Chess: Britain’s Four Nations league fosters potential grandmaster talents
Britain’s Four Nations Chess League (4NCL) is a team competition, but it also plays a key role in providing opportunities for the best young talents aiming at the grandmaster title. The potential rewards of becoming a strong GM have just jumped, due to the new prize structure of the revamped online chess.com Champions Tour.
After last weekend’s fifth and sixth (of 11) rounds, there is already a huge gap between the top five teams and the rest. Wood Green, Chessable White Rose and Chess.com Manx Liberty all have a maximum 12/12, while The Sharks and Cheddleton have 11/12 after drawing with each other. The rest, led by Celtic Tigers on 5/12, are already concerned only with avoiding relegation. 4NCL pairings always put likely title deciders at the end of the season.
The 4NCL has long been a route to the GM title for the best young talents. Staged over five weekends at Midlands hotels, it provides strong opposition and the support of teammates. To become a grandmaster, a player requires three norm performances at 2600+, plus a personal rating of 2500+. England’s established GMs are ageing, so generation Z has an opportunity.
Harry Grieve, 21, and Matthew Wadsworth, 22, fought out the 2022 British championship in an epic final round in Torquay. Grieve won with a GM performance, and, with 5.5/6 so far in the 4NCL, is well placed for his second norm. The Guildford master is competing all this week, with another norm chance, in the powerful Cambridge International Open at the University Arms Hotel, where the first-round shock was 17-year-old Henry Adams from Lewes, Sussex, drawing with the England No 1, Michael Adams.
There are nine rounds in five days, viewable live and free at chess24.com.
Shreyas Royal, 14, who set a record for the youngest English GM norm at the 2022 Bavarian Open, will travel to the spa town of Vrnjacka Banja, Serbia, in March for the individual European championship, an event where he made a promising debut with 5.5/11 last year.
Royal’s journey is being backed by the well-financed John Robinson Youth Chess Trust, which is playing an increasingly important role as England seeks to develop a new generation of talents. The trust is supporting Kushal Jakhria and Bodhana Sivanandan, 7, as the two prodigies compete in high class adult events, and has already for several years made substantial grants to juniors playing at Hastings.
The implications of the revamped chess.com Champions Tour and its new prize structure have yet to be reflected in greater English participation, but it offers serious opportunities to GMs who at their best can perform at 2600+. Most of the Airthings Masters publicity last week went to the Magnus Carlsen v Hikaru Nakamura marathon final, yet what occurred lower down the tournament may prove just as significant.
More than 50 GMs who finished in the top half of the nine-round Play-In qualified for awards of $1,000 or more, competing from their own homes. An analysis shows that most of the winners were 2600+, with a handful down to 2550. With five more Play-Ins scheduled between March and August, these players, roughly the world top 100 to 300, have seen their potential annual incomes boosted overnight by several thousand dollars.
England has about a dozen active GMs capable of 2550+ at their peak, and there are also those like Simon Williams and Danny Gormally who have competitive highs, plus retired GMs like Julian Hodgson who still plays successfully online. The generation Z players above are averaging in the upper 2400s, so they too have the incentive to find extra improvement. In short, the Tour Play-Ins are a potential gamechanger.
What about the much larger group with international titles down to CM (Candidate Master) and WCM? On most Mondays, starting 13 February, chess.com will host an 11-round Swiss for IMs and lower titles. Just three winners will qualify for the next GM Play-In, so that the chances of financial reward are small. These events can still be great experience for eligible players, so the ECF would do well to promote them for their value in improving skills and raising ambitions.
The WR Masters began in Düsseldorf on Thursday with the top seed and world No 2, Ian Nepomniachtchi, taking on four of the new teenage wave plus GMs from the older generation. China’s Ding Liren failed at Wijk aan Zee last month, so success for Nepomniachtchi would make him a hot favourite for their world title match at Astana in April.
Magnus Carlsen? The world champion has been in action this week for Toronto Chessbrahs in the Pro League, winning all four games in his first round match despite being on the verge of defeat against Awonder Liang, 19. Alireza Firouzja? The world No 4 has confirmed rumours he is pursuing an alternative career away from chess in fashion design.
3855: 1 Qa4! If 1…c3 2 Qe8 c2/cxb2 3 Nh3 mate. If 1…cxb3 2 Bg1! Kxf4 3 Be3 mate. A toughie, congratulations if you cracked it.