Anstey delivered a crushing defeat to Kirby in the fourth round of Leicestershire’s elite rapid competition

Last Thursday evening (04/08/2022), our Wylie cup team travelled to the Kirby Muxloe Bowls club for their fourth game in the competition. With “The Dark Destroyer” Matt on County Championship duties, the Anstey team, scheduled to face Kirby, consisted of our top player Julian “Mr. Engine”, Mick “Just Mick”, “El Presidente” Ben and Boris “The Toaster”. The team arrived to our hosts’ venue around 19:20 and after a short deliberation on different variations of chess (boxing-chess, diving-chess, possibility of bowls-chess), our players sat across similarly rated players on the first three boards, while Boris was outranking his opponent by a solid margin of almost 500 points on the bottom board. Our players proved again that they are in great form at the moment and delivered a crushing 6 – 2 defeat to the host as they conceded only one loss during the night.

Gijs Kruitbosch (Kirby) vs “Mr. Engine” Julian Tarwid (Anstey) 0 – 2

Anstey played White in the first round and Julian opened up with his favourite d4, only to face the King’s Indian Defence. Julian took the offered centre and prepared for a sharp tactical battle, however, his opponent offered our teammate a gift by miscalculating a combination and sacrificing his dark squared bishop for two pawns and no compensation. Finding himself reigning on the dark squares, “Mr. Engine” switched to positional mode and started putting pressure on his opponent. Julian managed to exchange the minor pieces and although Black defended bravely, he had to part ways with one of his rooks which left him with a rook, queen and two pawns for two rooks and a queen. Credit to the Kirby player, he tried to fight in a desperate situation but “Mr. Engine” is the kind of player who very rarely misses decisive opportunities and started creating pressure on the f-file where he exchanged his queen and rook for their black counterparts. The sole rook on the board, owned by our teammate, infiltrated Black’s back ranks and started munching on the vulnerable unprotected pawns on the queen side (Q-side) while the Kirby player attempted one last desperate attack with his king and his isolated, albeit passed pawn, only to be met by Julian’s king actively defending the file. At this point Black decided that he had enough and swiftly resigned.

With Black, Julian went into the great theoretical depths of the Tal variation of the Caro-Kann defence, only to be taken out quickly by a weird queen move from his opponent, refusing the exchange offered by our teammate. Unfortunately for the Kirby player, his decision ended costing him the game as his king found himself stuck in the middle. Following the main principles of chess, “Mr. Engine” ensured the safety of his king and took the initiative in trying to open White’s centre and attack the vulnerable king. Our teammate took control of the light squares and made the most of his position by creating tactical threats all over White’s territory. Eventually, Julian’s opponent found himself under immense pressure and missed a double discovered check by Black leading to the loss of the white queen, at which point the Kirby player resigned.

Julian’s return in the Wylie cup marks another great performance from him as he leaves Kirby with a full 2/2 score on the night. “Mr. Engine” continues to impress with his performance and we are excited to see him in OTB action again soon.

Ray Townsend (Kirby) vs Mick “Just Mick” Sandham (Anstey) 0.5 – 1.5

Mick was scheduled to play second board against the experienced Ray Townsend who was also the only player from Kirby higher rated than his opponent, albeit only by 45 points. Unmoved by the rating difference, our teammate opened with e4 which was met by a very passive setup from Black which looked a little bit like the French defence, but never ended being a proper French. “Just Mick” thought for a while and decided to play his style, immediately taking the centre and developing quickly. Under the squeeze of a space disadvantage, the Kirby player tried to keep up with his development as both players castled short. In his typical style, Mick decided that king safety is more of a concept than a hard-written rule and with all of his pieces pointing towards the black king, started an attack on king side (K-side). With the superior positioning of the white army, the tactical threats around the black king accumulated quickly and under the pressure of a multitude of menacing combinations, Black decided to call it a day and resigned.

With the black pieces, Mick found himself facing the Bird opening. After a brief consideration, “Just Mick” decided that there is nothing to be impressed by and continued with another English minor opening/defence in the face of his characteristic St. George. The players started their battle for the centre, and with the white king castling short, an attacking player like Mick seized the opportunity to attack the K-side following casting on the Q-side. White managed to get to the black king first and snatched the black c-pawn. In an attempt to solidify and remove tactical threats, White offered a queen exchange, however, Mick decided to preserve his queen, only to find himself losing a piece in the process. Fortunately, the lost piece gave our teammate time to take the initiative on the K-side, as he managed to march his g-pawn to the enemy territory. With his great positional understanding, “Just Mick” managed to place a beautiful knight on f7, supported by the g-pawn, and completely block White’s pieces. His opponent never considered sacrificing the exchange for activity and shuffled around his bishop pair, only to lose one of them. Finding himself with a slight positional advantage, but with about a minute left on the clock, Mick offered his opponent a draw which the Kirby player accepted after brief consideration.

