Essex Chess League Division 2
Monday 21st January
Report by Jef Page
ILFORD I 6 – 2 BARKING II
| 166 | Tom BARTON | ½ | Colin RAMAGE | 172  |
| 174 | Neville TWITCHELL | 1-0 | Ken CLOW | 145 (b) |
| 164 | Hassan MUGALU | 1-0 | K. POLAK | UG |
| 151 | Anthony KENT | ½ | Gholamreza ANSARI | 134 |
| 141 | Syd KALINSKY | 1-0 | John FIGGINS | 134 |
| 137 | Jason KLIMACH | 1-0 | George MONK | 125 |
| 127 | Lavanan AINKARAN | 1-0 | Vladimir CHTYM | 112 |
| 094 | Marshall TUTU | 0-1 | M. BLAGIANUI | UG |
Ilford made some slight improvements for this return home match against Barking II, like putting out a stronger team, tweaking the board order and not having a default this time. If we can solve these little problems consistently we can do far better. And again the luxury of being non-playing captain- for 2 matches in a row. Amazing!
The match stated well for us as Neville’s good development allowed him to sac’ a pawn to pressurize Clow’s position and when Ken overlooked an undefended knight the game didn’t last much longer. Kent & Ansari agreed a quick grandmaster draw but Ramage began to put pressure on Barton’s centre and queenside. Taking the top spot for a change to give Neville a rest, Tom held his concentration and calmly did enough to hold his position together.
On the lower boards we overwhelmed Barking winning 3 of the bottom 4. Kalinsky always had the better of Figgins and a strong K-side attack won Syd a bishop. Lavanan likewise set up a strong pawn-centre and after he won a knight, with queen, rook and extra knight he mated Chtym. Klimach won an errant pawn and so dominated the opening and after wiping out George’s queen-side pawns raced one of his own home to victory although George rather gave it away tamely allowing his extra king-side pawn to be easily captured. Mugalu finally won a game for Ilford but Polak also rather gave it away as well wasting his strong queen-side pawn attack sacrificing rook for knight and then losing on time. Our only loser was Tutu who whilst he won a knight had opened up files against his castled K-side position and as he was well down on the clock found it too difficult to avoid losing.
Brentwood lead division 2 followed by Upminster II and Loughton. This result takes us off the bottom in our efforts to avoid relegation – for the moment at least.
Ilford Chess Club 