This was the debut for the 4th Anstey team and it is exciting to have so many new players who have joined the club over the last few months! In this match, there were 6 players from both sides ready to play some competitive chess. On the Anstey team, we had Amit & Aarav Sinha, Oskar Rudczenko, Jakub Miler, Hayden Padgett and Reidan Minhas. Anstey 4 were up against a team of strong 1300-1400 rated players, which meant Anstey 4 were out-graded significantly on most of the boards. However, this is Anstey and we may be the underdogs, but it does not mean we will roll over looking for a tummy rub.

Board 1: Amit Sinha vs. Sathsara Dissanayake

Amit, being on board 1 for the away team, played white and played a roy lopez opening (AKA the spanish opening). Black responds with an unusual move with d6 after Bb5 is played. Both players shuffle pawns and Amit strikes in the centre with d4! Black continues to develop and both players castle kingside. Both players develop their umoved pieces and black pushes the light squared bishop to b3. Black trades a bishop for a knight and black wins a pawn by capturing the only defender of said pawn.

Amit attacks on the queenside with c4 and black retreats his knight to b6, which attacks the c pawn twice and can win another pawn. However, both players ignore this and choose activity over material. Black strikes at the white d pawn with c5 and Amit pins the black knight to the queen, which black unties from quite quickly. The board is now almost locked up, but black is refusing to take on d4 with the tension between pawns.

Amit tries to manoeuvre his pieces to attack the kingside, but black defends well enough and the pieces Amit has tried to attack with start to get cramped in the corner of the board. Both players trade knight and rook, which helps to calm things down. However, black moves his pawns up in a timely manner to make some very dangerous threats for Amit. Amit resigns, because of the amount of threats for black to win material.

Amit is a good player, as I have played him, but he may not have been prepared for the strength of this young player. Wigston 1 – Anstey 0.

Board 2: Aarav Sinha vs. Madhav Eradi

Aarav played black for Anstey 4 against the Roy Lopez and Aarav plays the Berlin. Both players shuffle pieces and white strikes in the centre with d4, but Aarav sacrifices his light squared bishop to expose the white king! White accepts the sac and defends with Nh2. White also seals the centre shut with d5 and offers and queen trade, which Aarav takes after developing his pieces further. Aarav moves his knight up the board and white trades it off for a bishop.

Aarav tries to defend a misplaced pawn, but he unfortunately struggles to, so he tries to improve his position. However, Aarav still has some tricks up his sleeve being the tactic wizard he is. Aarav pins the rook to the white king, which white tries to deal with by advancing his own knight and forking Aarav’s king and rook. Effectively, both players trade rooks, and Aarav trades once again (a knight for a knight this time).

Unfortunately, white manages to get a past pawn and promotes it to a queen in the end game. Aarav was down a queen in the end game, which is losing, but he does not have to resign. Aarav allowed himself to get checkmated being the good sportsman that he is. Wigston 2 – Anstey 0.

Board 3: Oskar Rudczenko vs. Alex Shen

Oskar played as white and opened with the scotch. Both players took their time to make their moves and think about what they wanted to do. Black tried to play aggressively in the opening, which Oskar fought back. However, Oskar over looked his defences and black managed to gain 2 pawns for free, which is not what Oskar wanted.

In the opening Oskar was not at his best, as he was falling for various simple tricks, which caused him to be down 4 pawns out of the opening. However, his pieces were very active compared to black’s, and he was determined to make that count. Oskar made various threats with his doubled rooks supported by an active light squared bishop and queen. Although, black had quite simple defensive moves, black was only moving his queen and not developing his pieces.

As Oskar ran out of threats, his pieces were much more active still, but black was catching up in development quickly. Oskar did not realise it at the time, but he was being herded into a bad position. Oskar’s bishop was placed quite poorly and was soon to become trapped. Clearly out matched and getting out played, Oskar resigned. Wigston 3- Anstey 0.

