Ilford Chess Club Founded 1900 One of London's oldest chess clubs welcomes new members! Monday evenings from 7.30 p.m. at the Redbridge Social Centre, Beehive Lane, Ilford, Essex IG4 5EE. Approach on the turning between houses 160 -166 sign-posted to the 'Redbridge Social Centre' on Beehive Lane. This is almost opposite Somersby Gdns. Turn left after 50m and the Centre is on the right behind the chain link fence.
London League D3 match – Lewisham 2 v Ilford 1 – 10 October 2023. 8 board match, G75 + 15 Tom Barton, captain
Having been relegated from division 2 at the end of last season Ilford are hoping to do better this season in division 3, however, our opening match was a 7-1 loss with only Muhammed Faheem getting a point to avoid the whitewash.
Lewisham are going for promotion so had a strong team out and we were decidedly out graded. The result sounds like a hammering but it wasn’t as several in the team fought all the way to the end of the playing session. Neville played theory for many moves but got caught out in a closed position. Kenneth played well but lost on time and Adhar might have got more from his game. I got down to a level endgame but then went awry in the time scramble at the end.
There was analysis of a couple of the games after the match concluded with a degree of hilarity at some dubious variations to the games and welcome hospitality from a very friendly Lewisham team.
Barking 2 v Ilford 1, 5 October 2023. Essex D2, 6 board match, G80 + 10. Toss won by Barking – White on odd boards. Jef Page, captain. https://ecflms.org.uk/lms/node/187827
1
2002
Jaszkiwskyj, Peter
½ – ½
Twitchell, Neville H
1973
2 (B)
1927
Ramage, Colin R
½ – ½
Barton, Tom A
1894
3
1860
Robinson, James M
1 – 0
Page, Jeffrey
1685
4 (B)
1799
Clow, Ken W
½ – ½
Undre, Taha
1576
5
1799
Saunders, Richard
0 – 1
Faheem, Muhammad
1518
6 (B)
1704
Mathompat, Rajyeshwar
1 – 0
O’Connell, Euan
1218
Average
1849
3½ – 2½
Average
1644
A disappointing night for Ilford after our win over Wanstead and missing a few regular players didn’t help.
Euan came up against Mathompat whose fianchettoed Bishop got early control of Euan’s kingside position, whilst I had a hard time defending a Queen’s opening but after blundering away a pawn I was always struggling to play catch-up, but never did and lost on time.
On the top boards we did well with Tom taking a short grandmaster draw against Colin after early exchanges swapped pieces off the board. Neville did very well (reluctantly?) leading the team on board 1 to nullify Jaszkiwskyj threats. Muhammad had a good quick win making a mockery of the grading difference, only at the last moment generously agreeing to play. The match result hinged on Taha’s game. In a level minor piece & pawns endgame he almost lost control but held on as Ken Clow threw rather let slip the opportunity to win.
Thanks to everyone who played as I only completed the team late on Monday evening.
NORTH CIRCULAR CHESS LEAGUE LAWRENCE CUP RAPIDPLAY 2.10.23 G30 + 0 2 games for each player as b&w. After a request from Chingford it was agreed to play 30 minutes each per game with a guillotine finish. R= Rapidplay rating, S= Standard play. Jef Page – Ilford Captain
CHINGFORD I 4.5 3.5 ILFORD I
Rnd 1 Rnd 2 2171R C KARAYIANNIS 0-1 1-0 RAHUL GHOSE 1903R 1963S J WITTMAN 1-0 1-0 NEVILLE TWITCHELL 1859R 1812R GEORGE HORAN 1-0 0-1 VENKATESH SUBRAMANIAN 1873R 1818R PETER ROSE ½ 0-1 ADHAR JAISWAL 1655R 2.5-1.5 2-2
Neville took charge of the squad as I was looking after the Ilford CC. Chingford turned out a very strong team but only narrowly won. Rahul had 1 good win but Neville had a tough time. The best performance of the night was probably Adhar’s who scored 1.5 out of 2. Thanks to all the players for agreeing to play.
Ilford 1 v Wanstead 2, 25 September 2023. Essex D2, 6 board match, G80 + 10. Toss won by Ilford- White on odd boards. Jef Page, captain.
ILFORD I 4.5-1.5 WANSTEAD II
1935 RAHUL GHOSE 1-0 VLADIMIR PAROLS 1995 1973 NEVILLE TWITCHELL 1-0 IAN HUNNABLE 1889 1894 TOM A BARTON ½ TERRRY WHITTON 1897 1842 VENKATESH SUBRAMANIAN 0-1 PHILIP STANILAND 1867 1685 JEF PAGE 1-0 FINBAR McLOUGHLIN 1843 1672 ADHAR JAISWAL 1-0 RYAN COLCLOUGH 1784 1834 Average grade 1880
To take on Wanstead in the first match of the new season was a bit tough but we sailed through the match even though outgraded in 5 out of the 6 boards. Neville went a pawn up out of the opening and Ian could never quite draw level, Adhar had Colclough’s opening well under control throughout his game and I likewise put McCloughlin on the defensive and held the initiative to force an error in a R&P level endgame to win the Rook.
