Author: Borehamwood Chess Club

LONDON CHESS LEAGUE   DIVISION 2    2.11.2022 

                                 ILFORD           2-6   BRITISH BANGLA CHESS ASSOCIATION 

1.1965        NEVILLE TWITCHELL 0-1   J RUDOVANOVIC  2288 

2.1929                  RAHUL GHOSE 1-0  S SAIDMURODOV 2142 

3.1801 VENKATESH SUBRAMANIAN  0-1  J LANDAU     1960 

4 1792                       TONY KENT 1-0   O OKUSANYA  1916  

5.1644                          JEF PAGE  0-1  T KHAN   1907 

6. e.1650              DANIEL LOWE 0-1  O FINNEGAN 1832 

7. 1575                  TAHA UNDRE 0-1  M ALAHI  1825  

8.                                      default  0- 1 M ISLAM  1812  

Ilford Black on odds. Time control 75 minutes + 15 seconds per move increment

From Jef Page’s notes. A grim night in every way. Dreadful wet weather, train delays, byzantine instructions on how to find the way around Bethnal Green and get into St Margaret’s House (the roads don’t seem to have names on them) and not the best playing conditions. Oh-and on top of that Jef lost the toss, we had a defaulted board and a walloping from BBCA who were very strong.  And those were the good points.   

Being a bit too busy trying round-up lost, bewildered players outside in the road got poor Jef got soaked for his trouble before trying to break out of a cramped position that disintegrated in the frantic endgame. Two very good wins from Rahul Ghoseh on board 2 and Tony Kent on board 4. Board 4 saw a Scicilan Grand Prix attack that black underestimated. Position on white’s move 25 below. RxN! does lead to checkmate (thank you, computer) but white chose the slower Rh4 which wins a bit slower.

Win on Board 4

On board 4, Daniel tried for the quick win but it rebounded on him as Finnegan calmly counter-attacked and picked off a loose piece. Thanks to everyone for making the journey. At least we know the way for next time.

Action on the top 4 boards

ESSEX CHESS LEAGUE DIVISION II 19.10.22

LOUGHTON II ½ – 5 ILFORD I

1792 SIMON MOTH ½ TOM BARTON 1935

1782 MARTIN VAN TOL 0-1 NEVILLE TWITCHELL 1965

1700 KEN GROCE 0-1 VENKATESH SUBRAMANIAN 1801

1523 MYLES BRUNGER 0-1 TONY KENT 1792

1300 F COLLINS 0-1 JEF PAGE 1642

1308 MICHAEL SMITH 0-1 BIEL SCHREUDER 1419

1567.5 Average grade 1754

Time control: 80 minutes plus 10 seconds a move. Toss won by Ilford- White on odd boards.

(Based on Jef Page’s notes) Ilford I’s ECL campaign 2022-23 started with an away match at Loughton- a club that has often proved a nemesis to us in the past. After winning the Essex Rapidplay Plate Championship in the summer we had hopes of keeping our successful run going and we surprisingly swept Loughton aside.

Jef had an easy win out of a Kings Gambit Declined though I made it stupidly hard for myself as Collins struggled in vain to develop his pieces. Neville had a (long overdue) win for us by forcing two connected passed pawns up the board to fork both of Van Tol’s Rooks. Myles Brunger had good chances against Tony but couldn’t gain a point after a mistake. Venkatesh arrived late but made short work of Groce and Smith, a pawn down, couldn’t hold the ending when he allowed his lone Knight to be swapped off and Biel’s King invaded and ate the opposing pawns allowing one of his own to run through and queen. New member Schreuder’s first game for Ilford I and good to start with a win. On top board Simon’s successful Dragon Sicilian proved difficult for Tom to break down and when it got to an equal Kn & pawns ending a draw was agreed. A good win and our overall strength was far too great for Loughton as the grading’s difference shows.

Next match: Redbridge Social Centre,Monday 24 October: Ilford I v Thurrock

LONDON CHESS LEAGUE Div 3 East 2021- Wednesday 22 24.11.21 Citadines Hotel, Holborn. 75 minutes + 15 seconds a move. Metropolitan won the toss, White on odd boards.

