Round 4 saw Kevin Perrin return from his overseas business trip. Before the commencement of play, a short ceremony was held to present Kevin with the special medallion commissioned to celebrate his 40 years of championship competition. His “first” game (black versus Rob Bailey) was a 2. c3 variation of the Sicilian resulting in a difficult manoeuvring game. Kevin grabbed a how pawn and the initiative, on the queenside, then further pressure gained a 2nd pawn, which proved sufficient to win a good game.

John Abson versus James Eldridge was another Sicilian defence. James won a pawn in the early middle game, and a second from the hand to hand combat that followed. These two connected passed pawns gave John no chance and James notched up a comfortable win.

Jamie Brotheridge played Michael Schreenan and was confronted by the Tarrash defence. An oversight by Michael cost him a vishop early on, and there after he was quickly disposed of.

John Frangakis played tournament leader Patrick Cook, but was unable to repeat the heroics of the previous round. The opening, best described as the Frangakis opening (1. d4 Nf6 2. b3 e6 3. Ba3 …), quickly led to a cramped position, loss of material and a losing position from which he did not recover.

Mitchel Bailey versus Scott Stewart, Darren Young and Tim Commons versus Joel Beggs were all postponed, so Darren Young played his Round 13 game against Joel Beggs. A Guico Piano opening, Darren once again was careless and gave up the exchange on move 10. Joel ruthlessly converted this to a piece advantage to reach an easily winning endgame which was finished off with mate..