Tuesday 01/11/2022. Anstey 1 travelled to the deep south for the away match vs Market Harborough 2 in LRCA Division 2. Conditions were very different to their last visit with darkness, wind and rain vs a balmy summer’s evening. But the result was the same, another win for the soon to be hopefully unstoppable Anstey 1 LOL. MH are a friendly bunch and there was a jovial atmosphere between the players as they settled down, discussing the strength difference between divisions 2 and 3 (both teams having been promoted last year). The captains exchanged team lists, Anstey 1 again calling on super-sub Boris to stand-in for injury-hit John. With the teams evenly matched on paper (6,921 vs 6,933) battle commenced.

Boris played black against Jon Redding on board 4 and was the first to finish. In a sharp back and forth game where both players had chances, Boris accepted Jon’s gambit pawn on move 3 and after Jon played a few inaccurate moves coming out of the opening Boris consolidated his position and had a nice edge – a pawn up and a better pawn structure. Jon fought back and managed to infiltrate on the 7^th rank with his queen leading to winning a pawn. The major pieces were swapped off and it came down to a bishop and knight vs two bishops endgame. Unfortunately, Boris couldn’t take advantage of the two bishops as one of them was pretty much relegated to defensive duty. Plenty of probing followed on both sides, the light-squared bishops were exchanged and the position came out dead even. A draw by repletion followed shortly after. MH ½ – Anstey ½.

Mick played with the white pieces (for the first time this season) against MH’s captain Michael Garland on board 3 and was the next to finish. Michael gambited a pawn on just move 3 but Mick ignored it and carried on with normal development leading to a small but noticeable advantage out of the opening. Mick provoked g6 and f6 to weaken black’s kingside pawn structure before all the bishops were swapped off and the knight manoeuvres began. Unfortunately for Michael, one of his knights was stuck on the edge of the board and with pressure growing on the weak e6 pawn he missed the threat to trap it:

Michael rustled up a little counterplay on the open g file doubling rooks but ultimately it came to nothing. White’s queen roamed around the board with aplomb picking up a couple of free pawns on the kingside before swapping to the queenside and winning the other knight. Michael tried a cheap trick to give up his queen but Mick saw the back-rank mate threat and defended easily. Two knights and a pawn down Michael resigned. MH ½ – Anstey 1½.

Boards 1 and 2 both ended in time scrambles. Matt fished just before Julian playing David Curran on board 2 with the black pieces. No early gambits here, after a quiet opening Matt had equalised fairly easily. After an exchange of knights on e4 he made a space grab with f5 then e4, David responding with f4 taking the juicy looking e5 square away from black’s knight. Play transferred to the queenside and Matt infiltrated the 7^th rank with 21. … Rd2:

After 22. Qf1 Matt though long and hard over 22. … Rxc2 and lost a lot of time before not going for it (another missed tactic) instead retreating the knight followed by the rook. After a few poor moves on both sides the following wild position was reached:

All hell then broke loose. David went for more complications with 28. Bxe4 then recapturing with his knight eyeing f6. Pawns were exchanged and pushed with check before black’s knight swooped in to d5 both attacking and defending. After more rushed moves (including an illegal one, oops), Matt transferred a rook to the half open h-file and after a final blunder Matt skewered white’s King and Queen with Rh3. MH ½ – Anstey 2½.

Julian faced off against Romilly Ilersic with white on board 1. After getting an edge in the opening he went on to dominate proceedings, at no point did black generate any real threats. The only fly in the ointment, unusual for Julian, was that he used up too much time in the early middlegame and ended up chronically short of time just when he was in a position to play a rook sacrifice for a mating attack with 27 Rd7!:

But with just 10 seconds left on the clock he had to blitz out the moves and Romilly wriggled out and transitioned to an equalish position. With the match already won, Julian offered a draw that Romilly accepted (with relief). MH 1 – Anstey 3.

So a draw and two wins in the first three games and a promising league position:

Anstey’s next game is against bottom of the table Wigston 3, a must-win match in what already looks to be shaping up as a five-way scrap for top honours!

Anstey captain Matt Connor told East Midland News:
An excellent result on the road. I’m particularly pleased that we suffered no individual loss as “goal difference” could once again be an important factor at the end of the season.