Thursday 08/12/2022. Anstey 1 welcomed Wigston 2 to the Methodist Church Centre in this LRCA Division 2 clash where honours ended up even after a 2-2 draw.

For the second match in a row Anstey were out-rated on every board (6,868 vs 7,370 in total) and once again had to make a last-minute change after John pulled out in the pre-match warm-up (get well soon John). Club president Ben stepped in after a brief discussion with Boris on who should be super-sub this time. With Iain Dodds running late for Wigston the start of the match was amicably delayed and cups of tea all round were offered. The clocks were started after 15 minutes with Iain eventually turning up after a few more minutes. Opponent Mick then very graciously paused Iain’s clock whilst he settled in.

Not that time on the clocks matted much on board 3, as Iain and Mick fairly quickly agreed a “grandmaster” draw. Iain as white had a tiny edge with Mick’s queenside a little undeveloped but he had no real threats. A dull start although Mick did check on the other boards and though the match was going ok before agreeing to the draw. Anstey ½ – Wigston ½.

Next to finish was Ben (making his first team debut this season) with white on board 4 against Andrew Pike. In an interesting game black had a tiny edge coming out of the opening before white expanded on the kingside. Andrew mistakenly blocked the centre with … e5 which game him a permanently backward pawn on d6. Ben tripled his major pieces on the d-file, Andrew holding onto d6 with doubled rooks and queen. When Ben switched to advancing his queenside pawns Andrew activated his queen with 26. … Qg5 and managed to get in behind white’s e4 & f5 pawns. Ben brought his king forward to stop the check on e3 but now he was exposed and with check black picked up the e4 and b4 pawns. In return Ben finally took the black pawn on d6 and with the threat of a back rank mate Andrew took perpetual check:

Anstey 1 – Wigston 1.

Julian faced off against Lewis Turner with black on board 1, his 3rd 2000+ rated opponent of the season so far. He equalised quickly in the opening and had a promising position with his pieces starting to gang up on the white’s king:

Instead of exfiltrating the queen the other side of the board with 11. … Qa4 he went for 11. … Be4 and after Nxc5, Ne1 and f3 the bishop was trapped in the centre of the board. Julian came out with three pawns for the piece but couldn’t get them rolling to provide any meaningful threat, Lewis activated his pieces before exposing black’s dark squared weakness around the king.

So unfortunately Julian’s first loss of the season but still a cracking 4/6 records against some quality players. Anstey 1 – Wigston 2.

Not for the first time this season, Matt’s game was the last to finish as he played white against Rob White on board 2. After losing on time in the last match he played the opening and early middlegame more quickly and after giving up a pawn had good compensation in terms of space. Rob was solid if a bit passive but when Matt started his delayed kingside attack Rob classically struck back in the centre. With time getting tight for both sides Matt made a couple of mistakes and Rob crashed though getting a rook on the back rank and forcing the white king forward. But then Rob missed a couple of chances to finish off the game letting white’s own rook infiltrate on the 7^th rank before finally blundering the defence with 36. … Ne6:

Matt didn’t waste the opportunity, sacrificing the rook with 37. Rg7+! Nxg7 38. h7+ and after 38. … Kh8 to stop the pawn queening it’s mate in 4: 39. Nf7+ Kxh7 40. Qxg6+ Kg8 41. Nh6+ Kh8 42. Qh7#. A nice tactical finish but really (another) lucky win for Matt to secure the draw for the team. Anstey 2 – Wigston 2.

Division 2 remains extremely tight with 3 teams on 8 points behind Ashby on 11 with Anstey 4^th on “goal” difference:

Anstey captain Matt Connor told Sky Sports:
A big thanks to Ben for stepping in at a moment’s notice and a very good result for him against Andrew. It was a match that could easily have gone Wigston’s way, I was relieved to get a get out of jail free card in my game. Our next two games are huge “6-pointers” against Syston and Ashby, two wins could see us topping the table at the half way point of the season which would be phenomenal.