Credit to Oskar “OskarRud” Rudczenko and Borislav “Bobideco” Lazarov for writing this report.

Our second match against the third Braunstone team. Braunstone do have quite high rated players, but some of our players are quite under-rated so it might just be an equal match. Anstey had Bob Grindrod, Leo Abraham, Noor Datoo, Yuvraj Sadhra and Oskar Rudczenko for this away match. Anstey got to the venue and mostly were ready to play by the time the Braunstone team got to the venue, which had happened last season we played against them. At least the venue was quite warm, and the games played were certainly of good quality.

With everyone ready and set to go, we’ve got Bob on the first board.

(Photo credited to Noor Datoo’s dad. Taken just after the games start.)

Board 1: Bob Grindrod plays white; Martin Steel plays black

Bob was scheduled to play with the white pieces 20 points higher rated Martin Steel from the home team. Our teammate’s Queen’s Gambit (yes, like in the series, go and check them out on Netflix, if you haven’t) was met by a Dutch defence from the Braunstone player. Both players developed rapidly and in the spirit of their opening choice until Black decided to double his pawns on the d-file while dubiously exchanging his dark-squared bishop for its white counterpart. Bob happily exchanged the bishops, getting a significant advantage (based on Stockfish 11 +1.73 evaluation, depth=20, powered by chess.com) by move 7. Unfortunately, our teammate missed the opportunity to fix his opponent’s pawn weakness with d5 straight away and naturally castled in anticipation of opening of the centre, thus giving a crucial tempo for Black to play d5 and either take the centre or fix his pawn structure while opening the long h1-a8 diagonal for his light-squared bishop. After a couple of pawns were exchanged and Black slightly over extended himself on the queenside (Q-side), the Braunstone player finally castled his king, giving Bob the opportunity to play d5 and try to rupture his opponent’s central pawn structure in spite of losing a pawn. Our teammate instead opted for the natural development of his rooks in an attempt to prepare the d5 push, only to give Black the opportunity to develop his last piece and equalise comfortably by move 16. The knight squeeze from the Braunstone player continued and after a pair of “horses” were exchanged, the remaining black knight found a lovely home on e4, harassing White’s back three ranks. Although the home team player missed the opportunity to put more pressure on Bob’s position, the Anstey player made a couple of inaccurate decisions, first giving up the c-file to Black and then trying to chase the black knight which found a beautiful square on c3, protected by his own rook and putting pressure on the white rook. In the resulting position, Black managed to trap the white knight, emerging a full piece up albeit with slightly exposed king by move 26. Our teammate was initially squeezed by his opponent on the back rank, with Black greedily munching on the white pawns but our teammate tried to create some counterplay on the dreaded c-file by exchanging rooks and then activating his queen on the c1-h6 diagonal. Unfortunately for our teammate, the Braunstone player managed to get his queen into a ‘must exchange’ situation of attacking both white king and queen, and met with the perspective of facing two passed pawns supported by their light-squared bishop, only armed with his lone king, Bob resigned. A hard day in the office for Bob again, as he was unfortunate to miss some engine moves, for which no one could blame him.

This was Braunstone 1 – Anstey 0, on the second board was Leo “The Lion”.

Board 2: Vijay Gulab plays white; Leo “The Lion” Abraham plays black

Leo was scheduled to play the tough nut and very solid player Vijay Gulab, who was Braunstone’s top board versus “Big Daddy” Valdas in the home fixture. Unfortunately, the authors only received a brief description of Leo’s game by the player himself and cannot lead you through the depths of his game on the night. Nevertheless, the players opened the game with their king’s pawns and continued in a common drawish development. White managed to get doubled rooks, attacking a file, but our teammate was defending it well. Moreover, “The Lion” used his excellent board vision to gain a pawn, but oversaw a simple tactic losing one of his rooks for free. Unfortunately, our teammate never managed to recover and came out on the wrong side in this occasion. A tough lesson for Leo, who is currently pressurised by GCSE preparation, but we are sure that after he gets his excellent grades he will be back in form bringing fire on the board with a cool expression.

With Braunstone 2 – Anstey 0, the situation is looking bleak, but our top-performing player is on board 3.

Board 3: Noor “The Prodigy” Datoo plays white; Shaun Wilkinson plays black

In-form Noor was scheduled to play more than 300 points Shaun Wilkinson. Our teammate’s e4 was met by a Pirc type setup from Black, and after “The Prodigy” had occupied the centre, he decided to harass the f6-knight with an early e5-push. The players exchanged the queens and our teammate found himself with a +1.6 advantage by move 8 with equal material on the board. The young Anstey player continued to squeeze his opponent and completely paralysed Black’s pieces with an early g4-push but Black started manoeuvring his pieces in an attempt to get them into play. Our teammate was having none of it and quickly exchanged his dark-squared bishop for the h6-knight and then blocked the fianchettoed g7-bishop with a solid, albeit slightly extended pawn chain on e5, f4 and g5. Black tried to get some counterplay on the Q-side but his very first pawn push was met by an excellent reply from “The Prodigy” forcing the Braunstone player to undevelop all of his Q-side pieces on move 17 in order to protect the c6-pawn. While Black spent the next four moves trying to untangle his pieces, he completely ignored the white h-pawn who kept marching unopposed, only to get to h6 and trap the already paralysed g7-bishop, like a spider paralysing his prey before tangling it in its web only to eventually have a nourishing meal. In one last attempt to trick Noor, the Braunstone player exchanged his knight for the remaining white bishop trying to line up an attack with his own light-squared bishop against the two white knights. At this stage of his chess life, though, “The Prodigy” would not fall for simple tricks and simplified the position to emerge by move 24 with a two point material lead resulting in a +4.6 advantage for himself. At this point his opponent realised that there is little point in continuing the torture and resigned. No surprise this season, another amazing win for “The Prodigy”, who finds himself fighting toe-to-toe with 1500+ players and really looking to challenge for the spots in the second team.

