Amisha Parmar is once again representing England, this time in the Under 16 Girls section of the World Youth Championships in Antalya, Turkey.

Round 1 took place on Sunday, with Amisha winning against an unrated Turkish opponent, Gulnur Helin Karagoz. Her second round opponent is somewhat tougher: the 9th seed, Salome Khazhomia of Georgia (Amisha is seeded 34).

Round 2: Amisha lost. I can't tell you who her next opponent is because the web site is currently giving the boys' pairings for Round 3 in error.

Round 3: An Italian – drawn. Round 4 looks easier: a low-rated Turk.

Round 4: A correct prediction – Amisha won to go to 2½ points.

Round 5: A strong WFM opponent proves too much.

Round 6: An unrated Brazilian with the unlikely name Jessica Drobrzenski – drawn: 3/6.

Catching up after the rest day and being away at the 4NCL...

Round 7: Another draw, this time against a local player: 3½/7

Round 8: Defeat against an Iranian player: 3½/8

Round 9: An unrated player from Qatar, and a win: 4½/9

Round 10: Defeated by one of the many Indian players: 4½/10

Round 11: A pairing that neither player would have wanted – Amisha faced the other English representative, Jessica Thilaganathan. Game drawn; final score: 5/11

Another first round exit, this time for WN Daydream against the Radcliffe Rapscallions. Having finally assembled a team on Friday evening, I set off for a weekend of 4NCL chess happy to have got another job out of the way. Then, on Monday morning, the problems started. Not one, but two of the three players had to pull out – and for perfectly good reasons. So in came a couple of substitutes (Paul Mould and Lucien Holliday) at a moment's notice to join Phil Burley in the team.

It almost worked. Lucien rose to the occasion and scored 2/3, and had Phil not lost on time in the final game, his extra queen would have won the game and tied the match. As the lower-graded team, the Daydream would have gone through. Instead, it ended up 5½–3½ to the Rapscallions.

Our usual tendency to do well in the Handicap KO seems to have deserted us in Round 1. On Tuesday, WN Illusion lost 7–2 to Gambit Boys, although that might have been fairly predictable. Anand Bhajantri picked up both points – a fine performance.

Then on Thursday, last season's beaten finalists, WN Nightmare, travelled to Mansfield for a repeat of the final. Unfortunately, my form hit rock bottom and I managed to repeat my 0/3 showing. David made 1½ and Robert scored 1 (unfortunately missing an instant win against Jon Tait), so after semi-final and final appearances the Nightmare bowed out early for the first time.

WN Fantasy have a bye to Round 2 and are still in need of a captain. Meanwhile, WN Daydream have a chance to join them in the second round on Monday night.

I had a feeling that we were going to be outgunned in this one. Breadsall's team is basically a small group of Ashfield players with the addition of the very strong Paul Madden on top board. We were close to full strength, but that still left us vulnerable and needing the 50:50 games (in grading terms) on Boards 2 and 3 to go our way.

Things got off to a bad start when Daniel got caught in a powerful attack and lost to Derek Jarvis on bottom board. However, I was doing well against Steve Burke and David's position against Richard Webster looked balanced. I couldn't see enough of Julien's game against Paul Madden to tell what was going on.

Then, for the second time this season, I contrived to fritter away my advantage, and a draw seemed the only prudent way out. Fritz later showed that I had a tactical shot in the final position that would have let me play on with some advantage, but I didn't see it at the board.

David and Julien fought on while I went to the bar. When I returned, both games were in desperate time scrambles – David losing and Julien winning. However, time essentially ran out for Julien in a knight vs. bishop endgame, and he had to head for a draw by reduction of material rather than risk losing on time.

There are two tournaments coming up on the first weekend of December. The first is the Derbyshire Junior Individual Tournament, which all West Nottingham juniors are eligible to play in because the club plays in the Derby & District League. That's on Saturday 1 December at Spondon Chess Club (Acordis).

The day after sees the Derbyshire Rapidplay, at the same venue. This is open to anybody.

Details of both events can be found via the DCA web site, and entry forms are available at the club.

So why is it that Long Eaton always show up with just about their best team when they play us? Maybe it just seems that way.

Anyway, last Monday's match still looked like a reasonable chance to collect two points. David took on Ray Evans in order to give Julien a good chance of beating Kishan Lakhani, and Julien duly obliged. I finally managed to beat Dave Brown (third time of asking), so surely we could pick up at least a half point from the other three boards?

Sadly, no. Michael had an off-day, dropping a pawn against Andy Robins and getting ground down; John seemed to be doing OK against Anjali Lakhani, but then lost (possibly tired after the County Championship, and definitely nursing a cold); and David couldn't quite hang on in the last game to finish. Another traditional 3–2 defeat.

Details

Typical: no sooner is the blog back online than I find myself with no time to write anything. Getting stuff ready for the County Championship was the problem, and I still have the aftermath of that to deal with, but here's a summary of results since the last results post.

So here we go:

22 October
WN4  4½–½  Gambit 4
WN7  0–4  West Bridgford 3

23 October
Navigation 1  3–4  WN2

24 October
Ashfield 4  3½–1½  WN5

29 October
WN1  ½–4½  University 2
WN5  2½–2½  Nomads 3
WN6  1–3  West Bridgford 2

30 October
Navigation 2  1½–3½  WN3
University 4  3–1  WN7
We were also scheduled to play two teams in the D&DL Cup and Plate on this date, but with five teams already playing in two nights the overload was too great and we withdrew from both competitions

5 November
WN2  3–2  Newark 1
Nomads 3  2½–2½  WN4

9 November
WNB – Spondon C to come
WNC  1–3  Foremarke B

12 November
WN1  2–3  Long Eaton
WN3  3½–1½  Newark 2

14 November
Grantham 2  4–1  WN5 to come
Ashfield 5  2–2  WN7