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.
Last night the Ilford team performed well, with Steve Abbott winning on his first outing for the club, but are a point behind with two games adjourned. Julian Hudson is better in his but Neville Twitchell worse. Fingers crossed for when they resume!
Full details will be on the London League web-site
Image: Neville writing up the adjournment details.
First the result…
Essex Chess League Division 2 Tuesday 17th January, St Laurence Church Hall, Upminster.
UPMINSTER II 3-5 ILFORD
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
In a tight match last night Ilford pulled ahead in the final few minutes of quickplay finishes when David Millward won with only a minute (or less!) on his clock and Tom Barton managed to scrape a draw in a game that he was losing. Ilford stand 5-4 up with one game adjourned; this is Julian Hudson’s game where he has good drawing chances. Given Ilford have the top two teams to play in the second half of the season, at least a half, and possibly a point from this match, is very useful.
Full details on the London League web-site: http://www.londonchess.org.uk/main.php
Ilford lost a tight match last night to Loughton in the North Circular League Finchley Cup. The format was a four board match with two rounds of games of 30 minutes each. After round one Syd was our only player to score a win and we were down by a point, however, in round two Syd repeated his win. With Neville and Anthony both drawing Jason needed a win but was well behind on the clock and also a pawn down. Jason held his nerve but with his opponent’s clock also running down the game was agreed a draw, this brought the overall match score level at 4-4. Sadly for us the tie-break eliminates results from the bottom and so Ilford are out of this year’s Finchley Cup.
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 2nd 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 9th Ilford v Loughton NCCL. Rapidplay Semi-final. Home
Tue 17th Upminster II v Ilford ECL Away
Wed 25th Loughton I v Ilford NCCL Away
Mon 30th 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 19th December. The club will also be closed on the 26th December and 2nd January, reopening on Monday 9th 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 2nd 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.
One of the hardest parts of the night for some was just finding the venue…
Ilford squeezed a good result out of this match holding Metropolitan to a draw when we only had 9 players, starting the match 1 down. All our players were outgraded, by an average 11 points a board, and Jef’s opponent Fraser Lees was above him by 31 points! Jef wriggled out of a poor Queen’s Gambit middle game to run an unstoppable c-pawn aggressively up the board supported by his Queen to force a draw.
Neville Twitchell offered his opponent an early draw, which was declined. A level endgame of R+N v R+B with pawns on both sides looked like being a long drawn out affair when he suddenly blundered horribly allowing his to penetrate and deliver mate. Anthony Kent jumped on a careless move by S Roy to pick off a knight, and Julian Hudson also won well. Aidan Corish couldn’t make much progress but his bishop and pawns held Sommer’s knight and pawns in a level endgame.
In captain Tom Barton’s absence, thanks to Kevin White for being an able deputy.
We need more players: anyone fancy a London League match?
Board Home player Result Away player
Ilford Chess Club 