The next opponent the third Anstey team face are the young students from Leicester University, and the students currently stand on the third place in the league leader board so they’re no slackers. The live ratings for the students for a couple of them are 1500, one who’s about 1400 and the last who’s about 1260. The first two players for the Anstey side are Mike Griffiths and Leo Abraham, two of the strongest players Anstey has, who regularly play for the third team, so this maybe an equal pairing. Leo is 1360 but he has proven himself a worthy opponent against 1500 and occasionally 1600 opponents before, so a worthy opponent for a 1500.

The next two players for the Anstey side are Noor Datoo playing against the 1300 and (again) no slacker at all; Noor has faced off against 1300 and 1400 rated players, so an equally matched board 3. Finally, on board 4 for Anstey, is Oskar Rudczenko, who is rated 1100 but he’s starting to show some growth as a player, so possibly an equal match, but we shall see.

Board 1: Mike Griffiths plays white; David Reid plays black

Mike opens with the english playing c4 and d3; black responds with Nf3 and d5 attacking straight away. Mike does like to trade pieces as soon as he gets the chance, so a pawn trade it is. Both players continue to fight for centre control and another trade of pieces occurs, this time with knights being exchanged. Mike fianchettos his light-squared bishop and black uses his own light-squared bishop to counter the fianchetto. Mike castles kingside and black castles queenside. Black takes Mike’s fianchettoed bishop. Mike pushes his b pawn up, supported by the a pawn, to attack the c6 knight provoking it to move. Black moves his knight to the d4 square, supported by the e5 pawn, and Mike instantly goes for the trade hoping for a rook endgame.

Mike soon gets what he’s looking for as black trades dark-squared bishops and takes an offered queen trade; we’re now in endgame territory. Black pushes his kingside pawns to rain down onto white’s king, and Mike responds with small pawn moves to wait for the pawn storm and lock up the structure. This shuts down black’s play on the kingside, which forces black to make some play with his pawns on the queenside, where the b and c files are semi-open. Mike’s only pawns on the queenside are the a and d pawns, which means his pawns will be under slightly more pressure than usual especially if it starts to rain pawns.

Mike soon trades his a pawn off for the b pawn, and black has a past a and b pawns. Although, Mike has two past d and e pawns, and as both players occupy the c file with their rooks a trade of rooks occurs, leaving Mike’s d and e pawns disconnected. As black storms the queenside, Mike rushes his king over to c2 as his rook blocks the b pawn from promoting. Another trade occurs, this time with rooks, and black attempts to break through on the kingside, which he succeeds in doing. However, Mike has a past e pawn, so it’s a race against the rain with both pawns and both pawns queen.

However, Mike is barely out of the woods, as black can make a second queen. Mike gives a few checks, but blacks king runs down the board to his pawns and with the queens help black makes another queen. Mike feels forced to resign. The score starts off with Leicester Uni taking the first point, but this match is far from over!

Board 2: Jake Howard plays white: Leo Abraham plays black

Leo opposes the queens gambit, and plays a slav defence type of set up for his defences, and he loses a pawn a few moves into the game. Although, one pawn doesn’t make too much of a difference, especially at the start of a game so Leo pushes on to try his best being a pawn down. The game continues with Leo trying to make some counter play on the queenside, advancing his queen to pin the c3 knight to the white king and putting more pressure on the knight with his dark-squared bishop. However, white prevails and manages to castle without much damage to his position.

White then proceeds to further evolve his position by attacking Leo’s light-squared bishop, and successfully trading it for a knight. Another trade of minor pieces occurs and we are in a rook and queen game. Now, with Leo being down a pawn, and pieces getting traded off the more Leo will feel that one missing pawn. The game was now made up of a queen and two rooks for each side, and white kept pushing his positional advantage to win some pawns. Leo tries his best to defend his clumsy position, but he was still falling short of equalizing the game.

Eventually, it came down to a queen and a rook for both sides, and Leo was about to get overwhelmed as he fell into a few tactical traps and his opponent managed to find a mating pattern and followed through with it quite well. Unfortunate loss for Leo, but you can’t win them all. The score is now two points to Leicester Uni, but it’s not over yet. Lets see how Noor did.

