History of the NECL

A number of recent posts have contained material taken from the booklet "History of the North Essex Chess League" by J. R. Priestley. This covers the period from before the NECL was formed in the 1960s to the mid-1980s. The entire booklet can now be read and downloaded from the historical archive which is on the About the club page on this website or by clicking here.

NECL Division 2: 1970/71

Final League Table 1970/71

Division 2

	P	W	D	L	F	A	P
Colchester	6	3	3	0	14½	7½	9
Maldon	6	2	3	1	15½	8½	7
Wickford	6	3	1	2	11½	10½	7
Witham	6	2	2	2	11	13	6
Marconi	6	2	1	3	10	14	5
Braintree	6	1	2	3	10	14	4
Chelmsford	6	2	0	4	9½	14½	4

Chelmsford dominated the second division in the late 1970's and early 1980's but, as this table shows, things were rather different in 1971.

The match between Colchester and Wickford included two double defaults, which is why the aggregate of game points won and lost by the two totals 22 and not 24.

Colchester finished unbeaten for the second season in succession.

Fooling the computer

The position below is taken from S Coughlan - I Gooding (Board 1, Witham A v Colchester A, 2017), black to play. When you put this position into the computer it spots the best move straight away but thinks that there are many other moves that are also winning. It is only when you leave it to think for a while that it realises that there is only one move to win. What is it? Answer in the comments.

January 2017: ECF grades

The January 2017 ECF Grading List has been published. The standard play grades for active Colchester players are:

Ref	Name	Age	Standard	Previous
139627E	Gooding, Ian		187C	191B
186371L	Stemp, Matt		175D	176D
302172L	Voelker, Norbert		174D	184D
299554C	Kjenner, Svein		157C	152B
140673F	Barnes, Nathan		156B	148A
301977A	Schnell, Felix		155D	155E
120924D	Wagstaff, Michael		145C	144C
250046C	Bellinger, Clive		131C	129C
213710A	Smith, Peter		115B	108C
155695C	Daley, Phil		113C	119C
293018D	Johnson, Mark		113A	105B
298130A	Jaufarally, Mohammud		111A	104A
117812L	Remmer, Brian		108C	110C
227455D	Duff-Cole, John		95C	92C
256466L	Goodman, Ed		88D	86C

A few players have increased their grades - with Nathan Barnes (+8), Mark Johnson (+8), Pete Smith (+7), Mo Jaufarally (+7) and Svein Kjenner (+5) having the most significant increases.