London League Division 2 4th October 2017

Ilford White on odds

Ilford    beat      Lewisham           5.5 – 4.5

—————————————————————————-

Chris Fegan 176             Harry Dixon 184               1/2

Gary Thurston  173       Mark M Robertson 194    1/2

Paolo Casaschi  174       John Pallen  163                 0-1

Julian Hudson  169        Tim Gluckmann 171          1-0

David Millward  167      Sydney J Jacob  166           1/2

Neville H Twitchell 168 Peter R Wood 151              1/2

Les Crane 164                  Martin Stewart 166           1-0

Jeffrey Page 144              Zia Mehmet 151                  1/2

Aidan Corish   148          David E Brown 152             1-0

Grant Gericke   139         Cem Oyvat   141                   0-1

Essex Chess KO Rapidplay Round 1 6th July 2017 BARKING II  v  ILFORD

Rnd 1  Rnd 2

129 (R) ROBIN OAKLEY  0-1    ½   NEVILLE TWITCHELL  166 (R)

125 (R) G ANSARI              ½     ½   ANTHONY KENT 167 (R)

138 (R) GEORGE MONK   0-1 1-0  SYD KALINSKY  141 (R)

113 (S) ROB STEBBINGS   ½    ½   JASON KLIMACH 129 (R)

86 (S) ALEX BOWHILL     0-1  0-1  JEF PAGE

1-4  2½-2½  

3½ – 6½

A Balmy July night at the Catholic Church of Saint Mary and Saint Ethelburga in Barking. Ilford won the match in the first round of games against Barking 2nd team, which was a bit weaker than us on paper. The 2nd round was much tighter and ended level.
In round 1, Jef struggled through the middle game against Bowhill’s Caro Kann but  outplayed Alex in the endgame to win pawns on both wings of the board, whilst in game no.2 he blundered badly in the opening and Jef trapped a Bishop inside 10 moves and he resigned.
Kalinsky was lucky in his 1st game when with Monk winning the endgame easily,. However George erred badly in a Rook and pawn endgame and lost his Rook in the time scramble. In game 2, Syd made a mess of the opening and there was no reprieve this time. The top boards were tight. Neville won well in the 1st game but in the 2nd Oakley went a pawn up but in the time scramble couldn’t find the win.  Jason Klimach had good chances to clinch a win but couldn’t find the correct moves to gain a point. Anthony Kent took both draws that were offered by his opponent. The first draw offered by white (diagram – black to move) was accepted due to complexity in available time, but either 17..Nxg2 or Nf5 are decent for black (according to the computer).

Our reward for this victory is a quarter-final tie home to Basildon sometime before 4th August.

 

NORTH CIRCULAR CHESS LEAGUE DIVISION B
Redbridge Social Centre 5th June 2017

ILFORD                            4½-½   LOUGHTON II
NEVILLE TWITCHELL   1-0       K GROCE w 139
ANTHONY KENT            1-0       SIMON MOTH b 139
SYD KALINSKY               1-0       MARTIN VAN TOL w 132
JASON KLIMACH             ½       B JONES b
GRANT GERICKE            1-0      GORDON CLARKE w 101

(based on Jef’s notes)

CHAMPIONES!, CHAMPIONES!!..

Uncork the champagne, spray it around, book the open-topped charabanc.

After an exceptionally long chess league campaign of 16 matches: won 12, drew 3, lost only 1, we had hoped we would go through the season unbeaten as the new Invincibles. But, we didn’t quite make that. But still a great entry into this new NCCL venue for us. We overwhelmed Loughton, who have proved troublesome in the past, and did the double over them by the same score. None of our players was losing, though Grant Gericke wriggled out of a difficult Schliemann opening to trap Clarke’s Bishop and from here he quickly checkmated Gordon. Jason Klimach had the advantage against Jones Caro-Kann, with pressure down the e-file with doubled-rooks and Queen. But despite a stronger centre, he took a draw as time was short.

 

The top three games were all interesting, with two of them, boards 1 & 3, being long drawn-out endgame studies showing good technique. Groce had some advantage in the opening but Neville won a pawn & marched it up the board, protected by his Rook, to promote to a queen.

Likewise Syd also was a pawn ahead and to advanced his King, Rook and rook’s pawn to victory.

