Ilford Chess Club

Ilford 1 v Dulwich 1
London League – Wednesday 25 April 2018

Ilford weren’t at the races for this match suffering a heavy defeat against the division’s bottom team 1.5 – 8.5. Dulwich had turned out a strong team but even so this was an evening that didn’t go right from the moment the toss was lost. Anthony Kents’s game was probably the only one where we had winning chances but in the end we only scored through three draws.

	Ilford 1	GRADE	SCORE	Dulwich 1	GRADE
1	Paolo Casaschi             (b)	174	0 – 1	Ryan Randall	211
2	Julian Hudson	169	0 – 1	Andrew Pridding	197
3	David Millward	167	0 – 1	John Mackinnon	195
4	Tom Barton	168	0 – 1	Peter Andrews	176
5	Les Crane	164	0 – 1	Haran Rasalingam	168
6	Anthony Kent	150	½ – ½	Gerry Peebles-Brown	159
7	Aidan Corish	148	½ – ½	Vincent Homolka	158
8	Jason W Klimach	146	½ – ½	Marlon Andre Seton	147
9	Jeffrey Page	144	0 – 1	Oliver Morley	141
10	Grant Gericke	139	0 – 1	Slobodan Svircevic	e140
	Total		1½ – 8½

This season, we have performed creditably in London League Division 2 and North Circular ‘A’ division. But, no escaping the fact that this is probably our worst ever season in the Essex League, as we head towards relegation to the third tier. In the world of football, the likes of Manchester City and Wolves have recovered from double relegation and prospered, as we will again. We are attracting new players, and squad availability, depth and strength should improve going forward. New members are very welcome to join us in this journey.

Essex Chess League 2017/2018

Division 2 Date: Thursday 19 April 2018 Venue: Wanstead House

Wanstead White on odds

Board		Wanstead III	5½-2½	Ilford
1		Chirea-Florica, Tedor-Alin	1 – 0	Barton, Tom	165A
2	134A	Bui, Kyan	½-½	Mugalu, Hassan	154A
3	138A	Collyer, Alex	½-½	Kent, Anthony	151A
4	130A	Siddo, Charlton	1 – 0	Kalinsky, Syd	149A
5	142C	Lu, Andy W H	0-1	Page, Jeffrey	146B
6	130A	Haddock, Paul	½-½	Chauhan, Anurag Singh	126E
7	120B	Sharman, Jay	1 – 0	Tutu, Marshall	093F
8	126B	Sweeney, Kevin M	1-d	(default)

(Edited from Jef’s notes) Tom Barton was always under pressure on top board, as 2 central pawns came his way. Marshall, although he nicked a pawn, never had good development against Sharman. Syd lost early control against Siddo, and the decision to castle queen side did not go well, as black’s supported a and b pawns led the victory charge to an unstoppable checkmate.

Jef was our only winner taking advantage of Lu’s weak opening. When he couldn’t make progress on the king-side, Jef switched wings, and won the c-pawn backed up by two deadly raking Bishops and centered Rooks.

Our remaining bright spots included Anurag holding his position against Haddock’s Sicilian opening. Anthony Kent had some initiative in a closed Sicilian opening, but did not follow it up. Newcomer Hassan Mugalu forced a draw by repeating rook moves against Bui,  who is clearly a rising star. Black’s has 2 extra pawns, but his queen needs to remain on the d file (final position below).

One more match to go in the Essex League: Monday 30^th April, 7.30pm: Ilford v Loughton

After being stuffed 5 1/2 – 1/2 when we went to their place last month, a 3-3 tie in the return match was a good result, particularly as our average grade was 133 versus 146.

North Circular Chess League Division A    Redbridge Social Centre, 16th April 2018

Ilford	GRADE	SCORE	Chingford 1	GRADE
1	Anthony Kent	151	½ – ½	Gavin Hughes	164
2	Syd Kalinsky	149	½ – ½	Peter Rose	154
3	Jef Page	146	½ – ½	David Brady	149
4	Malcolm Gesthuysen	132	1 – 0	Robin Oakley	149
5	Anurag Chauhan	126	½ – ½	Brian Spear	143
6	Marshall Tutu	93	0 – 1	John Stevens	117
	Total		3– 3

(Edited from Jef’s notes) A good way to finish our final match of the season which should ensure our safety from relegation and the drop back to Division B. There were some very good results for our players against Chingford (who outgraded us on every board).

Syd Kalinsky played into a Vienna opening and set up a blockade which Rose couldn’t break down. Anthony Kent and Gavin Hughes settled for a draw in an even middegame (final position below, black to move)

Brian Spear won pawns against Anurag down the c-file, but with a Knight and Rooks potentially causing trouble for Brian, a draw was soon agreed.  Jef somehow held off Brady’s queenside attack against his weak opening, but came up with a tactic to trap his Queen which he could only save by giving up both of his Bishops. On an open board a draw was agreed.

Malcolm was our winner when Oakley misjudged his position in a sharp line of the Steinitz Variation against the French Defence. Things went badly and he lost his Queen for a Knight (see picture below) whilst our only loser was Marshall who, forfeiting too much time on the clock, couldn’t make it up.

