The final three matches of this season’s Four Nations Chess League — which took place over the recent Bank Holiday weekend — were always going to be nervy affairs.

Before the weekend, Oxford’s first team was well placed to claim one of the four available promotion places in division 2.

However, having to play the best two sides in the league on the Sunday and the Monday meant that a victory on the Saturday against White Rose 2 was vital.

Unfortunately Oxford let it slip on Saturday, and only managed to draw the match following a heroic seven-hour victory by Oxford’s top board, David Zakarian. The following day David won again — but it wasn’t enough to avoid a narrow loss to The 3Cs. That left Oxford needing to beat the top of the table team King’s Head in the last match of the season to guarantee a return to division 1.

Fortunately for Oxford, White Rose 2 — who were also vying for promotion — lost their last round match quickly and heavily to Anglian Avengers — meaning that a draw against King’s Head would be enough after all.

Once again David Zakarian took the full point and when Oxford’s Jan-Peter Schmidt shook hands with King’s Head’s Feliks Kwiatkowski to signal that the last game and indeed the match had ended in a draw — the celebrations and back slapping could begin.

Of course with 3/3 over the weekend, David Zakarian was Oxford’s hero — but Tom Eckersley-Waites’ return to the side to score 2.5/3 was equally significant, and his brilliant round 9 victory was a real eye-catcher.

White: Tom Eckersley-Waites

Black: David Adams

1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 e5 4.Nf3 Nbd7 5.g4!? Alexei Shirov’s invention which seems to break all the rules — but nevertheless scores very highly.

5...Nxg4 Probably the critical test since after 5...h6 6.g5 the bishop will sit happily on g5 while White castles queenside. A safe option would be to play 5...g6

6.Rg1 Ngf6 7.Bc4 h6 8.Be3 White has more space, harmonious development, open line for his rooks and the natural plan of playing Qe2 and castling queenside: all-in-all — especially in practical play — plenty of compensation for a mere pawn.

8...c6 9.dxe5 dxe5 Obviously 9...Nxe5? 10.Nxe5 dxe5 11.Bxf7+ is disastrous for Black.

10.Qe2!? b5 11.0–0–0!? An amazing and original concept; sacrificing his best minor piece for the initiative. The alternative, 11.Bb3 a5 gives Black counter-play.

11...bxc4 12.Nxe5 Ba6 13.Nxc6 Qc7 14.e5! Qxc6?! This allows the e-file to be opened so perhaps just moving the knight with 14...Ng4 would give Black a better chance of hanging on. Then I’m sure Tom would have continued with the aggressive 15.e6.

15.exf6 gxf6 16.Bf4+ Qe6 17.Qf3 Rc8 18.Rge1 Ne5 19.Qg3! Be7 If 19...Bd6 then 20.Qg7 Rf8 21.Nd5 looks terminal for Black.

20.Qg7 Rf8 21.Bxe5 fxe5 22.Rxe5 Qg6 23.Rxe7+! The final combination to cap a terrific game by Tom.

23...Kxe7 24.Nd5+ Ke8 25.Qe5+ Kd7 26.Nf6+ Kc6 27.Rd6+ Kb7 Here, 27...Kc7 28.Rxa6+ also leads to mate

28.Qd5+ Kb8 29.Nd7+ Kc7 30.Qc6+ 1–0.