Anstey’s second team made the journey down to South Leicestershire to El Presidente’s old club Wigston. Wigston find themselves in the same predicament as Anstey with too many players and not enough teams, with both Anstey and Wigston pushing to try and add another smaller division. With both teams keen to give players games, they agreed to a 7 board match and after negotiating traffic on all roads leading to Wigston, battle commenced just after 7:30pm.
Prior to the game starting, El Presidente was presented with the Chapman Cup, which Anstey had deservedly won in the Summer.
Andy Morley handed El Presidente the trophy which was met with a ripple of applause in the cosy playing room upstairs at the Wigston Liberal Club.
So to the match and battle commenced. First to finish was Aarav with the white pieces against another young player – Madhav Eradi. Aarav opened with the Evans Gambit – Aarav, if you’re reading this please speak to Just Mick who is a massive fan of this line and would be happy to give you some pointers about playing it. Unfortunately, it seemed that the desire to notate was neglected and once notation stopped on move 15, Aarav was already in trouble having slid out of the book lines on move 8. Aarav and Madhav blitzed out the moves and when I looked over, neither player was notating and Aarav was a piece down with most of the pieces off the board. Not much longer after that, Aarav had resigned being heavily down on material and he looked very disappointed. El Presidente tried to reassure Aarav that there is plenty of time and I think he got caught out by his opponent playing quickly and fell into the trap of doing the same. Wins will come Aarav, take your time! Anstey were 1-0 down.
Second to finish was Boris The Toaster. Boris had the black pieces against Joseph Horspool, somebody that The Toaster had already played in the reverse fixture last month – it is a little unusual to face the same team so closely together. Against 1.e4, Boris employed his favourite Caro-Kann defence and his opponent employed the advance variation where we are straight down the book line where black shuffles his light squared Bishop several times to f5, e4 and having met h4 with h6, the light squared Bishop moved from e4 back to g6 and after h5 moved again back to h7. Not content with this merry dance, The Toaster’s opponent played Bd3, offering another move for the Bishop, which was taken. The Toaster’s light squared Bishop had enough for the day and was knackered! White had a slight advantage at this point, the engine giving it +1.2. Both players then sought to develop and castle – the Toaster won the race to castle but had a severely undeveloped Kingside with all of the Kingside pieces still on home squares and white ready to castle either way after black’s 12th move. After a few more moves back and forth, white played c4, seeking to mix it up a bit with The Toaster met with dc. The Toaster played Nb6-d5 which I thought looked correct but turns out to be an inaccuracy, the trade on c4 is better.
To the left is the position after 18. Rc1 – things are dead level.
Here, the Toaster played the logical looking Bg5 which is slightly inaccurate and the eval bar swings to +2.7. Better was Nxe3.
After Nxd5 exd5 the Knight comes into d6 and is a constant thorn in white’s side.
What followed is a slow progression from white, building around the advanced Knight with The Toaster spending several moves routing his Knight from g8-e7-c8 to try and dislodge the d6 Knight but the Rooks at this point were developed enough to give the Toaster too many problems around his castle King which forced his resignation. 2- 0 to the home side.
Sporting as ever, The Toaster and his opponent looked at the game afterwards and he and his opponent enjoyed the details of what had happened in their game.
Keep that chin up Boris, more results are just around the corner.
Next to finish was board 4 and new man Bob Grindrod who has joined the club this year, after a while out of the game having moved to the area. Bob was another player who was facing somebody that he had played before – the very slippery youngster Sathsara Dissanayake – hereafter to be known as SD! Bob had the black pieces and employed e6 in reply to SD’s 1.e4. Instead of the traditional reply d4, SD played Nf3 and Bob played Bc5. These 4 moves do not have an opening name but SD played 3. d4 which would be logical to force the retreat of the Bishop. Both sides developed their pieces, with Bob managing to get d5 in to stake a claim on the centre. By this time, SD had developed most of his pieces and castled, so Bob was behind in development and was fairly cramped for space with Knights on e7 and d7 and a light squared Bishop which at this stage was jealous of The Toaster’s compatriot on board 2! With the position seemingly level, Bob castled Kingside which allowed SD to trade a Bishop for Knight and finally allow Bob’s light squared Bishop a home on d7 at the cost of a pawn. Both players manoeuvred their pieces into better positions and although a pawn down, Bob had a very comfortable position against SD’s split pawns on e5 and c5, the c5 pawn being the extra pawn. SD played a dubious Na4 move, attacking a Bishop on b6 but this allowed Bob to attempt to deflect the Queen, which was on g4 and protecting the a4 Knight.
