Essex League Division 2: Played One, Won One

 2nd December 2024    ILFORD I  3½ – 2½   BARKING II 

Toss won by Ilford, White on odd boards.Time Control: 80 minutes & 10 seconds a move.

Board 1 2020 RAHUL GHOSE 1-0 PETER JASZIWSKYJI 1956

Board 2 1871 VENKATESH SUBRAMANIAN 0-1 COLIN RAMAGE 1931

Board 3 1854 NEVILLE TWITCHELL 1-0 R MATHOMPAT 1836

Board 4 1818 ADHAR JAISWAL ½ STEVE BERKLEY 1781

Board 5 1761 TONY KENT ½ KEN CLOW 1712

Board 6 1708 JEF PAGE ½ JOHN FIGGINS 1699

(Edited from Jef’s match notes) Our first of 12 Essex League matches this season, with only one more this year. A good win. Venkatesh arrived a bit late, and then had to face a rapacious Morra Gambit attack against his Sicilian, as Colin smashed into Venkatesh’s King-side for a mating attack. On the bottom boards, Anthony emerged OK as white from a Birds opening, and won Rook for Knight, but unsure of a winning plan, and short of time, took a draw. Earlier in the, white opted for 27.NxR to win material. 27.Nxd5 is even stronger.

Likewise, Jef also won R for N but with Figgins having sufficient pawns to hold off any significant attack,he had to accept a half. Adhar put Steve Berkley’s K- side under pressure and began to run a pawn up the board but Steve followed suit with his a-pawn which was equally powerful so both survived to halve the game.

Neville meanwhile cancelled out Colin’s win by going pawns up and crucially send a pawn up to b7 which proved to be an unstoppable winner against Mathompat’s lonely black knight.

So the equal match hinged on Rahul’s game. With his K-side crippled and having to defend double f-pawns made life difficult, but in a rapid endgame with time running out he got he advantage of a Q,R & N attack to win the endgame and the match.

So we get off the mark with a win in our penultimate 1st team match of 2024. we have had too many defaults in various leagues this early in the season (due to illnesses) so more players, and particularly reserves, are needed. We’ve played very few matches so far so there are lots more games to come in 2025.

London League: 2 defeats in 2 weeks

Division 3 Tue 19th Nov 2024 All games 70 Minutes plus 15 Seconds per move

Board Rating Hammersmith 2 V Ilford 1
1 2239 Villiers, Thomas ½ – ½ Ghose, Rahul 2006 (
2 2229 Hanache, Kai 1 – 0 Barton, Tom A 1905
3 2081 Pedersen, Carsten ½ – ½ Jaiswal, Adhar 1804
4 2076 Stevenson, James ½ – ½ B Page, Jeffrey 1706
5 2039 Skulte, Christopher 1 – 0 Nicosia, Vincenzo 1703
6 1995 Bryant, Harry 1 – 0 Jardine, Kenneth 1499
7 1991 Grose, Kameron 1 – 0 Garfield, Harvey 1472
8 1871 Hodgson, Jeremy KB 1 – 0 Zheng, Jiayi 1114
Average 2066 6½ – 1½ 1652

We were heavily out graded in this match and went down 6.5 – 1.5 – however, a few bright spots. Our junior Jaiyi got his first taste of the London Chess League last night and although he dropped a piece early we hope he enjoyed the experience! Rahul went a piece up for two passed pawns against Tom Villiers and perhaps could have got more than the draw against a very good player. Likewise Jef and Adhar played well for draws against 2000+ players. Tom came out of the opening with a slight edge against my teenage opponent only to blunder a pawn away and eventually go down in the endgame – very annoying!

Division 3 Tue 26th Nov 2024

Board Rating DHSS 1 V Ilford 1 Rating
1 2244 Heaton, Paul 1 – 0 Ghose, Rahul 2023
2 1993 Santos Ruiz, Adrian 0 – 1 Barton, Tom A 1890
3 1958 Sherwood, Chris 1 – 0 Twitchell, Neville H 1861
4 1960 Cook, Gary ½ – ½ Jaiswal, Adhar 1802
5 1899 Shaw, Matthew 1 – 0 Kent, Anthony R 1767
6 1848 Edwards, Greg 1 – 0 Page, Jeffrey 1714
7 1787 Harper, V Ray 1 – 0 Garfield, Harvey 1471
8 1638 Gilbert, David 1 – 0 Default
Average 1916 6½ – 1½ 1566

Played – and lost – 3 London League matches so far this season…..

