Weekend four of the UK Four Nations Chess League took place on March 18 and 19 at Wakefield in West Yorkshire.

This is the second time a team from the Isle of Man has participated and this weekend proved to be a successful one.

This annual team chess event has teams from England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and of course the Isle of Man participating.

The strength of the teams this year is in fact higher than in previous years, which has means much tougher matches for the local players.

For some reason chess has started to become popular again!

Chess players have an international ’ELO’ rating, the higher the number the greater the strength of the player.

Representing the Isle of Man in order of playing strength were the following: Rafal Antoniewski, Pawel Jaracz, Dietmar Kolbus, Barbara Jaracz Henrik Fabri, John Costello.

All players were expected to perform well but especially the top 4 boards as they are titled players.

In round seven Manx Liberty were playing a team called the 3Cs and were expecting to win easily.

Costello played who was white on Board 6 played against the Modern Benoni, avoided the sharp opening lines.

Jacob Manton missed the best continuation whilst Costello played very solidly.

Manton pushed his queen side pawns and allowed Costello to place a knight on c4 which could not be dislodged. As Costello was under some time pressure he accepted a draw from his opponent.

Fabri played his favourite Alekhine Defence against Ray English.

English played some unusual moves in the opening which placed Fabri under pressure and meant he spend some time trying to nullify the attack. Unfortunately he became short on time, made some mistakes and Fabri resigned soon after.

Barbara played against the advanced French variation. After some exchanges, she managed to place a knight on e5 which could not be challenged. Black could not develop his bishop on c8 or his black rook on a8 which led to his downfall soon after.

Kolbus played a reverse Kings Indian Defence and although there were a lot of middlegame tactical strikes, with both attacking the opposite flank, it was Dietmar attack which proved decisive.

Pawel overcame his opponent Sicilian Defence when he played too many pawn moves on the Queen side of the board. After only 15 moves Pawel was fell on top and duly converted with his opponent King stuck in the middle of the Board unable to castle.

Probably the shock of the day was Rafal Antoniewski draw against Philip Adams on Board 1.

Although Rafal was nearly 500 ELO points higher than his opponent, Adams played a very solid opening, taking no risks. Despite Adams managing to obtain a second queen, Rafal gave a perpetual check and the game ended in a draw.

The match finished Manx Liberty 4 - 3Cs 2.

The tournament leaders Manchester Manticores 1 had won all seven matches, beating all opposition including Manx Liberty, so they would almost certainly be promoted.

After being beaten by Manchester Manticores in round seven, Hounds and Bears would have to beat Manx Liberty in round eight if they wished to become promoted.

With both teams vying to the second promotion slot it was going to be an interesting round.

Costello played the Scandinavian Defence as black. Although the opening was quiet, white played an aggressive g5 move to attached the King side. After pushing a pawn to d5 white won a pawn on g7 but Costello had active paly as compensation.

A blunder by white allowed Costello to win a rook, with no compensation.

Fabri played a solid Colle System and although there were no fireworks, Fabri ground down his opponent and won the b-pawn which meant he had connected passed pawns on the a and b file. However his opponent had an active rook. This along with accurate defending resulted in the match fizzling out to a draw.

Rafal played against a very strong Fide-Master and converted a small positional advantage into a queens endgame with a pawn up. Later he won after some precise and lengthy manoeuvring.

Barbara faced an exciting Scotch opening with black and her opponent attacked her quickly at the expense of double pawn on the e-file. However, Barbara defended her positon well, pushed her attacker backwards and won a pawn along the way. In bishop against knight endgame, she was able to stalemate the knight by the bishop and got her pawns moving to victory.

Pawel with the black pieces generated a double pawn on the c-file for white and then penetrated the weak centre pawn structure of his opponent successfully. His opponent weakened the king side by one careless pawn move on the g-file, which allowed Pawel to control of the third row of white with his rook.

The white position collapsed under this pressure quickly.

Kolbus played with white against a passive Kings Indian position and while his space advantage was substantial, black was seemingly able to hang on. However when both players ran out of time, black ran into some tactical problems and could no longer defend the position. This game was the longest game on Sunday.

Although Manx Liberty won this match with 5.5 against 0.5 this does not reflect the fact, that the Manx Liberty team had to work very hard to secure this big win.

The oppositon was not as bad as the score may look like.

After eight rounds and with only one weekend remaining the Manx team is second in Division 3 North.

If anyone is interested in playing chess or would like to know more about the game please contact Howard Dobson on 233303 or email: [email protected]

Or speak to Brian Woodard on 499758 or email: [email protected]

The club meets every Wednesday at Braddan Church at 7.30pm/

See the website for more details. http://www.iomchessclub.co.uk/