Ilford Chess Club

NCCL Lawrance Cup:  Ilford 1-7 Barnet
Two game rapidplay match as b&w, 30 minutes each per game.
Monday 22 October 2018

Short and not very sweet. Barnet arrived at Ilford with a very strong team and wiped us out of the Cup. It may not be our top priority this season but still disappointing.

The only Ilford player to ruin a consistent nil score for all of us was Tom who won well in round 1.

We now settle back to league matches.

Jef Page.

Ilford	Grade	Rnd 1	Rnd 2	Barnet	Grade
Neville Twitchell	174	0 – 1	0 – 1	Roy Sagall	195
Tom Barton	166	1 – 0	0 – 1	Alex Ethelontis	197
Anthony Kent	151	0 – 1	0 – 1	Jon Rubeck	168
Jef Page	139	0 – 1	0 – 1	Philip Myers	158
		1 – 3	0 – 4

Cavendish 2 v Ilford 1
London League – 18 Oct 2018

A good performance from the team but a disappointing result as Ilford missed out on getting the first London League match point of the season, losing 5.5 – 4.5.

Cavendish had strength right down to the bottom board with an average grade of 174 compared Ilford’s 163. There were early results with Neville and Tom winning and Les and David losing. The bottom three boards, who were most out-graded, all played solidly and held for draws with Anthony having the best chances for something more. Those results left the match all square with three games to go. Chris was slowly out-manoeuvred by Kanwal in a tricky game (no doubt Chris, as the ECF Director of Women’s Chess, was delighted to be playing female opposition…) but Ilford had hopes for both Julian and Gary’s games. Gary had an edge in his game and as player’s often do, spent time looking for a way to break through but unfortunately at the cost of putting himself under time pressure and losing coming up to the time control. So despite Julian converting his advantage with a win Ilford lost the match.

	Cavendish 2	GRADE	SCORE	Ilford 1	GRADE
1	Kanwal K. Bhatia	187	1 – 0	Chris Fegan	187
2	David Friedgood           (b)	186	0 – 1	Julian Hudson	176
3	Michael Crichton	173	0 – 1	Tom Barton	166
4	Anthony C.P. Milnes	177	0 – 1	Neville Twitchell	174
5	Barry N. Green	168	1 – 0	David Millward	164
6	Philip J. Gregory	175	1 – 0	Gary Thurston	163
7	Michael St J. Brown	165	1 – 0	Les Crane	156
8	Stewart Reuben	174	½ – ½	Anthony Kent	151
9	Chris C. Sherwood	164	½ – ½	Aidan Corish	156
10	Howard J. Waterman	168	½ – ½	Jef Page	139
	Total		5½ – 4½

ESSEX CHESS LEAGUE  DIVISION

Wanstead won the toss- White on odd boards.

Wanstead House, Tuesday 9 October, 7.30pm

Board	Wanstead III		4½-3½	Ilford
1	151A	Jones, Keith	1-0	Twitchell, Neville H	174B
2	147B	Burtt, Laurie	1-d	Mugalu, Hassan	164A
3	144A	Siddo, Charlton	½-½	Kent, Anthony R	151A
4	143A	Collyer, Alex	0-1	Klimach, Jason W	137C
5	140D	Lu, Andy W H	1-0	Kalinsky, Syd M	141A
6	131A	Smith, David	½-½	Page, Jeffrey	139B
7	131A	Haddock, Paul	0-1	Ainkaran, Lavanan	127C
8	108d	Barman, Devdoot	½-½	Tutu, Marshall	094D

Wanstead won the toss and were White on odd boards.

(Edited from Jef’s notes)

A poor start to the season for Ilford,though there were some very good personal results.

Anthony Kent set up a good position with an advanced passed pawn but fearing it might fall took a draw. However, this quick draw was immediately followed up as we levelled the match score when Haddock sacrificed a Bishop to try to drive Lavanan’s King out into the open. But when Ainkaran offered to swap Queen’s, Haddock naturally declined- fatally overlooking a simple Q back-rank mate in just 17 moves! Jef did well to hold off Dave Smith’s control of the a-file, but then counter-attacked against his K with Q, R & B which he only just managed to stave off as jef sought for the mate.

