4NCL - UK & Ireland's top league chess

[Skulte]

Hi all,
I manage the Celtic Tigers 4NCL team, and wanted to let fellow aussies know if you are FIDE 1600+ and in the UK over the 4NCL period (Nov-May), and want to play for a club in the UK & Irelands's elite chess league one weekend, please don't hesitate to pop me a message (or tweet or facebook). We are starting a new 2nd team next year, and will likely have a spare spots some weekends.

What is 4NCL?
It's the top league of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, played over 5 weekends. (2 games a weekend, 3 on the final weekend). You play one game each day, and usually stay the night in the venue. - Which add's to the social fun of the event.
Usually it's one weekend in: Nov/Jan/Feb/Mar/May
Website: http://www.4ncl.co.uk/

Why Celtic Tigers?
We are a relaxed and very social club, enjoying our beers and have dinner with the team.
Have a read of our newsletters to see what it is like to play for the tigers. (all on website)
Website: https://www.celtictigers.club/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CelticTigersCC

Cheers,
Chris Skulte

[David Webster]

Looks like I might be moving to Edinburgh soon, so let me know if you need players and I'll see if I can make it (even if I'm still in Frankfurt it's not exactly hard to get to the UK).

Also, if anyone happens to come to Frankfurt, I recommend the Bad Soden chess club (http://schachclub-badsoden.de/wp/). Very friendly and we have 8 teams of 6-8 players with players of all ratings and often need reserves.

Last year I played a few games for the 1st team, which was promoted from the 5th tier of German chess (average rating ~1900) to the 4th tier (average rating ~2000). This year I'm playing Board 1 for the 2nd team, which is in the 6th tier of German chess and my opponents are still rated between 1700 and 2300! Germany has a big club chess culture - the town I live in just outside Frankfurt (10000 people) has a club with 60-70 players and there's four other (smaller) clubs within in a 5km radius!

[Skulte]

Cheers mate, will definitely get in touch when next season comes around! (or if we fall short this year). I have your details!
I have a few friends that play in Germany, crazy strong league chess over there.

[Skulte]

Hi all, a note we now have 2 aussie's trying to survive Division 1 of the 4NCL! Myself (Chris Skulte) & David Webster are playing for the tigers.
All of our games this year will be streamed over chess24. First round is the weekend 10th - 11th November 2018.

If anyone was curious what a weekend away at UK's league chess is like, I have made a number of newsletters after each weekend which can be found here: https://www.celtictigers.club/newsletter
There are puzzles, analysis by GM's and FM's, as well as other content, any feedback is appreciated but it's more a gift to the chess community. (I just wish I could write as well as so many of the Australian players and coaches)

If anyone moves to the UK, and is interested in joining both London league, as well as the national league, it's extremely social, and great fun, feel free to get in touch.

Keep up the great work aussies!

[MichaelBaron]

Hi all, a note we now have 2 aussie's trying to survive Division 1 of the 4NCL! Myself (Chris Skulte) & David Webster are playing for the tigers.
All of our games this year will be streamed over chess24. First round is the weekend 10th - 11th November 2018.

If anyone was curious what a weekend away at UK's league chess is like, I have made a number of newsletters after each weekend which can be found here: https://www.celtictigers.club/newsletter
There are puzzles, analysis by GM's and FM's, as well as other content, any feedback is appreciated but it's more a gift to the chess community. (I just wish I could write as well as so many of the Australian players and coaches)

If anyone moves to the UK, and is interested in joining both London league, as well as the national league, it's extremely social, and great fun, feel free to get in touch.

Keep up the great work aussies!

Big thank you for your work - the newsletter is a great read! Makes me feel sad though that we have not got a chess league in Oz

[Kai]

Hi all, a note we now have 2 aussie's trying to survive Division 1 of the 4NCL! Myself (Chris Skulte) & David Webster are playing for the tigers.

Of course, we also have Justin and Sam Chow in Div1.

4NCL Div1 is a great tournament for norm opportunities. An important point to note for Aussies relates to rule 1.43b relating to federations. The rule reads as if to mean any non-England player at 4NCL would not be exempt from the federation rule exemption in rule 1.43b (the exemption-to-the-exemption). However, it seems that the QC has now decided that this would not apply to players in the situation of the 4NCL and so the exemption continues to apply. All sounds very complicated, but it means that an Aussie player who does not meet the ordinary federation requirement as regards opponents would still be okay to achieve a norm. This was the problem of Justin's 'fake GM norm' at 4NCL this season, which has now been re-authenticated (which means he ended up with 4 GM norms for the title :-) ). The whole issue has been discussed by Kevin Bonham in another thread.

[Kevin Bonham]

4NCL Div1 is a great tournament for norm opportunities. An important point to note for Aussies relates to rule 1.43b relating to federations. The rule reads as if to mean any non-England player at 4NCL would not be exempt from the federation rule exemption in rule 1.43b (the exemption-to-the-exemption). However, it seems that the QC has now decided that this would not apply to players in the situation of the 4NCL and so the exemption continues to apply. All sounds very complicated, but it means that an Aussie player who does not meet the ordinary federation requirement as regards opponents would still be okay to achieve a norm. This was the problem of Justin's 'fake GM norm' at 4NCL this season, which has now been re-authenticated (which means he ended up with 4 GM norms for the title :-) ). The whole issue has been discussed by Kevin Bonham in another thread.

I'd probably wait to see what the new FIDE President does with the membership of the Commissions before placing too much faith in the stability of that interpretation. But at least there is a precedent that can be cited, albeit not a very well documented one as it seems they made that decision out of session prior to the meeting.