Two debutants from Ben’s former club with excellent performances to seal the deal for our friends from South Leicester.

The new season started last week for Anstey 2 as they played Wigston 4 at home on the last Thursday of September. Following the successful end of the last season, our second team headed into the fixture with confidence. A strong side consisting of Brian ‘The Griller’, Boris ‘The Toaster’, ‘El Presidente’ Ben, Bob and Mike, outrated slightly a talented away team, represented by young prospective players, including three league debutants. Unfortunately for our side, the rating difference did not show on the boards as the visitors won decisively the match 3.5 – 1.5, hence, delivering the first defeat for any Anstey team in the league this calendar year.

Phil Watkinson (Wigston 4) vs Brian ‘The Griller’ Foreman (Anstey 2) Result: 0 – 1

On the top board, the Anstey Methodist Church saw the return of ‘The Griller’ in OTB league chess. The game started with a typical QG position, led into the Slav defence by our teammate. The players developed promptly as our teammate decided to take on c4 in an effort to equalise quickly while his opponent commits pawns in the process of getting back his pawn. Both players emerged from the opening with each still having an undeveloped piece and castled kingside (K-side). Brian tried to annoy his opponent by placing a knight in the centre of the board, but the Wigston player exchanged it without much thinking. On the very next move White decided to try the same thing by playing Ne5, only to give a clear target for the still undeveloped, possibly enjoying a hot drink black b8-knight. With another exchange taken place, the proceedings were concluded for all horse resembling L-shape hopping pieces. Deep into the middle game, a positional battle was undertaken, as the players did their best in contesting the semi-open c- and d-files. Eventually, ‘The Griller’ decided to strike in the centre with e5, followed by prise opening both c- and d-files with cxd5. Both players went into the depths of engine moves with Kf8 and Kh1, as the tension in the centre kept rising by the move. White had decided to double his rooks on the d-file, while Black had each rook on an open file. Brian offered a bishop exchange and with the potential energy in the centre of the board reaching nuclear levels, pieces started being exchanged violently, with our teammate initiating the exchanges. With most of the pieces exchanged, the players found themselves in a completely equal endgame with a rook and light-squared bishop each, topped up by a completely symmetrical pawn structure. Our teammate activated his king while his opponent pushed his K-side pawns. The players further exchanged their bishops, and after strategic positioning of his king, ‘The Griller’ infiltrated White’s back rank with his remaining rook. Despite the clear equality at the start of the position, the Wigston player made some significant positional mistakes and given his experience OTB, Brian capitalised on his brand new advantage in the endgame to get the only Anstey win on the night. An excellent comeback for our second team first board.

Borislav ‘Boris The Toaster’ Lazarov (Anstey 2) vs Joseph Horspool (Wigston 4) Result: 0 – 1

After a good summer cups campaign, Boris started the season on the back of some good performances, playing on the second board of the second team. Across the board, our teammate found a debutant in the league in the face of Joseph Horspool whose father also happened to be in the Anstey Methodist Church on the night fighting for the first place in the Open division of the County Championship against one of the local legends – Shabir Okhai from Syston. The young Wigston player on board 2 immediately showcased his chess roots and met Boris’ development with a slightly passive, yet effective defence. ‘The Toaster’ positioned his pieces in what appeared to be excellent squares, taking space in the centre and having developed all of his minor pieces as soon as move 9. Nevertheless, our teammate wasted move 10 on a far-fetched idea starting with h3, only to be met by a well-timed c5 from Black. The move unleashed a long sequence of exchanges, leaving Boris with doubled f-pawns and a possible slight advantage, had he kept his centre pawns. Unfortunately, our teammate decided to take an alternative route, greedily picking up the black a-pawn, as the Wigston player exchanged the queens, leaving our teammate with terrible pawn structure in a slightly worse endgame. Although the game was far from over, ‘The Toaster’ decided to take the action into a two rooks vs two rooks endgame, a notorious struggle for our teammate which costed him half point in the last round of the Chapman cup a fortnight earlier. Black decided to double his rooks on the worst possible file, while our teammate managed to occupy the open files, while also partially fixing his own pawn structure. Boris decided to try and further damage his opponent’s pawn structure by sacrificing his h-pawn and put himself in a good situation with solid drawing chances (Stockfish, depth=15 from chess.com evaluates it at 0.0). However, our teammate missed the brilliant f4 move and played Rh1 instead, followed by Rh2 and Rf1, completely freezing his pieces in a wait to be demolished, with the engine evaluating the position as -1.1. ‘The Toaster’ managed to activate his king and sacrificed the f-pawn to get one of the black h-pawns, but went over the top with another unnecessary pawn sacrifice. Our teammate managed to activate his rooks and even had good drawing chances at several points, but after several inaccuracies and obvious mistakes got himself in a completely losing pickle and resigned. The game ended being a harsh beginning of the new season for Boris who will be looking to perform better in the next fixture against the Division 4 winners from last year Market Harborough 3.

