European Online Club Cup

Since the start of the pandemic, opportunities for serious competition between players ranked outside the world’s top 20 have been scarce. So there was a pent-up appetite for the European Online Club Cup, which took place at the end of March, with more than 500 players registered (including more than 150 grandmasters) across 91 teams. Several teams from the 4NCL (Four Nations Chess League) took part: current champions Guildford, as well as Wood Green, Wood Green Monarchs, and Celtic Tigers.

With backing from Roger Emerson and Nigel Povah, the Guildford lineup consisted of England team regulars Michael Adams, David Howell, myself and Gawain Jones, as well as Ivan Cheparinov from Bulgaria. We came through some fierce competition in the preliminary stages, including a comfortable win over Baden Baden from Germany, who were the top seeds in the whole event. Ten teams qualified for the final round-robin stage, in which David Howell and Gawain Jones performed strongly, earning bronze and silver board medals for their respective individual performances.