A successful season for the second team concludes with a solid performance, leaving them third in the overall standings in Division 3

Last Wednesday (26/04/23) marked the last fixture for our second team. Needing a solid win (ideally 4-0) to keep fighting chances for second, a strong Anstey 2 team turned up in the Royal British Legion in Melton Mowbray(MM). The return of Brian The Griller alongside Boris The Toaster, and the addition of Matt The Dark Destroyer and Just Mick, all meant that fireworks were to be expected in the upcoming fixture. Our team was greeted by a solid three-quarters of a Melton team, with the last quarter being their junior up-and-comer Bohdan Stamat. Overrated on every board (admittedly, based on September 2022 ratings), our team fought hard and brave in a set of exciting games, only to share a point with the home side at the end.

Brian The Griller Foreman (Anstey) vs Bohdan Stamat (MM) 0 – 1

After a long-ish pause to give playing opportunities to other players, Brian made a comeback to challenge the young Melton rising star Bohdan Stamat. Our most solid teammate opened with the usual Queen’s Gambit setup, and his opponent responded with the QGD (Queen’s Gambit Declined), a very theoretical variation, favourite to many Grandmasters. The Griller brought his knight to c3, challenging the centre, but the Melton player pinned the said the knight with the typical Ragozin Bb4. The players continued to follow the book for several more moves, with the white dark-squared bishop exchanging itself for the black f6-knight, followed by solidifying on the dark squares with e3 by our teammate and kingside(K-side) castling from his opponent. Brian decided to protect his knight with Qc2 with potential on creating a battery on the b1-h7 diagonal, when his opponent decided to enter the middlegame underdeveloped, but attempting to exploit the slightly exposed white king with a quick c5 push.

Our teammate immediately left the book with Rc1, his opponent took the d4-pawn, and the players engaged in a battle for the centre. The Griller re-took with the f3-knight, and Black seized the opportunity to push his central pawns in an attempt to exploit the pin on c3. The d4-knight jumped swiftly on b5, attacking the c7 square, and naturally Black kept pushing to pick up the c3 knight. Here, unfortunately, Brian did not see the best continuation, which was to challenge the bishop with a3 and instead went for the Nc7 move, giving up two pieces for a rook. The exchange was executed swiftly with the black dark-squared bishop freezing the queenside (Q-side) for White, and our teammate was unfortunate to find himself with a king stuck in the centre, underdeveloped, versus well-coordinated active black pieces on an open board. The Melton player maneuvered his pieces well, and in spite of our teammate going after material, before long the advantage for the home team player was too great, and Brian threw in the towel.

A little bit of rustiness showing, but we are sure that The Griller will get over the loss quickly to come back stronger soon.

Alan Jex (MM) vs Matthew The Dark Destroyer Connor (Anstey) 0 – 1

Returning to help the second team, The Dark Destroyer was scheduled to play a solid Alan Jex from Melton, finding himself as joint second for the most games for Anstey Chess Club this season with Mick and Noor, and looking to turn the tide the second part of the season after a wobbly start. Still the only player to get the memo of the club logo, our teammate employed his usual “soul of chess” setup, to which his opponent decided to reply with a quick pawn exchange and swapping off the queens on the d-file. Although deprived from his castling rights, Matt found himself easily equalised in the opening, and in the spirit of proper chess the players started developing their armies. White quickly brought his knights towards the centre, but our teammate unflustered deprived them of good squares with timely pawn pushes, taking control of crucial central squares in the process. The players continued with normal development, leaving castling for the faint-hearted, and engaged in a battle for the Q-side early on in the middlegame.

