Epsom Salties in 4NCL online tournament (11th Season)

Epsom played in the 4NCL online tournament for the first time. We entered the 11th season starting in January 2025 (4ncl.co.uk/data/onlines11/online_results_11.htm).

Our aim was to give playing time to members rated below 1600, and we had a team of 15 players (including one above 1600). We entered two teams: Epsom Salties 1 and 2 (in homage to our nickname Salty Puddings and of course Epsom Salts). The original well for the Epsom Salts is in the middle of the Wells estate in Epsom and the best advice about visiting it is – don’t bother.

There were 7 rounds and an expected 56 games: 47 games were played, 4 byes, 5 defaults (by opponents). Salties 2 ended up in 12th place with 7 points and surprisingly above Salties 1 in 19th place with 5 points.

I have pulled together a few threads together on some of the common themes that appeared over the seven rounds.

Board craft

The time control is 45min +15s increment, this is still classical chess controls, but just. The teams were not used to these controls and took time to adapt and many games just finished too quickly. The ‘star’ player was Gary who ended up once with 6 minutes more at the end of the match than he started with. It did mean that players should have spent more time looking for pieces that were en pris (opponents and their own) and some simple missed tactics. I think time usage had improved by the 7th round.

Some other examples of board craft are here:

	Dom had played fantastically and had a strong advantage. Here he should be looking a swapping down pieces and the right move was Qd7, but Nd7 allowed Bg5 (pinning the queen) and black was back in the game and the final result was a draw. Swap down pieces when ahead.
	Leia’s opponent had a fantastic bishop on the long diagonal while Leia's bishop was effectively trapped in no-man's land and useless. The black knight answered the call to get rid of her troublesome bishop. BxNf6 would have ditched the bad bishop and improved her position, but she showed mercy - but black did not show the same - after Nd2....Nxd4. Get rid of bad bishops when you can.
	In this game, Dom was hit by white's prep and was quickly down a pawn and in a poor position. His opponent burned through his time for some reason and Dom needed to keep it tight and complex and see if he could force a time mistake. Here Dom thought that Rxg3+ would lead to checkmate. He used 45s for his previous move, obviously planning this move – then 2s on Rxg3 – for such a crucial move he should have spent more time and double checked what happens. More on this match later….fighting spirit. Against a player short on time – use your time to your advantage.
	We need to cover some endgame. Here white is in trouble, the b5 pawn is lost, so the Nc3 was a wasted move. Here white should have done Ke3 and grabbed the d pawn, and still some hope of a draw. Endgames are complex, but here there is still plenty time on the clocks to consider the right moves. Your king is a fighting piece in the endgame and needs to be used.
	Finally, here we have Anthony in an apparently won position. 3 pawns up, 2 joined pass pawns and stockfish gives a score of +6.0 and a reasonable 6 minutes on the clock. But black has Qb2+ or Qf4…g3+ - both leading to draw positions. So how to actually win it – it is not clear to me. Probably get the queen behind the pawns. Anthony tried pushing the pawns with e5, but that lead to a drawn position and surprisingly his position collapsed very quickly. Winning a won game can be very difficult.

Playing f6 in the opening

GM Ben Finegold says you lose as soon as you move your f-pawn, this may be a bit of an exaggeration but we had a lot of f3 or f6 very early in the games by several players (ours and theirs) – perhaps it is a popular youtube video – if so it must be taken down to stop this corruption.

Look what can happen, 3. Nxe5 fxNe5 4. Qh5+ (g6 or Ke7) 5. Qxe5+ and black is in disarray – luckily white played d4. Yet, after a long WhatsApp conversations about this, one of our players reached this position as white….and played Nc3 – though she played beautifully for the rest of the match.

Tactics

Ultimately, tactics generally win games, here are a few that appeared in the matches, not always found by the players.