Neville Twitchell got into a tangle losing doubled c-pawns from which he never recovered as Jones followed up with a Q, Rook & Knight attack, whilst Kalinsky pushed Lu hard and won a piece but as time ran out, Syd unfortunately blundered in a flurry of moves. Jason did well to defeat Collyer, but probably the best result of the night for us was Marshall who, after working late & rushing to Wanstead, had to give up over 40 minutes on the clock. He still managed to play calmly enough to secure a Rook and pawn endgame draw.

Thanks to everyone who played, and a welcome and timely return to matches from Neville, Lavanan & Marshall.

 

 

Ilford 1 v Kings Head 2
Wednesday 3 October 2018

An inauspicious start to the season as we have lost the opening match 2.5 – 5.5 with two games adjourned. Having conceded two boards from the start a result for us was unlikely, I lost early on which didn’t help and on the boards played we were a point down with two adjourned both of which favour the opposition. See the adjourned positions below.

The only positive from the evening was Neville’s first game for us in a while which he won in style.

Tom Barton

Ilford 1	GRADE	SCORE	Kings Head 2	GRADE
Tom Barton	166	0 – 1	Jim Falzarano	175
Julian Hudson	176	Adj	Colin Mackenzie	184
David Millward	164	½ – ½	Joel Bird	177
Neville Twitchell	174	1 – 0	David Whitehead	173
Aidan Corish	156	0 – 1	Alex Bourke	155
Anthony Kent	151	½ – ½	Richard Dunn	141
Jason Klimach	137	½ – ½	Richard Balatoni	122
Jef Page	139	Adj	Neil Tomkin	135
Forfeit		0 – 1	Walkover
Forfeit		0 – 1	Walkover

Adjourned position Hudson – Mackenzie. Black has sealed.

Adjourned position Page – Tomkin. Black has sealed.

 

At Wanstead House, 13.9.18.  Report by Jef Page.
2 games as b&w, 30 minutes each. Wanstead won the toss, white on odds Round 1.

WANSTEAD I  7½-2½   ILFORD

		Rnd 1	Rnd 2
189	John H HODGSON	1-0	1-0	Neville TWITCHELL	156 (r)
185	DaveSPEARMAN	½	½	Tom BARTON	161 (r)
179	Steve RIX	1-0	1-0	Hassan MUGALU	151 (r)
154	Paul BARCLAY	½	½	Anthony KENT	145 (r)
138	David SMITH	1-0	½	Syd KALINSKY	158 (r)

Both the main competition, won by Barking beating Writtle, and our match took, place in the same room in Wanstead House. We were never in with a chance against Wanstead as they were too strong for us on the top boards. I couldn’t even win the coin toss for white on board 1 in round 1.

The match was effectively lost in Round 1. Barclay offered a quick grandmaster draw in a blocked Stonewall type of position and Anthony accepted. Kalinsky put in a strong attack but ignored his defence and allowed his Queen to be pinned against his King whilst Mugalu, pressing forward with a pawn advance, blundered it away and lost the R&P ending.

Round 2 was tighter but we were never close to overturning a 4-1 deficit. Tony wouldn’t risk opening up the position against Barclay and so again took a draw. Hassan lost control of his h- file and Rix’s Rooks invaded to win the R&P ending and Neville found John Hodgson too strong and whilst Nev’s opening development was good, as John levelled in the middle game Neville ran out of time. Our real star of the evening was Tom who in both games calmly stopped Spearman’s probing attacks with excellent defence.

A very disappointing night for Ilford with no winners of games amongst us. Reinforcements needed!

Jef Page.

