The quickest three draws of the season follow our season debutant’s win to claim second league win for Anstey 2 against a solid Ashby 3 side.

Last Thursday (17/11/2022) our second team travelled to Ashby to play against their third team in a Division 3 contest of the Leicestershire Chess League. Anstey 2, conveniently named “The B-team”, was represented by the regulars Brian ‘The Griller’, Boris ‘The Toaster’, Bob, led by the chairman/captain/reporter/marketing director/podcaster/streamer/content creator ‘El Presidente’ Ben. (If you have not listened to our podcast, jump to this link to discover engaging content, soothing voices, and a great banter) Our players were scheduled to play a solid, slightly lower rated Ashby 3 team who were coming from a heavy defeat and were looking to get back on the winning path.

Nick Wyld (Ashby 3) vs Bob Grindrod (Anstey 2) 0 – 1

Still on the lookout for his first win under the Anstey Chess Club banner, Bob was scheduled to play Black against the home team captain Nick Wyld. The players engaged in the French defence, Advanced variation, with Bob opting to take a more minor route in the opening by taking the d4-pawn on move 4 and create a nice target for his pieces to attack. Both players activated their knights in the contest for the said pawn, with our teammate keeping the initiative. Bob’s opponent did not like much the pressure on his centre and decided to exchange his light-squared bishop for the f5-knight, creating doubled pawns for Black on the f-file, while semi-opening the e-file. The Ashby player castled K-side and unsure of what to do with his dark-squared bishop, our teammate decided to exchange it for its white equivalent, thus stripping the home team player of both white bishops. Seeing his pawn on a semi-open file, combined with the remaining ‘bad’ black bishop, White decided to start doubling up of the rooks on the e-file, while at the same time he activated his queenside knight. Executing two plans at the same time from the Ashby player proved to be beneficial for Bob who managed to stop the e-pawn move at its foundation, while gaining tempo on the said knight, making room for his bishop to develop in the process. The previously sad bishop jumped quickly on a6 to attack the e2-rook and suddenly found itself controlling a bunch of light squares in White’s half. Bob decided to activate his remaining knight, threatening a queen and rook fork on b3, and surprisingly his opponent completely missed the threat and attacked the knight with b4. Our teammate happily exchanged his knight for the a1-rook and followed with an annoying, almost bordering with evil, pin on one of the white knights, which his opponent handled a little poorly, much to the delight of the Anstey B-Team. After doubling up queen and rook on the c-file, only to face a rook battery on the c-file across, the Ashby player blundered his knight and seeing the incoming lethal attack, resigned.

Finally, a well-deserved first win for Bob as Anstey Chess Club player, and we are wishing him many more to come.

‘El Presidente’ Ben Vaughan (Anstey 2) vs John Howlett (Ashby 3) 0.5 – 0.5

Our chairman was scheduled to play a solid player in John Howlett who met our teammate’s 1. e4 with the French defence. Almost an expert in the opening, ‘El Presidente’ decided to engage in the Exchange variation. Our teammate rushed to take the b1-h7 diagonal with his bishop which was met by knight development putting pressure on d4. Both players started the development of their pieces, then castled kingside. Black tried to chase Ben’s dark-squared bishop away with h6 to get rid of the annoying pin, but Anstey Chess Club’s chairman only pulled it a square, maintaining the pin from h4. The Ashby player brought both of his bishops to the party, placing them on g4 and f4, putting pressure on both of White’s knights. ‘El Presidente’ rushed to swing his queen away from the pin onto b3, only to be kicked back to c2 by one of the black knights. Challenged by h3, Black’s light-squared bishop exchanged itself for one of the white knights, and then the Ashby player pushed g5 to finally get rid of our teammate’s annoying bishop, and then rushed to exchange the dark-squared bishops. Ben managed to place a beautiful knight on e5, while Black rushed to exchange one of his knights for the last remaining bishop on the board. The home team player brought back his last minor piece to c6 to challenge its white counterpart and our chairman started fortifying his knight first with one of his rooks, and then with f4. The black knight exchanged itself for the only white minor piece, and just seen that Bob has won on the bottom board, upon recapturing with his rook our second team captain offered a draw and a drink to his opponent. Both were happily accepted by the Ashby player.

