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.
RAPIDPLAY 1 August 2023 G20+10 Jef Page, Captain Ilford won the toss, White on odd boards Round 1 R = Rapidplay rating.
WANSTEAD I 11½ – 1½ ILFORD Rnd 1 Rnd 2 2043R DAVID SPEARMAN 1-0 1-0 TOM BARTON 1874R 2019R JOHN CAWDERY ½ 1-0 NEVILLE TWITCHELL 1852R 2033R STEVE RIX 1-0 1-0 VENKATESH SUBRAMANIAN 1893R 1976 PARTHA MULAY 1-0 1-0 ADHAR JAISWAL 1598R 1881R PHIL STANILAND 1-0 1-0 TAHA UNDRE 1681R I1735 ISTVAN KARACSONY 1-0 1-0 MUHAMMAD FAHEEM 1608R
Ilford won the toss (that’s about all we won), White on odd boards in Round 1. Ilford conceded an average of 200 rating points per board so the result wasn’t that surprising but nevertheless dismal. The match started badly for us and just got worse. With a draw in round 1 Neville avoided it being a team whitewash.
RAPIDPLAY 10 July 2023 G20+10 Jef Page, Captain Ilford won the toss, White on odd boards Round 1 R = Rapidplay rating.
ILFORD 2½ – 9½ BARKING Rnd 1 Rnd 2 1. 1852R NEVILLE TWITCHELL 0-1 0-1 JEFF GOLDBERG 2124R 2. 1893R VENKATESH SUBRAMANIAN 0-1 0-1 ROMAN ISMAILOV 2092R 3. 1931R BIEL OBIOLS 1-0 0-1 P JASZKIWSKYJ 1977R 4. 1763R JEF PAGE 0-1 1-0 COLIN RAMAGE 1821R 5. 1598R ADHAR JAISWAL 1-0 0-1 JAMES ROBINSON 1877R 6. 1681R TAHA UNDRE 0-1 0-1 IGOR NAUMOV 1731R
A tough night for Ilford as the ratings show, so we lost our unbeaten record: now 4/5. With Barking turning out a strong team we were always onto a beating but we should have won a few more games to get the score closer. Taha was a whole Rook up but in the 1st round time scramble lost the advantage whilst in the 2nd round he couldn’t hold a level R,N and 3 pawns ending. I made similar errors. I got demolished in round 1 but in the 2nd I should have done far better when I threw away a 2 pawn advantage also in a R&p endgame. Biel did very well to win a piece in round 1 and pull off a win whilst Adhar made his extra pawns count but on the top 2 boards we were overwhelmed.
Barking are now top 4/5 having beaten us but we actually have more game points: 43½ to 39½.
Chingford 1 v Ilford, 10 July 2023. NCCL Baum Summer Trophy, 4 board match G20 +10 2 Games with colours reversed, Chingford White on odd boards Rnd 1 Jef Page, captain.
CHINGFORD 3-5 ILFORD
Rnd 1 Rnd 2 1985R PIRO BALLOGLU 1-0 0-1 RAHUL GHOSE 1849R 1806R PETER ROSE 0-1 1-0 NEVILLE TWITCHELL 1829R 1680R BRIAN SPEAR 0-1 1-0 VENKATESH SUBRAMANIAN 1917R 1528R STEVE KLEIN 0-1 0-1 JEF PAGE 1755R 1-3 2-2
A good win for Ilford- in a stifling hot room- which now gives us 4/4 unbeaten. Chingford’s team wasn’t as strong as in their previous match but then we were missing Tom Barton who was generously running Ilford CC and looking after the juniors.
It’s rare that I’m the only winner of both games and quite easily. I didn’t get a chance to view the other games but we soon won round 1. But round 2 was much closer and we watched the endgames as Neville got out into an awkward position, Venkatesh got swamped by Brian’s 3-passed pawns and in a time scramble Rahul had to work hard to win a N & 5-pawns endgame against N & 4pawns.
London League D2 match – Wimbledon 1 v Ilford 1 – 12 May 2023. 8 board match, G75 + 15 Tom Barton, captain.
