25 October 2021
Over the board chess returned to Ilford chess club with a visit from Southend 2.
A good start for Ilford with only one blemish spoiling the final score and clean sweep. It got a bit tense with our players arriving late due to road works in Beehive Lane sending us in all directions to find a way around them but once we settled down Ilford began to make progress though most games were close lasting over two hours.
Dlawar led off when he invaded Saunders’ back rank with his Queen and began to pick off loose pawns. One late arrival was Adrian- one of our players making a welcome return- who soon got Chris Wray tangled up with no development from which he could ever break out and when Adrian trapped Wray’s Bishop the result was never in doubt. Chauhan likewise arrived 20 minutes late but made up for it in what looked like a level game also winning a Q, B & pawn ending. Neville dropped a pawn to Fred Whitefield but Neville’s active Q and Knight won the pawn back and he too got the better endgame. I spent so long trying to find a good attack I ran out of time- almost a cardinal sin. The last game to finish almost going the full 3 hours was Tom’s who forced his c and d pawns up the board to win after Chris Newton let slip a good opening.
ILFORD 5-1 SOUTHEND II
1. (e.1940) DLAWAR HAMEED 1-0 MICHAEL SAUNDERS (1769)
2. (1910) TOM BARTON 1-0 COLIN NEWTON (1756)
3. (1923) NEVILLE TWITCHELL 1-0 FRED WHITEHEAD (1685)
4. (e.1888) ADRIAN JOSEPH 1-0 CHRIS WRAY (1357)
5. (1773) ANURAG CHAUHAN 1-0 JOHN CHAPMAN (1240)
6. (1636) JEF PAGE 0-1 DAVID KING (1699)
Jef Page, Captain.
Full match details on the ECF League Management System: Ilford v Southend 2
Ilford Chess Club 