17.1.24 Anstey’s 2nd team took on Loughborough’s 3rd team, seeking revenge for a disappointing draw in the home leg of the fixture.

With Mike absent on board 3 elsewhere at his wife’s birthday celebrations (nobody would miss that either Mike!), El Presidente recruited upwards from the first team, using the Toaster Boris to fill the board 1 slot, moving John down to board 2, El Presidente to board 3, and retaining Noor on board 4. A strong line up that should have been confident of the win.

On a night with sub-zero temperatures, El Presidente made the mistake of dragging John The Torturer to the away venue, thinking that they may turn up on time, when Loughtborough’s venue (not their players) decide to open up at 7:30 – the time that the match is supposed to start. El Presidente and The Torturer enjoyed the practice of keeping warm by walking on the spot. Boris and Noor calmly walked in within time for the match to start, and battle commenced.

First to finish was El Presidente, playing white against Stewart Gordon, the league association’s webmaster no less. Stewart employed the open Sicilian, and subsequently offered a mass trade of pieces on the d5 square, after both players had developed sensibly in the opening – however, neither player had castled. After the mass trade of pieces, El Presidente was left with an open d file, and had the move, playing Bc5 – denying Stewart’s right to castle – giving him trouble developing his final two pieces. He moved the light squared Bishop (El Presidente assumed with the idea of playing Rd8 – contesting the open file) and then tried to trade dark squared Bishops, which was refused. Stewart then made the sudden, game deciding blunder by castling Queenside, allowing El Presidente the opportunity to play Ba6 mate, and the rather stylish Boden’s mate.

Second to finish was Noor, playing with the black pieces against Les Lant – rated at 950 and significantly less than Noor’s rating. Les opened with e3 and d4 – a peculiar move order but a solid one nonetheless, and both players proceeded with the task of developing their pieces. After a couple of pawns were exchanged, and a Bishop for a Knight, Noor created the not-so-subtle threat of a Queen and Bishop battery along the a8-h1 diagonal. Noor then set about opening up the board and trying to overwhelm Les. Les in his wisdom didn’t fall for it, and Noor played a lovely Ng4 move, attacking a Bishop placed on d3, and the f3 pawn – guarding the g4 square – could not take because of the battery. Les moved his Queen to back the Bishop up, alongside his Rook. Unfortunately, Les recaptured Noor’s Knight with his Queen instead of Rook, allowing Noor to capture the Queen with his other Knight that was watching the e3 square. He had meant to capture with his Rook of course but got the move order wrong. From then on, Noor made no mistakes, driving home the advantage in the centre, trapping a doubled Rook and forcing a resignation.

Boris The Toaster was next to finish, entertaining The Torturer’s conqueror in the return match – Reece Whittington – with Boris having the white pieces. Play started with the Queen’s pawn and both players sensibly developed pieces onto good squares. Reece launched a counter attack in the centre with c5, Bb4, Qa5 all followed by Ne4, putting pressure on the c3 Knight. Boris remained calm, played his moves well and didn’t crumble under pressure, and repelled the pressure with some well timed moves of his own, and somewhat freeing his position at the same time. Boris found a neat little pin after Nxc3 with Qd2, thus pinning the Knight against the Queen on a5 which would be free. After unpicking this situation, The Toaster got his Bishop to an advanced square on d6, removing Reece’s castling option and permanently installed the Bishop on a3 – controlling the same diagonal an keeping his opponent’s King in the centre. Reece played for activity on the Kingside and the centre, but this was accurately repelled by The Toaster, creating threats of his own and ripping open the centre with some well-timed pawn thrusts. Reece played more Kingside but made the game changing blunder already a pawn down, allowing Boris to skewer his two Rooks with a Bishop where Boris had activity, material and a won game.

Last to finish was John Robinson, The Torturer, facing El Presidente’s conqueror in the first game Peter Hickman. Employing his favoured King’s Indian Defence with the black pieces against Peter’s 1.d4, The Torturer developed his pieces to good squares whilst Peter’s pieces seemed to fall over themselves, resulting in a lovely looking position for John, with some well situated pieces and so many options for The Torturer. Peter managed to get some pieces and pawns traded off and the position approached equality as the game entered the endgame phase. The Torturer played very well and forced a mistake from Peter, which subsequently led to another and having declined a draw offer earlier in the game, John converted the fact that he had all the aces in hand, and proceeded to force a resignation from Peter when The Torturer took an undefended Rook that Peter had missed in time trouble.

A 4-0 win for the 2nd team that couldn’t have gone much better! Well played everyone.

El Presidente speaking to Talksport:
Obviously we are delighted with the win – I didn’t expect a 4-0 whitewash, although some of the form that our guys are in, it might not be a total surprise.

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.