Board Wimbledon 1 Ilford 1 1 2024 Dubey, Mark J ½ – ½ Barton, Tom A 1867 2 (B) 1998 Heppell, Ian N ½ – ½ Twitchell, Neville H 1954 3 1908 Hughes, Anthony 0 – 1 Subramanian, Venkatesh 1847 4 (B) 1858 Boyce, Mike A 1 – 0 Page, Jeffrey 1706 5 1846 Carpenter, Stephen CD 0 – 1 Obiols, Biel 1610 6 (B) 1823 Fincham, Leon HJ 1 – 0 Undre, Taha 1605 7 1770 Rennie, Gordon 1 – 0 Faheem, Muhammad 1511P 8 (B) Not Named 1 – 0 default
Once again we were out graded across all boards in a match and we also defaulted board 8. Given this, it was a good performance by the team for a 5-3 loss with a couple of smooth wins by Venkatesh (a Queen’s gambit declined into a Semi-Slav, Marshall Gambit variation with complications ) and Biel.
Taha had a very exciting and wild game that went away from him. Jef was put under positional pressure which eventually told. Neville had the better of his game and maybe shouldn’t have swapped Queens off to an opposite coloured bishop endgame. I had an even game until I started running low on time at which point my opponent played a poor move and gave me a real advantage with a passed pawn, unfortunately with less than 5 minutes on my clock I didn’t find the most accurate continuation and despite analysis showing a further opportunity to win I dropped into a Queen and pawn endgame on which I agreed a draw. Last to finish was Muhammed who had a good game but it went away from him in the final stage of a king and pawn endgame.
Thurrock 1 v Ilford 1, 18 April 2023. Essex D2, 6 board match, G80 + 10. Toss won by Thurrock – White on odd boards. Jef Page, captain / neville Twitchell
Jef: Unfortunately as Neville’s report below retells, our unbeaten division 2 Essex League run which I’d hoped we’d keep going till the end of the season, came to a dismal end when I caught Covid and had to isolate this week and Rahul Ghose, who should have been on board 1 for us, failed to make it.
Neville: All good things must come to an end and so has our winning run in the Essex League. We had defaulted the bottom board and then with Rahul failing to turn up we were 2-0 down. Then Muhammed lost in short order. He was a rook down when I last saw his position, after his center counter defence was met in an odd way with 1.e4 d5 2. Nf3?! dxe4 3 Ng5. So 3-0 down.
Then Daniel lost not long after that, though he seemed to have a defensible position in a queens gambit, slav defence, so it was 4-0 down.
But then Tony saved our honour by finding a sparkling combination to polish off his opponent in a Stonewall Dutch where he had looked to be under a lot of pressure for most of the game, but neatly tuned the tables.
Litsenburgh v Kent 20. Qd2 – c3 threatening check mate
Anthony Kent: In the diagram position white shocked me playing 20. Qd2 – c3 threatening check mate which I had missed! Black needs to sacrifice a knight or Bishop to block that mate. The computer tells me that 20….Be5!! is a brilliancy as if 21.fxB, 21….Nb4 wins as white’s queen is running out of squares. The computer also says Nd4!! is winning as if 21. exN, Bxf and white’s queen is again running out of squares. I played 20…Ne5 to block mate. Play went. 21. Bd1?? b4 22. Qxc Bb8 (..missed Nd3ch winning instantly). 23. Qxb?? Nd3ch forking king and queen. Game over.
So 4-1, with only my game left. I plugged away in a Ruy Lopez long after everyone else had left but succumbed in the ending after I lost a crucial queenside pawn. So the end of my unbeaten run in the Essex League as well.
Result
Thurrock Ilford 1. Andrew Offord 1-0 Default (Rahul Ghose) 2. Jim Arbuckle (B) 1-0 Neville Twitchell 3. Rudi Litsenburgh 0-1 Tony Kent 4. Banky Akinyosoie (B) 1-0 Daniel Lowe 5. Sandu Silviu 1-0 Muhammed Faseem 6. Malcolm Crane (B) 1-0 Default Total5-1
Ilford A v Wanstead A, 6 March 2023. NCCL DivA, 6 board match, G80 + 10. Toss won by Ilford- White on odd boards. Jef Page, captain.
ILFORD A 3-3 WANSTEAD A 2057 DAVID SALAMI 1-0 JOHN CAWDREY 2079 1915 TOM A BARTON 0-1 DAVID SHERMAN 2067 1816 VENKATESH SUBRAMANIAN 1-0 STEVEN RIX 2009 1674 JEF PAGE 1-0 ASHLEY FREEMAN 1998 1597 TAHA UNDRE 0-1 IAN D HUNNABLE 1908 1779 DANIEL LOWE 0-1 PHIL STANILAND 1901
Adhar Jaiswal was down to play but had to drop out at the last minute due to an illness so as ‘supersub’ I stepped in; hopefully Adhar recovers soon. Missing a few regular players we had a new member David Salami on board one for a tough start to playing for Ilford. All of us were outgraded as you can see. We only narrowly lost to Wanstead in the away match so this was the return match.