Considering we were a promoted club and hanging on a bit, a good end to the season which has been tough against some very strong teams. All being well we will continue in this top division next season.

Malcolm’s position a few moves before white resigned.

 

Monday 9 April 2018
Drunken Knights 2 v Ilford 1

Division 2 table topping Drunken Knights 2 were going to be a challenge. As expected we were heavily out-graded but it went as far as our top board matching their lowest graded player! Having defaulted two boards before starting it was clear that a team result was very unlikely so it was an opportunity for those playing to throw caution to the winds and play for a win against higher rated opponents. In this vein David had an excellent win, Paolo threw everything into attack to obtain a draw and Aidan also gained an excellent draw. Everyone else played well and had opportunities in their games – an entertaining evening for all. Julian initially adjourned his game but after overnight deliberation gave it up as lost.

 

	Drunken Knights 2	GRADE	SCORE	Ilford 1	GRADE
1	Carsten Pedersen	202	½ – ½	Paolo Casaschi	174
2	Rhys Cumming	199	1 – 0	Gary Thurston         (b)	173
3	Tomer Eden	198	0 – 1	David Millward	167
4	Chris Russell	196	1 – 0	Julian Hudson	169
5	Richard Black	195	1 – 0	Les Crane	164
6	Anthony Fulton	189	1 – 0	Tom Barton	168
7	Doug Bennett	174	½ – ½	Aidan Corish	148
8	Michael Green	177	1 – 0	Anthony Kent	150
9	Walkover		1 – 0	Default
10	Walkover		1 – 0	Default
	Total		8 – 2

 

 

 

Ilford v Wanstead 2 – North Circular Chess League, Div A
Mon 26 March 2018

This match was probably the relegation decider between Ilford and Wanstead 2. It didn’t start too well as Jason’s king was under attack early, Anthony had to defend carefully against Larry who’d given up a pawn for an initiative and Syd was playing a sharp game against Philip. Malcolm and Jason lost, but many thanks to Malcolm for playing tonight and giving us a full team! Anurag was always in control of his game and won and Philip got his pieces in a bit of a tangle allowing Syd to also convert. At 2-2 the match depended on boards 1 and 2. Having held his position together despite Larry’s probing Anthony got the opportunity to exchange down into an opposite coloured bishop endgame and held for a draw. Tom’s game was a Leningrad Dutch, to his advantage as Partha hadn’t seen this before and he got well ahead on the clock. After some tactics he managed to pick up a pawn and desperate for counter-play and running short of time Partha blitzed out some moves that ended with his queen getting trapped.

 With the win and earlier draw against Wanstead 2 the league position is Ilford above them. Assuming neither team win any more matches Ilford will presumably stay in Div A.

	Ilford	GRADE	SCORE	Wanstead 2	GRADE
1	Tom Barton             (b)	165	1 – 0	Partha Mulay	171
2	Anthony Kent	151	½ – ½	Larry Marden	177
3	Syd Kalinsky	149	1 – 0	Philp Staniland	160
4	Jason Klimach	143	0 – 1	Mark Murrell	160
5	Malcolm Gesthuysen	132	0 – 1	Alin Chirea-Florica	150e
6	Anurag Chauhan	126	1 – 0	Jay Sharman	121
	Total		3½ – 2½

 

The match underway!

 

Wednesday 14 March

Hackney 2 and Ilford had an average grade of 159 across their ten boards so a tight match was to be expected. There were familiar faces in the opposition and Les agreed an early draw with Gavin and invitation to head to the pub for a pint. David won in fine style with some nice finishing moves to take the point and at that stage the boards were looking promising, however, there were no more wins and we lost the match 4-6.

Hackney 2	GRADE	SCORE	Ilford 1	GRADE
Charles Hughes	180	1 – 0	Paolo Casaschi	174
John Tennyson	181	½ – ½	Gary Thurston         (b)	173
Jonathan Benyunes	177	0 – 1	David Millward	167
Francis Chin	173	½ – ½	Julian Hudson	169
Gavin Hughes	171	½ – ½	Les Crane	164
Tobias Baumann	150e	1 – 0	Tom Barton	168
Salim Kriman	145e	½ – ½	Aidan Corish	148
Emyr Jones	153	1 – 0	Jason Klimach	146
Mark Rivlin	138	½ – ½	Jeffrey Page	144
Ramon Jose	122	½ – ½	Stephen Abbott	141

North Circular Chess League,   Division A    5.3.18

British Legion, Chingford

          CHINGFORD  5½-½  ILFORD

199 ROBERT EAMES            1-0  TOM BARTON

154 PETER ROSE                    ½   SYD KALINSKY

14 9 DAVID BRADY               1-0  JASON KLIMACH

128  ANDREW  MORRELL   1-0  JEF PAGE

       ROBIN OAKLEY              1-0   default

       BRIAN SPEAR                  1-0   default

(From Jef’s notes) Another tough night in a run of … A bit of a broken record really.

