Anstey 1 Return to Winning Ways by Smashing Syston 2

Wednesday 14/12/2022. Anstey 1 travelled to the Syston & District Social Club in, err, Syston for this LRCA Division 2 fixture. Well, most of the team did, for some reason Leo ended up at the Methodist church temporarily worrying captain Matt that he’d gone to the home venue in Anstey! Luckily the Syston Methodist church was just a few doors up the road from the social club, phew.

What was Leo doing playing for the first team I hear you ask. Is it panto season yet? Oh yes it is! A few days before the match Syston captain Brian Galligan had enquired as to whether we could play more than the normal four boards. Not thinking it was a trap (like some had mooted) three additional players in Boris, Leo and Noor were rustled up, with both Leo and Noor making their first team debuts. A big shout out to all three of them for stepping up to the plate. It turned out that Syston had some new players they wanted to give some match experience to.

Leo’s directions weren’t the only pre-match drama. The social club’s function room had been booked out (some kind of band practice we think) and the chess club had been relegated to the (very noisy) bar, the social club thinking it was just a club not a match night. In fairness to the social club and to Brian they did their best, re-arranging the match across the road at the Conservative Club. In the bar. The noisy bar. With lots of people. Drinking. With the World Cup on the TV. So not great match conditions…

Whilst we were waiting for the chess sets, boards and clocks, Julian led the pre-match warm up. Which lasted all of two seconds. Julian however continued exercising his right arm with a pint from the bar after borrowing a tenner. Eventually the boards were all set up, team sheets exchanged and battle commenced.

In what seemed like only a few minutes, Noor and his opponent Conor O’Boye started resetting the pieces on board 7. Noor, playing white, had demolished Conor, his un-castled king (having been weakened by f6 and g5 pawn moves) was harassed mercilessly by white’s and queen and bishops. Black’s king accounted for over a third of the 17 moves and was eventually mated on d8:

So a fantastic debut for Noor and taking the honour of the first Anstey player ever to win for the first, second and third teams, well done Noor. Syston 0 – Anstey 1.

Next to finish was Boris with white against Aron English on board 5. In an uncharacteristically positional game (instead of a raging kingside attack) against a passive small centre opening, Boris built up some pressure on the e-file and after the last of the minor pieces were exchanged won a pawn but in doing so had to exchange off a rook and the queen leaving a tricky rook and pawn (aka Nemesis…) ending. Aron didn’t make any mistakes in the next few moves, a few pawns were exchanged and it came down to the final position:

Boris must have had his “serious” face on because at this point Aron resigned! As long as the black rook move sideways (and not to b4) the position is dead level. Of course, over the board it’s easy to make a mistake and maybe Aron had had enough of looking at Boris’s face… Still, a bonus ½ point for Anstey. Syston 0 – Anstey 2.

John played black against Syston’s rising star Jack Pilley on board 2. Jack has been in great form of late and this was always going to be a tough game. John did ok in the opening and was roughly equal if a little passive going into the middlegame. In trying to get active he pushed e5 and then e4 but this was a square too far. White traded off the key defender, black’s knight on f6 then white’s knight gobbled up the e4 pawn before jumping to g5 and taking an outpost on e6:

John played on manfully in a pretty horrible position but Jack played the next dozen or so moves flawlessly, squeezing the black position. John ran out of space and also time, eventually losing on the clock. Syston 1 – Anstey 2.

Matt played another new Syston player on board 3, Janis Utatis. In an unusual start to the game Matt was out of his opening book on move 3 so reverted to basic principles ending up with an ok position going into the middlegame with black’s king stuck in the middle of the board. Just when he thought he was going to win black’s knight Janis sacrificed it on f2 to uncover an attack on white’s undefended rook on b1. Unfortunately for black this took the queen away from the defence of the king and after a desperate attempt to get back to defend on a6 white smashed through in the centre:

Black is defenceless but luckily for Matt (as he was bit short on time (Really? – Editor)) Janis made it easy for him with 20. … Kxc6 21. Nxe7+ Kb7 22. Qe4+ Kb8 23. Bf4#. Syston 1 – Anstey 3

The most anticipated match up of the night was Julian (with white) against Brian on board 1 (1894 vs 2077). It was a rollercoaster of a game with opposite sides castling, white attacking on the kingside and black on the queenside. Brian had pretty much equalised out of the opening before a misstep in the centre allowed Julian to consolidate a space advantage. Brian kept battling and after a couple of inaccuracies by white black was back in the game and on top. Julian responded by throwing everything into the attack and crashed through with the brilliant 32. Nxf7:

It’s now mate in 15, amazing calculation by Julian. Brian continued for the next few moves before realising he was doomed, the win securing match victory. Syston 1 – Anstey 4.

Leo faced off against Dave Bedder as black on board 6. In a wild tactical game both sides had chances to win but the winning tactic came down to a nice knight fork:

After winning the bishop, the knight and bishop and a pair of rooks were exchanged leaving Leo with rook, knight and 2 pawns vs rook and 2 pawns, each side having a passed pawn. In these situations Leo just excels, he’s so cool, plays so calmly and of course makes no mistakes. The only black win of the night. Syston 1 – Anstey 5.

This left Mick on board 4 playing Tarsem Dhillon as black. Tarsem built up a space advantage out of the opening but then made a mistake underestimating the pin on his e-pawn:

Unfortunately, Mick missed it as well blundering with 11. … c5 instead of winning a pawn with 11. …Bxd5 when the position is roughly equal. Tarsem consolidated with 12. Qe3 and after that kept the hammer down, castling kingside, opening the f-file, doubling rooks and breaking through to black’s king. Syston 2 – Anstey 5.

At the Christmas break (not quite halfway through the season) division 2 remains extremely tight with just 3 points separating the top 5 teams:

Anstey’s next match is away to Ashby in January, another 6-pointer and a win would see them go top of the table!

Anstey captain Matt Connor told BBC Sport:
A huge win for us tonight, it’s vital that we take points off the other top teams to challenge for first place and a nice +3 for the goal difference too (which will almost certainly be worth ½ a point in the final reckoning). Thanks to Boris and debutants Leo and Noor for stepping in and wow, what an impact they had on the match! We now have a few weeks off, take it easy on the turkey and mince pies lads, we need to be fighting fit for the Ashby game in the new year!