White started an expansion on the Q-side with a3 and b4, Matt hurried his king to c7, and found the best engine move with an immediate challenge of the b-pawn with a5. White pushed the b-pawn, and the players went on to exchange the dark-squared bishops. Our teammate had a slight advantage of -0.5 (based on Stockfish 15, depth = 20, powered by chess.com a.k.a. “the engine”), which in like a Grandmaster he kept throughout and only built on during the middlegame. The players finally completed development, and possibly annoyed by the above comment, White decided to castle Q-side. The players contested the open d-file with their rooks, and then started re-positioning their minor pieces whereby the Melton player played the inaccuracy Nb3. A long tactical sequence followed, Nxb5! from The Dark Destroyer was followed by our teammate winning a pawn, then a white knight got exchanged with the black light-squared bishop, then the black knight got exchanged with the white light-squared bishop, and when the dust settled, Matt found himself severely down on time (surprise, surprise! It paid off in the end though), but a pawn up in a notoriously tricky rook endgame.

In all honesty, the home team player possibly misplayed the endgame slightly, but nevertheless, with less than 4 minutes on the clock, and having Boris to notate for him, The Dark Destroyer proved his nickname again. Great coordination between the black rooks found them taking the most principled approach, whereby one got exchanged, while the other enjoyed a pawn feast on the K-side. White activated his king, bringing it towards the centre, while our teammate’s rook looked too hungry to be stopped, and by move 36 had ensured a three pawn advantage for Matt, as well as passed pawn on the b-file. After consolidating on the K-side, our teammate eliminated any potential Q-side threats by exchanging his b-pawn for the remaining white a-pawn. Our teammate then brought his king to the K-side, and took the last remaining white pawn, finding himself with R+3 vs R, with an active king and engine-based advantage of -9.3. A few checks from White got the black king to an even more active position, and Matt pushed the pawn all the way to glory. In the process he let a rook exchange to occur and lost the pawn, but left with K & 2 vs K, in spite of being down to about 1.30 mins on the clock, our teammate pushed his pawns and faced with the menace of Q&K vs K, the home team player resigned.

Another brilliant performance from The Dark Destroyer who solidifies himself as the…well…The Dark Destroyer.

Borislav The Toaster Lazarov (Anstey) vs Kerry Kidd (MM) 1 – 0

After a mishap in his last game, Boris The Toaster returned to play for the second team against his opponent from the reverse fixture, Kerry Kidd. After executing in your author’s humble opinion the most popular combination of first moves (1.d4 Nf6, and yes, I understand that 1.e4 is played slightly more often than 1.d4, but there are so many replies from Black, I doubt it that any combination of first moves will beat the game opening, apologies for the sidetracking), the players engaged in the Pirc defence, whereby our teammate went for a line he is not quite familiar with, the Austrian attack. Nevertheless, using the memorised lessons from none other than our own Julian Mr. Engine, a connoisseur of many a chess opening, The Toaster gained space early in the game, exchanged a pair of knights, castled K-side, and solidified his centre. The Melton player equalised comfortably, and in spite of his lack of space, developed normally and looked to play on the Q-side.

The middlegame begun with a Qb6 from Black. Looking at the potential perspectives for the black knight on c6, Boris decided to try and cut it off early in the game at the price of a queen exchange and doubled pawns with Qb3. Black snatched the white queen, the ladies head for the box, and the players started improving the rest of their armies. Black placed his rooks on the central c- and d-files, while The Toaster took as much space in the centre as possible with Harry and Garry pushing forward. Our teammate re-routed his knight via e1 and d3 to the brilliant outpost on c5, then attacked one of the black rooks, and offered an exchange of dark-squared bishops. The home team player started spending loads of time, calculating many long forced lines following Nxe5, and after deciding that he does not like it, shuffled his rook to the seventh rank instead. Completely oblivious of his opponent’s seemingly pointless rook shuffles, our teammate exchanged the bishops, and instead of solidifying his knight with b4, decided to push his king to g2, giving his opponent the opportunity to equalise on the spot with Nxe5. The Melton player did not like the take again due to Nxe6+ and went on to protect his e6 pawn which was met by another king push by our teammate. Fortunately for Boris, his opponent mixed his move order and took the e5 pawn with his knight, only to realise that he had not placed his rook on c8 first. Confused, our teammate took some time, but eventually “called the bluff” (admittedly, still oblivious of the tactic Black was preparing initially) and took the said knight.