A solid draw for ‘El Presidente’ who continues to climb up the performance table, having lost only his opening game.

Steve Emerton (Ashby 3) vs Borislav ‘The Toaster’ Lazarov (Anstey 2) 0.5 – 0.5

Following his surprising win in the previous week for Anstey 1, Boris was scheduled to play Black against another solid player in Steve Emerton. The Ashby player led the game into the Caro-Kann, Two Knights variation where our teammate played as if it is a normal Steinitz/Karpov/Smyslov (whichever is your preference) variation. Luckily for ‘The Toaster’, his opponent did not play the most critical line and soon enough the game was led into a normal Caro-Kann position. Boris missed a good opportunity to play Bf5, seeing ghosts who definitely did not exist on his board, and completely trapped his light-squared bishop which ended being the saddest piece on the board, having moved only once until the end of the game. After a normal d4 push from White, our teammate prioritised development of the dark-squared bishop and castled swiftly, while the Ashby player rushed to take the h2-b8 diagonal with his dark-squared bishop. Boris overextended the queenside with a very dubious b5, forcing his opponent to tuck his light-squared bishop back in, but further preventing c5 without losing material. A Nd5 followed from our teammate, and then he decided to place his light-squared bishop to b7 as an investment for when the game opens up. Ben’s co-host on the Anstey Chess Club Podcast further played a prophylactic h6 to take away any sacrifice ideas from White. The home team player placed a knight on e5, which our teammate exchanged for his dark-squared bishop. Luckily for ‘The Toaster’ out of the three possible pieces for White to retake with, the Ashby player chose the worst one, giving our teammate the opportunity to exchange queens and prevent a crushing attack. Eventually, Boris managed to exchange his knight for White’s dark-squared bishop. Having heard Ben and Bob’s results a few minutes earlier, upon recapturing with his g-pawn our teammate offered a draw which after a short consideration, in spite of entering into a slightly winning endgame, but a little lower on time, the Ashby player accepted.

A good draw for ‘The Toaster’ who has been the busiest player for Anstey so far this year and looking to get his tenth game in less than two months next Thursday.

Brian ‘The Griller’ Foreman (Anstey 2) vs Lawrence Hayden (Ashby 3) 0.5 – 0.5

Playing like a machine this season, Brian was playing White against another solid player from Ashby, Lawrence Hayden. Brian opened up with the Queen’s Gambit which was met by the home team player with the King’s Indian Defence. Black develop normally with the typical fianchetto-ed bishop and castling kingside, while also exchanging his d-pawn for White’s c-pawn. Seeing the centre left out by Black, our teammate swiftly placed two central pawns, supported by the white knights and queen. In the meantime, the Ashby player pushed the queenside pawns and fianchetto-ed his second bishop as well. Our teammate decided to push e5, challenging the black f6-knight which jumped on e5 and got exchanged for one of the white knights. The black light-squared bishop jumped into the game to kick the queen back to c2 and the last minor pieces were developed for both sides. ‘The Griller’ went on to attack the black ‘lady’ with Bg5 which led to a big exchange on f6, whereby a couple of important pawns and the dark-squared bishops head to the rest area outside the board. Black was last to recapture with his rook, at a moment when only the top board players were left playing, sitting all by themselves in the small room. Our teammate castled and offered a draw which meant a win for our team and surprisingly his opponent accepted.

Another solid result for Brian who is so far the best performing player for the second team with 3.5 points of 5 possible.

The evening concluded promptly at around 8.45pm, a rather short event in the context of chess league matches, but nevertheless a successful performance for the Anstey 2 team. The B-team even managed to get back to the venue and do some analysis with youngsters and players from Anstey 1 and Anstey 3. After the win, our team find themselves on fourth position, with several teams below them with one or two games to spare. In the next fixture, the B-team will be playing Latimer at home.

If you want to be part of the excitement called competitive chess, come and join us regardless of your ability. All you need is passion for playing chess and a few spare hours to be spent every Thursday from 7.30pm in the Anstey Methodist Church.