To the right – position after 19. Na4, given as -1.4.
More accurate than Bob’s attempt of f5 was h5, according to the engine although f5 looks incredibly tempting and appears to be the flip of a coin kind of a decision!
After 19. … f5 20. Qf4, Bob tried d4 which swings the game in SD’s favour, allowing the Knight to deliver it’s plan of Nxb6 and the two Rooks to gang up on the undefendable d pawn which was soon made mincemeat of by SD.
To be fair to SD, what followed was a procession of very accurate moves, not allowing Bob and inch in which to breathe and let’s just say that Bob’s game crumbled a little bit after the youngster’s accuracy and after an attack on Bob’s King, winning a Queen for Rook, Bob threw in the towel not many moves later. 3-0 to the home side with 4 to play!
We’re all behind you and backing you Bob, that first win is coming and we’ll all enjoy it with you.
3-0 down and with things looking bleak, Mike was next to finish with the white pieces on board 5, facing El Presidente’s conqueror in the return fixture, Luke Muir. Employing his favourite 1.c4 English opening, the game started very evenly, with both players cautiously developing their pieces. Mike fianchettoed his Kingside Bishop and Luke spent a couple of moves initiating Bh3 and the trade off of the light squared Bishop. Mike traded the f6 Knight which was recaptured with a Bishop and got his Knight to e4, hitting the Bishop on f6. Mike felt this was crucial as Luke captured Mike’s g2 Bishop, Mike took on f6 with check and using the intermezzo to ruin black’s pawn structure before re-capturing on g2. The players shuffled their pieces about, denying one another crucial squares that the pieces were looking to occupy. With all of the pawns on the board, there were no open files and things looked pretty even.
Position after 20. b5
Unfortunately, the move Ng6 has been notated here by Mike, which was already played on move 17 and it is difficult to work out the mistake.
The next moves are Kh1 Ree8, fxe5 Rxe5, d4 Rxe3, Qxe3 Rxe3
What followed when I saw the game was Mike having some strong Queenside pawns which you can see was initiated early on with b5. With all of the pieces traded off – bar a Knight per player, Mike transferred the play to the Queenside by using his Knight and pawns in unison to force Luke’s Knight off the board. Mike had the simple task of manoeuvring his Knight over to the Kingside to mop up black’s remaining pawn whilst Queening his own and eventually forcing a resignation. 3-1 to the home side.
Your author is a little unsure whether it was actually Mike or our board 1 that finished before the other but Brian The Griller was on board 1, facing off against somebody that he had beaten in the reverse fixture – Phil Watkinson with Brian having the white pieces. The game opened with Brian’s usual 1.d4 which was met with a Slav setup from Phil and transpired into an Alapin variation with 4. … dxc4 followed by 5. a4. Development of pieces was quick from both players with Brian trading off his Kingside Knight for black’s dark squared Bishop, opening the h file for Phil’s uncastled Rook, forcing 11. h3. Brian had to negotiate g5 a timely g5 from his opponent and found the only defence 13. g4 as mate was being threatened from a Queen on c7 and the open h file. Tension had remained earlier in the game via a Bishop on b4 and a Knight on c3. After Na2 and a questionable Ba5 from Phil, The Griller had the opportunity to trap the dark squared Bishop. Oozing class, Brian delayed the opportunity – it was trapped anyway, no need to rush. A sequence of moves allowed the Bishop to be released but the attacking potential and co-ordination of The Griller’s pieces is scary against black’s castled King. A monster a pawn ran up the board and The Griller’s Kingside attack really took shape.
What transpired is beautiful, as you can see. axb7+ had ripped open the King’s defences and Phil wasn’t able to find an answer to The Griller’s continual threats, moving pieces containing hidden dangers as well as not so subtle threats.
