Matt Connor (Anstey 1) vs Ray Beach (Heathcote Arms 1) 1-0

Another brilliant game by Matt who is gradually establishing himself as the new/old star player in the club. The game started with an unusual opening after 1. e4 by our teammate was met by 1…e6 and just when Matt started thinking to himself: ‘I love a good French defence game’, the response to his natural 2. d4 was 2…d6 which led to a position known on chess.com as the ‘Small Centre Defence’. Not impressed by his opponent’s defensive style, Matt began proper development just to see on the board Black creating a Constantinople-style blockade on the 6th, 7th and 8th rank within the first ten moves despite Stockfish (depth=20) evaluation of +1.4 with equal material.

Having prepared his army for an attack on the Kingside in his usual style – without rushing and significantly down on the clock, Matt decided to strike with the e5 pawn break, exchange the dark-squared bishops and unleash his killer attack with the old brilliant (even by engine standards, as shown below) bishop sacrifice known as the ‘Greek gift’ 15. Bxh7!!.

The sacrifice was accepted and the move was followed by a sharp attack from White’s knight and queen which was met by Black bringing his queen to defend the Kingside and running his king in the centre of the board. With his solid play (and plenty of time), Black managed to equalise the position, but Matt’s dramatic performance (induced by both blunders and amazing moves along with 20 minutes time deficit) continued with another brilliant move (again, by engine standards) 21. Nxe6!!.

The position leads to an exchange of queens and after White’s knight is chased away and pieces are reshuffled, both players decide to exchange knights and pawns after d5 advance. At the end of the tactical sequence, ‘The Killer’ finds himself in a worse position after 29. Nxd5??, with Stockfish’ evaluation being -1.0 and his opponent having the chance to capitalise on the position with bishop against three pawns. Fortunately for our teammate, under the immense pressure applied by Matt’s knight and rook, Black blunders his bishop and returns the initiative back to White after 29….Be6??

Inspired by his opponent’s blunder, ‘The Killer’ unleashed a ‘forking hell’ on Black’s pieces with White’s knight jumping around and picking up pieces like Pac-Man picking up Pac-Dots (for the younger readers, Pac-Man was a very popular game in the past, look it up in Wikipedia here). Then the rook joins the attack, forking the king and knight to pick up another piece. The final blow was dealt again by the knight with the ‘Killer’ finish 43. Ne5+ after which Black resigned. 1-0

Michael Cowley (Heathcote Arms 1) vs. Mick Sandham (Anstey 1) 0-1

Mick had to play with Black and he went with his favourite 1…e6 2…a6 denying his experienced opponent any opportunity to delve into the book. After a couple of natural moves for Mick’s opponent, Black did not lose any time and stroke with 4…c5 challenging White’s centre.

After a St. George style development, Mick managed to hold on the jumpy White queen by undevelopping his bishop twice. With the ongoing expansion on the Queenside, Mick decided that King safety is overrated and started an attack on the Kingside which included a pawn gambit. Threatened by Black’s battery on the g-file, Mick’s opponent rushed to exchange queens, thus returning the one-point material after 25…Nxe5. With better positioned pieces and a strong bishop eyeing White’s king, Stockfish absolutely loves Mick’s position, evaluating it at -3.1 with equal material.

At this point, the g5-knight became a target protected by the d2-bishop. Unfortunately, Mick went against the engine’s recommendation and attacked the knight, providing his opponent the opportunity for an equal knight exchange and avoiding the issues on the g-file after the rook recapture. White managed to further exchange Mick’s monster bishop on b7 and to protect the passer on the h-file before blundering the b2-pawn. At this point Mick decided that he is too far ahead and the h3-rook would not dare touch his hanging knight after he played 35…Nd3 with the hope of forking White’s rook and bishop.