Due to illness we defaulted the bottom board and we were out graded again and things didn’t get better. Rahul arrived late and his opening against a strong opponent didn’t go well. Neville went down on the early side and towards the end of the playing session only myself, Adhar and Jef were still playing. Jef’s game went away from him. Adhar got a draw in an unusual endgame when he had two knights and a pawn against two knights and two pawns. His opponent, Gary Cook, blundered a knight in the time scramble but an extra knight didn’t make much difference. Tom played a very solid game against a Moscow anti-Sicilian, however he used up too much time and at move 24 had under two minutes left against my opponents 25 minutes. however, he outplayed him despite the time pressure to pull off a win. According to Stockfish analysis he had an 11 average centipawn loss and 96% accuracy so can be pleased with that! Game on Lichess here:

https://lichess.org/SLfUkAVL#1

Tom (below) got our only win.

Adhar (below) got a creditable draw

Anthony was doing OK from a Bird’s opening that turned into a tricky Falkbeer Counter Gambit. Things went awry when White’s King side pawn push was 2 slow…..

Some more action shots below

NCCL: A narrow but welcome win against Loughton

NCCL DIV B ILFORD II 3-2 LOUGHTON I 25.November.2024

1794 ADAR JASIWAL 1-0 STEVE MIDDLETON 1908

1797 ANTHONY KENT ½ SIMON MOTH 1802

1685 JEF PAGE ½ MARTIN VAN TOL 1730

1302 LALITRANJAN VIGNESWARAN j 1-0 OLIVER KING (1611?)

1109 JIAYI ZHENG J 0-1 KESTUTIS GUDOVIJUS 1288

(Edited, based on Jef’s notes) Loughton automatically had white on odd boards as the away team in a 5-board match. Time Control: 80 minutes plus 10 seconds a move.

Having had bad trouble at home with no internet & landline, and to lose 1 player in the morning may be considered misfortune. But, to lose another later on (both illness) might be considered foolhardy. Fortunately Lalit and Jiayi were standing by, but had differing fortunes. King’s opening was somewhat poor as he first blundered away a pawn, and then a knight. But not to be outdone, Lalit gave it back, but by then he was so far ahead being pawns up he simply motored up the board with his h-pawn that was virtually unstoppable backed up by a Q&R. Jiayi meanwhile had won a N for 3 pawns and with Jiayi’s q-side defenceless Kestutis not only got the N off the board but queened a pawn as well.

Tony got an awkward position from a lethargic Sicilian Grand Prix Attack, having to nurse doubled b-pawns. With careful defence and a few bits exchanged, the middle game pawn structure locked. Black elected for a draw by repetition rather than open up the game. (position below).

On top board Adlar led the team well sacrificing a N to create a passed pawn and as Middleton fought to hold it back he had to give back his N advantage but it still wasn’t enough as Adlar obtained 2 connected central passed pawns.

So ,with Jef’s game the last to finish, surving on time increments, he pulled off his usual escaping trick of wriggling out of an awful, crippled opening to harass Martin’s pawns. Even when Martin finally managed to create a lone passed pawn backed up by his K&B ,he could never get it passed black’s K&N. A draw was agreed giving us the match.

NCL: Ilford beat Barking (for a change)

NORTH CIRCULAR CHESS LEAGUE     DIVISION A    5th.February.2024  

                                                ILFORD I   3½ – 2½   BARKING I 

  1. 1996    ALEXANDR PERESLAVTSEV  1-0   JEFF GOLDBERG   2133 
  2.   1973    NEVILLE TWITCHELL     0-1  PETER JASZKIWSKYJ    2002
  3. 1925    RAHUL GHOSE         ½    COLIN RAMAGE 1927
  4.   1802  VENKATESH SUBRAMANIAN  0-1   J AMES  ROBINSON 1860
  5.   1806   ANTHONY KENT        1-0   MIHAITA BLAGIANU 1649
  6.    1672    ADHAR JAISWAL       1-0  VLADIMIR CHTYM   1470 

Ilford won the toss: White on odd boards

Time Control: 80 minutes & 10 seconds a move

(Based on notes by Jef Page)  An excellent result for Ilford. The first time in a few moons that we have beaten Barking’s 1st team – a bit of a shock for them. They didn’t quite have their usual full team out. We won the match in the old Ilford way: holding the top boards but winning the bottom ones. This was the return home match after they demolished us 4.5 – 1.5 at Barking earlier in the season.

