Author: Borehamwood Chess Club

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.

Essex Chess League Div 2 Monday 27th February, 7.30pm
Redbridge Social Centre. Barking white on odds.

ILFORD 5½ – 2½ BARKING II
1. NEVILLE TWITCHELL 172         ½    COLIN RAMAGE 158
2. TOM BARTON 170                      1-0    KEN CLOW 151
3. ANTHONY KENT  153                 ½     MIKE CRESSWELL 138
4. JASON KLIMACH 147                ½    GHOlAMREZA ANSARI 140
5. SYD KALINSKY 148                    ½    VLADIMIR CHYTM 137
6. JEF PAGE 137                              1-0    ROBERT STEBBINGS 113
7. GRANT GERICKE 139                ½    TONY LOH 105
8.LEONARDO STEFANONI  116  1-0   ALEX BOWHILL 86

A good result for Ilford against Barking: 5 draws and 3 wins so no Ilford players lost (edited from Jef’s notes).

It’s been an exceptional period for Ilford since November. Ilford have been unbeaten in the Essex League (played 5, won 5) and the North Circular League, where having played 10 so far this season, won 7, drew 3- still unbeaten.

The match started well for us and we were never losing. Bowhill’s Caro Kann was quickly demolished as Leonardo soon caught Alex in a classical smothered mate (not quite a miniature, but only 17 moves)- something rarely seen over the board in a match. Kalinsky played a neat opening and won a pawn, but having to nurse 2 sets of doubled pawns of his own proved too much, and Vladimir Chytm adroitly tied Syd down. On the top boards, Ramage v Twitchell played into a level middle game. Anthony Kent had a very tame Black Lion and could not make any progress. Klimach had an interesting accelerated Dragon, but again honours even. Tpm Barton made his space advantage tell. He won a pawn against Ken Clow’s Sicilian and with a queenside majority, Tom cleverly sacrificed a Rook for a Knight and another pawn, to push his passed pawns home to victory. The oddest game of the night was Grant Gericke’s. He won a Knight playing the Modern Defense but then missed the chance to win a Bishop as well. This proved costly as suddenly Loh went pawns ahead and began to push them up the board. Both players were desperately short of time & rushing their moves, and Tony tried to checkmate Grant with a Rook, Bishop and King, only to blunder and stalemate Grant- so only a draw.  Jef always had Stebbings under pressure. He declined Jef’s Morra Gambit, but Jef obtained a strong queenside position and with a knight dug in on b6 hampering his development won a Rook for a Knight, quickly wrapped the ending.

This puts us back on top of division 2 but only because we’ve played one more match than our nemesis Southend who are 2nd.

The clash on Boards 1 & 2, Boards 3 & 4, and 7 & 8.

An excellent win for Ilford as we were outgraded on all five boards

North Circular Chess League  Division B

Monday 13^th February 2017, Redbridge Social Centre.

ILFORD  3-2  LOUGHTON I

1.  172   NEVILLE H TWITCHELL 1-0  KEVIN BOWMER 179

2. 153   ANTHONY KENT                 ½   BILL STIRLING (b) 175

3. 148  SYD KALINSKY                    0-1  DAVID FAULKNER 158

4. 124  UMAR YUNIS                       1-0  K GROCE 139

5. 116 LEONARDO STEFANONI     ½   SIMON MOTH 139

We are now  equal top with Chingford, but with matches in hand on them (but we can be also caught by both Barking and Wanstead). Still the only unbeaten team in the division: played 9, Won 6, Drawn 3. Quite a decent unbeaten run.

Neville Twitchell played a sharp line of the Sicilian Kalashnikov as Black on top board. He had some initiative, but Bowmer made a bad mistake suddenly dropping a bishop for a pawn (Bxb? in picture below). Anthony Kent got a good opening from the Reversed Leningrad, but did not capitalize on black’s weak opening and took a reasonable draw against Stirling. Syd Kalinsky allowed Faulkner to control the centre with his Rooks, and then got his Bishop trapped by white’s advancing king-side pawns with no chances of counter play. Leonardo and Simon Moth played into a level minor pieces and three pawns level endgame from a French defense. Both Kent and Stefanoni had given away over 22 grading points but still held their opponents to a draw.  So 2 – 2 with one game to finish.

