Thursday 23/03/2023. Anstey 1 made the trip to the Wigston Liberal Club for the second time in a week for this LRCA Division 2 fixture against Wigston 2. Self confidence in the team was at an all-time low having drawn their last two matches against the bottom two sides in the division. Err, apart from Julian that is who is Mr Confidence. Still, they were hoping to improve on the 2-2 draw in the reverse fixture. Once again super-sub Boris (who’s having a superb run in the 1^st team – Ed) was called upon after John Robinson pulled out of the team due to ill health.

Once again, the team were warmly greeted by Wigston. When the captains exchanged team sheets it was revealed that Anstey had a significant rating disadvantage on paper (7,467 vs 6,933). The players shook hands and battle commenced.

For only the second time this season Matt Connor finished first, playing black on board 2 versus Stefan Savic. Matt equalised out of the opening and built up a bit of an edge in the position but this petered out and a draw was agreed. Yawn. Still, it gave him the opportunity to enjoy watching the other games. Wigston ½ – Anstey ½.

Julian Tarwid was out for revenge for his loss in the reverse fixture against Lewis Turner. Playing white on board 1 the middlegame was fairly even until Julian managed to mobilise his bishops and rooks and was putting pressure on black’s position. Tempted by a cheap checkmate threat Julian then made a mistake allowing black’s white-squared bishop into the game with tempo, a potentially game-changing move. Unfortunately for Lewis he then returned the favour, Julian swinging into full kingside attack mode:

Julian replied with 24. Bxf5! And after 24. … Bxe1 (24. … gxf5 25. Rg3+ leads to mate in 9) 25. Rg3 Kh7 26. Qf3 was crushing, Lewis resigned. Sweet. Wigston ½ – Anstey 1½.

Mick Sandham faced off against Stephen Smith with white on board 3. Despite being out-rated by over 200 points Mick played a great game, building up an advantage in the middlegame and creating a menacing looking attack against black’s draughty looking king. In one of those positions where you think there must be something here but you can’t quite see it (yes Matt – Ed) he missed a great but very hard to spot move:

Mick could now have played 26. Rf6! After 26. … Nxf6 27. Qg5+ Qg7 28. Qxg7+ Kxg7 29. Nxe6+ Kg8 30. exf6 white comes out with a knight and 2 pawns for the rook with black probably having to give back the exchange to deal with the monster passed pawn on f6. But that didn’t happen, instead with the clocks running down pieces were traded off and it came down to queen, 2 knights and 6 pawns vs queen, bishop, knight and 6 pawns. White still had a tiny advantage but a draw was agreed. Wigston 1 – Anstey 2.

With just a draw required to secure the W it was down to Boris on board 4 (with the black pieces) against Andrew Pike. Andrew played slightly passively in the opening giving himself a bad dark-squared bishop. He eventually went for a Stonewall like setup pushing on the kingside with g4 then f5. But black had a solid grip on the centre. Pawns came off, white ending up with an isolated queen-pawn. Boris piled on the pressure on the d4 pawn. Andrew defended manfully but became extremely short on time. Boris manoeuvred his knight around in an attempt to find the perfect square, Andrew reduced to shuffling pieces at this point. Eventually the black knight threatened to jump in to the 6^th rank and Andrew walked into a fatal fork:

41. … Ne3+ game over. Wigston 1 – Anstey 3.

A great win for Anstey, consolidating their 3^rd place in the division but still 4 points behind the leaders.

Anstey face Market Harborough 1 in the next match on 30^th March, another “6-pointer”.

Anstey captain Matt Connor told Self Confidence Magazine:
I am delighted with that team performance, that’s probably our best win of the season so far. The way Julian converted his queenside pressure into a sudden, devastating kingside attack was Grandmaster-esque. Boris’s superb form also continues, he made Andrew squirm like a squirmy thing.