Phil rightly resigned in this position with mate inevitable. 3-2 to the home side with two boards to finish.
The Griller has certainly hit form for us this year and is continuing to do a great job for the team.
I think that it was Noor who finished next but only just finishing ahead of El Presidente. Noor had the black pieces on board 6, facing off against Chris Brown who had beaten Mike after Mike blundered a piece in the return fixture. The players went down the lines of the Giuco Pianissimo – the quiet Italian which gets both players some play with their pieces. Noor’s slightly unusual approach to retreat the dark squared Bishop and the f6 knight costed him a pawn which was greedily accepted by his opponent. Noor’s pieces got in to a tangle early on as a promising looking Bishop on f4 had to retreat back to c8 after Qf3, threatening both Bishop and the b pawn and white enjoyed a couple of tempi developing pieces. After white’s move 13, the eval bar is at +4.9. After castling, Noor gave up a further two pawns by walking in to a couple of minor tactics deflecting the pawn’s defenders. Indeed, after Qxb7, the eval bar is now at +7.3. Instead of accepting a 4th pawn, Chris (logically) decided to try to trade Queens which the computer doesn’t like, dropping the bar down to +3.3. Some inaccurate play followed from Noor’s opponent and whilst Chris shuffled his pieces, Noor grabbed a pawn back and after a Queen trade, got another pawn back.
This position is after black’s move 32 … Rxb2. As you can see, gone are the days of +5 and +7, Noor has almost equalised!
The two connected passed pawns look scary but Noor has a passed a pawn so all sorts of things could happen and happen they did! I think Chris tried to promote one of his pawns too soon and Noor was able to snare it and in the end the position was equal and a battling draw was agreed.
Noor is one hell of a fighter and to his credit managed to draw the game and there was even a point where I think he was winning. At this point Wigston were 3.5-2.5 up with 1 to play.
On board 3, El Presidente faced off against a new face and name Peter Collings with the white pieces. Peter met El Presidente’s 1. e4 with the Scandi and instead of the traditional 3. Nc3 hitting the Queen, played 3. Nf3 – a free developing move. One can play Nc3 at any time – why rush? Quick development ensued and the game remained fairly even after a couple of trade-offs of minor pieces. The critical position appeared below, where El Presidente offered a draw.
Only El Presidente could offer a draw at a -1.5 eval but it was declined.
I had seen that if he goes Qb2:
21. .. Qb2, 22. Qc1 Qxc1 23. Rxc1 Bb2 24. Rb1 Bxa3? 25. Rb3 where the Bishop is trapped and might as well take the b4 pawn as two pawns for a minor piece. Sure enough, this line happened and Peter admitted after the game he had missed Rb3 trapping the Bishop.
The game was far from over and El Presidente tried successfully to trade off more pieces, conceding a bit of the advantage along the way. A chaotic endgame ensued, which El Presidente tried to avoid after the poor showing in the endgame last time but a bit of calculation working out that although a white and black pawn Queened at the same time, El Presidente had a skewer tactic giving black’s King check and winning the newly formed Queen and Peter resigned.
A drawn match from 3-0 down was an excellent result.
After the match, El Presidente spoke to Sky Sports News:
SS: You must be delighted with the result?
Damn right I am, I haven’t won a game since January in Classical chess, I’m absolutely buzz-‘
SS: I meant the team result
Oh – Is this being recorded? (Clears throat) Yes, delighted by the draw, it really feels like a win. Thank you to everyone who played, it’s a long way to come and I am really pleased for those that won. Noor looks like he’s going to be a little superstar for us this year getting a draw from 3 pawns down. Someone also said that Wigston’s first division 1st team were playing and them patzers were all finished before me and Noor! Great to see some old and new friendly faces though, on a serious note. I know for sure that the guys that lost put up a massive fight and I am proud of them all. Wins be a coming for them just around the corner – we win, lose and draw as a team. Can you edit that first part out please?
The second team occupy a respectable 6th place out of 9 and face off against Loughborough 2 on Wednesday which is sure to be a big game.
Anstey Chess Club 