The result hinged on Groce v Yunis, as Groce set up a strong kingside attack. But neatly breaking it up by first exchanging one Rook each, Umar then forked Groce’s Queen and remaining Rook with a pawn. Groce sacrificed it in the hope of perpetual Queen checks but, even though very short of time, Umar cleaned up the endgame still a Rook up.

For potential new members who might wish to join, we now have use of an additional comfortable playing area for coaching of juniors or special matches. So no problems about lack of space or too much noise hindering concentration- problems we’ve worried about for a  long time.

(based on edited notes by Jef Page)

Board 1                             Boards 5 and 4               Boards 2 and 3

 

ILFORD  5½-2½  BRENTWOOD I – exactly the same score as when we won at their place before Christmas.

Essex Chess League  Division 2. Ilford won the toss, White on odd boards

Monday 6^th February, Redbridge Social Centre 7.30pm.

ILFORD  5½-2½  BRENTWOOD I  (showing July 2016 ECF grades)

1.  NEVILLE TWITCHELL 173       ½  ADAM RAOOF  192
2. TOM BARTON 167                     ½  GAVIN STRACHAN 162
3. ANTHONY KENT  153                ½  MALCOLM KINGSLEY  162
4. SYD KALINSKY    148                0-1 RONALD ADAMS 158
5. JASON KLIMACH 148                1-0  ROD S JOHNSON 152
6. JEF PAGE 130                             1-0 ROB DAVIES 128
7. LEONARDO STEFANANO 109   1-0 COLIN ELLIS  102
8. LAVANAN AINKARAN 103        1-0 Default

Ilford did not find it all plain sailing, though Brentwood gifted us a point start by defaulting board 8. Only Leonardo had a relatively easy win, playing the Caro-Kann, two knights variation. Leo got on top of Ellis’s weak opening, quickly gained a positional advantage, won a Rook for Bishop, and then Ellis overlooked that Leo’s  pawn could take his Queen- which Leonardo did.

From there on it got trickier, and we did very well to halve the top three boards. Neville got out of his sick bed to come down from Harlow to hold off Adam Raoof. He managed to equalize the position in the French Defense Winawer Variation, though perhaps with best play Adam might have won (See picture of Board). Likewise Tom Barton had to play carefully to develop his pieces and push Gavin Strachan back. Anthony Kent flirted with the Birds Opening, but he too couldn’t make any headway against Kingsley, so a third draw was agreed.

In a good position Kalinsky lost a piece away, and so it was up to the tail to wag- and wag it did. Jef wriggled out of a poor Dutch defence and on just getting level, he offered a draw. Still with a good positon Rob Davies declined- only to blunder a few moves later when Jef trapped a Bishop. Jason always had the edge over Johnson’s Latvian Gambit, and his superior development paid dividends, and so we cleaned up the bottom four boards.

And to cap it all and make a rainy night worse- it never just rains but it pours – Rob Davies suffered a flat car tyre and had to wait for the AA.

The final score is a bit flattering but we are not complaining. This win keeps us top with 9 points from 6 matches

(Edited from Jef’s notes)

 

NCCL  Division B Redbridge Social Centre, 30.1.17

ILFORD  2½-2½ ENFIELD I

ANTHONY KENT 153 b          ½   D McNISH  148  w

JASON KLIMACH                   0-1  P GILBERG 133

SYD KALINSKY 148               ½   D EFTHYMIOU 129

UMAR YUNIS 118                  ½   K KYRIACOU  124

LAVANAN AINKARAN 113  1-0  M MAHER  123

(from Jef’s match notes) Unfortunately we couldn’t force the match win.The match started badly for Ilford. Klimach mistimed his opening against a French defence allowing his King to get stuck in the centre, and without adequate development soon lost a Bishop and the game. Umar Yunis developed nicely against Kyriacou’s Sicilian but as pieces were swapped off a draw quickly ensued. Likewise, Syd’s advantage of a pawn wasn’t enough and when Efthymiou won it back a draw was soon agreed. We managed to get level when out of Lavanan’s opening, Maher went to win  a very poisoned a pawn on which he choked and self- trapped his own Queen, which in the end to extricate itself cost him 2 pieces!

