Anstey’s 2nd team made the journey over to Loughborough’s Fennel Street Club in the driving wind and rain that makes one glad that chess is an indoor hobby/sport. As seems to be the way with the venue, we all arrived on time to be left waiting in the wind and rain by the venue. Peter Hickman was spotted in superb camouflage in a doorway as well as young Lindsay Pyun, which gave the travelling team (us!) an idea of what the Loughborough team might look like. We were let in (eventually – when the Fennel St club felt like it) and after the initial setting up of the boards, battle commenced with Anstey’s team comprising of the 4 B’s, Brian, Boris, Ben and Bob.
First to finish (for a change) was El Presidente, playing white against the door master Peter Hickman, who said he had forgotten his glasses before the game. After 1.e4, the game meandered down the Ruy Lopez Steinitz variation where after 4. d4 Bd7 is played – the ‘old Steinitz’. After dxe5 black replies Nxe5, Bxd7+ Nxd7 and already some minor pieces, including the light squared Bishop are off the board. The whole game meandered to a critical point where El Presidente told himself that a Knight vs Bishop endgame is won and pursued that very line, only to find that his Knight was dominated by the Bishop and the game reached the below point:
El Presidente played f4 on move 27 and evaluated this as equal, (despite what Smallfish says on my phone!) and thus offered a draw, fully expecting Peter to reply with f6 and accepting the draw.
Instead, Peter played exf4 whilst declining the draw and saying ‘I’ll take that pawn’. After Kxd4 he realised his mistake and played on valiantly for a few moves before resigning.
He referred to the fact he was missing his glasses and we shook hands – it was literally that one mistake.
Second to finish was Boris The Toaster on board 2, he was facing the extremely talented youngster Kajus Mikalajunas who has been a nemesis for one or two Anstey players by mixing up games by playing tactically. Boris had black and against 1.e4 employed his favoured Caro-Kann defence with Kajus choosing the advanced variation and Boris this time tried 3. .. c5 in response to the advance of white’s e pawn. Both players developed their pieces with Kajus finding annoying retorts to the Toaster’s development; a nicely placed Knight on f5 was immediately kicked back to e7 with the move g4 and Kajus’s h and g pawns were advanced. As Kajus developed and castled Kingside, The Toaster didn’t seem to have an ideal placing for his dark squared Bishop so it remained at home on f8 until move 24. Unfortunately by this time, Kajus had a Kingside attack with his pawns and pushed ’em baby. This gave the Toaster no time to castle and despite the engine saying it was level, The Toaster’s position looks precarious with white playing 29. f6 to get a pawn in black’s King’s face almost.
Boris had played 31. ..Qc8 here which allowed the continuation:
32. Qd2+ Qe6 (forced) 33. Qxe6+ fxe6 34. f7+!, forking the King and Rook.
Kudos to The Toaster, he valiantly played on, hoping for a swindle of epic proportions – it happens when people fall into mate in ones against Kajus (hey, El Presidente!?). El Presidente employed the crisp crunching gambit as a last gasp hope of putting off Kajus but it had the reverse effect, with the Toaster looking at him as if to say ‘Dude, WTF?!’
Eventually the end came when Kajus Queened a pawn a full Rook up and Boris threw in the towel.
Boris is now taking a couple of weeks to refresh his mind after 4 games in two weeks, demonstrating his commitment to the club.
Next to finish was Bob playing black against Loughborough’s captain for the evening, Ric Dawson. Was this to be Bob’s first win for the club? We are all desperate for him to get it. The game started as a Queens pawn game with White employing the London system, after Nf3 and Nf6, Bf4 is played. Bob managed to trade off the dark squared Bishop after a cheeky Bb4+ refuted by the c pawn push to c3. The opening was completely level after both sides had castled and Bob managed to get c5 in on move 9. White looks to play e4 and got the chance on move 12, which simplified things in the centre a little bit. After b6, securing the c5 square, Bob finally realised that he has a light squared Bishop and found a nice home for it on b7. It subsequently found itself on d5 by move 16, holding on to c4 pawn which was under threat – a bishop acting like a pawn. More pieces were traded and Bob declined a Queen trade but things were still dead level. Bob did later trade Queens and the benefit of doing so was doubling pawns on white’s f file. White seemingly had some good play with doubled Rooks on the e file and a passive couple of Rooks for black then switched plan and uncoordinated his pieces a little:
White’s previous and subsequent moves were Bb1-c2-b1-c2 again and white was persistent in this. In the position to the right, Smallfish likes b4 here as I had said to Bob after the game, b4 was a must-play move.
Bob is perhaps a bit short of confidence by his own admission and played a4, locking up the position and after the game said he was more fixated on blocking the Bishop in rather than trying to break through on the Queenside. The win is coming Bob, this game showcased it.
Had Bob gotten up and seen what was going on in Brian The Griller’s game, he may well have played on…….
Last to finish was Brian ‘The Griller’ on board 1, playing white against Lindsay Pyun – another promising young talent for the County.The game started as 1. d4 and Lindsay adopted the Slav Defence after Nf3 and Nf6, c4 and c6. After steady development, and both players connecting their Rooks, black was looking to get c5 in, which she did on move 14. The trade offs provided some fireworks in the centre with more pieces being traded off and a slightly offside light squared Bishop on h3, out of harms way.
Editors note: We do like light squared Bishops as a club, we have nothing against them.
A few more trade offs occurred and throughout the game, the eval bar never strayed above a difference of 1 throughout – the trade offs were all plausible and I think any loser out of the game would be unjust. After 24. .. Rxc4 by black, the eval bar is at -0.1 barely an advantage to either player. After the last pair of Rooks come off and leave a Knight and 6 pawns for each player, literally anything could happen:
As you can see, after Brian was forced to stop notating in the position on the left due to having a similar amount of time to what ‘The Dark Destroyer’ is used to, things are still even.
What subsequently happened is that I think that Lindsay tried to beat Brian on time and couple of pawns fell.
All of the other players were watching the game and Lindsay – sportingly but quietly – offered a draw. El Presidente stated that he didn’t think The Griller had heard her so Brian turned around and asked what the match score was. El Presidente told Brian the match score and he had just been offered a draw. Looking forward to the match point, keeping in mind that Brian had about 15 seconds left on his clock, El Presidente was ready to shake Loughborough’s captain’s hand and get off home. The Griller said’ I think I’d like to play on’, made a move and subsequently did not press his clock.
The gaggle of people present watched for the entire 15 seconds whilst Brian’s clock ticked down and a few seconds after the flag had dropped, El Presidente informed The Griller that his time had ran out.
El Presidente Spoke to the press after the match:
What a match! It could have gone either way but it really does feel like we have snatched defeat from the jaws of a draw tonight. On to the next one!
Anstey Chess Club 