match: Qxh7+ Kf7 Bg6#

Daniel’s match: Re3#

Aditya’s match: If 1. Kh1 Nf2+ 2. Kg1 Nh6++ 3. Kh1 Qg1!! 4. RxQ Nf2# Smothered mate.