(Anthony’s notes). Match level, last game to finish on board 1. Got to play my favourite Leningrad Dutch, and built up a strong attack against McNish. Move 24, black to move below.  For example, Fritz gives fxe3 a whopping plus 4.5, as a big swap on d5 follows, then black gets a discovered attack on white’s Queen, winning comfortably. Lots of other good lines (e.g. Qb8, Bxd4). I played NxB, which is decent, but dissipates some pressure. After a swap off, the advantage fell away, and a level endgame ensued.

So we have lost our advantage and now go level top with Chingford. Barking can also catch but we have very good chances of winning the NCCL B division.

North Circular Chess League   Division  B  Loughton Bowls Club, 25.January.2017

LOUGHTON II ½-4½  ILFORD

142 G KERSHAW  0-1  NEVILLE TWITCHELL 173 w

141      K GROCE    0-1  SYD KALINSKY 148   b

127   M VAN TOL  ½   JEF PAGE 130

101     G CLARKE  0-1 HOWARD BERLIN 127

77     M SMITH  0-1  LEONARDO STEFANONI 109

(From Jef’s notes) A good win for Ilford who throughout the match had the advantage on every board- and we outgraded them everywhere.

A quick look around the hall at the games after just 40 minutes saw Syd a Bishop up, Leonardo a pawn ahead & Howard, and Neville on board 1 both gaining strong positional advantages. Kalinsky quickly swapped into a won endgame and Leonardo mated Smith with a Rook & two Bishops as Smith never developed his queenside pieces at all. Clarke played the endgame weakly and his lone Knight could never hold off Howard Berlin’s 3 advancing pawns. Martin Van Tol did just enough to defend his King as I set up an attack and hold me off and I reluctantly took a draw. Gary Kershaw was forced to defend for his life and almost held out but an error in the endgame saw Neville pick off a Bishop and gain his win.

This  win raises us to 2nd with matches in hand on Chingford who lead the division.

Next NCL match: Ilford  v  Enfield: Monday 30^th January, home.

 

 

 

 

First the result…

Essex Chess League  Division 2 Tuesday 17^th January,   St Laurence Church Hall, Upminster.

  UPMINSTER II  3-5 ILFORD

1. 159  AIDAN CORISH   ½   NEVILLE H TWITCHELL  173 w

2. 144            N KHODA 0-1 TOM BARTON  167 b

3. 144  ROB IANNETTA 0-1 TONY KENT 153

4. 147 STEVE ABBOTT  0-1  SYD KALINSKY 148

5. 168  J HANNAFORD  0-1  JEF PAGE 130

6. 145 P ROSENFELD  1-0  default

7. 131    PETER BIGGS  1-0  LEONARDO STEFANONI 109

8. 112      NIGEL NICE    ½   LAVANAN AINKARAN 103

The match started badly for Ilford as unfortunately one of our players failed to arrive and Leonardo grabbed a pawn but lost a piece. so we were 2-0 down.

But from here on we went on a winning sequence as Hannaford made a complete mess of a Morra gambit Accepted opening and Jef was well on top. Anthony Kent turned a centre counter into a Caro Kann and built up a big advantage in an open game, eventually going a whole Rook up (see diagram below).  Syd’s long-range bishop on the diagonal enabled him to control the centre, then send a pawn up the board, and run it home to queen. Lavanan with good Queen & Knight counter-play, did just enough to hold off Nice’s strong Queen attack and get his draw.

