In the last and final round of the Harrod Summer Cup, Anstey 2 travel to the Ashby Ivanhoe Social club to tackle one of the top teams of the Harrod: Ashby’s first team. Ashby 1 and Anstey 2 are quite close on the leader board, so this should make for an interesting match (much like the last match against Loughborough). The Anstey team was Valdas Matutis, Leo Abraham, Oskar Rudczenko, and John Graham-Brown (aka Little John). It was quite a casual evening as the Ashby chess club are a notoriously friendly bunch of people, so we all sat back, relaxed and played as we would as gentlemen. There was a bit of an inaccuracy with Leo’s absence, but it was no one’s fault, he eventually arrived and he still gave the match his all.

Board 1 (game 1) – Valdas Matutis plays white; Steve Emmerton plays black

Valdas opens with an abstract London system (nice and solid opening I might add), and his opponent carefully developing his pieces leaving little for Valdas to take advantage of. As the game progressed, the fighting became themed around the c file of the board; Valdas sensibly doubled his rooks on said file allowing him to dominate the only open file of the board. As a result, Valdas thought exchanging his pieces would be the best plan to progress in the position, so he started simplifying the game. Although, he had soon realised this was a mistake, as his opponent had set up a cunning trap which would mean Valdas had to trade one of his rooks for a bishop. Valdas had managed to win the rook back later on, but his opponent was not laying back to take the beating; this would be a tough game for Valdas. The game transitioned into an endgame, and Valdas’ position was not looking good as he was down a bishop. As the game progressed even more, it was clear to Valdas that this was a losing position and there wasn’t much he could do to ease the pain. Valdas had lost this game, but there was one more to play. The score started off with Ashby having one point to Anstey’s zero.

Board 1 (game 2) – Steve plays white; Valdas plays black

With his opponent opening with a popular e4, Valdas opened with a solid c6 and the opening became a variation of the Caro-kann. As the moves were played and the game progressed, both parties had solid defences with little leeway for their opponent. Pieces were traded off, and the position became more and more open. With more breathing room for each player, there were a lot more available moves and a lot more available room for error. More and more pieces were traded off, and the board looked a lot more empty. Eventually, the endgame transitioned into a king, rook and three pawn endgame, with the pawns being on the same files on the same side of the board. With the end to the game looking not so clear, both players blitzed out their moves and they both agreed to a draw. Unfortunate for Valdas, but he had still played well against an opponent, who was 200 rating points above Valdas. The score was Ashby with one and a half points, and Anstey with half a point.

Board 2 (game 1) – Leo Abraham plays white; Les Fancourt plays black

As previously mentioned, Leo was slightly late to the venue, but he had turned up just in time to play a little game of ‘catch up’, since he was 10 minutes late he had to play being down 10 minutes on the clock, which is half his time gone. No matter though, Leo still played through the game. Although, Leo had to play a bit more quickly than he might like to as he had to make up for lost time, so he often blitzed out his moves where possible. Leo had mentioned after the match that he often uses fear to play better, and this does make sense as your opponent does have the chance to beat you. However, you have the same chance, as long as you play the best or better moves than your opponent, and that’s exactly what Leo did. Before you could know it, Leo had won his opponent’s rook and had gained a winning position, all with time to spare. Leo did win, and this made the score equal with one and a half points to each team.

Board 2 (game 2) – Les plays white; Leo plays black

With a surprising win under his belt, Leo had gained more respect from his opponent, and Les was a lot more weary of Leo’s moves. The first few moves were very fast and both players blitzed out the few 10 moves of the opening stage of the game. Later on it became a lot more of a calm, with both players being out of opening knowledge of the position. With the game being a lot more equal, Leo and his opponent traded pieces off quite quickly, and things soon transposed into an endgame. Although, with Leo getting tired and running out of stamina, he eventually blundered a piece to an unfortunate trap. Leo was down a bishop and had to defend with only a rook versus a rook and bishop. Eventually, Leo was forced to trade rooks, and soon after he resigned the game. An unfortunate end to his evening, but Leo still fought well as his opponent was over 300 rating points above Leo. The score was two and a half to Ashby and one and a half to Anstey.

