Thursday 20/04/2023. With Anstey 1’s push for a top 2 finish in the division well and truly over the team was pretty much playing for pride (and to hopefully secure 3^rd place) they welcomed Syston 2 to the Methodist Church Centre in this this LRCA Division 2 clash.

With John Robinson out once again due to ill-health Boris once again stepped up, this time being slotted in on board 3 above Mick on board 4. Syston turned up early but by 19:30 Anstey were still missing Julian and Boris. The pleasantries were over and clocks had just started when the pair arrived and apologetically took their seats. With team ratings 6,933 vs 6,584 Anstey had the on-paper edge.

First to finish was Boris as black against Taz Dhillon on board 3. Taz is a wily old fox and many a half-decent player have come unstuck against him but Boris showed excellent opening knowledge and had equalised easily. As the middlegame progressed Boris swapped his light-squared bishop for white’s knight on f3 (crippling the kingside pawns) but after a swap off of queens and a few other pieces white sorted his pawns out. But black’s position was active and looked to have a slight edge when the blunder came:

Boris played 26. … Nd3 but missed 27. Rd1 pinning the knight to the rook! A piece down Boris played on but lost another pawn then another and eventually resigned when checkmate was inevitable with white’s bishops co-ordinating very well:

So not a great start to the match from the Anstey perspective. Anstey 0 – 1 Syston.

Next to finish was Matt on board 2 playing against Janis Utinans, a rematch from the reverse fixture back in December. But that was board 3 so the colours were the same with Matt as white. Janis played an early … Bb4 instead of the more usual …Nf6 and by move 6 Matt was out of his opening book. He pushed the bishop back to b6 but missed the opportunity to expand on the queenside with a4 and a5 harrying the bishop further instead swapping the bishop off for his knight on d5. This allowed Janis to exchange pawns in the centre and hit back with d5 equalising the position. But it remained double-edged with both kings stuck in the centre. Matt went for a pawn sacrifice with 11. 0-0 and the lure was too much for Janis:

Play continued 11. … dxe4? 12. d5! exf3? 13. dxc6 fxg2 14. Re1+ Be6 15. cxb7+ leading to this weird position:

After 15. … Kf8 16. bxa8=Q Qxa8 white is a rook up and winning easily. Janis resigned a few moves later. Anstey 1 – 1 Syston.

Mick was white on board 4 against Aron English (who you’ll remember resigned a drawn position against Boris in the reverse fixture). Mick was hoping for the same LOL. But it wasn’t required, in an ultra-sharp opening Aron played an early, passive … h6. Mick responded by temporarily sacrificing his d pawn for rapid development and proceeded to a classic “oh no my queen!” move:

Play continued 10. … Be6 11. Nxc6 Qd6 12. Qf3 Nf6 13. Nxd4 after which white is a pawn and has a winning advantage. But Aron could have taken the queen with 10. … Bxd1 as after 11. Nxc6+ Kd7 12. Nxd8 Bh5 there is still all to play for. Mick played on calmly moving his pieces over to the kingside to exert some pressure against the black king when he gave Aron a glimmer of hope:

Despite looking risky 19. … Qxb2 is ok but Aron didn’t go for it instead playing 20 … c5 white time to defend b2. The knights and a pair of rook came off before white’s queen wet on the rampage capturing both black’s a and c pawns. 3 pawns down in a losing position Aron gracefully resigned. Anstey 2 – 1 Syston.

This left Julian on board 1 with black against the lovely Brian Galligan. In a game very similar to Julian’s last game against Ian Clarke, black equalised in the opening and built up a tiny edge before pieces were swapped off and the position came out equal. More pieces were swapped off and it went down to an opposite-coloured bishops ending (notoriously difficult to win – Ed). Brian thought he had a slight edge in the position and grinded on but Julian defended well. Where Brian did have an edge was on the clock, Julian played the last 40(!) or so moves with less than 1 minute on the clock and on at least 3 occasions was down to 1 second! Brian picked up Julian’s h-pawn but still the position was theoretically drawn until the time pressure eventually told:

58. … Kg7! is still drawing but Julian made a mistake with 58. … Kg8? allowing 59. Kg6 with Brian calmly converting the win. Julian battled on for a few more moves before his flag fell. What a shame. Anstey 2 – 2 Syston.

Anstey 1 remain 3^rd in the division but with Braunstone 2 beating Ashby 1 on the same night they are now only 1 point ahead of Braunstone who still have a game in hand, double-yikes:

Anstey’s last game of the season is home against Ashby 1 on the 4^th May (Star Wars Day). Ashby 1 need to beat Wigston 2 and hope Market Harborough 1 slip up against Braunstone 2 for Ashby to still have something to play for in the last game of the season.

Anstey captain Matt Connor told Autocar:
Once again I’m very disappointed, our sixth draw this season. Too many points given away against lower sides. We could easily have won this one though, an uncharacteristic blunder by Boris (we’ve all been there mate) and an epic battle for Julian. One match to go, finishing third is now not in our hands, we could do with Market Harborough beating Braunstone!