London League: 2 defeats in 2 weeks

Division 3 Tue 19th Nov 2024 All games 70 Minutes plus 15 Seconds per move

Board Rating Hammersmith 2 V Ilford 1
1 2239 Villiers, Thomas ½ – ½ Ghose, Rahul 2006 (
2 2229 Hanache, Kai 1 – 0 Barton, Tom A 1905
3 2081 Pedersen, Carsten ½ – ½ Jaiswal, Adhar 1804
4 2076 Stevenson, James ½ – ½ B Page, Jeffrey 1706
5 2039 Skulte, Christopher 1 – 0 Nicosia, Vincenzo 1703
6 1995 Bryant, Harry 1 – 0 Jardine, Kenneth 1499
7 1991 Grose, Kameron 1 – 0 Garfield, Harvey 1472
8 1871 Hodgson, Jeremy KB 1 – 0 Zheng, Jiayi 1114
Average 2066 6½ – 1½ 1652

We were heavily out graded in this match and went down 6.5 – 1.5 – however, a few bright spots. Our junior Jaiyi got his first taste of the London Chess League last night and although he dropped a piece early we hope he enjoyed the experience! Rahul went a piece up for two passed pawns against Tom Villiers and perhaps could have got more than the draw against a very good player. Likewise Jef and Adhar played well for draws against 2000+ players. Tom came out of the opening with a slight edge against my teenage opponent only to blunder a pawn away and eventually go down in the endgame – very annoying!

Division 3 Tue 26th Nov 2024

Board Rating DHSS 1 V Ilford 1 Rating
1 2244 Heaton, Paul 1 – 0 Ghose, Rahul 2023
2 1993 Santos Ruiz, Adrian 0 – 1 Barton, Tom A 1890
3 1958 Sherwood, Chris 1 – 0 Twitchell, Neville H 1861
4 1960 Cook, Gary ½ – ½ Jaiswal, Adhar 1802
5 1899 Shaw, Matthew 1 – 0 Kent, Anthony R 1767
6 1848 Edwards, Greg 1 – 0 Page, Jeffrey 1714
7 1787 Harper, V Ray 1 – 0 Garfield, Harvey 1471
8 1638 Gilbert, David 1 – 0 Default
Average 1916 6½ – 1½ 1566

Played – and lost – 3 London League matches so far this season…..

Due to illness we defaulted the bottom board and we were out graded again and things didn’t get better. Rahul arrived late and his opening against a strong opponent didn’t go well. Neville went down on the early side and towards the end of the playing session only myself, Adhar and Jef were still playing. Jef’s game went away from him. Adhar got a draw in an unusual endgame when he had two knights and a pawn against two knights and two pawns. His opponent, Gary Cook, blundered a knight in the time scramble but an extra knight didn’t make much difference. Tom played a very solid game against a Moscow anti-Sicilian, however he used up too much time and at move 24 had under two minutes left against my opponents 25 minutes. however, he outplayed him despite the time pressure to pull off a win. According to Stockfish analysis he had an 11 average centipawn loss and 96% accuracy so can be pleased with that! Game on Lichess here:

https://lichess.org/SLfUkAVL#1

Tom (below) got our only win.

Adhar (below) got a creditable draw

Anthony was doing OK from a Bird’s opening that turned into a tricky Falkbeer Counter Gambit. Things went awry when White’s King side pawn push was 2 slow…..