Board 3 (game 1) – Oskar Rudczenko plays white; Stephan Holmes plays black

With a good start from the first two boards, it was all up to the bottom two to bring the match home to Anstey. Oskar started off with an e4 and his opponent responded with e5. The opening then transposed into the Vienna opening, and with Oskar having the slight edge in the position. As the game continued slowly, Oskar kept pressing his attack, opening up the centre of the board and giving his rook solid control over the open e file. The game progressed, and the position was marginally equal with both players having chances to tactically out manoeuvre the other. The position was wide open and still Oskar had the advantage, making space for his pieces and starting to swat away black’s pieces from the black king. Unfortunately, Oskar had made a small error in evaluating the position, and he didn’t realise that the f file was open which allowed the opponent to make a check. Soon after, there came an unstoppable attack against the white king, and it all fell apart in an instant. Soon later, white was check mated and black won a point for Ashby. An unfortunate ending to a good looking position, the score being three and a half for Ashby versus Anstey’s one and a half.

Board 3 (game 2) – Stephan plays white; Oskar plays black

First move from white: d4, and from black was d5. A queen’s gambit. Oskar solidifies the d pawn and the game continues as an average game, pieces get developed and tensions are high in the position. Oskar dances his pieces into decent positions on the board, and white locks the queen side. With most of the space being on the kingside, that’s where Oskar put his pieces. Although, white would counter attack, pressuring and pushing the black pieces into the corner with black’s king, not a great situation to be in. However, Oskar fired back, sacing a piece for a few pawns and some initiative. As a check mating attack was brewing for black, white developed their last couple of pieces to make a defence. Oskar tried his best to complicate the position and throw in some tactics against white, but white managed to handle the chaos and put up a fight. As Oskar grew more impatient and tired, he missed a simple tactic that white did not miss, and a few moves later Oskar resigned the game. The score was Ashby with four and a half to Anstey’s one and a half.

Board 4 (game 1) – John Graham-Brown plays white; Joshua Cherrington plays black

Little John started his opening with e4 and an early queen attack, enthusiastic to start attacking. As the opening when on, it was clear that everything was equal even wit John’s aggressive style. In the mid game, black started to gain some positional advantage over John, which John didn’t take too kindly to so John pressed the attack even more than he already was doing. Brave? Certainly, but not quite good enough on the 64 squares, unfortunately. John lost one or two minor pieces after a violent brawl, and things quickly moved into the endgame as John was eager to fight and black was eager to win. Being a couple of pieces down, it can be very difficult to play in the endgame as you can get out manoeuvred much more easily as there is simply more pieces. This was the inevitable case for John’s game one on the fourth board, so John had been check mated but he is one hell of a fighter. Five and a half to Ashby with Anstey’s one and a half. One more game to go.

Board 4 (game 2) – Joshua plays white; John plays black

With white playing their first move to e4, John played the traditional e5, and there after John played an early queen attack again. Some people say that a good offence is the best defence, just like how a good defence can be a good offence, if you’re experienced enough in such positions. For Little John, he is still quite young, so being without much experience he lost ground fairly quickly. Because of an early queen attack, white can develop with tempo by attacking John’s queen continuously and that can give a significant advantage to white. With space being dramatically lost, John didn’t really know what to do and a few moves later he had lost. Even though this was a terrible defeat for John, he and his opponent agreed that they had both played a good match and John had learnt one or two things from playing against Joshua.

Final Say

With that match done and dusted, Ashby won with a five point lead, which puts Ashby in the top four teams of the cup and Anstey in ninth place. At least it’s not last, and there were quite a few good games from each match played, so it’s not that bad of a summer cup for the second team in Anstey. Maybe we’ll do better next year, with the rate we’re going at I think there’ll certainly be that chance next year. For now, it’s back to the league season and back to notating our moves and playing with an hour on the clock leaving plenty of time to have a fantastic game with your opponent. See you all in the Leicestershire chess league, we’ll be ready and waiting.