In a close match where our second team looked lost halfway, the grit and determination of the B-team shined in the latter stages and they sealed a 4-0 win

On the International Women’s day, our second team travelled through blistering cold and snow to play against Latimer in the home team venue, the Latimer Ward Conservative club. The B-team suffered two big blows in the days prior to the match with El Presidente Ben and Brian The Griller dropping from the fixture, but the always reliable Just Mick and Mike (M&M) joined the leftovers of our second team in Bob and acting captain on the first third of the evening Boris The Toaster (BnB). Making their own way, M&M and BnB met in front of the venue at 19:25, discussed the weather for a couple of minutes and went to meet their opponents on the night. Latimer made two changes from the reversed fixture, with bottom board Roy Gurney replacing David Gamble, and the top two boards swapping places. Anstey 2 outrated their opponents on paper by a total of 515 points and they were higher rated on every board, but history has shown that this Latimer side is a lot more resilient than the rating shows. With the bottom two boards not in their best series of results and the top two boards inconsistent in their performances this season, the match looked to be a lot closer than the ratings were showing, and truth be told, apart from Just Mick every other board was looking bleak at times. Nevertheless, M&M and BnB showcased great grit and determination and not only sealed the win for our second team, but achieved the full score, getting their second “clean sheet” of the season. The match saw a single spectator in our chairman Ben, who managed to get to the venue in spite of not feeling 100%, relieving The Toaster from the captain duties about a quarter into the match.

Just Mick (Anstey 2) vs Michael Garland Sr. (Latimer) 1 – 0

After receiving the news that Brian The Griller was not playing on the night, Mick was as usual first to raise his hand and volunteer to help the B-team. Boris and Just Mick agreed to keep the board order based on experience rather than rating and our top board on the night deservedly had the rare opportunity to play with the white pieces. Across our teammate sat Michael Garland Sr. from Latimer, a solid player who was unfortunate to lose a completely drawn game against Boris The Toaster. The players started sharp engaging in the Sicilian, whereby the home team player decided to create a backward d-pawn quite early, giving our teammate a +1.1 advantage with equal material. It will be fair to say that Just Mick only built up from then on, never going back to a situation where he does not have the advantage. The players developed their pieces, with Black taking a conservative approach of keeping his pieces close to the kingside (K-side) while Mick placed his army in a position to support K-side pawn pushes and castled queenside (Q-side), creating a queen-led battery on the d-file in the process. Black accepted the challenge for an interesting game and castled short, which was welcomed by our teammate with an immediate g4-g5, followed by h4, looking to demolish the pawn wall in front of the black king.

Looking a little flustered by the attacking style of Just Mick, the home team player tried to block the pawns with g6 and then to challenge them with f6, but the white armada of pawns, well supported by the white bishop pair, marched on to occupy g5 and h5, giving Mick a +4.9 advantage with equal material. Completely suffocated by the white army, Black tried to hold the fort by bringing his rook to the seventh rank, which gave our teammate the opportunity to place an amazing knight on d5, eyeing four important squares in the enemy territory and blocking the said backward d-pawn. Finding nothing better to do, the home team player exchanged his light-squared bishop for the great-looking white knight and gave our teammate a tactical opportunity to win the exchange which Mick executed swiftly, exchanging his light-squared bishop for one of the black rooks. Interestingly enough, our teammate missed an opportunity for a Mate in 8 combination, starting by giving a check on h8 with his tower-looking piece, securing an infiltration of the white lady into the back ranks of Black’s position which is then sacrificed to ensure an Opera mate. Nevertheless, with those combinations a player find themselves more often than not in a pickle rather than winning, so Just Mick cashed in with the exchange and infiltrated the black back ranks with one of his rooks instead.

Early in the endgame, our teammate picked up one of the doubled isolated g-pawns and looked to put pressure on the black pieces when his opponent rather strangely provided Mick with the opportunity to exchange a pair of rooks and the dark-squared bishops, winning another pawn in the process and emerging from the combination a pawn and rook versus a knight. Never losing his advantage from then on, Just Mick brought his king to the party, pushed his Q-side majority and completely restricted the clumsy black knight. His opponent tried to activate the black king, but a slow and steady progress, combined with great work from the white rook to restrict both the black king and knight, saw the black pieces getting suffocated. Realising that the game is lost, the Latimer player threw the towel and congratulate our teammate for what truly was a dominant game.

Great win for Just Mick who showcased again that when it comes to attacking play with the white pieces, he is on a completely different level.