Some hope for a decent result for our team as Noor’s win makes it Braunstone 2 – Anstey 1, let’s see what “The Silent Destroyer” is doing on board 4.

Board 4: Guy Closs plays white; Yuvraj “The Silent Destroyer” Sadhra plays black

The game starts off with a roy lopez, and Yuvraj plays the unconventional knight to d4. Guy takes the knight and Yuvraj has an advanced d pawn. Guy stops Yuvraj’s pawn from advancing any further forwards and Yuvraj defends his pawn with his dark bishop on c5. White castles and black swats white’s bishop away with c6. Yuvraj develops his kingside knight which white immediately pins with bishop to g5, possibly looking to win it by playing e5, as the knight is pinned to the queen.

Yuvraj doesn’t fall for this and plays the correct h6 to swat another bishop away and Yuvraj goes even further by playing g5, which completely vanquishes the pin on the knight, but this makes Yuvraj’s position very weak. Yuvraj then strikes in the centre with d5, but his king has still not castled which weakens his position even more than he already has done. White opens the centre and immediately takes advantage by taking control of the e file with his rook.

Black has to retreat his dark bishop to cover the check on his king. White puts more pressure on the bishop with his own bishop and attacks the undefended f6 knight with his queen. Yuvraj again retreats another one of his bishops to protect the knight, but finally manages to castle on the queenside. However, his king is still quite exposed to threatening attacks.

A big trade occurs in the centre of the board with bishops and queens being traded. What is left is that white has a dominant bishop on g3, which cuts right through the board and white has control of the only open file. White certainly has the upper hand, but can Yuvraj pull this back in his favour?

The game continues with white winning black’s d5 pawn, and slowly making more space for himself by trading more pieces and cracking black’s queenside open just enough to try and squeeze a pawn through. Yuvraj of course tries his best to defend, unfortunately though Guy manages to queen his a pawn. Yuvraj keeps playing down a queen, but eventually he feels obliged to resign.

Braunstone 3 – Anstey 1. Unfortunately this is a loss for the team, no matter what sort of magic Oskar can pull out, but we can still see how his match went against Steve Barlow.

Board 5: Oskar Rudczenko plays white; Steve Barlow plays black

The game starts with a three nights petrov defence, which leads to both e pawns being traded off as well as the c3 knight and black’s dark bishop. The game continues with Oskar developing his light bishop with tempo by attacking the knight on e4, but Steve plays f5, which weakens black’s kingside slightly as the black king starts to become more exposed. Oskar pins the knight with queen to e2, and black responds with queen to e7. Oskar then plays knight to g5, which again puts more pressure on Steve’s knight, and black takes on g5. This leads to both queens being traded and both knights, but black can’t castle and white develops his dark bishop by taking the knight on g5 with check.

Now Oskar castles queen side, and both players put their rooks on the e file. Steve initiates a rook trade giving Oskar control on the e file. Oskar pushes his kingside pawns to attack Steve’s king, and putting more pressure on pawn that is pinned by Oskar’s light bishop. This leads to a very devastating loss for Steve if he isn’t careful, as white can win a piece if Steve plays this wrong. However, Steve doesn’t see the threat, so after a pawn trade Oskar checks the king with his rook to force black’s king away from the bishop and loses said bishop. The evaluation for this position is +6 according to a computer.

Steve tries to carry on a make a draw, but he keeps offering piece trades which is in Oskar’s favour. White has now got two bishops against black’s knight. Oskar has to win by getting his bishops behind black’s pawns, but he doesn’t realise this. Instead, white tries to break through black’s kingside pawns with pawn attacks, which does help to trade more pieces off, but it’s not a winning strategy. Black had got his knight trapped in the corner, but finally moves it and white takes immediately. With black being down a piece, it is very difficult to defend against white’s king and bishop attacks all at once. Both players make a few more moves, and as soon as white’s king gets behind black’s pawns black resigns. A very good victory for Oskar, as Steve was rated 1375 and Oskar was 1138.

Braunstone 3 – Anstey 2. A less than decisive victory for Braunstone with the Anstey players putting up a good fight, especially from Noor!

Final Words

An unfortunate loss against Braunstone, which will drop us down a place on the leader board, so now we’re on the lower side of the middle of the board. This is still okay though, considering how many new players we have, who are maybe not familiar with league chess or notating with a clock. We’re still in a good fighting chance though of moving up a place or two again. So far we’ve played against most of the top teams in the season, and the last few matches we’ve got are mostly against teams on the lower end of the scoreboard this season.

Also, I personally think we’ve done pretty well, because draws are not wins but they’re also not defeats either. We are still gaining points when we draw too, so we are still making progress.

Anyway, we’re got our next away match two weeks from now (8th Feb 2023) against Loughborough, which we may win as Loughborough have not performed well in past seasons. Although, they are third this season, so this could go either way! We’ll see when we play against them. Until next time, see you later folks.