England’s chess league is called the 4NCL, a misnomer which needs explanation. The original concept was for an all-UK event but apart from a few Welsh squads all 50-plus teams are English.

The 4NCL name has become enshrined in tradition and the league is now the most popular team event on the chess calendar, as grandmasters and amateurs compete in good conditions at its upmarket hotel venues in the South and Midlands.

Wood Green Hilsmark often fielded an all-GM team, won every match and became champions by one of the widest margins in league history. Wood Green’s North London base makes them the Tottenham of chess, but their supremacy is of an order that Harry Redknapp could only dream of. Guildford were second and White Rose Yorkshire third.

One attraction for lower division teams is that they can play their own matches, then watch the GM elite in action. All 4NCL’s fixtures are completed over five weekends, each with two or three matches, which means that top players like the England No1, Michael Adams, can be multileague mercenaries, a rare status (shared with speedway) in team sport. Adams plays for Wood Green, for the Bundesliga champions Baden-Baden and for a leading Spanish team. Other English GMs represent French or Italian clubs as well as competing in the 4NCL. Only the Russian league remains, so far, off limits.

Paired with the dangerous Simon Williams in the Wood Green v Kent match, Adams chose restrained development, waiting for Williams’s attack which began with 20 f4 (20 e5!), then struck back with the pawn offer 20…d3! White should have gone for 22 Qxd3 when Rd8-d4 gives Black compensation, but his 22 Nd2? was far too optimistic. Williams reckoned that his queen-knight duo operating against the black king would compensate for material loss, but Adams found the nice regroup Qc4-d4+-d8-h8! which forced a queen swap after which White gave up.

S Williams v M Adams

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nf3 d5 4 Nc3 Be7 5 Bf4 O-O 6 a3 b6 7 cxd5 Nxd5 8 Nxd5 exd5 9 Qc2 c5 10 dxc5 bxc5 11 e4 d4 12 Bd3 Ba6 13 O-O Bxd3 14 Qxd3 Nc6 15 Rfc1 Qb6 16 Nd2 a5 17 Nc4 Qa6 18 Qg3 Rfe8 19 Bd6 g6 20 f4?! d3! 21 Bxe7 Rxe7 22 Nd2? Nd4 23 Qg5 Rb7 24 Rcb1 Nc2 25 e5 Nxa1 26 Ne4 Qc4 27 Nf6+ Kg7 28 Ng4 Kf8 29 Qf6 Qd4+! 30 Kh1 Qd8 31 Qh8+ Ke7 32 Qxh7 Qh8! 0-1

3254 1…Nf2+ 2 Kh4 Qh6+ 3 Kg3 Nh1 mate.

3253 The black pawn at b6 should be a bishop.

MOSCOW – Just one week has passed since the first game for the title of chess world champion between Viswanathan Anand of India and Israeli challenger Boris Gelfand, and we are already almost halfway through. On Thursday, the two men drew for the fifth consecutive time, leaving the direction of the tournament undetermined as the score tied at 2.5-2.5.

Anand was close to winning only one game, but he missed his opportunity in uncharacteristic fashion for someone who has spent over two decades at the top of the chess world.

One thing is for sure – Gelfand’s team of assistants did an amazing job of preparing him for the match. In none of the three games in which Anand has played white has the champion managed to emerge from the opening with an advantage. He even trailed shortly in the first game.

Gelfand almost suffered a meltdown in Game 3, but that stemmed from a mistaken assessment of his position and not from a lack of preparation at home, and he still managed to pull out a draw.

It was much more difficult for him and his assistants to prepare for Anand than it was for the world champion’s team to prepare for his challenger. Anand has had a much more varied set of openings throughout his career than Gelfand, and trying to guess his thought process and his variations takes a lot more time.

On Thursday, in Game 5, for example, Anand opened with his king’s pawn, something that barely exists in the repertoire of the Israeli grand master. Despite the challenge, Gelfand looked optimally prepared and Anand did not have a chance of gaining the advantage.

From here on out, each of the remaining seven games will be considered decisive, particularly Friday’s and Sunday’s matches. Gelfand will play white both times, and it will be his chance to put the pressure on Anand, who in the meantime seems far from being at the top of his game and actually appears rather burned out. While Gelfand failed to present his opponent with any serious challenges while playing white, his heart was fully in the game.

It’s entirely possible that instead of a Slavic defense, we will see something more daring from the challenger, even at the risk of his losing. At the end of the day, if Gelfand doesn’t take any chances, he won’t drink the Champagne.

Russians glued to game

Why should Russian chess fans be interested in a match between an Indian and an Israeli? Clearly, they have their reasons. On Thursday, the weather was great – 26 degrees Celsius and not at all humid. It was a perfect time to go to the parks and lakes, to breath in the fresh air and enjoy ice cream. Yet half an hour before the game, the Tretyakov Gallery was packed to the limit.

Several chess websites crashed on Thursday because they had so many visitors. Organizers say the official site enjoys 200,000 unique visitors per day.

Grandmaster Evgeny Bareev says the interest in Russia is enormous. He says the press conference he participated in was overflowing, with cameras everywhere. The plethora of politicians at the opening ceremony signals the extreme importance of the match, he says, adding that he has been to all four world championship matches held in Russia and has never seen as much interest as in the current one.

Bareev says there is no telling when the first victory will come, but that at this level the chances of a stalemate are about 75 percent. He notes that Gelfand and Anand have played each other some 50 times over the last 20 years. While the world champion is ranked higher, Bareev says the general feeling is that Gelfand’s game is more stable and he manages to break out from time to time. While Anand played the last game more to his liking, Bareev says he is not necessarily the favorite because his game seems to have slipped more than Gelfand’s has.

People here who know both competitors well say Gelfand’s steadier nerves could defeat the champion, who has become less impulsive over the years but is still far from perfect on this point. One organizer said that while she should be completely objective, she’s dying to see Gelfand crowned world champion, adding that a lot of people here, not only in Israel, feel the same way.

The next match, with Gelfand playing white, begins on Friday at 2:00 P.M., Israel time.