9/11/23

Anstey’s second team played host to the surprise early-season leaders Ashby 3 at the Methodist Church. El Presidente selected a strong team, with The Torturer John Robinson, himself, Mike and the Prodigy, Noor.

Ashby 3 brought the same team as had faced the University 1st team the previous week, albeit captain Dom Lennon (the minor County champion), swapped himself and Les Fancourt around in board order to face fellow skipper El Presidente. The home team out graded their opposition on 3 out of the 4 boards, so must have fancied their chances. Pleasantries were exchanged and battle commenced.

First to finish was the Torturer on board 1, playing black against Steve Emmerton. In a fairly sedate game where the Torturer employed the centre counter Scandinavian defence against Steve’s 1. e4, nothing much really happened with some sensible piece development followed by some central exchanges and when the Queens came off, a draw looked to be likely. The Torturer had a look around the games and with all looking level, and Noor possibly having an advantage, John accepted the draw.

Second to finish was El Presidente, playing white against Dom Lennon’s Caro-Kann defence. Play was again fairly serene during the early exchanges with sensible piece development from both players until the fireworks started in the middle game, with Dom claiming space on the Queenside and El Presidente looking for a central strike. A critical position was reached in the middle game with Dom looking to smash the defences around El Presidente’s King and El Presidente looking to get a rook on the seventh. In placing his Rook on the seventh, he missed the winning Rd5! forking a Queen and Bishop and soon after, Dom’s plan succeeded first with the pawns in front of El Presidente’s King being smashed to smithereens and a nice forced mate sequence (instead of mate in one), won for Dom in a nicely played finish.

Third to finish was Mike Griffiths playing black against Les Fancourt. Mike employed his trusty Sicilian defence and Les chose the Alapin variation. Play was once again good from both players with Mike’s development slightly more passive than Les’s, which resulted in a Rook marauding on the seventh for Les, winning him a clean piece after some other piece trades. Mike had the slightly more active King and managed to win an exchange back, which meant that white had two Knights vs Mike’s very active Rook. Mike got to work on winning Les’s Kingside board with Les’s King protecting his isolated e pawn. Mike subsequently picked off one of the Knights with a cross-board skewer after picking up all of the Kingside pawns. After this, Mike liquidated the central pieces, exchanging the Rook for a Knight and pawn, leaving himself two connected solitary pawns on the g and h files. Les resigned with the h pawn guaranteed to Queen in a game he felt he might have won.

This left the match all-square with Noor to finish, playing white against John Howlett. John employed the French defence, with Noor playing the advance variation. After the pieces were developed, Noor found a nice forcing combination winning him an exchange, but John fought back during the later part of the game. It came down to an always tricky rook and pawn ending with John being a pawn up, but said pawn was a backward pawn, which Noor tried to pick off without success. John had the slightly more active Rook and used this to hoover up and to some extent liquidate the remaining pawns, leaving him the pawn up against Noor’s solitary Rook. To his credit, John played it well, and any threats that Noor tried, he parried whilst advancing the lone pawn. What happened in the end was a position that looked very much like the Lucena position – the first time your author has seen it in play over the board. Noor correctly resigned once John’s King was moved out of the way and the pawn promotion couldn’t be avoided.

A 2.5-1.5 defeat for the second team, with Ashby 3 seemingly deserving to be top of the tree at this early stage of the season.

El Presidente speaking to OK! Magazine:

Obviously disappointed with the result and my own performance, but a good win from Mike – to quote him ‘snatching victory from the jaws of defeat’, and a good battling performance from Noor, albeit he came out on the wrong side of it.