Venkatesh arrived a bit late, seemed to have a tricky game a pawn down but after Steve allowed a tactic he made short work of the rest of the game. Taha & Daniel were always under pressure. Ian managed to create a passed centre pawn backed up by his Rooks which proved decisive. Similarly Tom’s Dutch Defence got awkward, his queenside undeveloped, Sherman gained control of the middle game and finished decisively.
I found Freeman’s opening difficult to defend against- he isolated my weak d-pawn in a very open Caro-Kann, I gambled on causing difficult complications so attacked to break out. As I only had about 20 seconds remaining and with Ashley‘s Queen offside, I attacked it with a pawn thinking it would force him to retreat- only to find it was completely trapped! The right move for the wrong reason but a happy result. The last game to finish was David’s and it’s always satisfying when you can put in a new member to make his debut and he wins, and makes the score all square. He put in a strong attack against John’s King which was beaten off and in the resulting endgame although John was pawns up, skilful play by David eliminated his advantage and trying to find a win, John lost on time.
Wanstead and Barking in the NCCL are tying for Division A top spot, 5 points each. Chingford and Ilford are fighting for bottom spot, 2 points each. See the table at: https://ecflms.org.uk/lms/node/69105/tables
Essex D3 match – Southend 2 v Ilford 2 – Friday 3 March 2023. 5 board match, G80 + 10 Tom Barton, captain.
A long trip to Southend is not conducive to playing a game of chess and it seemed to affect the Ilford players who didn’t get off to a good start. Muhammed dropped a piece coming out of the opening, Euan lost two queenside pawns after falling to a clever tactic coming out of the opening, and was under pressure, and Biel’s opponent gained a favourable position and took a tactical opportunity to win an exchange. Euan and Muhammed lost so we were two down.
Jef had the much better position against Mick Saunders French but couldn’t find a way to exploit the advantage and fell well behind on the clock. Taha had a complex position with interesting possibilities.
Biel fought back to get the exchange back and managed to hold the rook and pawn endgame for a draw. Jef launched an attack but he couldn’t find the right moves under time pressure and he lost on time trying. Taha and his opponent reached a position where neither was sure of having an advantage and agreed a draw. They analysed the position as given here
31. White to move Lacey v Undre
It looked like White should play h4 to break up the pawns protecting Black’s King, and indeed computer analysis says this is the best move and that White has a clear advantage.
The final score was 4-1.
Result with latest OTB grades on LMS Board Southend II Ilford II 1 (B) 1671 Saunders, M. J. 1 – 0 Page, Jeffrey 1674 2 1657 Lacey, Nick J ½ – ½ Undre, Taha 1597 3 (B) 1612 Clancy, Mark ½ – ½ Obiols, Biel 1576 4 1536 Davis, Joshua 1 – 0 Faheem, Muhammad 1496 5 (B) 1528 Duke, Taylor 1 – 0 O’Connell, Euan 1233 4 – 1
Ilford 1 v Barking2, 27 February 2023. Essex D2, 6 board match, G80 + 10. Toss won by Ilford- White on odd boards. Jef Page, captain.
The match started well when I refused to offer a draw and pounced on a disastrous pawn-move by Vladmir whose Kingside disintegrated with an offered Rook sac’ which he couldn’t take, and I mated him. So from here on we were always ahead.
Venkatesh forced his a-pawn up the board supported by both R’s & King. Neville got a pawn ahead of Clow but in an opposite colour Bishop ending it took a while. Neville targeted an isolated pawn, held his advantage as his R, B & K aimed for the pawn which Ken’s K tried to defend. Nev slowly advanced up the board and succeeded in not just threatening the pawn but checkmating Ken. Tom had the advantage over Robinson’s opening but with his time running out & unable to find the winning moves took a draw. The match finished when Adrian who had superior development against Blagianu- whose his K-side pawns had raced down the board- forced a fatal error against Mihaita who lost his Queen. 4 wins, 2 draws& no losses- very good- the advantage of a strong and reliable team.
A 7th straight win so we finish the 1st part of the season undefeated: who would have believed it possible at the start of the season. Still 3 matches to go to find out who’s won the division, trophy, and whether we can book the open-top bus for a victory parade around Ilford: Ilford 7/7 14 paints, Barking 4/7 8 points, Thurrock 8, Witham 7. So to win the division with a final accumulated score we need just 1 win and then we‘re uncatchable and can look upwards.