Board 4: Jakub Miler vs. Jack Clark

Jakub faces the London system, an very well known opening. Both players develop their minors pieces and quickly both players start to create some tension on the board. Jakub tries to break up white’s centre with the move c5, but white simply defends and Jakub offers a dark squared bishop trade, which white refuses. Both players move their knights more centrally and Jakub decides to trade a bishop for a knight as white was threatening a checkmate.

White manages to win a pawn with a smart tactic, and Jakub nabs a pawn himself. White threatens checkmate again and Jakub simply defends. Not a lot going on; both players are taking it one fight at a time. Until Jakub starts making small threats of his own, and he starts by winning a pawn and then he wins a rook by sacrificing one of his own for white’s knight.

Jakub nabs a couple more pawns and forces a queen trade, leaving white with no pieces and Jakub the only one with a rook. White resigns. Jakub is quite the strong player, and he certainly proved himself in this match. Wigston 3 – Anstey 1.

Board 5: Hayden Padgett vs. Ryan Jones

Hayden played as black and played the caro-kann defence, and white chooses the advanced variation. Both players develop their bishops and knights first: principled players. Hayden trades a bishop for a knight after bringing his queen out, and he castles after the trade. Not much going on so far. Hayden plays c5 to break up the white centre and to give himself more space. White offers a queen trade which Hayden accepts and wins a pawn, then Hayden trades a bishop for a knight. Hayden is doing a good thing by trading when he is up material, but it is only a pawn advantage that he has.

Hayden is doing quite well considering this is his first league match, he is making a few small inaccuracies but otherwise he’s doing well. Both players trade off their last pair of minor pieces and Hayden ends with two extra pawns, with white having an isolated kings pawn on e3 and an isolated c2 pawn. Hayden’s position is looking very nice. Now Hayden starts to move his king closer to the action and so does white. White tries to advance on the kingside, but Hayden shuts that down and white starts shuffling his king back and forth.

White’s king runs to the queenside and Hayden starts to break through on the king side. White defends and Hayden continues to push his f pawn forwards until it’s on the 3rd rank, which white has to blockade with a rook. Hayden expertly manoeuvres his rooks and king to advance his f pawn further into the enemy lines and eventually white has to sacrifice a rook for a pawn. Hayden’s position is looking brilliant, but Hayden does lose this match and I presume on time as the notations finish abruptly. Wiston 4 – Anstey 1.

Board 6: Reidan Minhas vs. Arav Ajaykumar

Reidan plays as white and opens with the queens gambit, which black declines. White opens the centre and trades queens, which makes Reidan lose castling right, but it’s not a losing advantage. Reidan manoeuvres his knights to more central squares and white trades one knight for another, and then castles. Both players develop their pieces to be more active, and Reidan trades a bishop for a bishop.

White manages to win a pawn or two after the opening stage of the game, which in an endgame will be the deciding factor. White tries to attack Reidan’s kingside, which Reidan does defend well, so another trade of minor pieces occurs. Reidan tries to make some progress on the queenside, by advancing his pawns up the board. However, Reidan seems to be on the back foot in this game as white increases the pressure on the black position, and manages to trade off a rook for a rook.

Reidan’s king gets attacked a few times being herded to the edge of the board almost, and white has got a lot of pressure on Reidan’s position. This does result in white promoting a pawn into a queen, and Reidan resigns. A well fought battle by Reidan, and this being his first match he did well to stay in the game for as long as he did against a much higher rated opponent. Wigston 5 – Anstey 1.

Final Words

The debut of the 4th Anstey team, which could have gone better, but Wigston did have a strong team and they do have a lot of strong players at their club. A couple of our players had their debut as well, as they had not played league chess before, and they did the best they could and that’s all that matters. You can always learn something from a lose and you may be more motivated to not lose the same way twice, rather than if you are to learn from a win. We’ve got a match against Heathcote Arms 2 next week, so hopefully we will win that match.