In the short middlegame that followed, the players exchanged the remaining bishops, then a pair of rooks, and The Toaster solidified his position, a piece for a pawn up, and looking to start munching on Black’s weaknesses. Unfortunate to find himself in this position, the Melton player resigned.

A lucky win for The Toaster which will hopefully bring his confidence back, as he heads to Ashby tonight in support of the third team for his “milestone” 25^th game this leagues season, rendering himself as the record holder for most games within a league season for the Anstey Chess Club.

Christopher Knight (MM) vs Just Mick Sandham (Anstey) 1 – 0

Mick stepped in again to help out the second team, taking joint second place for most games this season with Matt and Noor. Our teammate was scheduled to play the in-form Christopher Knight, who had given many of his opponents severe headaches this season. To his opponent’s 1.e4, Just Mick replied with his usual O-Kelly variation of the Sicilian defence. The players engaged in the Ljubojević Line of the Venice system, and given the unusual nature of the opening, were out of book by move 6. Our teammate equalised early on, and the players prioritised development and fight for the centre. The tension kept growing, with White creating a queen-led battery on the c-file, while Mick’s light-squared bishop was eyeing the long h1-a8 diagonal. White castled K-side, and with our teammate completing development, the middlegame began.

White tried to create more tension with c4, but just when it looked like the c- and d-files are about to explode, the players pushed their Q-side and central pawns to close the centre, release the tension, and begin a very long game of “cat and mouse” behind their locked pawn chains. The players shuffled pieces behind their pawn fronts, and White was first to find a nice outpost for his knight on f5. Just Mick, relieved the knight of its duties by exchanging it for his light-squared bishop, and after some more piece shuffling, exchanged one his knights for its remaining white counterpart. Taking the most principled approach of locking down the central pawns when he was the player with the knight, our teammate pushed f6, only to give a +1.7 engine evaluation advantage to his opponent with Bh5+, whereby the bishop restricted the K-side for Black. Having the piece majority on the Q-side, White started pushing his pawns, and before long created a couple of semi-open files to attack the vulnerable black king from. Just Mick tried to create counter play on the K-side, prioritising activity over defence and exposing his king for a strong attack from White. Unfortunately, our teammate was a few tempi short of succeeding, and White penetrated the Q-side with a deadly attack. In spite of being low on time, the Melton player managed to get the position to mate in one, and unfortunately for our teammate, he had to resign,

A tough blow for Just Mick, who was unfortunate to find himself on the wrong side of a sharp double-edged fight. Nevertheless, it is never boring games from Mick and we are sure that with the summer cups coming, there will be many brilliant performances from him.

The match result means that unless MM2 lose 6-0 or more against Ashby 3, Anstey 2 finishes the season on third place in Division 2 of 2022/23 season. Initially nicknamed the B-team due to the original line-up (Brian, Boris, Ben, Bob), the team showcased tremendous growth since their first game which they lost against Wigston 4. They end up behind the two big favourites in the severely underrated Loughborough 2 (having a 2000+ currently rated player still competing for them) and a team with three players above 1700 rating competing consistently throughout the season. Our second team deserves nothing but praise for their efforts, so the author would like to close this last season 2022/23 league match report with a big Thank you to the regular line-up Brian The Griller, Boris The Toaster, El Presidente Ben, Bob The Lawman, as well as to the people stepping in when in need Matt The Dark Destroyer, Just Mick, Mike, Big Daddy Valdas, Leo The Lion, Noor The Prodigy, and Aarav. Last but not least, here are the closing thoughts of the team captain and Anstey Chess Club chairman, El Presidente Ben:

Had anybody said to me that we’d have finished 3rd in this highly competitive division, I’d have laughed in their face. It is a testament to how far we have come together as a club and as a 2nd team that we have finished so strongly. Well done to everyone concerned for their part in a truly terrific season.