Board 3: Noor Datoo plays white; Gnanvardh Pentakota plays black

Noor starts the game with e4, and his opponent responds with e5. Knights come out on c3 and c6, and Noor pulls his bishop out to c4. After this, black fianchettos his dark-squared bishop on the kingside and castles kingside, whereas Noor continues development of his other knight and bishop. Noor lines his queen and dark-squared bishop together to strike at the fianchettoed bishop on black’s side. Black advances his f6 knight to counter the strike, so Noor moves the bishop to attack black’s queen. Black blocks with the dark-squared bishop, but Noor plays h6 to dislodge the knight on g4. Both players trade dark-squared bishops, leaving Noor’s f6 knight on g5, and black sacs the g4 knight to trade knights and pick up a pawn in the process.

A few pawn moves later a queen trade occurs, and Noor castles queenside. Black then starts raining pawns down the board as Noor calmly rotates his knight from queen to kingside, and centralises his light-squared bishop, which also pins the black knight to a rook. Noor develops his d rook to a more active square, and black fianchettos his light-squared bishop, stopping the pin on the knight, but the bishop is undefended. Noor starts poking around the black king’s position with h4 h5, and moves his knight closer to blacks vulnerable king. The black king then hides on h8, with Noor starting to surround the black king, and black snaps by moving his knight out of the the pin, but blundering his bishop.

Black makes a few strange moves after this blunder, as he sacs his knight and checks Noor’s king on e2, but then moves the same rook a few more times in a thoughtless kind of manner, only really using his pieces to attack rather than improve his position. Black even trades his rook for a bishop for not much reason. This lets Noor improve his own position and grasp around the black king, as he is very close to mating, he just needs to spot a knight move to e6 and his doubled rooks can start checking the king. Noor doesn’t spot this, but does trade his rooks for black’s only rook and queens a pawn to start to check mate his opponent. Black resigns soon after, which leaves the score two points to Leicester Uni and one to Anstey. One more point and it will be a draw, which is a better result than a loss.

Board 4: Steven Cheung plays white; Oskar Rudczenko plays black

The game starts off as a classical Roy Lopez: Berlin defence, with white castling on the fourth move. Oskar then plays for a6 and b5 to get rid of the annoying light-squared bishop, and Oskar then fianchettos his light-squared bishop. Then, black tries to pin the other knight to the queen, which Oskar stops with bishop to e7 and proceeds to castle kingside. White prepares a pawn attack on the queenside, and Oskar asks what white’s dark-squared bishop is going to do as he plays h6. White decides to retreat his bishop to e3, possibly preparing a pawn advance in the centre of the board.

Oskar starts to look for break-throughs in the position, and starts with a pawn advance on the queen side of the board, but that gets shut down. Then, Oskar goes for a centre break through, and after some calculation he thinks it’s the right, which is the best computer move in the position. This causes a series of trades, which leaves a semi-open d file and a very weak d pawn in white’s position. With the help of a rook, a queen trade occurs, and Oskar starts to move his pieces forward to constrict his opponent. Black rooks are now doubled and Oskar opens the position even further with another pawn, but black makes a move that complicate the position: he takes a defended h pawn with a his dark-squared bishop.

Although, Oskar is surprised by the move, he doesn’t phase and finds the best computer move once again: checking the king with his own dark-squared bishop and if the king moves it will be mate in one. Steven is shocked by what Oskar plays, so he moves his bishop back to defend his king, which results in a bishop and rook trade. However, Oskar then finds a deadly knight fork, checking the king and attacking a pinned knight, which is pinned to an undefended rook. Another trades happens, but this one leaves Oskar up a full bishop. White tries to defend his position, but it’s only a matter of time to fall when you’re a piece down, or a blunder from your opponent. Oskar doesn’t blunder a piece, but he does lose a pawn, which luckily doesn’t matter too much. A few moves later white resigns leaving the score two-all for the uni students and the rural outsiders.

Final Say

Another draw for Anstey 3, which is okay again a draw is better than a loss. Also, it does mean we are gaining a point per draw, so we will be climbing above teams that are losing a lot, and when we do win one or two matches we’ll start to really climb on the leader board! For now though, Anstey 3 are in eighth place out of nine, due to an illegal team that was played against Ashby 4, which is disappointing, but if we win one or two, we’ll be in fourth or third place as a win counts for two points on the league table. Our next opponent is Kirby Muxloe 2, who aren’t doing too well so we will hopefully win against them, and it will be a good match as we’ve got seven players lined up for each team! See you all soon.