Anstey have baptism of fire in league division 1

Thursday 12/10/2023. Anstey 1 travelled to The Black Swan in Shepshed for their inaugural game in the LRCA league division 1 full of hope. Mick was unavailable (sacrilege – Ed) so Noor stood up to the plate making his third appearance for the first team (thanks Noor!). With division 1 having five boards per match this season new first team regulars Boris & Ben joined Julian and captain Matt to make up the team.

Shepshed had started the season on a flyer beating champions (and favourites) Syston 3 – 2 in their opening match but fielded an even stronger side this time out. With an average 270 rating point difference per board this was going to be a tough night for Anstey.

And so it turned out. Board five was first to finish, George and Noor blitzing through their game. George didn’t fall for Noor’s little trap and ended up two pawns to the good with a completely won endgame.

Ben finished next on board three, getting a great draw against Bobby never having been in any trouble. The same could not be said for Matt who was too passive and then missed a simple tactic in time pressure.

So with the match score Shepshed 2½ – ½ Anstey it came down to Julian and Boris, Julian was doing ok against Alan Agnew but had an inferior pawn structure whilst Boris had a very interesting endgame against Sean Sheahan. Sean was up two pawns in rook an and same-coloured bishop ending but was severely down on time. Boris dug in and defended hard, playing super accurately. Sean made a mistake and a draw played out. A superb result for Boris.

During this time Julian had lost a piece for a pawn, Alan took no chances and remorselessly improved his pieces and position. Nothing Julian tried to get counterplay worked, Alan broke through and the defence crumbled leading to a nice mate.

Board 1: Alan Agnew vs Julian Tarwid [DRAFT]
After a steady opening an exchange of minor pieces gave Julian as white doubled pawns on the kingside. As the middlegame progressed Julian lost a piece for a pawn or two. Alan proceeded to play with remorseless efficiency, improving his pieces and snubbing out all efforts of counterplay. Eventually he got his central pawns rolling and with his pieces beautifully coordinated crashed though and mated the white king on the back rank.

Board 2: John Molyneux vs Matt Connor
Matt went for a solid setup as black but missed a chance to expand on the queenside with … b5 and ended up with a way too passive position:

John played 12. f4! then jumped his knight to f5 and castled long. It took a few moves for black to untangle his pieces before he finally rustled up some counterplay. After a tactical sequence a pair of minor pieces and the queens came off before Matt (in a bit of time pressure) walked straight into a deadly pin from which there was no answer and he resigned.

Board 3: Sean Sheahan vs Borislav Lazarov
Boris went for his standard setup with the white pieces and came out of the opening with a +1.5 advantage after Sean jumped his f6 knight into e4 instead of concentrating on development. He couldn’t maintain it though and a tense middlegame ensued. On move 26 Boris played a reasonable looking rook move:

But this allowed Sean to play the very nice 26. … Bxc5!! winning a pawn. Black then doubled rooks on the a-file and infiltrated, eventually winning the a-pawn with an exchange of rooks. Now 2 pawns down Boris dug in and made Sean work hard. Sean was getting very low on time made an error on move 44:

After 45. Kd2! Rc2+ 46. Kd3! Rb2 47. Kc3 Rb1 48. Rxb3 Rxb3+ 49. Kxb3 c5?! 50. dxc5 the position is probably theoretically drawn. There was still fun to be had though in the next 17 moves as pawns were whittled down, white’s king got in behind black’s pawns, the bishops came off and both sides queened a pawn! In a level king and queen vs king and queen position the draw was agreed.

Board 4: Robert Henfrey vs Ben Vaughan
Bobby played a very steady system against Ben’s favoured European opening as black allowing Ben to equalise fairly easily before he was slightly inaccurate with 7. … a5. But Bobby eschewed playing e5 (gaining space and hitting black’s knight on f6) on moves 8, 9 and 10 and the game settled down to a fairly staid affair. A few minor pieces were traded off and with no side looking to jeopardise their position with any sort of attack a draw was agreed. A great result for Ben.

Board 5: George Kolbusz vs Noor Datoo
George played a very solid if slightly passive opening but chased Noor’s bishop on g5 with h6 then g5 gaining space on the kingside. Neither side had managed to castle when Noor went for a trappy pawn push with d5:

Unfortunately for Noor this loses the pawn after 13. … Bxb5. Despite a few inaccuracies from both sides shortly afterwards George simplified the position exchanging the queens and all the rooks and when his knight jumped in the c4 forking the b2 and e5 pawns he had a winning position. The remaining minor pieces were swapped off leaving black 2 pawns up in a king and pawn endgame and with no chances Noor resigned.

Shepshed maintain their 100% record and remain top, Anstey are in 6^th place with a crunch game against Thurnby next week.

Anstey captain Matt Connor told Sky Sports:
A tough start to our league campaign. It’s a big step up from division 2 to division 1 and I’m under no illusion that we’re not going to struggle, our sole aim is to avoid relegation. We are targeting the Thurnby games for wins and then try to sneak a couple of points against the higher rated teams. On an individual basis I’m delighted with Boris and Ben’s draws against superior opponents, two great efforts.