North Circular Chess League Division A
Monday 20.11.17, at East Barnet British Legion
BARNET 4½-1½ ILFORD
203 TOM VILLIER 1-0 JULIAN HUDSON 169
192 A ETHELONTIS 1-0 NEVILLE TWITCHELL 168
193 ROY SAGALL 1-0 TOM BARTON 150
154 PHILIP MYERS ½ ANTHONY KENT 150
163 J RUBECK ½ SYD KALINSKY 148
136 MIKE JONES ½ JEF PAGE 144
A trip round the North Circular, and and expected tough match for Ilford, heavily outgraded on the top boards. Whilst we could hold the bottom ones we were overwhelmed on the top 3. But no one was disgraced and all the games were played out- no outright early blunders.
Tom’s favourite Leningrad Dutch held up well until pressure in the endgame paid off for Sagall. Neville played his usual open game. He had his queenside demolished and was unable to castle, with his King got stuck in the centre as Ethelontis’ Queen and Rooks dominated the open files. Julian Hudson made a rare and welcome appearance for us but found ViIliers just too strong.
On the lower boards Mike Jones handled his Sicilian opening well enough again to hold for a draw andgainstJef, and Syd did well against Rubeck. He won the exchange but couldn’t hold the advantage. Tony Kent had a fairly even Kings pawn game, and offered a draw when white played Qd6b8. As It happended, that was not so good for black as he has weak a, e and g pawns. Isn’t 20/20 hindsight a wonderful thing?
At least our longest away journey is out for the way
Ilford Chess Club 