West London Chess Club

Please donate and help raise money for Cancer Research UK and Women’s Chess! I will be holding a 20-board simultaneous chess exhibition in Bournemouth town square on the 10th July 2011 from 11am-4pm. Come and join me. 

Many thanks, Meri Grigoryan

Cancer Research - http://www.donatetobreastcancer.org/chessinbournemouth

Women's Chess - http://www.chevanneschessacademy.com/sponsorship.html

Some of our newer members may not be aware of the club's prestigious history in the wartime years. Few clubs remained open at that time and with the destruction of the National Chess Center, many strong players were without a place to play. Thanks to the determination of the club officers, West London Chess Club remained open and it's membership grew, with many strong players joining.

Charles T. Ley played a big part in making this happen. He was both Secretary and Treasurer for much of this period and continued as the club's President for some eight years after the war. The period of his 16 years of involvement saw many strong players walk through the door including Sir G.A. Thomas, Vera Menchik, Tartakower and briefly, Capablanca (see famous players).

It is therefore with great honor that we receive from Judith Ley, some of her father's chess memorabilia. We now have an actual copy of the "West London Chess Club War Time Gazette" produced by C.T. Ley during those years, which is valued by chess researchers around the world and is considered to be of national importance since there was very little chess literature produced at that time.

More interesting from the club's point of view, is a second volume of gazettes from 1949 to 1957 and various loose gazettes dating to 1960, which we did not until now have access to. The second volume has a number of proper photographs and news paper clippings stuck in them, giving a better impression of what it was like in those days. We are now able to plug many holes in the club's history around that time.

We also have a number of Chess books a magazines from the mid to late 50s. The club would like to thank Judith Ley for her generosity.

Venue: Chiswick Town Hall, Committee Room

Time: 11am to 1pm 

20th Nov: tournament (medals and badges to be won)

4th Dec: tournament (medals and badges to be won)

18th Dec: Xmas event (medals and badges to be won and crackers for everyone)

Entry fee: £10

Email: Miss Meri Grigoryan at meriko35@gmail.com

N.B. Entry fees go towards rent, the club and the prizes

20 Nov, 4 Dec and 18 Dec: 11am to 1pm

Email: Miss Meri Grigoryan at meriko35@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