Next meeting: Wednesday 8th January 2025 at 7:15pm.
Venue: Upstairs Committee Room, Chiswick Town Hall, Heathfield Terrace, London W4 4JN (see map).
Agenda: Middlesex League home match against Hendon-2.
West London Chess Club was founded in 1893, as such we pre-date the formation of the English Chess Federation. Historically, we have been and continue to be affiliated to Middlesex County Chess Association (MCCA). Our club welcomes and caters for players of all abilities. Members can play competitive games for our teams in the Central London, Hillingdon and Middlesex leagues or social/friendly games for general improvement. Should they be interested they can also consider representing one of the county teams. The club match venue is the impressive Chiswick Town Hall, a grade 2 listed building opposite Turnham Green. During the summer months we meet in the relaxed atmosphere of the George and Devonshire pub for some friendly games.
Chiswick Town Hall (see map). Our club match venue opposite Turnham Green.
George & Devonshire pub (see map). Located next to the Hogarth Roundabout is our summertime venue for friendly games.
Congratulations to club stalwart GM Eldar Gasanov, who won the Northumbria Masters tournament, undefeated on 6½/9 ahead of Jonah Willow, Conor Murphy and Danny Gormally, amongst others.
Huge congratulations to our very own Shreyas Royal, who just achieved his third and final GM norm in the British Championship with his final-round drawn game with Michael Adams. At just fifteen years old, he is the youngest ever British grandmaster, beating the previous record of David Howell by six months. Fittingly, he beat David Howell in his individual game in the tournament. We look forward to him continuing to play for West London next season.
London Rapid Chess Open Tournament, Alperton Community School Hall, Harrow HA0 4PW. Click here to download a PDF document with details.
The British Blitz tournament is underway, with the London qualifier being held a few days ago. This had two West London Chess Club representatives. Kabir Pandit came 10th in the tournament in a field of 150 players, finishing above no less than thirteen titled players, so a very good result. Even better was the result of Eldar Gasanov, who won the tournament outright with 12.5/15 points, ahead of Grandmasters Jonathon Speelman, Willie Watson and Stuart Conquest.
The 2022-2023 chess season concluded on the 28th June with our last Hillingdon League match against Ealing. It has been quite a season in terms of results:
In the Central London League (division 3) our team finished in mid table, fourth out of six teams, with 4 wins and 6 losses. In the Hillingdon League we had 9 wins and a draw. In the London League we were undefeated, with 11 wins and one draw.
Thanks to all our players. 19 people played at least one match, and 13 players played at least 5 matches. Of those, Shreyas Royal scored 100% in his 8 games, Eldar Gasanov 93% across his 15 games, and also noteworthy was Kabir Pandit‘s 88% in his 8 games. Colum Jezierski played 15 games at 77%, and I played 19 games at 74%. However, everyone who turned out for our matches deserves a big thank you. Thanks especially to those who played at least five matches; in addition to the above these were Antanas Zapolskis, Alexander Cherniaev, John Bass, Graham Chase, Charlie Sturt, Russ Campbell, Phil King and Gursharanjit Gill.
Our very own Shreyas Royal (14 years old, ECF 2538, FIDE 2432), who had a 100% record for us this year, has been selected to be trained by Garry Kasparov himself after a competitive training camp in Zagreb. This was part of the Kasparov Chess Foundation’s ‘Young stars’ program, which pitted seven top juniors for four places in the program. The other winners were Ihor Samunenkov (Ukraine, FIDE 2499, 14 years old), Anastasia Hnatyshyn (Ukraine, FIDE 2101, 13 years old) , Christian Gloeckler (Germany, FIDE 2318, 11 years old).
Shreyas Royal, currently graded 2538 ECF, is now the 13th highest rated player in the UK, He is now ahead of current British champion Harry Grieve and grandmasters Jonathon Speelman, Mark Hebden, Simon Williams and Keith Arkell, amongst others. Indeed there are 13 UK grandmasters now rated lower than Shreyas. Not bad for a 14 year old.