Unfortunately for our teammate, after capturing the knight and subsequently the e6-pawn with a check, White found himself in a very good position with a +4.9 advantage based on Stockfish evaluation. As usual, Mick proved a tough nut to crack, which is most likely rooted in his rugby career as an adolescent, and managed to equalise within a couple of moves with the great move (based on engine evaluation) 39…Bxg5.

Completely caught off-guard by Mick’s resilience, after a few moves White unexpectedly blundered an exchange leaving himself with bishop vs rook and pawn. Nevertheless, Mick’s opponent impressed with his determination to go to the very end, but our teammate showcased his ability to grind opponents down when ahead and converted his advantage, finishing with a little bit of showboating before delivering checkmate. 0-1

Julian Tarwid (Anstey 1) vs John Manger (Heathcote Arms 1) 1-0

Our second top rated player Julian went on to play White against a very experienced opponent. A big fan of Jobava London, Julian immediately went with his d4 and Bf4 setup with Nc3 and f3 played within the first four moves which were met by …d5 and …Nf6 from Black in a position that on move 3 transposes into the Chigorin variation of the Queen’s pawn opening. With Black’s light-squared bishop placed on f5, Julian decided to start a Kingside expansion with a gain of tempo on each pawn advance, as the bishop found itself running away on all possible squares and even asking the h-pawn to make some room. After the thematical 8. Bd3 Julian’s opponent gladly exchanged the bishop and just when we thought that the queen has developed and Queenside castling is imminent for White, our teammate decided that castling is a nonsense and opened the c-file, while doubling his pawns.

Although Stockfish does not completely disapprove of this move, at this point it evaluates the position as equal. After finishing his development, Julian decided to start marching his whole army, including his king towards the eighth rank and got so carried away that he completely missed a tactic from Black to win a pawn. Frustrated with the pawn loss, our teammate decided that it is time to strike at his opponent’s Kingside, with his g-pawn marching like Rambo towards its counterpart on g7. Although the advancement of the g- pawn appeared enthusiastic, the engine evaluated it as an amalgam of mistakes and inaccuracies, leading to an evaluation of -3.5 at 15.g6. However, humans are not computers and Julian’s opponent, probably a little wary of the ‘Rambo’ pawn decided to respond with 15…f6 unaware of the engine’s recommendation of short castling leading to a position evaluated at -4.97.

Although pretty much back in the game at this point (according to Stockfish; based on our own biased opinion Julian was winning the whole time), Julian managed to get to engine evaluation of -3.9 in a couple of moves. However, his opponent decided to play some inaccuracies with the whole sequence of checks, knight moves and pawn advances and exchanges leading to 19…Qxd4+ which Stockfish evaluated as a clean blunder.

Julian happily exchanged queens and put pressure on his opponent’s knight, while keeping an eye on the open d-file. His h5-knight decided to have a quick snack with the pawn on g7, opening the file for the notorious ‘Rambo’ g-pawn, still eager to transform itself from a brave one-move soldier to the all-encompassing chess queen. Julian’s opponent, however, got back on the ‘best move’ track and quickly put pressure on our teammate’s position, connecting his knights and threatening both a fork and picking up the ‘Rambo’ passer. Out of the two threats, Julian decided that the g-pawn will magically survive and gave one last attempt at trying to prevent the fork with 28. Nd4. In the following moves the engine went all red, after Black responded with 28…c5, threatening the knight protecting the fork. Julian then decided to lose an exchange for no compensation by taking the knight on g4, but his opponent had other plans, despite engine evaluation of -5.0 following 29…hxg4, and took the d4-knight.

