Anstey 1 flying high in the most popular summer cup in Leicestershire following a crushing 7.5 – 0.5 defeat over Ashby 3.
This week marked the fourth round of the Harrod Cup, with Anstey 1 facing Ashby 3. Following the amazing performance from Anstey 2 against Loughborough the previous night, the first team entered the bout as the absolute favourite, outranking their opponents by more than 750 points in total. A win on the night would have meant that Anstey will have the chance to temporarily occupy the top spot in the table and challenge the other strong teams for the trophy in the last round. A strong team consisting of Matt “The Dark Destroyer”, Mick “Just Mick”, Boris “The Toaster” and Leo “The Lion” gave it all on the night, with only “The Toaster” “conceding” a draw and with no losses for the team.
“The Dark Destroyer” Matthew Connor (Anstey 1) vs Mick Brown (Ashby 3) 2 – 0
With our team scheduled to play as White in the first round of the match, Matt faced the Czech defence as he led the game into the Austrian variation. Black played an early Qa5, followed by Qb6 to target the b2-pawn. With plenty of play still to be carried out, “The Dark Destroyer” patiently waited for the comital pawn capture from his opponent which occurred promptly and following king side (K-side) castling form our teammate, Black decided to bring his queen back to b6. The latter decision ended being crucial for the game, as Matt won one of Black’s knights after a discovered attack on the black queen. Finding himself a piece up, “The Dark Destroyer” did not waste any moves and simplified the game by exchanging all pieces to find himself with a bishop and five pawns against five pawns. Our teammate started pushing his pawns while controlling his opponent’s counterparts with his bishop. Eventually, the white king infiltrated Black’s position and the Ashby player resigned.
As Black, Matt engaged in a very strange, Colle-type Queen’s pawn opening. Our teammate managed to win a pawn from the opening and the game continued with both players developing their pieces in a solid manner. Eventually, White decided to open up the centre, leading to series of exchanges and leaving the Ashby player with two knights against Black’s two bishops. “The Dark Destroyer” realised that his bishops were more of a liability than an asset and happily traded off his light-squared minor piece for the more active of White’s knights as part of a big exchange in the centre of the board. Nevertheless, the Ashby player continued to be the more active player and tried to activate his rooks to no effect as Matt put together a very solid defence. Our teammate further managed to exchange the rooks, completely nullifying White’s activity while still keeping his material advantage, albeit quite down on the clock at the time. Finding himself in the familiar position of having only a few seconds left on the clock, “The Dark Destroyer” attacked the K-side pawns while trying to hold on his opponent’s queen side (Q-side) pawn advance with his bishop. The players exchanged the last minor pieces and the race of the pawns started, with both players queening their pawns at the same time with White to play. Unfortunately for the Ashby player, he chose the worst possible continuation, giving the opportunity for our teammate to exchange the queens and promote one of his two remaining pawns. Seeing the most plausible continuation, White resigned.
Matt has showcased again that he is the most consistent player in Anstey Chess club and following another amazing performance he is yet to lose this season, with his last loss conceded before COVID-19 pandemic!
Mick “Just Mick” Sandham (Anstey 1) vs Neil Roberts (Ashby 3) 2 – 0
Following ups and downs for Mick, he is starting to pick up the pace and deservedly occupies the third position overall in the club for the summer cups. In his first game of the match, Mick opened with his trademark e4, only to face the Sicilian Najdorf, a popular opening nowadays at all levels, including amongst Super GMs. Mick managed to pick up a pawn in the opening and following normal development and castling K-side for both players, “Just Mick” started playing quickly and before long he lost his queen to a fork. Seeing some counter play available on the board, our teammate continued the game and it took him only two moves to capture the black queen, restoring the balance on the chess board. With good tactical play our teammate manged to enter the endgame a bishop up, albeit under pressure from Black’s rooks.
Mick defended solidly against all threats from his opponent and started pushing his pawns, creating promotion threats deep into Black’s territory. Eventually under the pressure the Ashby player blundered an exchange and swiftly resigned.