Jason, unable to make any headway found Brady’s French Defence too tough a nut to crack. Jef sacc’ed a Bishop to destroy Morrell’s kingside defence, quickly won it back, and sent his  King scurrying for cover from g1 right the way over to b3. But, unfortunately, he couldn’t land the killer blow.

Syd did well to hold off Rose’s King’s Indian attack and Tom went close but couldn’t quite hold his endgame together as Eames won a Bishop and then launched an unstoppable a-pawn up the board. Hard times with defaults and match losses and relegation looms large.

Essex Division 2
Date: Thursday 1 March 2018
Venue: Wanstead House

Board Wanstead II             6-2   Ilford
1 167   Whitton, Terry D ½-½   Barton, Tom A 165 (black)
2 162   Bancroft, Paul        0-1   Kent, Anthony R 151 (white)
3 160   Murrell, Mark R A 1-0   Klimach, Jason W 143
4 151   Jones, Keith S         1-0   Page, Jeffrey 146
5 134   Bui, Kyan               ½-½  Chauhan, Anurag Singh 126
6 140   Nickals, Peter         1-0   Tutu, Marshall 93
7 133   Smith, David          1-d    default
8 130   Siddo, Charlton     1-d    default

(Edited from Jef’s Notes).  Another grim night for Ilford among a bad run of grim nights. The Beast From The East was bringing more snow, but the match rightly went ahead as roads and public transport were all clear.

Jason found Mark Murrell’s Stonewall attack too clever for him and quickly got mated.  Marshall  had a material plus, got into a tangle as Nickal’s Q,N & B mounted strong attack. Anurag has started well for Ilford and his 2 long-range Bishops on an open board were a continual menace to Bui and a draw was soon agreed. Only on the top boards did we shine a wee bit. Tom’s Dutch Leningrad/Reversed Grand Prix defence held Terry Whitton. Anthony got out of some early difficulties and the position below was reached after, 38 Qc2 x g6  Qb7 x b2. White won quickly after that.

2 more matches to play.

 

 

Essex Chess League  Division 2

Redbridge Social Centre 26th February 2018

Board        Ilford                                           Upminster II
1          165 Barton, Tom A                   0-1   Khoda, Noor 175C
2          151 Kent, Anthony R               0-1    Iannetta, Robert 151C
3          149 Kalinsky, Syd M               ½-½   Abbott, Stephen J 145C
4          143 Klimach, Jason W            ½-½   Rahaman, Mustapha 137C
5          146 Page, Jeffrey                      0-1    Rosenfeld, Paul 133C
6          126 Chauhan, Anurag Singh 1-0     Biggs, Peter 132A
7          093 Tutu, Marshall                  0-1    Hannaford, Jamie 129C
8                  default                               d-1    Wicks, Stephen 116F

                                                ILFORD  2-6 UPMINSTER II

(Based on Jef’s notes) A tough night for Ilford.  We defaulted board 8 and Tutu, who was working late (but still good of him to come along and play), arrived with nearly 40 minutes down on his clock. He played into an endgame where he was pawns down against Hannaford, and the time pressure told against Marshall.

Jef forced the attack in my game but lost control and worse, overlooked the loss of a Bishop, but winning pawns he could probably have drawn. But likewise short of time, also misplayed the ending and couldn’t stop his h-pawn, which was covered by his Bishop, from queening.

On the top boards we got no joy as Khoda played well to beat Tom. Anthony got a good opening, but greedily took material offered and paid the price. Both Syd and Jason got equitable draws against Abbott and Rahaman. Our only bright spot of the night was Chauhan’s win over Biggs. It’s always satisfying when a new team member and debutant gets a win. Anurag completely outplayed Biggs’ Sicilian opening, cleverly won a pawn from which he never recovered and an easy endgame win was never in doubt.

8 cumulative defaults means a 2 point deduction. So with just 2 mins, we now only have 2 points. 3 Matches to Save Our Season. SOS – we need more players! 

Tuesday 20 Feb

Ilford had a great result in winning against table topping Imperial. Imperial were missing a couple of top board players and Ilford were strong, but this is the first time Imperial have lost over the board this season, their only other loss was a defaulted match. Jason,  Julian and Kevin gave early points but from there on it was a slow grind to the win with David taking the team over the line with a draw after a marathon 98 moves, mainly in a queen, pawn and king versus queen and king endgame that he tried very hard to win.

1	Adam A Taylor	206	1 – 0	Chris Fegan	176
2	Sam J Porter	192	1 – 0	Paolo Casaschi	174
3	Thomas Donaldson	178	0 – 1	Kevin D White	175
4	Luke J Barron	160	1 – 0	Gary Thurston	173
5	Maximilian Eggl	157	½ – ½	David Millward	167
6	Benjamin Nevett-Farman	157	0 – 1	Julian Hudson	169
7	Juan Manuel Arteaga	144	½ – ½	Les Crane	164
8	Raphael Seidenberg	e135	0 – 1	Tom Barton	168
9	Alexander Nielsen	117	½ – ½	Anthony Kent	150
10	Ziyang Zhou	e110	0 – 1	Jason Klimach	146