Anstey plays against another Wigston team, and there is a rating difference between the Anstey team and Wigston team, which is to be expected at this point. The average rating of the Wigston team was around 1400, whereas the average rating of Anstey was around 1200.

Board 1

Jakub Miler is on board 1 and the game started off quite well with Jakub having a small disadvantage playing as black, which is to be expected. Jakub was doing quite well throughout the match, but he was on the back foot trying to gain back the initiative and maybe start an attack of his own. Things started to look like they were doing to go into an endgame, which they did, but white had a past h pawn and the other pawns (a-e pawns) where all locked in place by each other. This could maybe be a draw, but dealing with an a or h pawn is more tricky because they are on the edge of the board. However, Jakub’s opponent herded Jakub into a zugzwang, which means any move that Jakub makes will be a losing move. Jakub did play one a little longer to try and see if he could make a draw, but Jakub did realise there wasn’t much else he could do as so he resigned.

Board 2

Alex Street was up next on board 2 and his opponent also is named Alex, so it was Alex v Alex. The start of the game was as expected, both Alex’s are good players and do know their chess. This game was very dynamic and interesting to watch as both players were being offensive in their defences. It was a very close game throughout the match, but both players are very good and managed to create significant threats whilst dealing with significant threats. However, Anstey Alex had a small advantage throughout the game, which was may have been small but it made a big difference in the end. Anstey Alex constantly put pressure on his opponent’s position, which his opponent eventually succumbed to as Wigston Alex hung mate in 1. Anstey Alex did not see the mate in 1 but Wigston Alex resigned anyway. Even if Anstey Alex did not see the mate, he still could have taken a free piece, which was hanging for the last 10 moves of the game. Both players did see the hanging piece, but they had better moves to make.

Board 3

Oskar Rudczenko plays on board 3 as black opening with the modern scandinavian. The game did go okay for the opening phase, which was good considering how the scandi is considered a dubious opening by some. However, early in the game Oskar had made a mis calculation and went down an exchange, which was not great, but it was not too bad of a position still. However, the real killer was how Oskar’s queen was cut off from the rest of the board, which Oskar did not understand fully until he had trapped his own queen. White did not win the queen, but the queens were traded off. In the endgame, Oskar had a disadvantage of having a bishop in place of a rook, which was not a disaster but’s it’s not preferred. Oskar tried to make some counter play, which did give his opponent some trouble, but at the end white had a few too many threats for Oskar to count. Oskar missed a forced mate in 3, which his opponent spotted and started playing. Oskar resigned before the mate could happen.

Board 4

Reidan Minhas played on board 4 against an opponent who was over 300 elo points above Reidan, which is quite a significant difference. However, Reidan plays on and is willing to take up the challenge. The game starts off as usual since both of these players do know chess quite well and may not make any big blunders. The game carries on at quite a steady pace, both players make some progress and some trades and Reidan keeps his cool. Both players continue to play, but the game starts to slow down and both players start to make less and less progress in the position. Eventually, it does become clear that this game might be a draw, which Reidan would be very happy with as his opponent is much better than he is. Soon enough both players do agree to make a draw, rather quickly during the evening as Reidan was the first to finish his game. Well done Reidan, he should be very proud of this game as it shows how much potential he has.

Send off

A 1 1/2 – 2 1/2 loss for Anstey, unfortunately, but the Wigston side were quite strong so we did well to score 1 1/2 out of 4. Our next match will be against Heathcote Arms, which maybe a more equally matched evening, as Heathcote are not the strongest club in Leicestershire, but they are certainly a friendly club!