Unfortunate in the second round of the match, our second team could not hold on an amazing comeback from the home team

So the league season is done and dusted for a while now, but the local chess competitions are only getting hotter along with the weather. After the start of the Individual County Championship, with Anstey Chess Club hosting the Minor and the Challengers division, the summer cups are also back for four (yes, the number 4) Anstey teams. Following the unfortunate loss for the Juniors and the draw between Anstey 1 and Latimer, it was Anstey 2’s turn to try and get the first Harrod Cup win for our club in their visit to Loughborough. The strong team of Boris The Toaster, Oskar El Capitan, Bob The Lawman, and young Curtis were not far off but unfortunately a brilliant comeback from the home team players denied Anstey 2 the win, and the teams shared half point each, resulting in the fourth draw of what looks to be a very interesting Harrod Cup 2023.

Borislav The Toaster Lazarov (Anstey 2) vs Michael Bordiak (Loughborough)

Boris was scheduled to play one of the new faces our players saw on the evening, the student in Theoretical Physics Michael Bordiak. With Anstey having the white pieces in the first game, Boris opened with his usual d4 setup, to which his opponent responded with very solid approach, only to blunder his knight early on. The Toaster snatched the minor piece and easily consolidated to gain a huge advantage straight from the opening. Black tried to get active by jumping forward with his queen, but our teammate remained calm and composed, and before long trapped the said lady to exchange it for his bishop. In a completely winning position, Boris continued with a sharp tactical approach to pick up and exchange more pieces in a pursuit of the black king. Eventually The Toaster managed to sacrifice a knight, freeing the important g1-a7 diagonal, and delivering a beautiful dovetail checkmate.

With the black pieces, our teammate had a difficult task, as his opponent was determined to come back with a win, taking his time in this occasion and even notating. Unlike the home team player, Boris went into auto-pilot and lost the exchange early on. The players continued developing, and The Toaster managed to pick up a couple of pawns, but after an exchange of knights, the white pieces sprung to life and started harassing the black army. The valiant defence from our teammate, combined with attacking ideas of his own, created practical problems for White, but the Loughborough player was determined to leave the venue with at least one win under his belt. Great solid defence from White led to a series of exchanges where the home team player ended a piece up and with better coordination. After attacking both the black queen and rook, White managed to pick up the blundered latter piece, at which point Boris threw in the towel.

An unfortunate end to an exciting start for The Toaster who will be looking to get more wins under his belt in the Harrod Cup this time around.

El Capitan Oskar Rudczenko (Anstey 2) vs Jacob McNulty (Loughborough)

Our captain was scheduled to face another new face in Jacob McNulty. In the first game Oskar as White engaged in an Open Sicilian, a highly theoretical opening which is only a testament of Oskar’s progress in the last few years in all areas of his chess. The home team player ended with four connected pawns on dark squares early on while completely ignoring piece development. Unlike his opponent, El Capitan brought a couple of pieces into the game straight from the start and with the early lead in development decided to put pressure on the d-file. The players engaged in a complicated middle game, whereby our teammate had the better piece coordination, ready to execute one of the numerous tactics in the position, putting his opponent under immense pressure. Struggling to find any good squares for his pieces but under obligation to make a move, Black eventually made a mistake, blundering his queen, and shortly resigned.

In the second game Oskar played The French (via transposition, but El Presidente will still be proud). The players closed the centre early on, with the c-file ending as the only open file in a closed positional battle. Following sound chess principles, El Capitan doubled his rooks on the said open file, only for them to be quickly exchanged with their white counterparts by his opponent, who ended neatly with two knights against Oskar’s two bishops in the very closed position. Struggling to find good moves, our teammate spent too much time, and eventually in a slightly losing position, his flag dropped (def.: His time ran down to zero which means that he loses the game; this is indicated on the chess clock by a flag)

Amazing start from El Capitan on board 2 and he was another Anstey player to be unfortunate in the second game. Nevertheless, we are excited to see our captain back in action for more sharp tactics.

Bob Grindrod (Anstey 2) vs Mindas Mikalajunas (Loughborough)

Bob was scheduled to play the only familiar face for your author in the Loughborough team (apart from acting captain on the night Glyn Ward), Mindas Mikalajunas (a.k.a. Kajus’ dad). With the white pieces, The Lawman opened with Boris’ favourite slightly weird London system, warming our website maintenance guy’s heart. The Loughborough player rushed to counter any early Q-side threats well and defended solidly as Black. With the Q-side out of question, our teammate followed the correct way to attack and turned his attention to the K-side, where he quickly built up a piece imbalance in his favour. With the black king in sight, Bob went for a (“possibly dubious!” by his words) sacrifice breakthrough with his rooks. His opponent overreacted and left enough major pieces for The Lawman to clear the K-side pawns and swiftly deliver checkmate after a few nice queen & rook manoeuvres.

Unfortunately, our teammate had to face another determined to get back on track Loughborough player, and after a solid start, Bob went into three-move combination, but with the wrong move order. At the end of the combination, the home team player found himself with a better position and a pawn up. The Lawman tried to get back in the game but without the correct piece coordination, it was straightforward for White who consolidated on his position and used his pawn advantage to get himself over the line.

Another unfortunate second game for Anstey 2, but The Lawman showcased again great attacking play and hunger for decisive attacks.

Curtis Blunt (Anstey 2) vs Matthew Essex (Loughborough)

After an unfortunate start of his Harrod Cup, Curtis was determined to get something out of this match, and to be honest, he could not have done it better. Scheduled to face another new face in Matthew Essex, our teammate went at his opponent straight from the opening with the white pieces. Having thoroughly examined the proverbial book, Curtis set up a perfect Fried Liver attack and before long his opponent found himself in a completely losing position. Faced with a dilemma of going down a rook, or a bishop and two pawns, the home team player decided that enough is enough, and after only twelve moves resigned.

Unfortunately, the quick win, much like on the top board, went straight in our teammate’s head, and he started aggressively with Black, throwing all of his forces in attack. Completely ignoring his defence, however, Curtis let his opponent to penetrate the Black position and in an unfortunate end of the game, our teammate hung checkmate in one.

In spite of the loss with Black, an amazing fist win for Curtis for our club, and we are more than certain that it will be one of many more to come.

Aftermath:

With the games concluded by 9:20pm, our players headed to their new sweet parking location, to which our whole club would like to express gratitude to Mike, the provider of this precious piece of information. After the match, Anstey 2 find themselves behind Anstey 1 on fifth (based on alphabetical order, as eight teams are on one point after round 1) position. In their next fixture, our second team are scheduled to play Ashby 3 at home.