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.

North Circular Chess League  Division B

Wanstead House, 8th December 2016

Result:   WANSTEAD 3     2-3    ILFORD

146   KEITH JONES            ½   NEVILLE TWITCHELL 173 w

134   CHARTON SIDDO    0-1   ANTHONY KENT 153  b

130   JOHN  KEEHNER      1-0   SYD KALINSKY 148

105   JOHN JESTICO           ½    JEF PAGE  130

95   NIGEL WHITE           0-1   HOWARD BERLIN 127

Not our greatest victory, given our grading advantage on all boards.  However, this pleasing win against our local rivals puts us into 2^nd place chasing the leaders, Chingford, whom we face in a week’s time. We have done the ‘double’ over Wanstead having beaten them by the same score just a month ago. Admittedly, on this occasion they were playing another match on the same night, which probably ruled out one or two of their stronger eligible players.

Howard Berlin outplayed Nigel White in the opening. He quickly won a knight and easily cleaned up the endgame. This gave us an early advantage which we never let go, but from here on it was much harder. Keith Jones defended really well to stay level in the endgame and secure his half against Neville’s favourite sharp opening (too secret to reveal here). Jef set up an attack against John Jestico’s kingside, but did not follow it up sufficiently and Jestico levelled. Syd Kalinsky got little joy against John Keehner’s Sicilian,  so the match result hinged on Anthony Kent’s game. We may be heading out of Europe through ‘Brexit’, but a multi Euro-wide opening was featured as he translated a Polish opening into a Leningrad Dutch defence. He aggressively established a strong, advanced pawn chain (See seasonal Christmas Tree formation below), picked off an under-protected Bishop, with a Queen checkmate to eventually follow.

Last match before Christmas, 19th December: Chingford v Ilford. This match effectively determines who will lead the division at the end of the year.

First, the match details

November 29 2016, Essex Chess League Division 2 at Brentwood Baptist church

Board  BRENTWOOD I                 2½-5½  ILFORD
1            169 TREVOR COOTE             0-1        NEVILLE TWITCHELL 173 w
2            162 MALCOLM KINGSLEY   ½         TOM BARTON 167 b
3            162 GAVIN STRACHAN   ½         ANTHONY KENT 153
4            158 RONALD ADAMS            1-0       SYD KALINSKY 148
5             128 ROB DAVIES                    ½         JEF PAGE 130
6             119 RUSSELL FISHER           0-1        GRANT GERICKE 128
7             103 CHRIS PHILLIPS            0-1        UMAR YUNIS 118
8             Default                                      0-1        LEONARDO STEFANONI

A good win for Ilford considering the night started with a mix up before setting of from Gants Hill. So, a few us arrived late, but Brentwood’s top board could not make it. So, they moved all of their players up one board and without a substitute defaulted the bottom board so starting the match 0-1 down. Unfortunately, Leonardo meanwhile had to sit out the evening with no opponent to play.Unfortunately it didn’t have a happy ending for Syd as in a minor piece Rooks and Knights ending, Syd blundered away a knight whilst defending a difficult position.

We won in the classic Ilford style: holding the top boards and mopping up points at the bottom. Umar won a neat endgame against Phillips who erred badly. Grant got his queen and rook in behind Fisher’s Kingside, who never really developed his pieces properly. Jef’s Morra Gambit Accepted was well defended by Rob Davies, and he never got anything out of the opening, so a draw was agreed.

On the top boards,  Anthony Kent had a decent opening but took a half with all 16 pawns still on the board. Tom Barton seemed to have the better position against Kingsley but also shared the spoils. In a tough encounter was played out on board 1, Neville Twitchell’s favourite d4 line led to Trevor Coote sacrificing a Bishop for pawns,  but in the end Neville’s extra piece paid dividends.

This win puts us on top for the moment but Southend, who beat us, have games in hand, and are the divisional favourites.

Finally, pictures from Anthony’s journey to and from the match.

A decent win for Ilford in Essex Division 2,  though the score line rather flattered us.

Jason got lucky against Rob Iannetta who threw his game away when, a pawn up thinking he was winning a knight, left a rook en pris. We were also fortunate on Board 8  when Johal, who with a  pawn one move from promotion, made a disastrous Rook move overlooking a simple Queen check which forked King & Rook, and Umar had the win. Our only loser was new recruit Julian Hudson who had a tough evening with his King stuck in the centre, Khoda’s strong attack won him the game.

Jef had an easy win as Bigg’s queenside castling was dismantled with a Q&R checkmating attack, and Syd won the exchange and swapped pieces into a won endgame. Tom was inferior, but his strong Bishop and queenside pawns paid dividends as he raced a pawn home to win. Neville had a tsrong attack against Aidan Corish’s King but overlooked the winning of a knight in the endgame and it cost him a half. Anthony Kent’s Kings Gambit petered out and the offer of a draw from Black was accepted.

Played 3 in Essex League : won 1, drawn 1, lost 1.

ILFORD  6-2  UPMINSTER II   Monday 21st December 2016

1. NEVILLE TWITCHELL  ½   AIDAN CORISH  159
2. TOM BARTON                1-0  J HANNIFORD 168
3.  JULIAN HUDSON        0-1  N KHODA  144
4. JASON KLIMACH          1-0  ROBERT IANNETTA 144
5. ANTHONY KENT            ½   M RAHAMAN 139
6. SID KALINSKY             1-0  P ROSENFELD 123
7. JEF  PAGE                      1-0  PETER BIGGS  131
8. UMAR YUNIS               1-0  S JOHAL  126