ILFORD I 5 – 3 METROPOLITAN II

1 1923 Neville H TWITCHELL 1-0 KEVIN LENAGHAN 1878 W

2 1818 Venkatesh SUBRAMANIAN 1-0 default (A Amusa) B

3 1780 AIDAN CORISH 1-0 TOBY ROLLS 1780

4 1750 Anthony R KENT 1-0 CHARLES COOKE 1743

5 1680 Shakeel CHOUDHURY 1-0 CHEIKH NDIAYE 1690

6 1636 Jef PAGE 0-1 RONAN KELLY 1660

Iford defaulted boards 7 & 8

(Edited from Jef Page’s nates notes)With regular captain Tom Barton away, Jef took duities. A very good and amazingly easy Ilford win having conceded 2 defaults before a pawn was even moved, and rarety, winning all 5 top boards. One of the keys to winning a match is always getting a full team sitting down and playing, and Metropolian suffered when their board 2 failed to arrive so we cut the deficit to 1-2. The Citadine hotel venue remains an excellent venue – after a gap of over 18 months- but tables and boards are now more distaced distanced with 1 board per table and everyone in the room wearing a mask, except those with medical exemptions. Brian Smith did well to organise the matches being played.

Anthony Kent led off for Ilford with a Bird’s attack crushing the life out of Cooke’s position. Tony doubled his Rooks on the d-file and with both Knight’s hitting d6 and Cooke’s pieces huddled in a mass around his fearful Queen the result was never in doubt. Black to move below resigned.

Aidan won a knight and mopped up the endgame and Neville forced a well-supported pawn up board for a fine win. New team member Shakeel Choudhury had a very tricky game. The pawn structure disintegrated for both players as Shakeel tried to develop his pieces but when his Q finally invaded the Kingside and with Ndiayes’s attack stopped, the match result was clinched. Jef entered a same coloured bishop ending a pawn down. 5-3 win for Ilford in the end.

After a defeat last week ……a 2-2 draw last week against Charlton in the London Online Chess League (win for Neville and draws for Tom and Jef).

The matches are being played on the Tornelo platform. All games to be found on https://tornelo.com/chess/orgs/london-chess-league/events/london-online-chess-league-season-2/divisions/knights/rounds/6

Ilford                            Charlton Mates

1. Tom Barton       [W]    0.5 – 0.5       David Morris 1956
2. Neville Twitchell [B]   1 – 0          Mateusz Bazan, 1501
3. Anthony Kent    [W]    0 – 1         David Rogers 1893
4. Jef Page             [B]        0.5 – 0.5       Humphrey Jones 1784

Board 1 saw a Grand Prix Attack against the Sicilian. It was a game of fluctuating fortunes where white built a promising King Side attack, but failed to capitalize. Tom then built some advantage with black. Below, white has just played 34. Rg3-f3? which would lose to 34….Bh5 (thank you computer analysis). Black played Ne4 and the game become very equal after some exchanges.

On board 2, black’s French defence was in already in huge trouble after move 13 when white played 13. Ng5. Black responded 13…BxN, but 14 hxB was too strong for black to survive.

After Anthony lost on board 3, the team needed a draw to tie the match. Jef duly obliged with his solitary Knight able to hold white’s 2 pawns. Below, white to move can play Nd4 check and black has no way to queen either pawn.

After a 2-2 draw last week against Battersea 2 (wins for Neville and Dlawar, losses for Jef and Anthony), we faced more South London opposition in the Knight division and duly won 4-0.

The matches are being played on the Tornelo platform. All games to be found on https://tornelo.com/chess/orgs/london-chess-league/events/london-online-chess-league-season-2/divisions/knights/rounds/3

Ilford A                            Streatham & Brixton C

1. Tom Barton       [W]    1 – 0         Michael Chung, 1630
2. Dlawar Hameed  [B]   1 – 0         Ruairi Isaacs, 1465
3. Anthony Kent    [W]    1 – 0         Matt Carter, 1450
4. Jef Page             [B]        1 – 0        Enitan Obasa, 1158

Tom had a comfortable Scotch game on board 1 exploiting his opponents poor development after black’s 18th move.

Dlawar had a very interesting position after he played the natural 27….f5 which (with hindsight) the computer gives as poor, due to 28. RxB for white which is then broadly equal. Best was 27….Ba8! As it turned out, white blundered 28. Nd2?? and lost his Queen.

Jef scored a comfortable victory as black with the Caro-Kann.

Anthony misplayed a Vienna Frankenstein-Dracula as white after forgetting the theory. The position below occurred after white’s 34. Bd2-c1 to block check. It turned out that Black (Red) could have won with the queen sacrifice 34…QxBch!! (pink line) which after 35. KxB, is followed by 35…Na2 and a mating web! Both players missed that, and black went 34..Nc2?? instead short of time (blue line) giving white a fortunate 35. Qxf7 checkmate!

Ilford has entered the online London League. There are over 40 4-man teams in 4 divisions. We are possibly the strongest team in the Knight division and we’ve got off to a good start with a 3-1 win. This division is being run on a Swiss pairing basis so the opponents will probably get a little tougher from now on especially if we can keep winning – which would be nice!

