At Wanstead House, 13.9.18. Report by Jef Page.
2 games as b&w, 30 minutes each. Wanstead won the toss, white on odds Round 1.
WANSTEAD I 7½-2½ ILFORD
| Rnd 1 | Rnd 2 | ||||
| 189 | John H HODGSON | 1-0 | 1-0 | Neville TWITCHELL | 156 (r) |
| 185 | DaveSPEARMAN | ½ | ½ | Tom BARTON | 161 (r) |
| 179 | Steve RIX | 1-0 | 1-0 | Hassan MUGALU | 151 (r) |
| 154 | Paul BARCLAY | ½ | ½ | Anthony KENT | 145 (r) |
| 138 | David SMITH | 1-0 | ½ | Syd KALINSKY | 158 (r) |
Both the main competition, won by Barking beating Writtle, and our match took, place in the same room in Wanstead House. We were never in with a chance against Wanstead as they were too strong for us on the top boards. I couldn’t even win the coin toss for white on board 1 in round 1.
The match was effectively lost in Round 1. Barclay offered a quick grandmaster draw in a blocked Stonewall type of position and Anthony accepted. Kalinsky put in a strong attack but ignored his defence and allowed his Queen to be pinned against his King whilst Mugalu, pressing forward with a pawn advance, blundered it away and lost the R&P ending.
Round 2 was tighter but we were never close to overturning a 4-1 deficit. Tony wouldn’t risk opening up the position against Barclay and so again took a draw. Hassan lost control of his h- file and Rix’s Rooks invaded to win the R&P ending and Neville found John Hodgson too strong and whilst Nev’s opening development was good, as John levelled in the middle game Neville ran out of time. Our real star of the evening was Tom who in both games calmly stopped Spearman’s probing attacks with excellent defence.
A very disappointing night for Ilford with no winners of games amongst us. Reinforcements needed!
Jef Page.
Ilford Chess Club 