Chess: Britain’s Four Nations league fosters potential grandmaster talents

3855: White mates in three moves, against any defence (by Fritz Giegold), White is queen, two bishops and two knights up while the Black king is trapped without a single legal move. The answer contains just two lines of play. Easy? You’ll do very well to crack it in half an hour. The obvious try 1 Qa8/c8 cxb3 2 Qh8 is a stalemate draw. Photograph: The Guardian

Britain’s Four Nations Chess League (4NCL) is a team competition, but it also plays a key role in providing opportunities for the best young talents aiming at the grandmaster title. The potential rewards of becoming a strong GM have just jumped, due to the new prize structure of the revamped online chess.com Champions Tour.

After last weekend’s fifth and sixth (of 11) rounds, there is already a huge gap between the top five teams and the rest. Wood Green, Chessable White Rose and Chess.com Manx Liberty all have a maximum 12/12, while The Sharks and Cheddleton have 11/12 after drawing with each other. The rest, led by Celtic Tigers on 5/12, are already concerned only with avoiding relegation. 4NCL pairings always put likely title deciders at the end of the season.