The second match of the league season, and it was an interesting one with Anstey 1 and 3 both playing at home on the same night, which resulted in a lively night (as lively as chess can get). Loughborough had brought a relatively strong team, but it was to be expected as most players in the league are rated 1300 or above. No matter though, the Anstey players put up a good fight even though we had been out rated.

The Anstey 3 players for the night were Mike Griffiths, Noor Datoo, Oskar Rudczenko, and John Graham-Brown. Noor and John are still new players to Anstey, but they are still showing bright potential for the future.

Board 1: Peter Hickman plays white; Mike Griffiths plays black

The game starts with a d4 and d5, with white playing a very solid pawn structure of e3 and c3 to protect the d4 pawn. White playing his bishop on d3 with Mike developing his knights and protecting d5 with e6. Quite a strange and unusual opening, but quite interesting and different. Mike had said it was an even and tight game with both players taking space in the centre with pawns and developing their pieces around said pawns.

A little later, a few more trades with white pulling an intermezzo, and after the dust settles an even trade had occurred. Black then offers a queen trade which white accepts, and we have an endgame at large. A little later on is where things get a little hairy, as white moves his light squared bishop with a discovered attack against black’s last remaining rook and a check against black’s king. The bishop was placed perfectly as it was x-raying the rook through the black king, so Mike had to make the unfortunate choice of taking a bishop and trading it with a rook. Not a good situation, but it had been forced. Having trouble defending his position with two bishops against a bishop and a rook, Mike resigned a few moves after the fateful exchange. Anstey 0 – Loughborough 1.

Board 2: Noor Datoo plays white; Keir Hayden plays black

Both players open with an e4 and e5 opening, with Noor launching a queenside attack as black had castled queenside. Throwing his pawns forward and developing his pieces towards the black king, Noor became slightly worried about his own king and he castled soon after black castled. Black tried to block the attacks with his own pieces, moving his forces to defend the king, but Noor kept coming.

Black was putting up a fight though, as he had started to get a hold of the center of the board, but black’s king was soon to get exposed as Noor destroyed the defending pawns. Soon there was only pieces on the queenside and Noor started to give continuous checks making black dance with his king all over the board. With black’s king staying on the queenside, Noor wasn’t going to be short of checks, and eventually traded a rook for black’s queen.

Noor had a seemingly better position, as he was up a queen but his opponent had two rooks, which can be better than a queen if the rooks are working together continuously. This can be very hard to do, and with black’s pawns scattered it seemed to be almost over, almost. Black had started to consolidate and eventually did get a fortress, Noor was defending himself very well too but his attacking chances were dwindling as time passed.

Noor was very close to being mated by the two rooks, but he spotted a way to perpetual check black and got a forced draw. Even though this was a draw, it’s a good personal victory for Noor as he drew someone who was 300 rating points above him, which is very impressive. Anstey 1/2 – Loughborough 1 1/2.

Board 3: Ric Dawson plays white; Oskar Rudczenko plays black

On board 3, a queen’s pawn opening was played, with Nf3, Bf4 from white and c5, Nc6 from black. Quite a normal start to a d4 opening: black tries to put pressure on the d4 pawn and white tries to defend it and make a solid center. Although, early on, black blundered the b pawn by playing b5 and when white played Bxb5 black was going to be in a very bad position. The pawn blunder wasn’t too bad as white didn’t have much to take advantage of it. However, it did give white a better position which was quite dominant, and with an inaccurate bishop move black was in serious trouble. The queen came in to attack and because white’s knight was on e5, the only move that didn’t lose was king to e7. This move staggered black’s development, blocking in black dark squared bishop.

Black was in a worse position, but it wasn’t completely clear how white should proceed, so white forced a queen trade by giving a check, and we were put into an endgame. Material was equal, white had more space but black was catching up with development. Black traded off the undeveloped bishop for white’s powerful dark squared bishop, which cut through black’s position. A few more shuffling of pieces and black tried to open the center with f6, e5 and white responded by taking the (soon to be) open file. Rooks were traded off, and only knights were left standing, with the position in white’s favour still as white could advance his knight with his king, but black had to keep the king on the queenside as white could easily make a pasted pawn.

The king side was being teared open, with horses kicking and charging at each other, but unfortunately black had pushed his pawns a bit too far. White gathered up the loose pawns, allowing a unchallenged pawn to pass. Black had no choice but to resign. Anstey 1/2 – Loughborough 2 1/2.

Board 4: John Graham-Brown plays white; Stuart Gordon plays black

With a traditional and popular e4, black played c5 with the adventurous idea of playing a sicilian. John responds with a calm Nf3 and black plays e3, and even though this is a very theoretical opening John plays pretty well against his opponent. With a solid opening of the center with d4, a pawn trade happens and then a knight trade straight after that. With an open sicilian on the board the game only went from known theory to chaos. As soon as both sides castle, black queen side and white king side, black immediately goes for a pawn attack on the king side with g5, and even though John can take it that didn’t stop black from hunting white’s king.

The black queen attacked John’s king repeatedly, driving the white king onto the e file, and the hunt finally stopped with the queen’s final attack blocked by the f pawn. John didn’t take this attack lightly, and attacked the black position as soon as he got the chance, with a bishop check and snatching a few pawns with his queen. However, his queen became trapped with black’s rook moving in to block the queen’s only escape, and John tried to minimise the damage by taking black’s rook as a trade, but after this white became over whelmed and, soon after the loss of the queen, white got check mated on the queen side. Final score: Anstey 1/2 – Loughborough 3 1/2.

Final Words

The final score of 1/2 to 3 1/2 puts Anstey at a modest 7th place out of 9 teams. Not a great place, but it is still the start of the season, with 16 more matches to go so anything can happen from now until the end.

Quite an unfortunate end to an exciting night of sicilians, strange positions and good games. Anstey have got some practise, as all chess players do, but the games were quite even still in terms of gameplay, as 3 of the 4 Anstey players were outclassed by rating. Unfortunate yes, but we are and will prevail to playing the game we love with our faithful comrades. Thanks all for reading, and I hope you have had a good read; we’ll see you next week against Melton Mowbray.