West London Chess Club

Venue: Chiswick Town Hall, Committee Room

Time: 11am to 1pm 

26th June: tuition and practice

3rd July: tuition and practice

10th July: tournament (medals and badges to be won)

17th July: tuition and practice

24th July: tournament (medals and badges to be won)

Tuition wiil be given by Mrs Mareta Grigoryan, a West London Chess Club member and English Chess Federation's accredited coach.

Email: sh.mareta@gmail.com

Eleven brave souls (plus a few non-combatants) converged on the Chiswick Town Hall on the 2nd of June for a simultaneous exhibition with the renowned Danny King, one of the UK's most influential and charismatic GMs. Danny achieved his IM title in 1982 and went on to become a GM in 1989. He has represented England numerous times at international level and has won tournaments from all over the world. Nowadays, he enjoys parallel careers in both chess and the media, and has commentated on many famous events including the Man versus Machine match in 1997 and Kasparov versus The World.

The evening was incredibly pleasant, food and drink was laid on for all participants, and a quick speech was made before the match started. Danny would be playing white on all boards this evening - he clearly had some preparation in mind!

Danny King rolls up his sleeves in anticipation (Does this not remind you of Neo vs Smith from the Matrix?)

The match was entertaining on many fronts - an early highlight included Harry Burdon's game which became fascinating as quickly as move seven (photographic evidence to boot) with several games becoming quite complicated reasonably quickly, including those of Kishan, Andy, Petr and Tom. The field of players was not weak this evening, with over half the participants at ECF-150 or higher.

After a lot of tea, biscuits and complicated positions were mulled over, Danny's opponents began to fall, with a few of the earlier boards getting second games. It soon emerged that there were several contenders for an upset, including Petr Vachtfiedl and Andy Hayler.

A knight sacrifice was played against Tom Fuller which looked incredibly strong, but Tom somehow managed to play a series of saving moves (with possibly a missed, but very complex, win for white - at the time Danny was still playing 7 boards though) which looked to grind down to a Knight vs 3 pawn endgame...and suddenly there were three boards in contention!

Some quick analysis... (Disclaimer: The computer was not actually turned on, this was just a posed shot :P)

Mixed fortunes then ensued towards the end of the evening. Petr unfortunately lost after gaining a good position but fell to a well timed counterattack, while Andy Hayler played an equalising move in a very complex but advantageous position and drew first blood with a draw! One of the last games to finish produced the most fireworks, however: Tom Fuller managed to prevent a passed pawn queening while advancing his own pawns in a very technical end-game which produced the only victory of the night for the challengers - well done! Tom and Andy both received copies of Danny King's "Kasparov vs Deeper Blue" book as reward for their efforts.

The final scores: Danny King 9.5 - 1.5 Challengers. All the photos are available on the photo page.

There were 12 participants and £78 was awarded in prizes:

• Winner on 4.5 points: Colum Jezierski (won £25)
• Second place on 4: Russell Campbell (Won £15)
• Best Under-150 on 3.5 points:
  • Edward Tandi (Won £10)
  • Paul Robertson (Won £10)
• Best Under-120 on 2 points:
  • Deneys Kottler (Won £9)
  • Robert McPherson (Won £9)

The full results can be found here.

We are holding another Rapidplay tournament to be played over two Wednesday sessions on the 21^st and 28^th April. The details are as follows:

• Fixtures: Two Wednesday sessions, the 21st and 28th April at Chiswick Town Hall, starting at 7:30pm.
• Format: 6 rounds at 25 minutes per side (unrated). Pairing will be done by computer according to FIDE/swiss tournament rules.
• Entry fee: £10 with £5 concessions for non-workers.
• Results will go up somewhere on this Web site.
• Prize money is dependent on the number of players, but the following is almost certain:
  • 1st place - £20
  • 2nd place - £15
  • Best under 150 - £15
  • Best under 120 - £15

It is open to members and non-members alike, so if you are interested, please send an e-mail to: webmaster@westlondonchess.com

1. Dashiel Nason 5/5

2. Fraser Barclays 3.5/5

3. Matthieu Gillet 3/5 (prog.scor 10.5)

4.  Joshua Elder 3/5 (prog. score 9.5)

5= Lucas Brown, Leonardo Rotondi, Arushka Aggrawal, Robert Murphy and Wiktor Wiejak 2/5

10= Janscher Verscht and Thor Knuttson 1/5

11-year-old Ben Murphy gave a handicap against his much younger and inexperienced opponents. He scored 4/5 and only lost (with no Queen!) against Dashiel Nason.

The Junior Club will be back on 30th January 2010

5th Dec 2009

18 children in two age groups competed for medals and for the 31st WLJCC title. WLJCC member Kinan Patel was the only U11 boy who won all his games (children playing against Kinan received half a point) and thus was the overall winner. The age group winners were:

U8

1. Leonardo Rotondi
2. Arushka Aggarwal
3. Robert Murphy

U7

1. Anson Law
2. Joseph Dormer
3. Joshua Elder

          Full list:

1. Kinan Patel 5/5 (U11)
2. Leonardo Rotondi 4.5/5 (U8)
3. Arushka Aggarwal 4/5  (U8)
4. Anson Law 3.5/5 (U7)
5. Robert Murphy 3/5 (U8)
6. Thomas Elder 3/5 (U8)
7. Joseph Dormer 3/5 (U7)
8. Joshua Elder 3/5  (U7)
9. Jackson Tulley 3/5 (U7)
10. Finn Mccarthy 3/5 (U7)
11. Matthieu Gillet 2.5/5  (U7)
12. Lucas Brown 2.5/5 (U7)
13. Freddie Sims 2.5/5 (U7)
14. Oliver Onillon 2/5 (U7)    
15. Nicholas Froom 1/5 (U8)  
16. Gabriel Singer 1/5 (U8)
17. Jack Rich 1/5 (U7)
18. Thor Knutsson 0.5/5 (U7)  

Christmas crackers were given to everyone and who did not win a medal received a badge. This was the final event for this term and we will be back on 30th Jan. Merry Christmas! Meri

On 21st November 18 children turned up to compete in the 29th WLJC rapid championship.

The winners are:

Age group: 8-10

1. Tom Goldsmith (Grove Park)
2. Andre Sarian (North Ealing)
3. Alex Sarian (North Ealing)

Age group: 5-7

1= Leo Rotondi and Matthieu Gillet  (Falcon Boys)
2. Jackson Tulley (Belmont)
3. Tom Roberts (Falcon Boys)
Well done all!

17.10.09

Five-player Double Round-Robin

1. Andre Sarian U11                7.5/8

2. William Winterbottom U11     6/8

3. Alex Sarian U11                   4.5/8

4. Katherine Oates U9                2/8

5. Freddie Sims U7                   /8