 

	Ilford	R1	R2	Thurrock
1	Neville Twitchell 162 r (B, W)	1-0	1-0	Ian Woodward 154r (W,B)
2	Tom Barton 154 r	0-1	1-0	Joe Derrett      160 s
3	Jef Page 138 r (146B s) Hassan Mugalu 161 r	1-0	1-0	Miroslaw Wysocki UG
4	Anthony Kent 144E r	½-½	1-0	F Butterworth-Parr 142r
5	Syd Kalinsky 147E r	0-1	1-0	Malcolm Crane 112r
		2½-2½	5-0
	Ilford	7½ – 2½		Thurrock

Essex Rapidplay Plate semi-final
Monday 23 July 2018

This match looked easy on paper and I was supposed to have the rare luxury of being non-playing captain, but it got very scary, particularly in round 1, as even though I had picked a strong team, Hassan failed to arrive and I subb’ed for him. So we started late, and of course he arrived minutes after we’d started the clocks.

Tom lost a  pawn in the opening and never really recovered and with Syd also losing it looked like we we’re going to do poorly in round one. But as last to finish, I won leveling the match when I held off Wysocki’s attack, and in the mad time scramble he made a terrible mistake and I picked off his Queen. So breathing a sigh of relief, we reached the interval at 2½-2½.

After a short break for tea we restarted and this time our quality showed through as Hassan Mugalu took my place. On top board our only winner of both his games was Neville as he outplayed Woodward in the opening and with his better R,N & B won the ending- forcing a pawn home to queen. Syd likewise made it difficult for Malcolm Crane to develop his pieces & Syd won his Queen for a R&B. This time around normal service was resumed as Tom caught Derrett’s King in the centre of the board as Derrett went for an all-out, but futile attack, and Tom also won his opponent’s errant Queen. This win sealed the match for us but it was followed up by both Tony and Hassan winning. In one of his usual ‘creeping’ positional attacks which saw white’s development stifled, when Kent won control of the h-file with his Queen, Butterworth-Parr’s cramped kingside collapsed. And finally Mugalu won a cheap pawn for nothing and with Wysocki also unable to develop his pieces properly, the win was never in doubt- a rare 5-nil rout in round 2.

We now go into the final which wil probably be in mid-September. Our opponents as yet unknown, either: Wanstead A or Upminster B.

Thanks to everyone who played. It shows what we can achieve with a strong team playing.

Jef Page.

PLAYED 2 JULY 2018, AT ILFORD

	Ilford	R1	R2	Wanstead C
1	Neville Twitchell 162D r (B, W)	0-1	½-½	Kyan Bui 139A r (W, B)
2	Tom Barton 154E r	1-0	1-0	Peter Nickals 137B r
3	Anthony Kent 144E r	½-½	1-0	Keith Jones 137C r
4	Syd Kalinsky 147E r	1-0	1-0	Ben Harte 135D r
5	Jef Page 138F r (146B s)	1-0	0-1	Paul Haddock 129A r
		3½-1½	3½-1½
	Ilford	7-3		Wanstead C

A solid win for Ilford with 2 of our players, Tom and Syd, convincingly winning both games. In the first round top junior prospect Bui gave Neville a hard time on board 1, going 2 pawns up and thwarting every tactic Neville tried.  But fortunately, by then, Ilford had taken a 2.5-0.5 lead.

At 2.5 -1.5 up, Jef was struggling to win his first game. He went from a comfortable pawn up to losing pawns in the endgame. However, the clock saved him, and he won on time with just 14 seconds left! That gave a vital 3.5-1.5 lead at the turn round.

Anthony and Syd then won their second games in under half an hour, and the match was effectively over with 5.5 points in the bag.

We play Thurrock at home in the Semi-Final.

 

 

 

2018 Essex Rapidplay Knockout

PLAYED 12 JUNE 2018 AT UPMINSTER

	UPMINSTER A	R1	R2	Ilford
1	Martin McCall 171E r (B, W)	1-0	1-0	Neville Twitchell 162D r (W, B)
2	Les Crane 177D r	1-0	1-0	Anthony Kent 144E r
3	Paul Rosenfeld 169D r	0-1	0-1	Syd Kalinsky 147E r
4	Robert Gill 167Er	1-0	0-1	Jef Page 138F r (146B s)
5	John Davenport 166D r	1-0	1-0	Anurag Singh Chauhan 116D r
		4-1	3-2
		7-3

30 minutes each on the clock, 2 games as black and white.