Anthony Kent’s opening was fairly typical: few pieces exchanged and none venturing past the 4^th rank. But when he brought his Queen & Knights into the fray they arrived with force, and came up with a delightful Knight sac’ to finish the game with an unstoppable mate. (After black played ..h6, white went Ng3 to h5.)

So we finished top: 1^st Ilford 27 points, 2^nd Chingford 25, 3^rd Barking 19 pts, with Barnet, Enfield & Wanstead trailing behind.

Top players include: Neville Twitchell 9½/12, Syd Kalinsky 8½/13, Jef Page 6/9, Leonardo Stefanoni 5½/6  Anthony Kent 4/8. Full stats will be available for our AGM.

As champions we will be promoted into the A division next year- up with the big boys. But there is also scope for us to enter a new team in this league to give all of our members a regular game.

Monday 22nd May 2017   North Circular Chess League Division B,  Redbridge Social Centre

ILFORD  3½-1½ BARKING II (Barking had White on odd boards as the away team.)
NEVILLE TWITCHELL ½ COLIN RAMAGE w 158
ANTHONY KENT          ½ KEN CLOW b 151
SYD KALINSKY              ½ G ANSARI 140
JASON KLIMACH         1-0 TONY LOH 105
MARSHALL TUTU       1-0 ALEX BOWHILL 86

From Jef’s Notes

A good night for Ilford which keeps us top of Division B. We were always leading in the match and we did well to hold the three top boards and win the bottom two.
Alex Bowhill caught Tutu with a Knight fork of both of Marshall’s Rook’s which he’d overlooked, so winning a Rook for a Knight. But then Alex blundered his advantage away by losing a Bishop and worse, managed to get his King caught in a net and was checkmated by Marshall’s Queen & Bishop. This was followed up by Jason Klimach who held the advantage from the opening and having chased Loh’s King down to b3 (!), mated him with Rook, Knight & pawns. So 2-nil up and rolling.
On the top boards it wasn’t so easy. Kent’s white-side of a Reversed Leningrad Dutch (or Bird’s) Defence looked like glue and with few bits exchanged a draw was agreed. Kalinsky had to grapple with a ‘Fried Liver’ type of attack and counter-attacked strongly, but with Ansari defending adroitly Syd took a draw to seal the match win. On board 1, Twitchell won a pawn out of a Sicilian Morra Gambit Declined. But his pawn advantage was weak and as the endgame drew near, his position cost him a Bishop but fortunately Neville had won enough pawns to stop Colin Ramage gaining a win.

With one match to go we lead the division. Win our last match, against Loughton on 5th June and we are champions and promoted!

 

Monday – 8 May 2017

Toss won by Ilford

Starting a man short, we achieved a narrow 6-4 defeat. Good win for Kevin White with a 2 pawn advantage in a rook ending. Strong attack by Julian Hudson, and back rank mate by Jason Klimach scored 2 more wins. Now 4.5 points after 9 games.

	Dulwich 1	GRADE	SCORE	Ilford 1	GRADE
1	R. Randall	210	1 – 0	Paolo Casachi	175
2	A. Pridding	199	1 – 0	Neville Twitchell   (b)	173
3	G. Peeebles-Brown	169	0 – 1	Kevin D White	172
4	M.A. Seton	E150	½ – ½	Tom Barton	167
5	V. Homolka	149	½ – ½	Les Crane	165
6	O. Morley	145	0 – 1	Julian Hudson	154
7	S. Svirvevic	E140	1 – 0	Aidan Corish	159
8	M. Wooster	140	1 – 0	Anthony Kent	153
9	S. Lightbown	E120	0 – 1	Jason W Klimach	148
10	Walkover		1 – 0	Forfeit
	Total		6 – 4

