In what turned out to be the sternest test of the season so far, Anstey’s 2nd team played against Ashby’s 2nd team with Ashby’s selection fielding the strongest team that they had played so far in the league. Anstey were again without Bob, Mike and Daddio Valdas giving the chance Leo to make his mark in the 2nd team.
Battle commenced just after 7:30pm with Brian ‘The Griller’ showing up slightly late due to the Leicestershire public transport system. It was actually unlcear who finished first out of ‘The Griller’ on board 1 and Boris ‘The Toaster’ on board 2 because as your report writer made himself his second cup of tea for the evening, both players were finished on their respective boards. For the purposes of the report, I shall assume (rightly or wrongly) that board order was the order of the players finishing.
On board 1, ‘The Griller’ faced off with the black pieces against Chris Tipper who seemed to have returned from a foray away of some kind considering he was asked if he’d had a good break by his team-mates. The game started with a Bird’s opening and 1. f4 – something that your author has never seen before OTB so looking at this game is a novelty for me. The Griller took a chance to play an early Bg4 and trade off a Knight for a Bishop and also managed to get e5 in and equalised as early as move 6.
Both players contested the central squares and the game was out of the Lasker variation of the Bird’s opening until move 9 for white.
Both players castled Kingside and a backward pawn on e3 for white was advanced on e4 and after a mass trade of pieces on e4, a draw was agreed by both players in the position to the left.
A 16-move Grandmaster draw for ‘The Griller’ and the point was shared on board 1.
On board 2 Boris ‘The Toaster’ faced off with the white pieces against Paul Gibson – a good, solid player. The game took on a frantic nature and was contested fiercely but fairly and was good for your author to keep an eye on. The game took on a Chigorin variation of a Queen’s pawn opening (source: Chess.com analysis provided by The Toaster himself). The Toaster earned himself a good position by an opening system of development that he has become very accustomed to and looked very comfortable playing his moves, with the only slight anomaly from a classical point of view is that the Toaster hadn’t castled until move 19. After winning a pawn comfortably (and precisely), The Toaster managed to get the minor pieces traded off the board at the cost of the pawn back that was gained.
This resulted in a Queen and two Rook middle game where it looked like The Toaster had the better position from a viewing-patzer-on-an-adjacent-board-standpoint but it was far from clear. The only real standpoint for the Toaster was a pawn on d6 with a nosebleed that was undependable once the King got to it and Paul activated his remaining Rook once the Queens and a pair of Rooks were traded.
The crucial position is on the right where the exchange described above took place. The Toaster played the logical Qxd1 and offered the exchange of Queens in white’s territory but more accurate according to Small fish is Rxd1, yielding a +2.8 advantage.
Once the exchange took place and both players had a Rook and 3 pawns each, a draw was agreed with little activity in the position for either player and only a major blunder would have costed the point.
Again the point was shared and the match score was 1-1.
Next to finish was Leo ‘The Lion’ on board 4 with the white pieces against Les Fancourt. I am not quite sure if Leo’s nickname is The Lion officially but I guess I just made it so. The game itself was fab to watch and your author and his opponent spent most of their game time looking at both boards 2 and 4 next to them (more on how dull their game was later). The game started off as a Petroff Defence, something that is odd if you’ve never faced it before and it has to be played accurately by both sides. The Lion’s opponent took the chance to play an early Bb4 trying to reduce white’s control of the d5 square, a move which subsequently happened after the Lion challenged the Bishop with a3, after choosing to attempt to fianchetto his light squared Bishop with g3. After the Lion’s 6th move a3, the engine slides down to -3.1, despite only losing a pawn but that soon became two pawns after Leo dropped another central pawn with almost a -5 evaluation. Les had castled, the Lion hadn’t, Les was one move away from connecting Rooks and Leo was heavily underdeveloped.
The only position to end on really is the neat tactic that Les found. Leo had played the attractive looking Re1, attacking Black’s Queen and seemingly eyeing black’s Rook on d3.
Les found the move the Smallfish suggests, which is a bit of a no-brainer but a good move to spot nevertheless – 22. .. Ng4!
If Rxe3, Nxe3+, forking the King and Queen and with the -9.3 assessment in black’s favour, the game was lost for Leo the Lion.
This was a tough lesson for Leo and as he gets better on his chess path, he’ll need to get used to being on the wrong end of games like this, but there will be times when roles are reversed and he is on the right side if games like this. The Lion left with the action to look at his openings with plenty of support from members of the club.
2-1 to Ashby.
This left El Presidente on board 3 with the black pieces against Larry Hayden, needing to secure a win to achieve a draw for the team. Early proceedings were odd for the French playing El Presidente as Larry responded to 1. .. e6 with Qe2 – a novelty again and a move that hadn’t been seen before by your author. Play continued into the middle game and after a few pieces were traded off in a very mundane fashion, it appeared that neither player was really going for a win, albeit in the position that was derived it was very difficult to squeeze blood out of the metaphorical stone. El Presidente took the chance to equalise with e5, closing up Larry’s light squared fianchettoed Bishop on g2. El Presidente offered a draw on move 18 when it looked like anything could happen in all of the games.
This was declined after thought and time had elapsed and play continued with a trade off of both pairs of Rooks and a tiny bit of Queen activity was sought by Larry, which was easily defended but at this point, the two games on boards 1 and 2 had finished and Leo was looking under the gun on the 4th board.
Larry offered a draw this time with Kg2 after Leo had thrown the towel in on the 4th board, Larry looking to secure a win for the team. El Presidente declined this time stating that he had to try and force something for the team.
A few passive/boring/unattractive moves later, Larry offered another draw and with a heavy heart and hand, this was accepted in the position on the right – as you can see a 0.0 on the Smallfish scale, albeit with a cheapo of Qe8 mate in the air to the unassuming player looking for a win (yes, I had spotted it).
A 2.5-1.5 defeat for the second team.
El Presidente speaking to the BBC Sport website:
A little bit gutted to be honest, we put up a brave fight, especially on the 4th board with Leo the Lion but Ashby got what they came for and the two points, so fair play to them to be honest. On to the next game!
Anstey Chess Club 