Finally sensing a decent chance in winning the game (although we all thought that he is clearly winning the whole time), our teammate played several best moves answered by mistakes and pure blunders from his opponent. After a rook exchange and with all sorts of pressure while munching on isolated and plainly unprotected pawns, Julian found himself in a position evaluated as +3.9 by the engine on move 36, only seven moves after he was in trouble. Inspired by this change, our teammate’s rook started attacking from all sides, while its black counterpart was trying to create some counter-attacking chances, but ‘too little, too late’ as the saying goes. Both players managed to pick up a knight and a pawn from their opponents, before Julian delivered the final blow with his rook supported by no one else but the notorious ‘Rambo’ pawn! 44. Rh8! 1-0

Peter Harrison (Heathcote Arms 1) vs. John Robinson (Anstey 1) 0-1

On board 1 John took on his well-known opponent – the top player and captain of Heathcote Arms 1 Peter Harrison. The game started with the orthodox variation of the King’s Indian Defence, John’s long time favourite to play with and against (follow this link for a very instructive game where John defeated the King’s Indian defence of our own Leicester-born GM Glenn Flear).

John decided to exchange his light-squared bishop for a knight after 7…Bg4, obviously ignoring such nonsense as keeping the bishop pair, and after natural development the players decided to leave the book with the moves 10…a5 11. Qd2. After further reshuffling of the pieces, White decided on a plan to attack the Black’s Kingside, starting with 17. f4. Unmoved by this aggressive approach and unaware of his opponent’s +2.2 advantage as evaluated by Stockfish, John brought his knights to the defence, calmly waiting for White’s next mistake which happened not long after. John’s opponent decided to play the e5 pawn break, which did not impress much our teammate, who decided to slide his rook one square where the latter was eyeing hungry White’s queen on the d-file. Overestimating the threat, John’s opponent moved his queen aside, giving John the opportunity to equalise with 19. dxe5.

After the recapture with the f-pawn, John decided to stop the e-pawn march with his f8-knight who appeared to be drinking coffee with the king on the 8th rank and ignoring the action a couple of ranks in front of them. Then the players decided to reshuffle pieces again in the centre, completely ignorant of the engine shouting: ‘c5!’ to both of them during a four-move sequence which ended with a beautiful, yet hated by Stockfish knight sacrifice from John 22…Nxe5.

Counting on the fact that he is playing a man and not a computer, John began to create pressure on the Kingside and equalised the position in a couple of moves. Our teammate attacked his opponent’s light-squared bishop and after White retreated the latter, John stroke with a long waited pawn break of his own. After a quick exchange, John decided to get into a really complicated position with discovered attacks, pins and exchange offers threatened from all sides. His opponent, probably overwhelmed from the complexity of the position, decided to take on the most obscure response with 27. Nf7+, evaluated as a missed win by the engine with the best move being the quiet 27. Rce1.

Having a clear advantage, with a serene expression on his face John picked up the knight with his rook and comfortably relaxed on his seat, confident in his win regardless of him being in a bit of a time trouble. Our teammate further exploited his opponent’s reluctance to exchange queens and completely shattered White’s Kingside with his queen. After exchanging both rooks and loading up a battery on the h2-b8 diagonal, John exerted so much pressure on his opponent that the next blunder was inevitable and after 35…Qh3+, White resigned. 0-1

After the amazing success last night, our first team find themselves in third place with their next game against Market Harborough 2 being decisive for the table. Nevertheless, another team performance which makes us all proud to be part of Anstey Chess club and we wish ourselves plenty more to come!

Club Night

While out top players were sweating over the clocks and match boards, in the opposite corner a quiet club night was taking place. Oskar and Mike decided to engage in several chess battles while Boris and Ben played a long game intended to help Boris leave his ‘bullet’ way of playing and adopt a style of playing which will not lead to a -5.0 disadvantage with 56 minutes on the clock.

Shortly after 8pm, the rising second team star Hal also joined the party, regretting on his decision to arrive so early and wait for Boris and Ben to finish. After they did, Hal took on a few 20 minutes rapid games against both Ben and Boris in preparation for the Nottingham Rapid tournament where both him and Julian will play. We wish them both good luck!

After the relatively early conclusion of the evening, a few of our team members decided to celebrate the success in the nearby pub. If you want to experience the thrill and fun of both match and club nights, come and join us every Thursday from 7pm in the Anstey Methodist church! All abilities welcome!