Ilford 1 v Brentwood 1, 6 February 2023. Essex D2, 6 board match, G80 + 10. Toss won by Ilford- White on odd boards. Jef Page, captain.
Time Control: 80 minutes + 10 seconds a move.
ILFORD I 4½ – 1½ BRENTWOOD II 1935 TOM BARTON ½ MALCOLM KINGSLEY 1859 1929 RAHUL GHOSE 0-1 ROB J DAVIES 1788 1965 NEVILLE TWITCHELL 1-0 MICHAEL MASON 1750 1801 VENKATESH SUBRAMANIAN 1-0 JOE CROSSSLEY 1515 1630 ADRIAN JOSEPH 1-0 COLIN ELLIS 1875 1688 JEF PAGE 1-0 default 1818 Average grade 1413
The average grade shows Ilford were far stronger so it was no surprise we won the match. We started off 1-nil up as Brentwood arrived a man short which Captain Colin Ellis generously warned me about the night before. It was a match of 2 Rook for Knight sacrifices both of which worked in their different ways. Venkatesh looked to be having difficulty developing his pieces so gambling, and having control of the c-file, he sac’d his R for N & a pawn and suddenly it was Crossley under pressure. With Subramanian’s 2 knights hopping around the board the issue was settled with a lovely,sweet smothered mate.
Davies, who used to play for us, had a strong attack and sac’d his R for N to dominate the centre of the board. But Rahul fought back and invaded white’s position with Queen & Rook chasing Rob’s King out from g1 to the safety of h6 (!) and suddenly Ghose found he couldn’t mate Davies, and worse, Rahul couldn’t stop a 1-move mate. Neville always had the advantage over Mason’s Caro-Kann opening, won his isolated Q-pawn and the minor-piece & pawns ending was never really in doubt. Tom on board 1 gained lots of space sending all his Q-side pawns up to the 4th rank, but unable to gain any real advantage over Kingsley with material level, accepted a draw. Adrian Joseph made a welcome return to Ilford and had Ellis in trouble right from the opening for whilst delaying his development Adrian controlled the board with his pawns. When his Q attacked the Q-side he won a Bishop & a N. Ellis fought back well to run a pawn dangerously down the board to the 2nd rank but pieces down, he lost control and once the pawn disappeared, the threat and game was over.
We are now unbeaten, 5/5. Nice to be top of the tree for the moment, for a change.
London League D2 match – Dulwich 1 v Ilford 1 – 1 February 2023. 8 board match, G75 + 15 Tom Barton, captain.
Ryan Randall (b) 2229K 1-0 Tom Barton 1935K +294 Andrew M Pridding 2188K 1-0 Neville H Twitchell 1965K +223 IM Petr Marusenko 2193K 1-0 Venkatesh Subramanian 1801K +392 Haran Rasalingam 2043K 1-0 Jeffrey Page 1644K +399 Peter A Andrews 2011K 1-0 Adhar Jaiswal 1556P +455 Benjamin K Simpson 1915K 1-0 Daniel Lowe 1840P +75 Walk Over 1-0 For Feit Walk Over 1-0 For Feit match result: 8 — 0
Dulwich pulled out their strongest team of the season so far and having defaulted the bottom two boards already (train strikes didn’t help) we were very heavily out graded (Mean rating Dulwich 2096, Ilford 1790: Δ = 306 !!) and looking for inspiration to get something out of the match. Venkatesh played an IM; Jef and Adhar had deltas of 399 point and 455 points respectively! Looking round the boards the team gave a good account of itself and no one rolled over. Jef had a very cramped French position which he managed to wriggle to a slightly better position. Neville had chances in his game and maybe should have traded Queens when he had the chance. Dan was well up on the clock but pawns down. The losses ticked in and at the death mine was the last game and I was trying to get something to avoid a complete rout. My opponent and I got down to under 5 minutes each; with a draw possible I cracked under the time pressure. My opponent provided the following feedback and link to the game:
“According to lichess (https://lichess.org/6YfFMhXL), Bxg7 was the only mistake/blunder in the game. A good quality game to that point, and I’d resigned myself to a likely draw if you’d played Kg1. (Ryan)”
So an 8-0 thrashing. We need to take the positives of getting to play chess against strong opposition – the only way to learn!
We are halfway through our LL season having played five of the ten matches and are at the bottom of the table.
2024 Dubey, Mark J ½ – ½ Barton, Tom A 1867
Ilford Chess Club 