Ilford v Wanstead 2 – North Circular Chess League, Div A
Mon 26 March 2018
This match was probably the relegation decider between Ilford and Wanstead 2. It didn’t start too well as Jason’s king was under attack early, Anthony had to defend carefully against Larry who’d given up a pawn for an initiative and Syd was playing a sharp game against Philip. Malcolm and Jason lost, but many thanks to Malcolm for playing tonight and giving us a full team! Anurag was always in control of his game and won and Philip got his pieces in a bit of a tangle allowing Syd to also convert. At 2-2 the match depended on boards 1 and 2. Having held his position together despite Larry’s probing Anthony got the opportunity to exchange down into an opposite coloured bishop endgame and held for a draw. Tom’s game was a Leningrad Dutch, to his advantage as Partha hadn’t seen this before and he got well ahead on the clock. After some tactics he managed to pick up a pawn and desperate for counter-play and running short of time Partha blitzed out some moves that ended with his queen getting trapped.
With the win and earlier draw against Wanstead 2 the league position is Ilford above them. Assuming neither team win any more matches Ilford will presumably stay in Div A.
| Ilford | GRADE | SCORE | Wanstead 2 | GRADE | |
| 1 | Tom Barton (b) | 165 | 1 – 0 | Partha Mulay | 171 |
| 2 | Anthony Kent  |
151 | ½ – ½ | Larry Marden | 177 |
| 3 | Syd Kalinsky | 149 | 1 – 0 | Philp Staniland | 160 |
| 4 | Jason Klimach | 143 | 0 – 1 | Mark Murrell | 160 |
| 5 | Malcolm Gesthuysen | 132 | 0 – 1 | Alin Chirea-Florica | 150e |
| 6 | Anurag Chauhan | 126 | 1 – 0 | Jay Sharman | 121 |
| Total | 3½ – 2½ |
The match underway!
