One of the youngest teams to play in the Leicestershire League this season claims a narrow 4-3 win against a solid Kirby 2 side.

It has been more than a month since our third team’s last game of 2022 and your author has finally found the time to write the report of this thrilling seven-board match, full of exciting games. One of the youngest teams from any club to play in the league this season was just a member short when the board number was agreed, and chairman Ben stepped up to the occasion, his confidence backed up by great performances this season for all Anstey teams. Unfortunately, in the last hours before the match, the captain Oskar found himself unfit to play and “the usual suspect” Boris filled in on board 1. Kirby Muxloe 2 arrived with a solid, albeit slightly lower rated team and naturally managed to cause all sorts of problems to our players. It was a turmoil of an event, with players winning and losing all over the place, but eventually the Anstey youngsters prevailed to claim the first win for our third team this season and start climbing up the table.

Paul Gray (Kirby 2) vs Borislav “Boris The Toaster” Lazarov (Anstey 3) 1 – 0

Boris “The Toaster” filled in for the team in a very short notice and was playing as Black against a solid player in Paul Gray. On the table with (on paper) the biggest rating difference, “The Toaster” was (again, on paper) the favourite to win this game. The players engaged in the Caro-Kann Exchange variation, and as soon as move 13, our teammate found himself faced with a choice of whether to have some fun or be solid. Surprisingly, Boris decided to go the former route and immediately put pressure on White’s dark-squared bishop with an early g4, followed by an attack on the king with g5. A series of exchanges took place, with the Kirby player throwing away a +2.9 advantage (Stockfish depth=20, powered by chess.com). “The Toaster” tried to build up some pressure on the open g-file, but White managed to exchange queens. The players picked up some pawns, with our teammate having the more active knight and having a -0.9 by move 26, which grew to -2.2 for a move, only to be brought back to equal game in a couple of moves. Boris put pressure on his opponent on the kingside (K-side), only to win a pawn – a move which the engine disliked, giving a +0.1 with material down for White. Although up a pawn, “The Toaster” was not able to do anything with his pawn, and quickly realised that his pieces cannot be improved easily. Our teammate tried to shuffle his rook, only to blunder his knight twice and offered a draw on the second time. His opponent did not miss the somewhat simple tactic on the second occasion and cashed on his material advantage to win the game for Kirby 2 on board 1.

A bitter lesson for Boris who is long due to slow down and start calculating deeper.

“El Presidente” Ben Vaughan (Anstey 3) vs John Walker (1529) 1 – 0

It has been great season so far for our chairman who was scheduled to play with the white pieces against another solid player from Kirby in John Walker. “El Presidente” opened with his old favourite, Ruy Lopez (for any fans of him out there, he switched now to the Catalan) to which his opponent answered with (based on chess.com) the Cozio defence. Ben occupied the centre immediately, and both players developed their pieces as soon as possible. Our second team captain castled K-side, while his opponent’s king was still in the centre in the beginning of the middle game. “El Presidente” decided to exploit the latter fact by striking first on the queenside (Q-side) and immediately after in the centre, winning a pawn in the process. With a strong pawn on d5, Ben put good pressure on Black’s position, making the Kirby player spending tempi on rerouting his pieces. Nevertheless, Ben’s opponent decided to put pressure on the K-side, but a solid defence from our chairman kept the advantage for White. Under significant pressure, Black rushed to exchange queens, only to fall victim to a sophisticated tactic by “El Presidente”, winning him a full piece for a pawn. In a slow and steady manner, Ben started exchanging pieces, first a pair of knights, followed by a pair of rooks, whereby our chairman sacrificed a couple of pawns as well. Our second team captain managed to pick up Black’s c7-pawn, creating a passed pawn of his own which unfortunately did not last long but gave him the opportunity to sweep clean the Q-side on his march to exchange pieces and capitalise on his material advantage. Eventually, “El Presidente” exchanged his remaining bishop for the enemy knight and equalised the pawn count. A full piece down, his opponent decided that enough is enough and resigned.

Another great win for Ben who is deservedly in the competition for best performing player for the club.

Nigel Wollen (Kirby 2) vs Leo “The Lion” Abraham (Anstey 3) 1 – 0

The top regular Anstey 3 player for this match was Leo “The Lion”, scheduled to play as Black against another experienced player in Nigel Wollen. The players engaged in the Ruy Lopez whereby Black opted for the Old Steinitz defence (based on chess.com), allowing for White to exchange on c6 and double the pawns on the c-file. Our teammate decided to fianchetto his dark-squared bishop and both players develop quickly and castled K-side. “The Lion” tried to open the centre with f4, recapturing with his light-squared bishop and thus completing his development. The Kirby player stroke in the centre himself with a somewhat premature d4, but our teammate could not resist the slightly losing possibility of placing a bishop on e4 where he had to push his pawn instead. The players exchanged most of their minor pieces, leaving only a pair of knights on the board which worked in White’s favour, as the weakness on the c-file remained. Eager to capitalise on his advantage, Leo’s opponent rushed to exchange knights and doubled his rooks on the e-file. “The Lion” exchanged one set of rooks and in the process managed to exchange one of the c-pawns for its d-equivalent. Having created a protected passed pawn on the d-file, our teammate tried to push both the c- and d-pawns, but a premature c-pawn push saw Leo losing both pawns for the price of the white b-pawn, leaving White a pawn up, with both players having one pawn each on the Q-side. The rooks picked up the pawns, and not long after, the solid Kirby player exchanged the rooks in a 3 vs 2 endgame. Unfortunately, our teammate missed a few opportunities to draw the game and with the last move Kh7 giving a clear advantage for White, “The Lion” resigned.