Venkatesh arrived late on board 4 and couldn’t prevent Robinson from winning a Knight. Neville won Peter’s Queen for 2 Rooks, but the open board favoured the Rooks. Although Neville tried to run a pawn down the board, his Q could not do enough to support it. Ramage put Ghose’s King under a lot of pressure and he was forced to give up the exchange. However with a lot of pawns to the good this was compensation enough for Rahul to hold out and force a draw. Blagianu paid the penalty for losing a pawn early on in the Bishops opening and then getting the h&g pawns ‘doubled’. Tony never released his grip on the position, and a final N fork of Q&R settled the issue.

Sergey (father) and son Alexandr came over from Upminster to play for us on board 1 in our return home match and he made it a ‘double’ win over Jeff again. A long, cagey, positional game was played out as Alex pinned Goldberg back and neatly won the exchange.The last game to finish was Adhar’s in a long,drawn out R, N and pawn ending. It looked like Vladimir might be able to hold out for draw but a final blunder cost him his N and he lost the ending clinching the match for us.

After only a few NCCL matches league positions are: Barking, Wanstead, 4 match points each. Ilford 2 match points, 8½ game points; Chingford 2 match points, 7 game points. Our NCCL next match is : Ilford v Chingford 4th March. Thanks to all the Ilford players for turning out for us.

                                                                                                                                                              

Board 1

Q v 2 Rooks and Bishop on board 2

Holding out for a draw on board 3

Eventually won on board 6

After 26. Nd5 – f6 Black is lost on board 5

Essex League Div 2: Ilford 4.5 Southend 1.5 – Fine win to finish 2023

Essex Chess League    Division 2    18.12.23 

  Time Control: 80 mins+ 10 secs a move.

 ILFORD 4½- 1½  SOUTHEND I 

1.          1965 NEVILLE H TWITCHELL  ½   NEIL SUTHERLAND 1998 w 

2.                         1935 RAHUL GHOSE 1-0  HOWARD GRIST 1977  b 

3.1842 VENKATESH  SUBRAMANIAN 1-0   MATHEW SHAW 1918  w 

4.                             1806 TONY KENT   ½   STEVE WEDLOCK 1929  b 

5.                                   1685 JEF PAGE 1-0   COLIN NEWTON 1721  w 

6.                       1500e. PAUL ADAMS    ½    DENNIS PAUL 1710  b 

(based on notes by Jef Page). With everyone of the Ilford players outgraded to some extent this was a good win to end the year as Southend were a division 1 team last season. They did come bearing gifts- the match points- and we accepted them. So 3 wins and 3 draws and no losses so far for 2023/24 – very pleasing.

I only really watched the bottom board games. Adams quickly exchanged Queens and had a nice attack going but rather let Dennis block it up, and then he went into the minor piece endgame a pawn up. Fortunately Paul Adams played calmly & held on. His grade is rather an underestimate & currently works out at 1972! (we’re going to have to be careful about this).Tony Kent made his 1st welcome visit for us this season (over from Borehamwood) and his Birds (Polar Bear) attack was never really too troubled and he to took a draw.

The first time I got up to have a quick walk around to check out the games I looked at Venkatesh’s game to see he had Shaw’s R en prise. Although his Q-side castling looked a bit open he was soon the winner. The last time I played Newton he rather mangled me but this time I won a pawn and held it neatly to win the Rook and pawn endgame with only seconds remaining. Neville meanwhile had trouble finishing off Sutherland for although also a pawn up, frustratingly he had to accept a draw.

We now have a break before we play the 2nd half of the season’s 6 matches with a few difficult away matches i.e. at Southend (26 Jan) & Witham etc.. Wanstead II lead division 2 followed by us but we are well behind. Full results on the ECA/ECL webpage .  

Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy & Peaceful 2024 to everyone.

Neville a pawn up on board 1

Draw offered and agreed on board 4 as white running short of time.

London League: a poor start to the 2023-24 season

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.

Full score details here: https://ecflms.org.uk/lms/node/192196

Loss to Barking 2

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 (W)2002 Jaszkiwskyj, Peter½ – ½Twitchell, Neville H1973
2 (B)1927 Ramage, Colin R½ – ½Barton, Tom A1894
3 (W)1860 Robinson, James M1 – 0Page, Jeffrey1685
4 (B)1799 Clow, Ken W½ – ½Undre, Taha1576
5 (W)1799 Saunders, Richard0 – 1Faheem, Muhammad1518
6 (B)1704 Mathompat, Rajyeshwar1 – 0O’Connell, Euan1218
Average18493½ – 2½Average1644

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.

Tight Match in the NCCL Lawrence Cup

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.

Great Start to Essex League Season

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.

Loss to Wanstead 1 in the Essex Summer Knock-out

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…..