With the black pieces, Mick showcased a great performance following opening with St. George against the Bird with e3. Both players developed their pieces and decided to castle opposite sides, with “Just Mick” tucking his king on the K-side, while his opponent castled Q-side. With his St. George setup Mick found it easier to push his pawns on the Q-side, attacking the white king and managed to open the b-file for his rooks. Our teammate doubled his rooks and eventually planted them on b1 and b2, trapping the white queen in the process. Under the immense pressure, the Ashby player managed to find an interesting idea, almost escaping the crushing attack, but an important pawn push from Mick led to him being up a whole piece in the endgame. A few more moves were played, with the white pawns starting to drop, at which point White decided that he had enough and resigned.
Another great performance from “Just Mick” who deservedly bring the two points home.
“Boris The Toaster” Borislav Lazarov (Anstey 1) vs Jamie Rhodes (Ashby 3) 1.5 – 0.5
The biggest rating difference was on board 3 where Boris was facing the 320 points lower rated young Jamie Rhodes. In his first game with the white pieces Boris completely ignored any chess recommendations for decent play and blasted dubious move after dubious move straight from the opening, finding himself with more than 18 minutes still left on the clock by move 20. The players engaged in tactical battles in the centre of the board, with our teammate being the slightly more active player. Unfortunately, “The Toaster” did not calculate the position (he did not seem to calculate anything at the pace he was playing) correctly and found himself in a losing endgame which quickly become a completely losing endgame. Fortunately for our teammate, he managed to swindle his way back into the game and eventually got the draw, keeping half of the point and some of his dignity still intact.
Adamant that there will be no boring games on board 3, both players developed quickly in a similar to the first game opening where Boris decided to sacrifice a rook for two pieces. “The Toaster” and his opponent engaged in a long tactical sequence where queens were exchanged and White sacrificed his light-squared bishop for the opportunity to fork our teammate’s king and a8 rook with the infamous c7-knight fork. Anticipating that the knight is going to be stuck for a while on a8, Boris first attacked the remaining white bishop and exchanged it for his remaining knight and then picked up the remaining white knight at the expense of a pawn. With the bishop pair against a rook, Boris closed off all of the files for the powerful white rooks and shuffled his bishops to get the on the most active positions he could find on the board. “The Toaster” started progressing very slowly, conscious of his weaknesses on the back rank which he was careful to defend in spite of his characteristic very fast and inconsiderate play. The Ashby player managed to infiltrate the black territory with one of his rooks, only to find himself unfortunate to blunder the exchange, leaving out teammate a full bishop up. Boris quickly managed to exchange the remaining rooks and after his opponent tried to create some counter play, “The Toaster” started to push his “passer” at which point White decided that enough is enough, and resigned.
Not the best performance from Boris this season who nevertheless managed to grind out his opponent in the second game and closed his part of the match with respectable 1.5/2 points.
Leo “The Lion” Abraham (Anstey 1) vs Graham Bird (Ashby 3) 2 – 0
Leo was the only outrated Anstey player on the evening but considering his current form, he was definitely one of the favourites leading into the match. With the white pieces, the players engaged in the well-known 1. e4 e5 line and quickly develop their pieces. “The Lion” created strong pressure on the K-side against the black king, with pieces pointing in the latter’s direction and K-side white pawns advanced into Black’s territory. Our teammate decided to open up the centre and led the game into a tactical sequence where he showcased his significantly improved calculation ability. Eventually at the end of the sequence, the Ashby player retreated his knight, only to find himself a victim of a triangle checkmate on the back rank.
Flying high, “The Lion” answered is opponent’s e4 with e5 in the second game when he played as Black. This time the players decided to develop very solidly, with Leo castling K-side and fianchetto-ing his dark-squared bishop on g7. White tried to create some play, only to fall victim of our teammate’s excellent tactical vision, and suffered the loss of his queen as a result of a knight fork. Leo picked up the white lady for free and started series of attacks on the black king. His opponent bravely tried to defend but under the waves of attacking moves from our teammate, the Ashby player resigned.
Another great performance from our team as they find themselves as the temporary leaders in the table with 3 wins and 1 draw, anticipating the result from Wigston vs Ashby 2 which will determine the three teams’ respective chances of winning the Harrod Cup.
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