Brian Slater (Latimer) vs Borislav The Toaster Lazarov (Anstey 2) 0 – 1

Boris The Toaster found himself playing with the black pieces for a fourth time in a row, and was scheduled to play against the top board from the reversed fixture for Latimer, Brian Slater, who in spite of having a significant time advantage against Brian The Griller in that November fixture, did not find a way to get the draw for his team. Looking to redeem himself against Boris, the Latimer player opened with a Queen’s Gambit setup (like in the Netflix series, jump there and watch it, if you haven’t already), which was met with the usual solid defence from our teammate. The players exchanged their light-squared bishops swiftly and positioned their armies in a typical way for this opening, with White releasing the tension in the centre rather quickly and taking extra space on the Q-side. Both players castled K-side and The Toaster started bringing his pieces to the centre while White was looking to repel any tactical jumps with a3 and h3.

The middlegame started with a couple of important pawn pushes – White naturally started pressing on the Q-side which was answered by our teammate by a timely e5 which the home team player was obliged to take. The players exchanged a pair of knights as well when White offered a queen trade. Boris thought for a few moments and decided that he does not like the exchange just yet, so withdrew his queen to e6. The Latimer player exploited the newly created weak a1-h8 diagonal by creating a possible battery with his queen and bishop, but Boris parried the threat in its origin by centralising his f8-rook and placing his dark-squared bishop there instead. Unsure as to what to do, White played a waiting move in Ba1, when The Toaster decided to play Ne4, leading to exchanges of the remaining knights and the queens.

With the start of the endgame, the home team player offered another exchange, this time of the rooks, as well as a draw. Our teammate looked at the other boards and instead exchanged the rooks, keeping the play going as the bottom two boards looked rather bleak at the time. White started gaining some small advantage with better positioning of his pieces, but Boris led the game back to a complete draw with the exchange of the remaining bishops, after which the players brought their kings to the centre before our teammate offered another exchange, this time of rooks. After a couple of pawn moves, White exchanged the rooks and the players ended with symmetrical pawn structures which unfortunately for our teammate gave his opponent the opposition, resulting in a +1.0 position. Luckily for our teammate, White did not see the best play and after a nice triangulation from Boris, he ended with the opposition in the same position. After a couple of pawn-moves on the Q-side, The Toaster did the same triangulation, this time emerging with a -1.1 advantage. His opponent mentioned that the position is stalemate, when with wide eyes Boris replied that there are at least two pawns which the Latimer player can move, much to the surprise of the latter who was too occupied with his king’s position. The players engaged in the final endgame battle whereby our teammate was an important move ahead of his opponent but still managed to get himself in a losing position. Nevertheless, his opponent miscalculated the position himself, and lost his e-pawn in the process, although after picking up our teammate’s c-pawn, the game was level again. One more blunder from our teammate gave his opponent more fighting chances, but the Latimer player completely miscalculated the ending and gave our teammate the opportunity to create a queen and then deliver a final checkmate at move 82.

Another great resilient performance from The Toaster who finds himself in a rare unbeaten run this season.

Bob Grindrod (Anstey 2) vs Granville Hill (Latimer) 1 – 0

Bob returned for the second team on board 3 in the absence of El Presidente Ben. Our regular player from the B-team was scheduled to face Granville Hill who was unfortunate against the chairman in the reversed fixture. The game opened with the Hartlaub-Charlick Gambit line of the Englund Gambit (based on chess.com Opening Explorer, the author is quite confident that both players were aware of the opening line’s classification, origin, and main plans). Our teammate called the bluff and took the extra pawn which was followed by a rather passive development from him, while the Latimer player brought his pieces to active positions in line with the gambits’ philosophy. Bob decided to waste a tempo with a rather dubious attack on the black queen, while Black rushed to castle long and before long stroke in the centre with f5. Our teammate took the pawn and managed to hold on the black initiative, albeit at the expense of a rather passive position, but still holding a nice +1.6 advantage. Unfortunately, he lost it in a matter of a couple of moves, and suddenly Black found himself in the middlegame with a nice queen-led battery along the e-file, with pressure on the white pieces, and only needing his g8-knight to enter the game in order to start a promising attack.

Lacking quite a bit of space, our teammate exchanged one of his knights for his opponent’s light-squared bishop and rushed to castle after a dubious Kd7 move from Black which dropped a -1.7 advantage for the home team player. The white lady was attacked and she found an active shelter on d1, eyeing the misplaced black king. The Latimer player looked to attack the white king, but Bob found the second best move to repel the initial attack, only to miss a nice Bb4 move to pin the black bishop and attack it with the white queen. Unfortunately for our teammate, he eventually found the move in the worst possible moment, basically dropping his own bishop after a neat check from his opponent, leading to a -4.87 advantage for Black in a bishop vs pawn position. The home team player rushed to exchange pieces, starting from the queens. After some pawn and rook shuffling on both sides of the board, Black found a neat tactic to pick up a pawn, exchanging knights in the process, entering a -5.6 endgame a full piece up.