Tom Barton, although presently not living in Redbridge, generously traveled out from London to play a home match and it greatly help as he held Terry Whitton to a draw but Venkatesh found Philip Staniland’s control of the centre in an open board too difficult, But leading the team was Rahul who had Parols under a lot of pressure and it paid off.
Neville loyally yet again drove down the M11 from Harlow to play for us. Although he didn’t fancy the idea of promotion to board 2 it paid dividends. We have a run of tough matches in all three leagues in October: in London, Essex and the North Circular Leagues for our 4 league teams, so I hope we can get strong teams out again. Thanks to everyone who played.
RAPIDPLAY 21 August 2023 G20+10 Jef Page, Captain Wanstead won the toss, White on odd boards Round 1 R = Rapidplay rating.
ILFORD I 3 -7 WANSTEAD I Rnd 1 Rnd 2 1861R RAHUL GHOSE 1-0 1-0 JOHN HODGSON 2152R 1850R NEVILLE TWITCHELL ½ ½ DAVE SPEARMAN 2044R 1757R JEF PAGE 0-1 0-1 JOHN CAWDERY 2019R 1652R ADHAR JAISWAL 0-1 0-1 PARTHA MULAY 1926R 1628R MUHAMMAD FAHEEM 0-1 0-1 ASHELY FREEMAN 1976 1750 1½-3½ 1½-3½ 2034 Average grades
A bit of a drubbing though actually better than our 8-0 defeat by Wanstead a few weeks ago. Our top 2 Ilford boards did well, our bottom 3 Ilford boards did not so well. The average team rating difference is of course enormous. Rahul has had a very good season for Ilford and got an easy win in round 1 as John dropped a Rook. In both of his games Neville had the advantage in the endgames against Spearman but couldn’t quite force a win in either one. Of our other efforts…..
RAPIDPLAY 1 August 2023 G20+10 Jef Page, Captain Ilford won the toss, White on odd boards Round 1 R = Rapidplay rating.
WANSTEAD I 11½ – 1½ ILFORD Rnd 1 Rnd 2 2043R DAVID SPEARMAN 1-0 1-0 TOM BARTON 1874R 2019R JOHN CAWDERY ½ 1-0 NEVILLE TWITCHELL 1852R 2033R STEVE RIX 1-0 1-0 VENKATESH SUBRAMANIAN 1893R 1976 PARTHA MULAY 1-0 1-0 ADHAR JAISWAL 1598R 1881R PHIL STANILAND 1-0 1-0 TAHA UNDRE 1681R I1735 ISTVAN KARACSONY 1-0 1-0 MUHAMMAD FAHEEM 1608R
Ilford won the toss (that’s about all we won), White on odd boards in Round 1. Ilford conceded an average of 200 rating points per board so the result wasn’t that surprising but nevertheless dismal. The match started badly for us and just got worse. With a draw in round 1 Neville avoided it being a team whitewash.
RAPIDPLAY 10 July 2023 G20+10 Jef Page, Captain Ilford won the toss, White on odd boards Round 1 R = Rapidplay rating.
ILFORD 2½ – 9½ BARKING Rnd 1 Rnd 2 1. 1852R NEVILLE TWITCHELL 0-1 0-1 JEFF GOLDBERG 2124R 2. 1893R VENKATESH SUBRAMANIAN 0-1 0-1 ROMAN ISMAILOV 2092R 3. 1931R BIEL OBIOLS 1-0 0-1 P JASZKIWSKYJ 1977R 4. 1763R JEF PAGE 0-1 1-0 COLIN RAMAGE 1821R 5. 1598R ADHAR JAISWAL 1-0 0-1 JAMES ROBINSON 1877R 6. 1681R TAHA UNDRE 0-1 0-1 IGOR NAUMOV 1731R
A tough night for Ilford as the ratings show, so we lost our unbeaten record: now 4/5. With Barking turning out a strong team we were always onto a beating but we should have won a few more games to get the score closer. Taha was a whole Rook up but in the 1st round time scramble lost the advantage whilst in the 2nd round he couldn’t hold a level R,N and 3 pawns ending. I made similar errors. I got demolished in round 1 but in the 2nd I should have done far better when I threw away a 2 pawn advantage also in a R&p endgame. Biel did very well to win a piece in round 1 and pull off a win whilst Adhar made his extra pawns count but on the top 2 boards we were overwhelmed.
Barking are now top 4/5 having beaten us but we actually have more game points: 43½ to 39½.
Chingford 1 v Ilford, 10 July 2023. NCCL Baum Summer Trophy, 4 board match G20 +10 2 Games with colours reversed, Chingford White on odd boards Rnd 1 Jef Page, captain.