Another tough day in the office for Leo, who is under some GCSE pressure, but looking to improve his game further regardless.

Noor “The Prodigy” Datoo (Anstey 3) vs Dan Watson (Kirby 2) 1 – 0

Another player in great form, Noor played with the white pieces against a young Dan Watson from Kirby. The players opened with the Italian variation of the Four Knights game, with Noor hurrying to exchange the dark-squared bishops, albeit at the price of doubled e-pawns. Our teammate put pressure in the centre, while his opponent attacked the remaining white bishop and further exchanged it for one of his knights. Finding himself with a slight advantage, the Kirby player decided to tuck his king into safety on the K-side which was welcomed by “The Prodigy” who started a K-side attack with h4 and g4. Both players shuffled their queens, and Noor sacrificed the c-pawn for initiative and attacked with g5. Black did not call the bluff and started shuffling his king, letting White to open the K-side in the process. Our teammate consolidated his Q-side with Nxc3 following Black taking on c3 “en passant”, and started to exert a solid squeeze on the K-side. The Kirby player brought his queen to the K-side party and tried to create a counter attack, sacrificing two pawns in the process, but the mighty white knights kept everything together for “The Prodigy” who capitalised on his accumulated advantage and delivered a beautiful checkmate with his d-pawn.

Another great win for Noor who is looking to steal the “Best Performing Anstey Player” from “El Presidente” this season and is definitely on his road to the second team.

Charlie Clynick (Kirby 2) vs Aarav Sinha (Anstey 3) 1 – 0

Aarav was back in action for the third team and found himself playing against another young Kirby player in Charlie Clynick, Unfortunately, little information was received about the game and the report on this will be shorter, based only on the unreliable memory of the author. Nevertheless, both players opened up normally, with them developing their pieces swiftly and unfortunately, Aarav was down a piece early in the game. Our teammate manged to get back in the game and even had an advantage the next time the author had a glance at the game. Unfortunately, the next time Aarav was seen he admitted that he lost the game.

An unfortunate evening for Aarav, however, he is not far away from capitalising on those games and his advantage.

Yuvraj Sadhra (Anstey 3) vs Nigel Smith (Kirby 2) 1 – 0

Another returning junior was Yuvraj who played as White against Nigel Smith from Kirby. The young Anstey player was a tad late, and found his board with his clock already ticking when he arrived. Our teammate opened with the Ruy Lopez, which was met (probably not to the awareness of either player) by the Lutikov variation of the Exchange Morphy defence (based on chess.com, although the author admits that the name sounds dubious at best). Yuvraj hurried to exchange on c6 and double his opponent’s pawns. Both players started their development and while the Kirby player opted for a double fianchetto and a King’s Indian setup, our teammate opted for a c1-h6 bishop led battery and a Q-side castling, with the c3-knight protecting the king. Black pushed his a-pawn while the young Anstey player attacked with “Harry” and “Garry”, exchanged his dark-squared bishop for the remaining black knight and broke the K-side pawn structure of his opponent. The advantage of our teammate was so prominent by move 17, he could afford to part ways with his knight for free, but he decided to keep it just in case. Black tried to counter attack with his a-pawn, but it was too little too late, as Yuvraj forced an exchange of the black dark-squared bishop for one of his knights and followed with infiltration of the queen on the K-side, delivering checkmate shortly after.

Another great game from Yuvraj who is looking to challenge the top boards’ players for their spots very soon.

Edda Walker (Kirby 2) vs “Young” John Graham-Brown (Anstey 3) 0 – 1

It has not been the best of seasons for John who is regularly outrated by hundreds of points. Which explains his excitement prior to his match with the black pieces against experienced Edda Walker who is in the same rating range as our youngest competitor. The game proved to be an absolute mayhem, worthy of a place in our teammate’s future memoirs. The players used an unusual move order to reach the four knights variation of the Italian game. “Young John” decided to prematurely attack with his knights, only to exchange one of them for the white counterpart and part ways with the other after a decent tactic from his opponent and an unfortunate blunder from John. Our teammate had to further exchange a pair of bishops and tried to activate his remaining minor piece, supported by the mighty queen. However, the youngest Anstey player fell victim to a fork in the process which costed him his queen, and even worse upon recapture of the enemy knight, our teammate lost his bishop as well. Down 12 points of material, the game look bleak for “Young John” who never stopped fighting and activated his rooks, bringing one of them on h5. His opponent missed her opportunity to finish off the game and instead attacked John’s Q-side pawns, only to lose her queen for no compensation. “Only” a minor piece and a pawn down, John started pushing his Q-side pawns and soon created a hole on the b-file. John managed to stop the march of the white e-pawn at the price of a rook exchange and continued his march on the Q-side. With White being careless in the early endgame, our teammate managed to push his b-pawn the whole way and promoted a queen which soon wreaked havoc on White’s position. Seeing that our teammate is in control of the game, the Kirby player decided to call it a day and shook John’s hand.

Congratulations on a great first win for “Young John” and we wish him many more to come.

With this first win of the season, Anstey 3 went up to sixth place at the time and after several games were played in the division, our third team is still holding the position after six games. Entering into the second part of the season, we are sure that the young Anstey players will further rise to the occasion and make their captain Oskar happy by delivering more defeats to their opponents.

During the night, club night took place with our teenage band, led by regular member Sev, back in the house to play some casual games with dad Damien and son Aristotle.