Well done to the Desert Penguins in their first Junior Four Nations Chess League (J4NCL)

The first J4NCL weekend of the season was held at 3-4 October at the Holiday Inn, Birmingham Airport.  The J4NCL is a team event, with five rounds of standard play chess over the weekend.

The Desert Penguins played in Division two. This young team comprising of Aadarsh Saravanan, Ciaran Brightley-Davies, Stakhey Sedykh and Arthur Chikovsky. The had a really enjoyable competition with some great opponents, great battles and great fun all around.

The Penguins had some good results, including wins in three of the rounds. This meant that they were playing on the top board in the final round with the possibility of a prizewinning finish. They had a tough battle against the Welsh Dragons Blue, but unfortunately couldn't quite hold their nerve and lost the round by a point. They finished the tournament in joint fourth position with 6 match points.

A fantastic start to their first J4NCL team event together. A big thanks to Mikhail Sedykh (Stakhey's dad) who did a sterling job as their manager and coach, and to all the parents for bringing their kids along for the weekend.