Rawle Allicock, one of Battersea’s best players of the 1980s, subsequently moved to the USA.
Joe Skielnik has kindly contributed this article about him:-
One evening in 1983 a youngster walked into the club wanting a game of chess. His name was Rawle Allicock and I thought with a name like that he must be good. After a couple of games I realized he was better than that. He played for the club for a few years, gradually improving, but then moved on to Streatham and eventually the United States.
Here is a neat finish as black (to play) against IM Peter Large (South London Rapidplay 1998)
[pgn height=375 initialHalfmove=1 autoplayMode=none]
[Event “South London Rapidplay”]
[Site “?”]
[Date “1998.??.??”]
[Round “?”]
[White “Large, P.”]
[Black “Allicock, R.”]
[Result “0-1”]
[Annotator “Drennan,Bill”]
[SetUp “1”]
[FEN “r1b2rk1/pp2bppp/2n5/1N6/P1q2Q2/5N2/1PP2PPP/R1B1K2R b KQ – 0 0”]
[PlyCount “1”]
[SourceDate “2018.04.02”]
[SourceVersionDate “2018.04.02”]
[/pgn]
After Bb4+ white had to resign.
In the same tournament our own Paul Stokes (white) played Rawle.
[pgn height=475 initialHalfmove=31 autoplayMode=none]
[Event “South London Rapidplay”]
[Site “?”]
[Date “1998.??.??”]
[Round “?”]
[White “Stokes, P.”]
[Black “Allicock, R.”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “D01”]
[Annotator “Drennan,Bill”]
[PlyCount “40”]
[EventDate “1998.??.??”]
[EventType “rapid”]
[SourceDate “2018.04.02”]
[SourceVersionDate “2018.04.02”]
1. Nc3 c6 2. Nf3 d5 3. d4 Nf6 4. Bg5 Ne4 5. Nxe4 dxe4 6. Ng1 Qb6 7. b3 e5 8.
dxe5 Bb4+ 9. Bd2 e3 10. fxe3 Ba3 11. Nf3 Bg4 12. c4 Nd7 13. Qc2 O-O-O 14. g3
Nc5 15. Bg2 Bxf3 16. Bxf3 {See diagram} Rxd2 17. Kxd2 Qa5+ 18. b4 Qxb4+ 19. Qc3
Rd8+ 20. Kc2 Qa4+ 0-1
[/pgn]
In 2008 Rawle obtained an IM norm at a tournament in Coulsdon (the Budapest of South London) with this result.
1 IM Starostits, Ilmars 2480 7.0
2= IM Berzinsh, Roland 2420 6.0
2= Allicock, Rawle Anthony 2300 6.0
2= Zhou, Yang Fan 2276 6.0
5 FM Savage, Ben D 2308 5.5
6= IM Madan, Augustin 2409 4.5
6= FM Lundin, Jan 2341 4.5
8 Snape, Ian 2219 2.5
9= Lock, Gavin R 2252 1.5
9= Barrett, Stephen J 2226 1.5
Rawle seems now to have settled in the United States. One day he walked into the Marshall Chess Club in New York wanting a game of chess….Here is his game against Grandmaster Irina Krush.
[pgn height=475]
[Event “Marshall Championship”]
[Site “?”]
[Date “2016.12.13”]
[Round “3”]
[White “Allicock, R.”]
[Black “Krush, I.”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “A62”]
[Annotator “Drennan,Bill”]
[PlyCount “49”]
[SourceDate “2018.04.02”]
[SourceVersionDate “2018.04.02”]
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. g3 c5 4. d5 exd5 5. cxd5 d6 6. Nc3 g6 7. Bg2 Bg7 8. Nf3
O-O 9. O-O Re8 10. Bf4 Ne4 11. Nxe4 Rxe4 12. Nd2 Rxf4 13. gxf4 Bxb2 14. Rb1 Bg7
15. e4 Qh4 16. e5 Qxf4 17. e6 fxe6 18. dxe6 Nc6 19. Re1 Be5 20. Nf3 Bxe6 21.
Nxe5 Nxe5 22. Re4 Qf5 23. Qxd6 Bxa2 24. Rxb7 Nf7 25. Rb8+ {Black resigns as 25.
..RxR 26 QxR Kg7 27 Qb2+ wins a piece.} 1-0
[/pgn]