West London Chess Club wins the London League (Eastman Cup) with a score 11½ out of 12. A fantastic achievement. Many congratulations to all the players who helped to make this possible.
Get to know Shreyas Royal, our highest rated player. This short (just over 5 minute) Youtube video was produced by the International Olympic Committee. Watch the video here.
December 3rd saw the finals of the British Blitz championships, held at Leamington Spa. West London Chess Club was well represented. Elmira Mirzoeva won the women's Blitz outright by a clear point with a score of 12/14. Meri Grigoryan finished 5th. What was remarkable was that Elmira's main rival, Bodhana Sivanandam, who led for most of the tournament and finished on 11/14, was just seven (!) years old. Read the article here
In the men's championship two players finished on 12.5/15. West London's own Eldar Gasanov was one, and the other was Jonathon Speelman, in a field of nine titled players. Their individual game was drawn, but GM Speelman squeaked ahead on tie-break rules. Still a great result for both Eldar Gasanov and his wife Elmira Mirzoeva. Congratulations to both of them.
West London Chess Club's own Shreyas Royal is having quite a year. Having gained the three IM norms that he needed for his pending IM title, thirteen-year-old Shreyas recently passed the 2,500 grading point on the ECF list, a level that is the threshold for the grandmaster title. This week he gained another milestone, his first GM norm (two are needed for the GM title along with a 2,500 rating) at a strong tournament in Tegernsee in Germany. Shreyas finished third overall, ahead of twelve grandmasters in a large field of 474 entrants with no less than 67 titled players. Shreyas scored 7/9 points, with six wins and only one loss, and that to the very strong GM Anton Korobov, four-time Ukrainian champion graded 2659. Shreyas's wins included victories over GM Bobby Cheng (2576) and GM Jiri Stocek (2555) and a draw with GM Eltaj Safarli (2616). Shreyas had a tournament performance of 2614. Many congratulations to him.
Congratulations to recent recruit to West London, Shreyas Royal, who in the ECF November ratings update crossed the threshold of 2500. He has three IM norms so will soon become an IM, but 2500 is the minimum GM grading threshold, so he is on his way to that milestone too. Not bad for someone who is thirteen years of age! Also, congratulations to Colum Jezierski who finished joint first place in the U2000 section in the Central London Congress at Imperial College over the weekend.
Yesterday was the qualifying section of the UK Blitz championship, with three events being held around the country. The London event was a strong one, with 17 players holding a chess title out of 143 participants, and including grandmaster Jonathon Speelman and new UK classical chess champion Harry Grieve, who at 21 years old triumphed at the British Championships in Torquay a few weeks ago, gaining his first GM norm in the process.
But after 15 rounds of play finished at Kensington, it was West London Chess Club who had cause to celebrate. Winning the event was our very own Eldar Gasanov, on 12/15 ahead of IM Jonathon Tayar and GM Speelman. In fourth place was another West London player, Kabir Pandit, who scored a remarkable 11/15, ahead of four international masters, including a win over Harry Grieve (who is rated 2560 at blitz); not bad for someone with (at least until now) a blitz rating of 1991. Well done to both players!
Well done to Gursharanjit Gill for his joint first place in the U1750 section of the British Championships at Torquay.
Andy Hayler's final round game at the recent Hammratty Chess Congress was selected for the brilliancy prize, not just in the major section but the whole tournament. Here is a short video of grandmaster Daniel King analysing the game on his Youtube channel.
To close the club match season, we host Grandmaster Alexander Cherniaev in a simultaneous exhibition. Needless to say he won all the games. Photos available on our Gallery page.
West London Chess Club wins the Hillingdon League Knockout Tournament in a tense match against Harrow. Congratulations to all those who played and well done to Harrow who fought on until the last game to make this a difficult and enthralling finish to the season.