Wednesday 1st February

Anstey’s 2nd team were involved in their first game for nearly a month as they made the long haul trip over to MH to face their 3rd team, El Presidente had selected a bit of a makeshift team, albeit a good team as making the trip over to MH was The Griller, Just Mick, El Presidente and The Prodigy. Boris the Toaster, Mike and Daddy Valdas were all unavailable for selection so Just Mick stepped in, along with Noor.

On arrival, we were let into the venue by Robert Mills – one of the nicest guys on the chess scene in the County who was only too happy to play doorman. We met up upstairs in the room, with MH3’s skipper Rene Butler (another sound guy) announcing that the MH team were understrength for the evening and that El Presidente would be facing him in the battle of the skippers. Indeed Anstey did heavily out grade MH on paper – we all know that the game isn’t played on paper.

Board 1

(B) Ron Cooper (1518) v The Griller

The Griller on board 1 was facing up against Ron Cooper who, according to Rene, has ties to Northamptonshire chess and was helping MH3 out on this occasion. Regretfully, I do not have any notation from the game – maybe I can add this at a later date. All that I did see was that towards the end of the game The Griller had 3 pawns advancing to the first rank, backed up by a Rook and well placed Bishop, defended only by a Rook and Knight which eventually led to Ron buckling and throwing in the towel.

Board 2

Conor Hackett (E1300) v Just Mick

Just Mick on board 2 was facing off against young Conor Hackett – a face that I have never seen before. Mick had the black pieces, which I am reliably informed he does not get black very often!? The game was incredibly sharp with Mick applying his favoured opening and young Conor really took Mick on, advancing his pawns to try and break up Mick’s structure. This led to Knight sac on f7, enforcing a fawn pork, gaining back the piece. Fireworks followed in the middle game with pieces being exchanged and Conor was lucky that an Ne4 move followed by Qd4+, hitting King and Knight, could be met with Nf2, blocking the check and not losing the piece.
What followed was a couple of inaccuracies from Just Mick, which allowed a crucial move Ng5, hitting Queen and Rook and thus led to material loss. What followed was a lost endgame for Just Mick and he resigned in a lost position.

Board 3

(B) Rene Butler (1294) v El Presidente

El Presidente and Rene faced off in the battle of the skippers on board 3. Many an online game had been played between the two, particularly in friendlies during lockdown and after. The game was a Sicilian Najdorf and El Presidente employed his favourite attack against it but slightly mixed up the move order. Rene played very well out of the opening and even picked up a crucial e-pawn. Rene had a choice between material and practical gain and went for material which post game hindsight might have been inaccurate. Rene looked to consolidate and later in the game played the inexplicable Ke7 (post game chat revealed that e7 was the wrong square – perhaps a mouse slip!), which allowed El Presidente the chance to attack the cramped position. Rene offered a draw after Qb6+ and after El Presidente had considered the other boards, was declined – for now. El Presidente centralised Rooks and spent around 15 minutes calculating Rxe5 when perhaps Bxf6 was cleaner and better – even more so after Rxe5 Kd7 was played.
Having spent so much time on Rxe5, El Presidente had no time to find the correct moves after and with Rene declaring that the ‘draw offer was still open’, this was taken with El Presidente down to 3 minutes on the clock.

Board 4

Robert Mills (1338) v The Prodigy

Again, your report author hasn’t seen much of the game but having had sight of the scoresheet, the game took a Queen’s Gambit declined, Marshall defence. Unfortunately, the Prodigy played a move order inaccuracy which lost The Prodigy a piece and a significant advantage for his opponent. There is a slight notation error mid-way through the game but at this point, Noor is +8 down – practically speaking it doesn’t look that bad, albeit black is a piece down. What I saw was The Prodigy was still losing but the Bishop and Rook of White were trying to contain the centralised connected passed pawns of The Prodigy – far from easy. The game concluded with the Bishop being given up for the two pawns and instead of advancing his own a+b pawns, Robert walked into a checkmate in one on the h file.

El Presidente told British Chess Magazine:

“Credit to MH, they fought very hard – epitomised by their captain – and it was a tough game. Very happy to come away with the match win for the team and the two points against a team in the top 3”.