Lucas Muir (Wigston 4) vs ‘El Presidente’ Ben Vaughan (Anstey 2) Result: 1 – 0

(reported by Ben himself)

On board 3, ‘El Presidente’ faced off against another debutant – Lucas Muir. Against 1.e4 (proper chess player!), he replied with the usual French Defence. However, instead of replying cxd4, ‘El Presidente’ responded to a3 by playing c4 in a brand new move for him. Was this the time to experiment? Probably not but once you’ve moved a piece, you cannot take it back. ‘El Presidente’ followed up c4 with Na5-b3 – the b3 square being a big hole in White’s position. The idea was to follow up with the e7 Knight coming to c6-a5 to reinforce b3 but with a trade off happening straight away, Black had to re-capture with a pawn, after an attempt to pin the capturing Knight with Ba4 – a nice little find. The pieces came off and Black seemed to have gained equality but Lucas played some sensible moves without being aggressive and was able to squeeze the position, forcing a mistake from ‘El Presidente’. The engine evaluation at this point of the game was +7 and even over the board it was looking fairly bleak for Black. However, ‘El Presidente’ cut his losses and eventually castled and shifted his pieces to the K-side. White did blunder, allowing Qd1+ which swung the game to -7 in Black’s favour. Unfortunately, by this point El Presidente was low on time and did not have sufficient time to calculate sophisticated capitalisation on his superior position. What followed was the trade of Queens and some exceptionally poor endgame play from both players. ‘El Presidente’ did not have much time and was down to 8 seconds at one point. Lucas held his nerve and eventually mated Black with a Queened pawn, King and Bishop in tandem.

‘El Presidente’ certainly looked rusty and felt rusty – on to the next one!

Bob Grindrod (Anstey 2) vs Sathsara Dissanayake (Wigston 4) Result: 1/2 – 1/2

Although a seasoned league player most recently (albeit in pre-pandemic times) in Norfolk, Bob made his debut in the Leicestershire league, playing White against a third young debutant in the league from Wigston. The inexperience of the visitors’ player along with the rustiness over the board of our teammate whose last competitive game was in 1 B.C. (first year before COVID), the game ended being a little bit of a ‘swings and roundabouts’ display. After a typical Italian game in the ‘Giuoco pianissimo’ our teammate found himself with the bishop pair after his opponent equalised early in the opening and carelessly exchanged his dark-squared bishop for one of the white knights. Already castled K-side, Black decided to strike in the centre with d4 which was met by Bob with an ambitious plan to spend some time getting a good square for the queen so he could castle queenside (Q-side). Black used the presented initiative to occupy the centre with his knight while exchanging his other knight for White’s dark-squared bishop. With the addition of relative pin on the remaining white knight, our teammate found himself in a very uncomfortable position, evaluated by the engine at -1.5 with equal material. Luckily, Black exchanged the wrong piece and the position got back to more or less equal, as the queens got off the board as well. Having the worse pawn structure, Bob started a series of improving moves, exchanging a set of rooks and taking advantage of an absolute pin to win a couple of pawns and get the material advantage, albeit with an ugly, almost unfortunate pawn structure. A sequence of pawn exchanges combined with tactical moves finished with Bob having the better part of a symmetrical and ugly pawn structure alongside a light-squared bishop and a rook on each side. Under the pressure of losing the initiative and the positional advantage, the young Wigston player made several mistakes to give our teammate a clear +5 advantage, with 4 pawns and fixed structure against two lonely isolated pawns. Unfortunately, our teammate’s rustiness showed up as he missed the opportunity to capitalise on his clearly winning position. With more active rook and nothing to lose, the young player from the away team managed to create havoc over the board and eventually the position ended being too drawish for any player to make any advance and the draw was agreed. Although a missed opportunity, Bob’s Anstey debut showcased how lucky our team is to have him in their line-up.

Chris Brown (Wigston 4) vs Mike Griffiths (Anstey 2) Result: 0 – 1

On board five Mike stepped up to reinforce the team as our opponents on the night requested five board match. The game started with the Smith-Mora Gambit line of the Sicilian defence, with the players quickly exchanging pawns on d4 and opening the c-file. A rapid development followed, whereby our teammate decided to ‘fianchetto’ his bishop in the good tradition of a seasoned English player. Both players positioned their pieces on favourable squares, castled K-side and the battle for the centre began. Our teammate went on to tactically win a pawn, only to fall victim to a nice knight fork on both black rooks. Eventually the a8-rook fell victim and Mike found himself one point of material down following the loss of the exchange. Nevertheless, the potential energy from his well-placed strong minor pieces kept him in the game and he tried to take the initiative by pushing his pawns on the K-side and in the centre. The Wigston player defended well and even managed to create a counter attack, taking back a pawn in the process and achieving a nice two point material advantage, with the position evaluated at around +3 by the engine. However, our teammate was far from giving up and used first his bishop and then his knight to harass White’s rooks. Eventually, the horse-shaped piece managed to exchange itself for one of white rooks, taking the game back into equality. Moreover, with a couple of improving moves Mike managed to take the advantage and the initiative. Unfortunately, finding himself in a winning position, our teammate fell victim to complacency and blundered his rook. With no prospects of saving the game, Mike resigned. A tough start of the league season for our teammate but nevertheless a good warm-up before his third team top board appearance next week against Braunstone 3.

In conclusion, not the best start for our second team which would fall under the learning experience label. Next they are playing Market Harborough 3 at home on the 13th October and they will be looking to turn the tide against a strong opponent, deservedly won division 4 last year.

The evening also saw another busy club night accompanied by two finals of the County Championship. In the Open division Shabir Okhai from Syston got the win while in the Challengers division Anstey’s own Julian ‘Mr. Engine’ conducted another endgame masterclass to seal his championship and perfect record 5/5 in the competition, hence, taking the trophy in the division.