Essex Chess League WANSTEAD II v ILFORD I 15th January 2025 Ilford won the toss, White on odd boards.
WANSTEAD II 3½ – 2½ ILFORD I
1.2020 PAUL BANCROFT ½ RAHUL GHOSE 1993 W
2.2014 ASHLEY FREEMAN 1-0 NEVILLE TWITCHELL 1868 B
3.1978 TERRY WHITTON ½ VENKATESH SUBRAMANIAN 1877
4. 1903 IAN HUNNABLE ½ ADHAR JAISWAL 1794
5.1912 GEORGE HORAN 0-1 ANTHONY KENT 1797
6.1826 PHILIP STANILAND 1-0 JEF PAGE 1685
(Based on Jef’s notes)/. Playing our closest rivals with both teams unbeaten in a top of the table clash, something had to give and it was us as we narrowly lost, so Wanstead II are now 7/7, Ilford 2/3. All of our players played well, even though outgraded in comparison to Wanstead’s strong team and all the games bar one went the full distance.
Terry Whitton had lost his usual top spot and he did well to hold off Venkatesh’s R& pawns in an endgame. Staniland had a grip on Jef’s position that he could not quite break. Though he went into the ending with level material, endgame play was poor…. In compensation Tony Kent’s Bird’s opening helped him to create weak doubled-pawns on Horan’s K-sde position. In time trouble, against Tony’s K, passed a-pawn & strong Bishop, they proved to be too strong for George hold off. Rahul always seemed to be probing Bancroft’s position and likewise Adhar’s B had an edge over Ian’s weaker N, but with the pawns locked a draw was agreed. Ashley created a strong passed e-pawn and though Neville fought hard to hold it back it proved to be too sharp thorn in his side to win Wanstead the match.
Essex Chess League Division 2 20th January 2025 Toss won by Wanstead: White on odd boards
ILFORD I 1½ -4½ WANSTEAD III
1. 1993 RAHUL GHOSE ½ PHIL STANILAND 1826 w
2. 1794 ADHAR JAISWAL 1-0 PAUL BARCLAY 1797 b
3. 1797 TONY KENT 0-1 ALEX COLLYER 1780
4. 1718 VINCENZO NICOSIA 0-1 PETER NICKALS 1744
5. 1700 JEF PAGE 0-1 P GURUSAMY 1780
6. 1555 TAHA UNDRE 0-1 KEITH JONES 1669
A bad night for Ilford. Missing a few of our regular strong players really hurt us more than expected, but as it turned out we losetall 4 lower boards. All our players were under pressure the whole evening and it paid off for Wanstead in the end.
The top boards did pretty well. RahuI had trouble holding off Staniland’s attack and was surprised to be offered a draw which he quickly accepted. Adhar’s position looked quite level in a minor piece & pawns game but long term pressure from the opening ot the better of Barclay. Tony admitted that he played too passively and losing control of the f-file, when Collyer doubled-Rooks on it, proved too difficult to hold. Jef never really broke out of the opening Queen’s Gambit Declined and in the end got swamped by a strong pawn push on the q-side which he could not hold back. Vincenzo lost the exchange and although he tried to make it hard for Peter it was a lost cause. Similarly Taha had a poor opening and whilst he held the middle game together, Keith ground it out. Ilford now 2/4 🌚
Ilford Chess Club 