West London Chess Club

After what was a very close and exciting end to the seson, West London's London League team ended up top in the London League. This ensures promotion into Division 2. Check out the league table -well don team!

West London's second team in the Middlesex League are now the champions elect of Division 3! The championship was secured by winning at Barnet Knights' home venue last night, reaching a points total of 7.5, which cannot be surpassed by any other team.

The team will now be promoted to the second division. Congratulations to captain Adrian Barron and everyone who has played in the team this season.

The first team in the Middlesex League have had a challenging time, scoring only 3 out of 7 points. That said, many of the matches were very close. The second team in Division 3 are doing exceptionally well, scoring 5 points out of 6! Three of the remaining four matches are being held at home, so there is good chance for promotion to Division 2 if we keep winning.

In the London Leage, the first team is doing reasonably well, scoring 2.5 out of 4, but there are 7 matches left. In the new fun division, the second team have scored only 1 from 4, but that's OK since it's only for fun

The WLCC AGM was held on the Wednesday 12th September 2007 in the Chiswick Town Hall. There were 9 attendees and the highlights are as follows:

• The Treasurer's report indicates that club's finances are steady, thanks to sponsorship obtained late in the season. The club membership remains at £50.
• The team captains' reports show that we had a mixed season. We won the Easman Cup and in Middlesex League Division 1 we improved upon last year finishing 3rd, but in the London League, we once again struggled to stay in division 3. In Middlesex League Division 3, it was the usual problem of finding people for away matches.
• The Webmasters report shows a significant increase in people accessing the site (almost double compared to last year). There have been a number of site enhacements over the season.
• There were no changes in the currently elected positions. Shwan Sharif was elected as the new London League "Fun Division" team captain and Meri Grigoryan-Lyell was elected as the Equipment Officer.
• All the trophies were on display for the first time -it was an impressive sight! Mark Lyell was awarded the Henderson Cup for best performance in the top team, finishing on 9.5 points from 13. Ed Tandi was presented the Sir George Thomas Cup for best performance in the London League, scoring 6 points, just beating the previous cup holder by half a point in the last game of the season. He was also awarded the Spires Trophy for best performance in the Middlesex League second team (6.5 points). The 3 cups are to be engraved. It was agreed that the Vera Menchik trophy will be awarded to the best performing female player starting from the 2007/2008 season.
• Commercial sponsorship was formally approved and significant progress has been made regarding the insurace of equipment and payment rules for new members.

The AGM will take place next week on Wednesday 12th September starting at 7.15 pm.

All members and potential club members are invited to attend. If you have any items you wish to discuss please let Mark Lyell know ASAP so that they can be added to the agenda. Any proposed changes to the club rules should be notified in advance.

This year we will have an extra team in the London League. Division 5 is a limited grading "fun" division and is not connected with divisions 1-4, so there will be the opportunity to play more graded games for players below 120. Shwan Sharif has kindly volunteered to do the job of captaining the 4-player team and unless anyone else wants to do this instead he will probably be confirmed as captain at the AGM.

15 players turned up to challenge Mike Basman. Mark Lyell, Colum Jezierski, Andy Hayler and Marie Gallagher managed a draw. Outsider Neil Willmot was the only one to win, bringing the final score to:

Basman 12 - 3 West London

The following players also part: Gerry McCann, Richard Matzko, Ian Deswarte, Reenen du Toit, Harry Burdon, Russ Campbell, Ed Tandi, Glynn Jones, Naren Wadwana and Shwan Sharif.

The legendary Mike Basman will be giving a simultaneous display at the club on Wednesday 20th June at 7.15pm. Mike is an International Master who used to play for England in the Chess Olympiad and other events. Here a couple of his games from chessgames.com:

• http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1032721 The better of a draw against World Champion Botvinnik !
• http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1076706 A slashing attack with the King's Gambit

Those wishing to participate should contact Mark Lyell ASAP.

The entry fee is £10 with £7 for Juniors. Non-members can enter for £12.

West London wins the London League's prestigious Eastman Cup. The final vs Richmond was held at home and won for the first time since the knockout competition started in 1929.

Captain Mark Lyell took the team to an early lead, winning with the Schliemann Defense on board 6. There was a gap after which Richmond gained the advantage, winning boards 5 and 9, and managing a draw on board 7. Score 1½-2½.

More bad news followed with Stefan Macak miscalcuating on board 2, but then the tide turned with Alex Ingram pushing home a Rook vs Bishop advantage, GM Alex Cherniaev reaping the benefits of his two connected passed pawns and Colum Jezierski simplifying to a winning endgame after using his opponet's exposed king to win a pawn. Score 4½-3½ with two games to go.

Colin Crouch's game, being a pawn down looked lost, but approaching time limits, managed quick and skillful play with his rook, simplifying to a well known drawn endgame. At this point, West London had won the match because even if Richmond won the last game, the match would be decided on the sum of the board numbers for those boards won.

Finally, Adrian Ociepka managed a draw, rushing what looked like a horribly complicated game. We found out afterwards that he thought this was a friendly match, when in fact it was probably the most important one of the season! Final score 5½-4½ -see the full results.

The Middlesex League Division 1 team have finished in 3rd place, with 7.5 points out of 13. In the last match, the team managed a surprise draw against 2nd place Hackney when despite a default, all 3 of the new club members managed to win. See the Division 1 League Table.

In Middlesex League Division 3, the second team finished one position down from last year -in 6th place from 7. This is mostly due to us abandoning, through low turnout, the away match at Southgate. Once more the team showed good performance at home, but failed to gather a strong team in away matches. Check out the Division 3 League Table.

In the London League, West London managed to stay up in Division 3, like last year, finishing in 10th place from 12. We got more points this year largely due to new membership boosting the strength of the team toward the end of the season.

On Sunday the 11th March, Richmond are holding their 70th Rapidplay Tournament in Hampton, which is relatively close compared to some of the other tournaments. This is a 6 round ECF rated tournament with a good prize fund. Each player gets 30 minutes, so it is possible to write the moves down.

The South Herts Chess Congress is being held in St Albans on the 31st March and the 1st April. This is a 5 round ECF rated tournament, with standard time controls. The tournament is divided into 5 sections (from minor to open) and although the entry fee is higher than that of rapidplay tournaments, so is the prize money. They accept entry online via Paypal.

Bourne End (north of Maidenhead) are holding a one-day chess congress on Sunday 25th March. This is a 5 round rapidplay tournament with 45 minutes per side, though it is not clear whether the games are ECF rated. Click here for the entry form.