The home team player continued to harass Bob’s position and offered another exchange, this time of rooks, but our teammate, knowing that there is nothing to lose, tried to be solid and braced for impact. Bob managed to get his rook and king on slightly more active positions and attacked the black dark-squared bishop with his rook which led to his opponent dropping the piece for a pawn. Still having a -3.3 advantage, Black decided to step back a little and instead of activating his own pieces, he tried to defend his extra pawn material advantage. Our teammate’s endgame superiority showcased itself on the board, and Bob played active moves, threatening multiple targets at once. A couple of moves after the bishop was gone, Black closed his king on the queenside, returning the evaluation bar to 0.0 with extra pawn. Bob continued to harass the black king and activated his king. Under some considerable pressure, Black dropped a couple of pawns, and in spite of still being in a theoretically drawn position, the significant change from completely winning to barely holding the position proved to be too big of an excitement for the Latimer player and he resigned.

A long-deserved win for Bob, who often finds himself losing a game from a winning position, but with the help of fate finally wins a game from a losing one.

Roy Gurney (Latimer) vs Mike Griffiths (Anstey 2) 0 – 1

Finding out that two players from the second team are not available, Mike was another one to raise his hand and step up to the occasion. Our teammate was scheduled to play the Latimer sub Roy Gurney, who reportedly played at the rather admirable age of 90+ years old. We wish Roy to play like that when he is 100+ as well, and wish ourselves to get to his age and play at least half as good. Back on the game itself, the players found themselves in a very peculiar situation whereby the board was turned around, the white pieces were on the 8th rank, and their black counterparts occupied the first. Nevertheless, quite brilliant notation from Mike, who managed to follow the newly invented order without getting many wrong. The players engaged in the Sicilian (or maybe some sort of a weird Bird defence, where Black has the first move), Smith-Morra Gambit, where our teammate played a rather dubious d6 move which gave White a +0.7 advantage on move 3. The players started positioning their armies, White decided to take the centre with pawns and pieces, bringing knights and bishops to their most natural squares, and tucking his king into safety on the K-side. Mike decided to “fianchetto” his dark-squared bishop on the long a1-h8 diagonal and place his pieces in natural, albeit slightly passive squares, ending in what appeared to be a Pirc-ish setup. With the central control, king safety and space advantage, White missed the perfect moment for the e5-push, which gave Mike time to castle short himself, and before long, the evaluation bar dropped below +1.0. Following fundamental chess principles, our teammate used a gifted tempo to start pushing pawns on the Q-side, while White tried to play in the centre.

The middlegame started with a long, five-move (five for both sides, totalling ten moves) combination, which included two knight, two pawn and one rook exchanges to leave the players with two bishops, queen, rook and five pawns each. White had an advanced, albeit isolated, passed pawn on the fifth rank (or fourth rank if we follow the actual board’s coordinates, quite confusing this game), which along with the slightly more active pieces granted the Latimer player a +1.8 advantage by move 21. The home team player picked up a pawn, then forced the exchange of the dark-squared bishops, picking up a second pawn in the process. Our teammate tried his best to hold on the white army and brought his rook and queen to the K-side in an attempt to create a fortress. White brought his rook to the party, and in the good traditions of solid chess, created tactical conditions to exchange the rooks and the bishops, entering the endgame with a queen and five against queen and three for Mike.

The endgame began with Mike activating his king and playing under the pressure of +2.8 advantage. The situation for our second team player looked quite desperate, but somehow his opponent managed to greatly misplay the last six moves, much to the delight of Mike and the overseeing El Presidente Ben. Starting from an unnecessary, yet useful queen exchange, the home team player gave away his advanced d-pawn. The players activated their kings in a situation where White had an extra pawn, and engaging the kings on the Q-side would grant him the win by creating a passed pawn on the K-side where the white majority was. Fortunately for our teammate, the white king completely abandoned the Q-side, unaware that the black b-pawn (on the night g-pawn) will be a lot faster than the slow and steady attack from the white majority on K-side. Nevertheless, on move 39 White still had the opportunity to launch his f- and g-pawns in an attempt to create the “passer” but a moment of hesitation with a king move granted Mike the opportunity to snatch the white b-pawn and ensure a clear shepherding corridor for the “golden sheep” on b5 (g4). Realising the gravity of the situation, the Latimer player graciously resigned.

Excellent comeback for Mike who in spite of playing under +5.0 or worse evaluation, endured the storm to emerge victorious and grant the “clean sheet” for the B-team.

The match ended 4-0 for Anstey 2 in front their rather delighted captain, the chairman himself. This win places our second team temporarily on the second position with the two teams around them with a game or two at hand. Nevertheless, another brilliant performance from the B-team, who in spite of the odds are still playing toe-to-toe with the big guns in the division. Anstey 2’s next fixture will be against Ashby 3 at home on the 6^th April. A well-deserved break for the busiest team so far who have only three games left to play.