So the match was tied at 3-3 and the result hinged on the top two boards. Tom got the worst of a  Sicilian Dragon, Soltis Variation, and was forced to give up his Queen for 2 Rooks. However, Khoda then blundered, losing his Queen for a Rook. Photo below shows Tom’s position when a Rook for Bishop and pawn up. On board 1 Neville was under pressure in a cramped position and was reduced to giving up his Bishop for pawns. But with only seconds left Neville held his nerve, and with Aidan playing cautiously was unable to mate, so he got the draw.

This win takes us back to the top of division 2 though Southend have matches in hand.

All to play for

Boards 1 and 2                           Iannetta v Kent, Black to move

ILFORD CHESS CLUB- end of year report 2016 (from Jef Page’s notes)

ESSEX CHESS LEAGUE  DIVISION 2, NORTH CIRCULAR CHESS LEAGUE DIVISION B.

A good end to 2016. we are doing OK and harbour hopes of winning both divisions- IF (big capital letters) we win all our remaining matches.

In the ECL we have played 4 matches: 1 won, 2 draws, 1 loss. Good but not earth shattering, but we have a chance. Southend walloped us 0.5 – 7.5, and we have to play them at the seaside. But they in turn lost to Barking so if we can take a strong team to Southend…

In the NCCL, our new venture this year, we have started well and are the only unbeaten team in division B (similar level to Division 2 in Essex).

NCCL 6 matches:  4 won, 2 drawn, and lie 2^nd to Chingford, just a point behind, but we have matches in hand on them.  Leading individual scores so far:

ECL: Neville Twitchell, Jef Page 2½/4; Tom Barton 2/3 Unbeaten.

NCCL: Neville 3½/5, Jef Page 3/5; Leonardo Stefanoni 3/3 Unbeaten.

January matches

Mon    9^th  Ilford  v  Loughton   NCCL. Rapidplay Semi-final.  Home

Tue   17^th Upminster II  v Ilford  ECL  Away

Wed 25^th Loughton I v Ilford    NCCL Away

Mon 30^th Ilford  v  Enfield I       NCCL Home

London League Division 2

A win, 2 draws and a defeat so far.

 

 

 

 

 

Ilford arrived at the British Legion in London E4 in a variety of ways for our last match of 2016: by car, bus and London Overground. For once we outgraded our opponents on every board, which we made tell in our favour in the end, as they were weaker than expected with a few top players missing.

Neville deployed his favourite, sharp (top secret) Queen’s pawn opening and with Strachan erring, the game finished very quickly. Jef wasn’t far behind as Allison made a mess of defending against his King’s Gambit Accepted and at the close he was a Rook & two Knights ahead to a lone Bishop.

From here on it got harder as Tom’s Classical Dutch Defence was well held by Brian Spear neat opening line, and neither could Syd make any headway against Maynes. Our only loser was Anthony Kent who pushed too hard for a pawn breakthrough against the Scicilan, but his pawn structure wasn’t solid. Instead of keeping things tight, good counter-attacking pawn play by Rose saw him break through decisively with Queen and Rook for a deserved win.

NORTH CIRCULAR CHESS LEAGUE  DIVISION B

British Legion,  Chingford.   19.12.16

CHINGFORD 2         2-3    ILFORD

162  GAVIN STRACHAN 0-1 NEVILLE TWITCHELL  173 w

151   BRIAN SPEAR           ½  TOM BARTON 166  b

141  PETER ROSE               1-0 ANTHONY KENT 153

137 RICHARD MAYNES     ½   SYD KALINSKY  148

120 ANDREW ALLISON    0-1   JEF PAGE 130

 

Due to an away match at Chingford in the North Circular league, the club will be closed on Monday 19^th December. The club will also be closed on the 26^th December and 2^nd January, reopening on Monday 9^th January with a home match in the Finchley Cup and Junior chess coaching.

Happy Christmas, Chanukah, Winterval to everyone and see you in the new year.