The matches are being played on the Tornelo platform. All games to be found on https://tornelo.com/chess/orgs/london-chess-league/events/london-online-chess-league-season-2/divisions/knights/rounds/1

 Hammersmith Hodgson                       Ilford A

1. Chris Moore     [W]      0 – 1            Tom Barton
2. David Lambert   [B]      1 – 0            Neville Twitchell
3. Paul Van Kan    [W]      0 – 1            Dlawar Hameed
4. Raluca Stroe     [B]        0 – 1            Anthony Kent

Fairly smooth wins for everyone except Neville who got an interesting but very unbalanced position.

Tom had a very comfortable Kings Indian Defense. Neville played a Lipnitsky Attack against the Sicilian Nadjorf. One move 17 below, he played Rg1 which loses to …Ne5. Stockfish gives 17 Nd5 for white with equality.

Dlawar, on his London League debut for Ilford, was on top for most of the game and reached the following position as black, with white to move. If his opponent would have played 42. g4, the game would have been drawn. After 42 Kf2, black played 42….h5! which created threats on both sides of the board leading to a win.

Anthony obtained a strong Reversed Leningrad Dutch and won comfortably.

Our match next Wednesday 10 Mar at 19.00 is: Ilford A vs Battersea Too

 Ilford Kings     4   – 0                Loughton Lions

Thursday 28 January 2021

1. Gandto          [W]              1 – 0             MartinVanTol [B] https://lichess.org/3Akuwxa5/white#0  
2. Chessleveller [B]                1 – 0           kershaw1953 https://lichess.org/KQy4zLCS/black
3. Chessbore     [W]               1 – 0             Bazwold    [B]                              https://lichess.org/N2MTqTk1
4. JefPage100      [B]             1 – 0             HarveyFrench    https://lichess.org/TS5V3jys/black

We won this online match comfortably against one of the weaker sides we’ve faced this season in the League of Mayhem. https://www.leagueofmayhem2020.com/ Not having posted a match report since 2020, now seems a good to resume.

On board 1, Tom Barton playing white got a slightly inferior position against a Sicilian (Adams Attack). As the game developed, he managed to win a pawn and then ran his very strong passed b pawn which won the game.

On Board 4, Jef Page had a level Caro-Kann position with black. His opponent unwisely advanced his g pawn, and Jef grabbed it with his knight, which could not be captured due to a pin. He then had pretty easy time of it and won comfortably.

Anthony Kent (with white on board 3) played a Polar Bear Opening (more interesting name than “Reversed Leningrad”) . This led to some good central pressure, with black having to play accurately. Black played a poor move 23..Qc7-c5 which was met by 24 Rd5 leading to the gain of material and win.

Neville Twitchell’s game (black, board 2) was a made easier when his opponent lost a pawn. A rook an opposite colour bishop ending was reached, but white’s disjointed pawns were too difficult to defend and the game was won.

A good result – a clean sweep.

4 very exciting games of attacking chess which are worth playing through.

3-1 victory to Ilford in the end. https://www.leagueofmayhem2020.com/

 East Ham Foxgloves                                               Ilford Kings

1. Aircplp      [W]     2013                     1 – 0          gandto  [B]      https://lichess.org/MU7B5rf2/black#0
2. ConradAllison  [B]   1837 (Fide)     0 – 1           Chessleveller [W]        https://lichess.org/DWZFdspv
3. Mr_Mayhem    [W]    1908              0 – 1           JefPage100  [B]        https://lichess.org/g0k4TvMG/
4. Dnazreal            [B]   e1638              0 – 1          Jasonthegiant [W]       https://lichess.org/m82bZQXZJasom

gandto – Tom Barton, chessleveller – Neville Twitchell, Jefpage100 – Jef Page, Jasonthegiant – Jason Klimach

A very nice win by Neville saw an early point. A Ruy Lopez Morphy defence led to a position after 10 moves which was a forced draw by repetition in a number of top historic master games, including Kaoults v Nigel Short 2012. Rather than accepting the inevitable draw, his opponent gave up a pawn and his position spiraled rapidly down hill. Below, Black has played 19…BxN(d5) and white responded 20. Qc3 ch. Black moved Kg5?? which walks into a 3 move checkmate after 21. f4. Black regretted his decision not to take the draw!

Tom had a very sharp game, a counter-attacking Najdorf, in which he had an opportunity on move 18 to gain a strong edge. Tom thought about the move, but played a variation to the move order which saw loss of material and defeat. In the position below, White has just played BxN(c5), and black has the excellent 18…Nc4! . If 19. Qxb black has Bxa. Black actually played 18….Bxg check, and after 19. f4, the computer gives 19… Bxc which is fairly even, but hard to find.

