Thursday 26^th January 2023. Anstey 1 welcomed Braunstone 2 to the Methodist Church Centre in this first of the reverse fixtures LRCA Division 2 clash. Honours ended up even after a hard fought 2-2 draw.

Not for the first time this season a last-minute call was put out for availability after star player Julian cried off sick. Luckily a few players volunteered, thanks Ben, Bob and Noor. Captain Matt made the decision to go with Noor who is without doubt the form player at the club at the moment (9 wins 2 draws 0 losses in the league so far and a 5/5 performance at the Kenilworth Junior Open Under 18 Group B rapid-play last weekend).

Matt also promoted himself above John to play board 1, John taking the white pieces for only the second time this season. With Braunstone out-rating Anstey on paper 6941 vs 6341, the players shook hands and battle commenced.

It turned out to be a match of 100%s. Noor kept his 100% winning record for the 1^st team; Matt and John lost their 100% records with black and white respectively; and Mick 100% got out of jail free!

The first match to finish was Matt on board 1 as black against Mike Salisbury. Matt equalised fairly easily against Mike’s unorthodox opening going for a solid setup. After a bit of shuffling pieces around the queens came off and the draw was agreed. Yawn. Anstey ½ – Braunstone ½.

John faced off against Daniel Wilkinson with white on board 2 in a re-match of the first game of the season and was out to revenge defeat in that game. John had a nice position out of the opening with a slight space advantage until Daniel found an ingenious way to activate his pieces and equalise the position:

John took the knight on g4 (after which … exd4 regained the piece) but made a mistake a few moves later moving his queen back to h3 after Daniel played … Ne5 attacking it. Play transferred to the queenside but with white’s pieces a bit uncoordinated Daniel found a nice tactical sequence that won a rook and John graciously resigned. Anstey ½ – Braunstone 1½.

Mick played black on board 3 against Jim Bingham, also a rematch of the reverse fixture. But that first game was board 4 away which meant Mick was once again stuck with the black pieces (Editor: 7 blacks and just 1 white now Mick!). Mick came out of the opening slightly cramped and some clever piece play by Jim meant Mick was in rare full defensive mode. A couple of nice positional tactics won Jim a pawn and just when it looked like he would break through Mick finally rustled up some counterplay with a late kingside attack. It didn’t look like it was getting anywhere though but with Jim running a bit short on time Mick cheekily offered a draw. Which Jim agreed to.

White is a still a pawn up but the engines rate this as over +5! So a lucky escape for Mick. Anstey 1 – Braunstone 2.

So it all came down to Noor’s game on board 4 as white against Martin Steel. A slight error in the opening by Noor allowed Martin to snatch a pawn. Noor followed up by castling long and launching a kingside attack with h4 and h5 but Martin kept it solid. After various exchanges it came down to rook and two pawns vs knight and bishop with black still better. Until he played 30. … e5 which loosened his position and allowed Noor to threaten mate with Qf5:

Martin was forced to give back the exchange with 31. … Rxd3 and after grabbing the g2 pawn it was 3 pawns for a knight. Unfortunately for Martin, Noor swung his knight over into the attack on black’s king and just as he was beginning to weave a mating net Martin lost on time. As we’ve said many a time it’s not the first mistake that loses a game a chess it’s the last one! But well done Noor. Anstey 2 – Braunstone 2.

Anstey 1 remain 4^th in the league just 2 points behind the leaders Ashby 1 though Ashby do have a game in hand:

Anstey captain Matt Connor told BBC News:
A massive thanks to Noor for stepping in at the last minute and turning the tide in his game to secure us the draw. I am slightly disappointed though (despite the 600 rating point deficit) not to take the win and the full 2 points, I think that’s a measure of the expectations we have now at Anstey Chess Club, the soul of chess in Charnwood of course.