Athenaeum 2 v Ilford   London Division 2   Wednesday 3rd May 2017

Board	Home player		Result	Away player		Grading difference (Δ)
one	Ti Chen s176A		0-1	Kevin D White s172A		+4
two	Carl J Hetherington s171B		1/2-1/2	Neville H Twitchell s173A		-2
three	Geoff R Hermes s155D		1-0	Tom A Barton s167B		-12
four	Charles Davie s147F		0-1	Gary Thurston es165		-18
five	Steve Madden s152C		1/2-1/2	David Millward s166A		-14
six	Adrian M Davies s131C		0-1	Julian Hudson s154A		-23
seven	Martin D Leanse s122B		0-1	Aidan T Corish s159A		-37
eight	Tristan Dolphin es60		1/2-1/2	Stephen J Abbott s147C		-87
nine	Samuel Burrows es100		0-1	Anthony R Kent s153A		-53
ten	Patrick Hill es70		0-1	Jeffrey Page s130B		-60
Mean grading	Home team: 128.4			Away team: 158.6		Δ = -30.2
match result: 2.5 — 7.5

With Atheneaum on 3 points and ourselves on 3.5 points before the match, a reasonably close match was to be expected. In the event, we significantly outgraded our opponents by an average of 30 points, particularly on the lower boards.

A comfortable 7.5 = 2.5 win to Ilford.

Played 8 with 4.5 points. 3 matches to go in 2016/2017 season

 

 

Essex Chess League  Division 2      At Redbridge, 3.April.2017

ILFORD  3½-4½ LOUGHTON             Ilford Black on odds

A poor and disappointing way to finish the Essex League season for Ilford. After a run of 5 match wins we finished with 3 straight losses: Won 6, lost 4 (twice to both Southend & Loughton), and 1 draw.

1. NEVILLE TWITCHELL    ½  KEVIN BOWMER 179
2. TOM BARTON                 0-1  BILL STIRLING 175
3. ANTHONY KENT            0-1  BRIAN SPEAR  151
4. SYD KALINSKY               1-0  GRAHAM KERSHAW 139
5. JASON KLIMACH           1-0  SIMON MOTH  139
6. JEF PAGE                         0-1  KEN GROCE  139
7. UMAR YUNIS                  0-1  MARTIN VAN TOL 132
8. LAVANAN AINKARAN  1-0  J NEWBY  118

Lavanan crashed into Newby’s defence winning a Rook & pawn for a Bishop and Knight and from here on never let up as he won the endgame. But conversely Yunis lost pawns and found it tough going against Van Tol.

 

(from Jef’s notes) Tom Barton couldn’t make any headway against Stirling’s Sicilian opening and Twitchell had to think very carefully to hold Bowmer who won a Rook for a Bishop and pawn but fortunately Neville played well to hold him back and secure a half. Moth tried to break open Klimach’s defence but Jason secured his King safely and with pawns to the good Jason forced the exchange of Queens to win the ending.

Kershaw built up a strong position against Kalinsky whose pieces seemed misplaced but unable to find the correct continuation, Gary sacrificed a piece in vain and lost the ending. The match result hinged on Kent’s game, the last to finish. Although doing well (see below) Anthony played 32..NxB? rather than maintain the tension and was unable to hold the centre as Brian Spear marched a pawn down the board to e2 backed up by a Rook and Knight.

Great Thanks to both Umar Yunis and Marshall Tutu who both rushed down to the Club to cover a last minute default.
So it’s division 2 again for us next season as we have come up well short. Southend should be promoted as top if they win their last match, so at least no distant travelling to face to them away

 

A good win for Ilford holding the top two boards and winning the bottom 3 where we were much stronger.

Barking 2     v Ilford  Thursday 30 March 2017

1. 158 C.Ramage ½-½ N.Twitchell 172
2. 151 K.Clow      ½-½ T.Barton 170
3. 140 G.Ansari    0-1  S.Kalinsky 148
4. 137 V.Chtym    0-1  J.Klimach 147
5. 105 T.Loh         0-1  J.Page 137

(Jef’s notes) Tom Barton’s Sicilian Defence looked to be in jeopardy as Ken Clow had the opportunity to win a Rook. Although he went a pawn up, Tom won it back and levelled to gain a draw. Jef trapped Loh’s Queen. Syd beat Ansari by opening his King’s defence with a strong Queen, minor piece and double-Rook attack. Jason found it tougher against Chtym but Vladimir fatally loosened his grip on the position allowing Klimach to castle to safety. Even though Jason just had seconds remaining but a good pawn ahead, he easily won the Queen & pawn ending. The toughest game of the night went to Neville whose favourite Queen-pawn opening tore in Ramage’s position. Though Neville went two pawns up, he couldn’t quite make the extra pawns count as Colin defended adroitly in a Bishop of opposite colour ending.