CHINGFORD 3-5 ILFORD
Rnd 1 Rnd 2 1985R PIRO BALLOGLU 1-0 0-1 RAHUL GHOSE 1849R 1806R PETER ROSE 0-1 1-0 NEVILLE TWITCHELL 1829R 1680R BRIAN SPEAR 0-1 1-0 VENKATESH SUBRAMANIAN 1917R 1528R STEVE KLEIN 0-1 0-1 JEF PAGE 1755R 1-3 2-2
A good win for Ilford- in a stifling hot room- which now gives us 4/4 unbeaten. Chingford’s team wasn’t as strong as in their previous match but then we were missing Tom Barton who was generously running Ilford CC and looking after the juniors.
It’s rare that I’m the only winner of both games and quite easily. I didn’t get a chance to view the other games but we soon won round 1. But round 2 was much closer and we watched the endgames as Neville got out into an awkward position, Venkatesh got swamped by Brian’s 3-passed pawns and in a time scramble Rahul had to work hard to win a N & 5-pawns endgame against N & 4pawns.
London League D2 match – Wimbledon 1 v Ilford 1 – 12 May 2023. 8 board match, G75 + 15 Tom Barton, captain.
Board Wimbledon 1 Ilford 1 1 2024 Dubey, Mark J ½ – ½ Barton, Tom A 1867 2 (B) 1998 Heppell, Ian N ½ – ½ Twitchell, Neville H 1954 3 1908 Hughes, Anthony 0 – 1 Subramanian, Venkatesh 1847 4 (B) 1858 Boyce, Mike A 1 – 0 Page, Jeffrey 1706 5 1846 Carpenter, Stephen CD 0 – 1 Obiols, Biel 1610 6 (B) 1823 Fincham, Leon HJ 1 – 0 Undre, Taha 1605 7 1770 Rennie, Gordon 1 – 0 Faheem, Muhammad 1511P 8 (B) Not Named 1 – 0 default
Once again we were out graded across all boards in a match and we also defaulted board 8. Given this, it was a good performance by the team for a 5-3 loss with a couple of smooth wins by Venkatesh (a Queen’s gambit declined into a Semi-Slav, Marshall Gambit variation with complications ) and Biel.
Taha had a very exciting and wild game that went away from him. Jef was put under positional pressure which eventually told. Neville had the better of his game and maybe shouldn’t have swapped Queens off to an opposite coloured bishop endgame. I had an even game until I started running low on time at which point my opponent played a poor move and gave me a real advantage with a passed pawn, unfortunately with less than 5 minutes on my clock I didn’t find the most accurate continuation and despite analysis showing a further opportunity to win I dropped into a Queen and pawn endgame on which I agreed a draw. Last to finish was Muhammed who had a good game but it went away from him in the final stage of a king and pawn endgame.
Thurrock 1 v Ilford 1, 18 April 2023. Essex D2, 6 board match, G80 + 10. Toss won by Thurrock – White on odd boards. Jef Page, captain / neville Twitchell
Jef: Unfortunately as Neville’s report below retells, our unbeaten division 2 Essex League run which I’d hoped we’d keep going till the end of the season, came to a dismal end when I caught Covid and had to isolate this week and Rahul Ghose, who should have been on board 1 for us, failed to make it.
Neville: All good things must come to an end and so has our winning run in the Essex League. We had defaulted the bottom board and then with Rahul failing to turn up we were 2-0 down. Then Muhammed lost in short order. He was a rook down when I last saw his position, after his center counter defence was met in an odd way with 1.e4 d5 2. Nf3?! dxe4 3 Ng5. So 3-0 down.
Then Daniel lost not long after that, though he seemed to have a defensible position in a queens gambit, slav defence, so it was 4-0 down.
But then Tony saved our honour by finding a sparkling combination to polish off his opponent in a Stonewall Dutch where he had looked to be under a lot of pressure for most of the game, but neatly tuned the tables.
Litsenburgh v Kent 20. Qd2 – c3 threatening check mate
Anthony Kent: In the diagram position white shocked me playing 20. Qd2 – c3 threatening check mate which I had missed! Black needs to sacrifice a knight or Bishop to block that mate. The computer tells me that 20….Be5!! is a brilliancy as if 21.fxB, 21….Nb4 wins as white’s queen is running out of squares. The computer also says Nd4!! is winning as if 21. exN, Bxf and white’s queen is again running out of squares. I played 20…Ne5 to block mate. Play went. 21. Bd1?? b4 22. Qxc Bb8 (..missed Nd3ch winning instantly). 23. Qxb?? Nd3ch forking king and queen. Game over.
So 4-1, with only my game left. I plugged away in a Ruy Lopez long after everyone else had left but succumbed in the ending after I lost a crucial queenside pawn. So the end of my unbeaten run in the Essex League as well.
Result
Thurrock Ilford 1. Andrew Offord 1-0 Default (Rahul Ghose) 2. Jim Arbuckle (B) 1-0 Neville Twitchell 3. Rudi Litsenburgh 0-1 Tony Kent 4. Banky Akinyosoie (B) 1-0 Daniel Lowe 5. Sandu Silviu 1-0 Muhammed Faseem 6. Malcolm Crane (B) 1-0 Default Total5-1
Ilford Chess Club 