1)	2) Appeared 3 times	3)
4)	5)	6)
7)	8)	9)

Tactic Puzzles, with answers at the end
1) Queen winning tactic.
2) Difficult to spot in a match unless you have seen it before.
3) Both sides battling queen side, with Nb6 – black abandons the Kingside.
4) Another good move required to put the cherry on top of a series of good moves.
5) Take advantage of white’s error.
6) Take advantage of white’s error.
7) How to gain an advantage
8) A known trap in the Ruy Lopez
9) One of the captain’s errors

Fighting spirit

When to resign? Never! Or behind by a few points if opponent has a higher rating. It is never an easy decision, but really when there is no hope. It has been suggested that if Magnus Carlsen had your position and you would definitely win with your opponent’s pieces – then resign. Sometimes you just get the feeling that the opponent will blunder before they can find the way to convert the win. We had at least 3 players who held on and had notable turn-arounds.

Leia behind for nearly the whole match, took her chance here and played perfectly to a draw. She nearly repeated this feat in the last round, but for a blunder in time trouble	Trevor was behind, after a complicated exchange, but went from -3 to +2 with this Qg5 error and then even better, when black did not block the pawn with his King.	After Dom’s Rxg3 mistake, he fought on for 33 moves in a lost game – but time pressure on white showed and here lost his bishop and the game. But not before one more scare….see pawn races.

Pawn races

Pawn races where the white and black pawns race to queen first – the key point of who wins will generally come down to who can check first. After queening, the key is to look for checkmates, skewers and checks. Before getting into a pawn race, look to see if the new queen will give check.

Andrew (as white) had fought back and to gain the advantage to queen first (hurray!), however, black queens second with check and that is key. So Andrew queening was losing but he had a saving move here of Ne3, this prevents black queening and then white queens and has the advantage.

Dom has the advantage of queening first and white does not have check - then it should be 67...g1=Q 68. e8=Q Qf1+ 69. Ke4 Qe1+ (and skewer that queen). at g1=Q the crowds starting yelling 'Skewer and toast' followed by a loud groan at Qg3+?? (white can save themselves with Ke2) but Ke3 left the crowd holding their breath until ecstatic cheers when Dom played Qe1+!!! And white resigned. If it was white’s move here – then white wins, if g1Q then Qh8#, so black would need to stop checkmate with g8N+, but just holds off the inevitable.

Missed checkmates

There were a few missed checkmates, some looking very obvious in retrospect, but easily missed in the heat of a game.

1) Black checkmate in 2	2) White checkmate in 1
3) White checkmate in 3	4) White checkmate in 2

Tactic Puzzle Answers:
1) Nd5+
2) Nxe5 (described earlier)
3) Bxh7+ (Greek gift)
4) Nd5 (black is just in trouble here)
5) Qd4 forks the N and R. Black gets white’s rook - but if white plays it right then gets some compensation with a lot of activity, by repeatedly attacking the queen.
6) Early tactic of Nxe4
7) After 6...c6? suddenly d6 is a great place for a N, especially with a pawn on e5. So Ne4, the only reasonable defence is Bf8, now f6 square is weak and kingside vulnerable to dark square bishop. Always keep an eye for gaps after pawn moves even this early on in match. 7. Ne4 d5 looks a scary pawn fork, but with forks and checks, white is still well ahead.
8) Nick knew this trap (Noah’s Ark), and that his opponent had fallen for it before, 6…Nxd4 7 NxN exd4, the natural 8 Qxd4? loses the Bishop. 8...c5 9 Qd5 Be6, eventually c4 and trapping Bishop, though opponent decided to sacrifice on f7, some compensation?...but not enough.
9) RxBh3 KxRh3 Bxf5+ (K/R fork)

Checkmate Puzzle Answers:
1) Ra2…..Rf2#
2) Qa8# or Qb6# (how many checkmates in 2?)
3) NxBd6+ c7xN Ba6+ Kb8 Qb7#
4) d8Q+ Kg7 Qf8 (white actually play NxNe3 f4xN and the checkmate in 2 reappears).