Anstey 1 scored a great win away at Braunstone on Wednesday night to take outright victory in the Chapman Cup. With one round to go they have an unassailable 4-point lead:

Braunstone fielded a tough looking side, headed up by their first division board one Thomas Brown. Anstey put out their strongest available team but were once again out-rated overall, though that did mean they’d have a ½ point lead in this handicap competition. Captains Mike Salisbury (non-playing) and Matt Connor tossed for colours, Matt winning the toss and selecting black on odd-numbered boards.

It was a tense start with all the games looking fairly even. John Robinson with white on board 2 finished first with a draw against his ex-teammate (John has been around a bit!) Richard Hanscombe. John opened with his usual queen’s pawn and Richard went for a 1. … b6 and 2. … e6 setup allowing white to establish a fine centre of pawns with full development and getting safely castled on the kingside. Black did not manage to castle but tried an attack on the queenside which ultimately was not successful. After a number of exchanges white won a couple of pawns. However, by this stage John was in a bit of time trouble and ceded a pawn back then in the scramble missed a win somewhere along the line. A draw was agreed in a position which although John had a material advantage he was very low on time. Nonetheless, a steady start. Braunstone ½ – 1 Anstey.

The next game to finish was Mick Sandham against Daniel Wilkinson on board 4. Mick opened 1. e4 and Daniel deployed the French Defence, 1. … e6, Mick going for the advance variation. In a slightly unusual line black managed to swap off his (normally bad) light-squared bishop for white’s (normally good) counterpart. A couple of moves later Mick had the opportunity to play a neat tactic with Nxd5 but eschewed it, correctly calculating that material would come out equal but underestimating the difficulty black would have finalising development. Instead, he went for a more combative line giving up a pawn and then another to infiltrate on the 7^th rank with both rooks. In the meantime, black had pushed his passed a-pawn all the way to a2 and although Mick was just one move away from being able to checkmate on the back rank Daniel always had a1=Q with check to scupper it. In the time scramble in the double rook ending black made no mistakes and came out on top. Braunstone 1½ – 1 Anstey.

Julian Tarwid faced off against Thomas Brown on board 1, out-rated by 156 points. The game started off as a slow positional Slav defence, Julian playing for the centre with a delayed … e5 and then … e4. After a few manoeuvring moves the position looked fairly level but then Julian thought stuff this, swung his queen over to the kingside and started what turned out to be a deadly attack with … g5! Thomas made a a defensive mis-step and allied with ferocious attacking play Julian broke through, bringing both rooks in turn to the now open g-file and with his king trapped on the back rank by his own bishops white resigned:

A candidate for game of the season commented John. Braunstone 1½ – 2 Anstey.

Matt Connor played black against Gavin Hart on board 3 and was the last game to finish. Matt equalised fairly easily with his Pirc defence out of the opening before uncharacteristically being tempted by a loose pawn, playing … Bxa2 and hoping to launch an attack with … a5 and …a4. That didn’t happen, Gavin playing accurately and Matt being forced to give up his bishop for a further 2 pawns. That did mean he had 3 connected passed pawns but they were a long way from becoming a menace. White simply completed development, improved his pieces and started picking off black’s loose kingside pawns. It was looking bleak for black until white, looking to exchange pieces, swapped off the remaining rooks leaving him a piece for a pawn up but with his knight and bishop being too far way from the action on the queenside. The passed pawns began motoring, black’s king and knight backing them up with white’s king being the only defence:

The b-pawn queened and Matt made no mistake in the queen vs bishop and knight ending, picking up the knight and forcing the win. Braunstone 1½ – 3 Anstey.

Another fine team performance by Anstey, their fifth straight win in the competition to be crowned champions! We’re just waiting to hear when the ticker-tape parade through the streets on Anstey will take place…

Anstey captain Matt Connor told Sky Sports:
I’m so proud of our team, the tenacity, commitment and integrity that we play the game with is nothing short of amazing. Our star player Julian has had a fantastic Chapman Cup, unbeaten with 3 wins and 2 draws against some highly rated opponents. Good contributions too from John and Mick. A big thanks also to Boris, Mike, Valdas and Oskar who have stepped in to play when required. My team. My club. My Anstey. #thesoulofchessincharnwood.

The following evening was a normal club night at the Methodist Church in Anstey, the winning team convening for their champions photo and analysis of the previous night’s games. Julian did a training session with the juniors, John showed off a classic game of his against Tony Miles (England’s first Grandmaster!) and a little opening theory looked at. All topped off with a few casual games, all in all a great club night.