We are now two clear points ahead at the top of the division with a game in hand, with three matches left to play .

Loughton forms part of the so-called ‘Golden Triangle’ where Essex Celebrities live, but after this match it felt more like the Bermuda Triangle.

Essex Chess League Division 2
At Loughton, 15th March 2017        Time Control: 80 minutes plus 10 seconds per move

LOUGHTON                              7-1   ILFORD
1. 179 KEVIN BOWMER           1-0   172 NEVILLE TWITCHELL (B)
2. 175 BILL STIRLING              1-0   170 TOM BARTON
3. 158 DAVID FAULKNER        ½    153 ANTHONY KENT
4. 139 GRAHAM KERSHAW    1-0   148 SYD KALINSKY
5. 139 SIMON MOTH                ½     137 JEF PAGE
6. 139 KEN GROCE                   1-0    139 GRANT GERICKE
7. 132 MARTIN VAN TOL        1-0    116 LEONARDO STEFANONI
8. J NEWBY                               1-0   Default

(From Jef’s notes) Following last week’s defeat at Southend, a poor night for Ilford as we again had a default and the games which we were winning slipped away out of our grasp. Not a single winner amongst us: Two draws do not a good evening make.

Grant, after his sparkling win at Southend, rashly sacrificed a piece against Groce’s French defense. However, he badly miscalculated as Groce was able to whisk his King out of the centre, castling to safety on the queen-side and swiftly counter attack. Leonardo had Van Tol tied up, but then also let it slip as one of his pieces got pinned and the game was lost. Kalinsky had Kershaw on the ropes as Syd attacked strongly with Queen, Rook and Knight, He sacrificed a Bishop seeking checkmate, but overlooked a back rank mate against himself.

On the top boards Tom found Bill Stirling’s Sicilian Dragon/Maroczy Bind Sicilian difficult to break down. Although it went to the endgame, Bill was able to invade with his remaining Rook to win the ending. Similarly, Neville had Bowmer’s pieces swarming all over him and likewise was overwhelmed at the end, relying on the 10 second’s per move at the finish. Anthony Kent defended well to earn his half, and likewise Jef held his position together facing doubled Rooks and the possible fatal loss of a pawn. He managed to swap pieces off to a Knight and 6 pawns level ending.

Return match against Loughton in Early April. Hopefully we can finish the Essex season in style.

Tense finish on top board

Essex Chess League, Division 2  10th March 2017

SOUTHEND I  5½ -2½  ILFORD

179  HOWARD GRIST            1-0  NEVILLE TWITCHELL 172

180 NEIL SUTHERLAND       0-1  TOM BARTON 170

175 MATTHEW SHAW           ½   SYD KALINSKY 148

169 CHRISTIAN WESTRAP   1-0  JEF PAGE 137

163  STEVE WEDLOCK           0-1  GRANT GERICKE 139

150 DENIS DARTNELL           1-0  NICK PELLING 116

145 MICHAEL SAUNDERS     1-0  LEONARDO STEFANONI 116

131  COLIN NEWTON              1-0  default

(From Jef’s notes). Not our best evening at the seaside having arrived a man short. We were always behind in the match, though there was an excellent win from Grant Gericke.
Leonardo lost a knight very quickly and was soon lost, but Neville had Grist on the ropes. But from there on it all went somewhat pear-shaped for Ilford. Jef wriggled out of Westrap’s attack and put in a fierce counter-attack getting both Queen and Rook to the 7th. Unfortunately, he could not quite find the right moves as time ran out. Then, Neville lost his grip on Grist’s position and blundered away the endgame. Pelling likewise could not hold a Bishop and pawns ending.

Syd did well to stay level with Shaw whilst Neil Sutherland lost a Rook for a Bishop and the game against Tom Barton’s Sicilian opening. Grant won a Knight against Wedlock and then Gericke’s own 2 Knights & Queen hopped over the board to checkmate Wedlock.

This now leave Southend with a clear blue water for a run at winning division 2 and promotion to the top flight.

Ilford all at sea.