Jason was on the back foot in the middle game, but gained a pawn, followed by a a piece in the endgame. This then forced the win so we were 2-1 up wth Jef’s game to finish. This went right down to the wire with both players low on time, but Jef found good moves pushing his opponent back by advancing his f and e pawns to secure the win. His next move 45…..Be1 effectively ended the game.

Board   Ilford Kings   0.5 v         Wanstead Wanderers 3.5 

1   Tom Barton       1908 gandto W    0 – 1 John Hodgson  2103 EastCoker  https://lichess.org/WeCJKqeg/white#0

2  Venkatesh Subramanian   1818  B  qvenky  0 – 1     Ian Hunnable  1968  Chesstera1h8             https://lichess.org/LB8dDNTN/black#0

3  Anthony Kent 1750  W   Chessbore    ½ – ½    Mark Murrell  1855                  WWJammyDodger https://lichess.org/zOY9TtfW/white

4  Jef Page 1630    B    JefPage100        0 – 1 Matthias Lataille  1578                   SanMatthias    https://lichess.org/2VYwxbva/black#1

At least we avoided a 0-4 bagel against our nearest neigbours Wanstead, with a solitary draw giving a match score of 0.5 – 3.5.

On board 1, Tom played the opening OK, but then traded into a position with a poor bishop against a good knight, not the sort of thing to do against John Hodgson who is very adept at exploiting small advantages. Tom entered a knight versus bishop endgame a pawn down, but could not find anyway to hold it. The Stockfish computer analysis agreed with him. Black to move below (move 47) can bring his knight round to d4 and manouver his king. White has no counter-play.

Venkatesh, playing back, was getting pushed back by Ian Hunnable. His exchange of a knight for 2 pawns eventually yielded some attacking play and created some pressure. It was very difficult to keep having to find the right move in such an open, interesting encounter. The computer threw up one opportunity for black on move 37 where Rc4 (hard to spot under pressure) is very strong. Black played the solid 37….f4, but could hold the game.

Anthony’s game was a Hopton Attack against the Dutch (1.d4 f4 Bg5) . White emerged well from the opening, but went badly astray against a sort of Stonewall Defence. In the position below, black has just played 27….Re8-e6, when he could have won a pawn 27…Bxd due to a back rank mate threat. Relieved, white went 28. Be5. White is still worse off due to black’s strong queenside, but 28 …BxB 29. dxB RxB 30. f4! won white’s pawn back due to 31. NxB, and equalised for a draw.

Jef had chances in his game with Black. He went from a cramped position to having counter-play. The computer analysis shows the advantage swinging widely between Jef and his opponent, and he built up a good position as shown in the diagram below. Short of time, Jef played 44….g4 which is effectively drawn after white played g3. Unfortunately, in pushing for a win he lost. 44…f4 would have posed white a lot of problems.

Thursday 19th November 2020 in the online League of Mayhem 2020 https://www.leagueofmayhem2020.com/ Result and links to games below

 Lords of Hackney                                    llford Kings

1. Jonnyt    (2020/176)        [W]          1 – 0       Chessleveller   (1923)           https://lichess.org/4V7XMVOv
2. Marceli123 (1769/143)    [B]          1 – 0        qvenky              ( 1818)            https://lichess.org/EphmQvjb
3. Jmorgan (Est 1690/Est 132)  [W]   0 – 1       Chessbore (1750)           https://lichess.org/w96dIYbq
4. Marc1959 (1660 / 128)      [B]         0 – 1      Lakshan18  (e1450)             https://lichess.org/5AWxSInt

Some very interesting games in this match!

A tight game for Neville on Board 1. His opponent won a pawn then always kept control of the position. When centre pawns started marching down the board Neville couldn’t stop a passed pawn being created and when it hit the seventh rank it was only a matter of technique by his opponent.

On board 2, Venkatesh’s faced the Albin Counter-Gambit and built up a nice position. But an ill advised pawn grab of a d pawn on move 12 allowed his opponent to castle queenside with the initiative. His position crumbled despite his spirited attempts to find counter-play.

Board 4 saw Lakshan’s opponent misplaying a very level queen and rook endgame, instead of trading off for what was very probably a draw.

So everything hung on a thriller in Anthony’s game on Board 3. His opponent played the white side of a Yugoslav attach against the Sicilian Dragon, playing the natural looking 14. Bh6? (below) which was a mistake. Black spotted 2 sound sacrifices on offer: RxN(d4) or Nxe4. The first was better per the computer, but black played the second one.

14…Nxe4 15. NxN RxN 16 Qe3 Qa4

Black is clearly better at this point but did not follow up so well, allowing white back more into the game. In the end, black had a bishop and three extra pawns against a rook. With time short, it swung towards Anthony, who pushed his pawns for a win to tie the match at 2-2