Not an unexpected result in a  tough 1^st round draw against a strong Upminster Rapidplay A team. No disgrace in losing, though we should have run them a bit closer.  Neville returning to play a match for us on board 1, and Syd’s double wins over Rosenfeld were the highlights. Syd always had control in stopping Rosenfeld developing his pieces and he won a piece in both games leading to secure endgame wins. Jef had good play in both of his games. He could not quite work it out in the first game, but made no mistake in the 2^nd.

Traffic problems on the A12 (bad accident closed 1 lane- police in attendance) meant that we arrived late but at least Upminster delayed the start.  we will now go into the 1^st round Plate Competition with a home draw against Wanstead C on Monday 2nd July.

 

 

East Ham 1 v Ilford 1
Wednesday 16 May 2018

For the second match in a row Ilford were never at the races. We started with a default and registered another to make it hard to get anything from the match but some of the games went away from us early. Steve Abbott registered the only win. Both Julian and Anthony had chances but both over-pressed.

Ilford are safe to return to the fray in Division 2 next season.

	East Ham 1	GRADE	SCORE	Ilford 1	GRADE
1	Nigel Fleming	179	½ – ½	Tom Barton	168
2	Peter Jaszkiwskyj         (b)	174	1 – 0	Default
3	John  Davenport	169	½ – ½	David Millward	167
4	Edison Figueroa	168	1 – 0	Julian Hudson	169
5	Martin Baker	159	1 – 0	Aidan Corish	148
6	Mike Wickham	152	1 – 0	Anthony Kent	150
7	Peter Rose	148	1 – 0	Jason W Klimach	146
8	Roland Glotzer	e145	1 – 0	Jeffrey Page	144
9	Matthew Baker	144	0 – 1	Stephen J Abbott	141
10	Walkover		1 – 0	Forfeit
	Total		8 – 2

Another defeat in the Essex league (starting to sound like an old vinyl record with a jumping needle) to finish off the season.  Loughton have become a bit of a bogey team for Ilford, even in our good seasons, and we have not taken points off them in quite a while.

Essex Chess League 2017/2018   Division 2
Date: Monday 30 April 2018  Venue: Redbridge Social Centre

Board		Ilford		Loughton
1	154	Mugalu, Hassan	½-½	Bowmer, Kevin	180
2	151	Kent, Anthony R	0-1	Stirling, William J	177
3	149	Kalinsky, Syd	d-1	Faulkner, David J	156
4	143	Klimach, Jason W	1–0	Kershaw, Graham J	140
5	146	Page, Jeffrey	½-½	Van Tol, Martin	137
6	132	Gericke, Grant	0-1	Moth, Simon C	131
7	126	Chauhan, Anurag Singh	0-1	Groce, Ken	121
8	93	Tutu, Marshall	1–0	Newby, Jonathan	114
			3-5

(From Jef’s notes) Bill Stirling got the better of Anthony Kent with pressure down the h-file and central control. Bill was a pawn up and the Rook and Pawn endgame win for him was never in doubt. Grant got Simon Moth in an early tangle but slowly Moth managed to free and develop his pieces, force Grant back and he too couldn’t hold the ending being pawns down. Chauhan found Groce too tough and with his control of the open board, Anurag’s queenside defences became overloaded and he lost a Bishop.

The other games were more pleasant to watch. Mugalu had a tough time on board 1 controlling Bowmer’s attack ,but Hassan calmly held a level Rooks, N & pawns endgame.

Klimach had his pieces pinned down close to his back rank and seemed to be having difficulty developing them properly but Kershaw was in a similar problem. When Jason finally won control of the c-file and the white squares around Kershaw’s uncastled King the win was assured.

Our final winner, long overdue after many defeats, was Marshall. Even though he arrived 30 minutes late,  did well to beat Newby by crippling his kingside and winning pawns to secure a won endgame.

 

A disappointing end to a dismal season in the Essex League where our cumulative defaults have been highly damaging, and this match was no better. We can only hope for better things next season, particularly with some new players on board.