NORTH CIRCULAR CHESS LEAGUE DIVISION B
Redbridge Social Centre 5th June 2017
ILFORD 4½-½ LOUGHTON II
NEVILLE TWITCHELL 1-0 K GROCE w 139
ANTHONY KENT 1-0 SIMON MOTH b 139
SYD KALINSKY 1-0 MARTIN VAN TOL w 132
JASON KLIMACH ½ B JONES b
GRANT GERICKE 1-0 GORDON CLARKE w 101
(based on Jef’s notes)
CHAMPIONES!, CHAMPIONES!!..
Uncork the champagne, spray it around, book the open-topped charabanc.
After an exceptionally long chess league campaign of 16 matches: won 12, drew 3, lost only 1, we had hoped we would go through the season unbeaten as the new Invincibles. But, we didn’t quite make that. But still a great entry into this new NCCL venue for us. We overwhelmed Loughton, who have proved troublesome in the past, and did the double over them by the same score. None of our players was losing, though Grant Gericke wriggled out of a difficult Schliemann opening to trap Clarke’s Bishop and from here he quickly checkmated Gordon. Jason Klimach had the advantage against Jones Caro-Kann, with pressure down the e-file with doubled-rooks and Queen. But despite a stronger centre, he took a draw as time was short.
The top three games were all interesting, with two of them, boards 1 & 3, being long drawn-out endgame studies showing good technique. Groce had some advantage in the opening but Neville won a pawn & marched it up the board, protected by his Rook, to promote to a queen.
Likewise Syd also was a pawn ahead and to advanced his King, Rook and rook’s pawn to victory.
Anthony Kent’s opening was fairly typical: few pieces exchanged and none venturing past the 4th rank. But when he brought his Queen & Knights into the fray they arrived with force, and came up with a delightful Knight sac’ to finish the game with an unstoppable mate. (After black played ..h6, white went Ng3 to h5.)
So we finished top: 1st Ilford 27 points, 2nd Chingford 25, 3rd Barking 19 pts, with Barnet, Enfield & Wanstead trailing behind.
Top players include: Neville Twitchell 9½/12, Syd Kalinsky 8½/13, Jef Page 6/9, Leonardo Stefanoni 5½/6 Anthony Kent 4/8. Full stats will be available for our AGM.
As champions we will be promoted into the A division next year- up with the big boys. But there is also scope for us to enter a new team in this league to give all of our members a regular game.
Ilford Chess Club 