In spite of all the drawbacks for “Just Mick” this season, he proved again that he is a much better player than the numbers say and left the Kirby Muxloe Bowls club with a 1.5/2 score. Never a player to go for boring positions and aiming for draws, we are excited to see him again in action soon.

Paul Gray (Kirby) vs “El Presidente” Ben Vaughan (Anstey) 1.5 – 0.5

It has not been the best season for our chairman as stepping down from league play to ensure opportunities for our new players had left him a little rusty prior to the summer cups. Ben faced another experienced Kirby player in the face of Paul Gray. The latter played the Scandinavian defence against our teammate’s e4, which admittedly Ben had not seen OTB for years. Nevertheless, “El Presidente” developed swiftly and found himself quite happy entering the middlegame, with well-developed pieces and two rooks on semi-open files. At this point our chairman decided to lift one of his rooks but following a short consideration, eventually he picked up the wrong one, as Black replied by a beautiful knight move to fork the white queen and the sad rook who just wanted to participate actively in the game. Parting ways with the aforementioned rook, Ben decided to try and be active, as he placed a knight on e5. Unfortunately, due to weak back rank, the knight became a target for tactical play and soon our teammate had to part ways with it as well. Finding himself in a completely losing position with a full rook down for no compensation, Ben did the honourable thing and resigned.

With the black pieces, “El Presidente” played his customary French defence at which his opponent sarcastically muttered “Great!”, apparently unimpressed with Ben’s choice of reply to his e4. White played rather strange a3 and h3, leaving the board for our teammate who developed swiftly. The players exchanged the minor pieces and Ben managed to find a suitable target for attack in the face of a backward pawn on e3. Our teammate loaded a battery pointing at the point which his opponent managed to defend. Although having the initiative, “El Presidente” noticed that Julian had finished his second game on board 1. Finding out that the team needs only half point to win the match at this point, our chairman placed again the team above himself and offered a draw which his opponent more than happily accepted.

A hard day in the office for Ben as he had to play one board above expected again in the Wylie cup. Nevertheless, his solid performance as Black delivered the important win to Anstey with two games still played at the time.

Nigel Smith (Kirby) vs Borislav “Boris The Toaster” Lazarov (Anstey) 0 – 2

Boris had the easiest task on paper as he was scheduled to face the prospective player Nigel Smith. With the white pieces, “The Toaster” opened with his usual d4 and followed with a characteristic expansion on the K-side, exchanging the light-squared bishops in the process. Both players attacked the centre without castling and found themselves in a complicated position with a web of tactical opportunities in front of both of them. With Boris’ turn to play, he decided that the position is too complicated for his taste with him having “only” 11 minutes left on the clock and engaged in a big simplification to leave himself with two knights and a pawn against a bishop and a knight. The players started a battle for the centre and exchanged a pair of knights which left Boris with knight, rook and pawn against bishop and rook. The Kirby player lifted his rook in an attempt to win the pawn back, only to find it trapped after few moves, leading to a loss of an exchange. The problems for Black continued after he miscalculated a rook check forking the king and the bishop and with a rook and pawn up, our teammate consolidated his position and checkmated his opponent.

As Black, Boris replied with the Caro-Kann to his opponent’s e4 and both players developed quickly and castled K-side. Entering the middlegame, the players again found themselves in a complicated position as “The Toaster” brought his queen in the wide open centre. The Kirby player showcased tactical superiority and following a big exchange found himself up a pawn with a superior position and with a beautiful bishop against a somewhat passive knight. Fortunately for our teammate, he was able to activate his knight and rook faster than his opponent and managed to exchange the rooks, leaving Nigel with isolated double f-pawns. With the majority in his favour on the Q-side, Boris pushed the a-pawn, supported by the knight and eventually created a “passer” on the a-file which was exchanged for White’s remaining minor piece. Our teammate further picked up the white c-pawn and eventually managed to get his own c-pawn to the first rank and promote a queen. “The Toaster” demonstrated a mediocre yet successful ability to deliver checkmate in a K & Q vs. K situation without the need to suffer the shame of stalemating his opponent.

A great performance for our teammate as he leaves Kirby with a full 2/2. It is worth mentioning that neither the score, nor the numbers give the deserved credit to Nigel who is definitely a player to watch for in the future.

Another great performance from a solid Anstey team in spite of another reshuffling as Matt played in the County Championship. The team showcased beautiful play and finally find themselves off the bottom of the table. The next fixtures for Anstey are in the Harrod cup, followed by a decisive match in the Chapman cup against Braunstone.