(18/5/23) Anstey’s 1st team made their 2023 debut in the Harrod Cup.

El Presidente as captain selected a strong initial team with El Presidente himself on board 1, Mike Griffiths on 2, The Lawman Bob on 3 and Noor The Prodigy on board 4.

Just so our many millions of readers are aware, the Harrod Cup is a rapid play tournament in Leicestershire and isn’t mandatory for all clubs. Some clubs choose to take a summer break – but not Anstey. The players play the same opponent twice in the quicker format, once with the white pieces and once with the black pieces with a 20 minute time control with 10 second increments. Because of the nature of the games being rapid play, notating is not required and with 8 games to look over, it is hard to recall what happened in each one, so the rapid play reports will be shorter than usual and comprise a summary of the games.

Board 1 – El Presidente Ben v Rich Davis – result 1.5-0.5

El Presidente faced off against Rich Davis on board 1. Rich and Ben had played a few rapid games on the internet during lockdown in the LRCA tournament so one could argue that the rapid play matches are their strength. Rich hadn’t played OTB for a while and was somewhat surprised to be on board 1. Both games were keenly contested with El Presidente having black for the first game (as did the whole team). A fierce battle ensued with El Presidente seeming to have a crushing Queenside attack but Rich defended very well and started an attack of his own. A tactical skirmish ensued and El Presidente was a piece for a couple of pawns up but lost it again after Rich cleverly defended an attack with a King fork. A draw was agreed with an inevitable exchange of pieces, leaving the Kings on the board.
Second game with white, El Presidente won through with good development, forcing Rich to play Ke7 and not castling, finding a neat combination of a Knight fork which would have resulted in either mate, or Rich losing his Queen, at which point he resigned.

Board 2 – Mike Griffiths vs Brian Slater – result 1-1

In what was a superb battle, Mike faced off against Latimer’s captain Brian Slater.
Unfortunately, your author has not seen much of these games but both players seemingly enjoyed playing as white with both of them winning with the white pieces.

Board 3 – Bob The Lawman vs Mike Garland Snr – result 1.5-0.5

Bob the Lawman played against one of the nicest guys in the county, Mike Garland Snr.
Again, I haven’t seen many of the games and your author has made a mental note to try and take note of these rapid games, or consult with the players before writing the report.

Board 4 – Noor The Prodigy v Granville Hill – result 0-2

Noor The Prodigy definitely got a raw deal with facing Granny Hill on board 4. Granny is a very wily player and your author has come unstuck against him on more than one occasion.
Mental note: Must get a few words from people on their games.

A disappointing result but this could so easily have been a defeat – a point is a point.

(4/5/23) Anstey’s newly formed Junior team made their competitive debut in the Harrod Cup. Thankfully the draw Gods had been kind and they started with a home game against Wigston – many people’s favourites to lift the Harrod Cup (that doesn’t actually exist at the moment as Ashby have lost it!)

El Presidente as captain selected a strong initial team with Noor, Yuvraj, Curtis and Young John.

Just so our many millions of readers are aware, the Harrod Cup is a rapid play tournament in Leicestershire and isn’t mandatory for all clubs. Some clubs choose to take a summer break – but not Anstey. The players play the same opponent twice in the quicker format, once with the white pieces and once with the black pieces with a 20 minute time control with 10 second increments. Because of the nature of the games being rapid play, notating is not required and with 8 games to look over, it is hard to recall what happened in each one, so the rapid play reports will be shorter than usual and comprise a summary of the games.

After exchanging pleasantries with opposing captain Paul Mottram (LRCA league secretary) battle commenced with Anstey electing to play black first (saving the tossing of a coin).

Board 1 – Noor vs Leon Charikar – result 1-1

Noor was outgraded but certainly not outfought against his opponent graded 134 points higher. Noor demonstrated his fight and undoubted quality in two very well played games by both players. So much so that both El Presidente and Paul Mottram applauded both players after each game.
The first game was very close with both sides threatening to Queen pawns but the end arrived in checkmate for Leon as he mated Noor with his newly formed Queen after Noor was a move or two away from doing so himself.
With the white pieces, Noor developed nicely and won a piece after a neat tactic and never looked back, converting very nicely with some huge pressure and forcing Leon’s time to run out.

Board 2 – Yuvraj vs Laurence Norton – result 1-1

The future of Leicestershire chess is looking good as Yuvraj faced off against another Junior Laurence Norton. Yuvraj was again out graded by just under 300 points and, just like Noor, was certainly not outfought.
The first game was one of the many games on the evening that went very quickly and unfortunately, Yuvraj was checkmated with his lonely King against a Queen, King, Bishop and a couple of pawns threatening to queen themselves.
With white, Yuvraj showed his fight and won this one quite comfortably but in not quite so emphatic fashion as his loss. Your author didn’t see the final position, just Yuvraj saying that he had won whilst they were resetting the pieces almost as quickly as they had finished the game!

Board 3 – Curtis vs Sathsara Dissanayake – result 0-2

In another boost to Leicestershire chess, Curtis (playing only his second competitive game for the club) was playing against Sathsara Dissanayake – a name that has been around the County scene for quite a while now. Although young in age, SD has been playing in the league for a while and is more experienced than Curtis.
Your author never saw much of the games – again because they were played so quickly – but Curtis fell in to a trap, namely playing quickly when your opponent is playing quickly which quite often can be detrimental to one’s game (been there, done that). Again I think the players may have ended up with more time than they started with, giving a demonstration of the quick nature of the games.
Although it was two losses for Curtis, it will serve as a learning curve (all losses are learning points) and to slow down when playing.

Board 4 – Young John vs Madhav Eradi – result 1-1

Whilst the phrase is tiresome, the boost to Leicestershire chess was evident as once again two Juniors faced off on board 4 with Young John playing against Madhav Eradi – another Junior that has a couple of years over the board chess under his belt.
At an absolutely frantic pace, both players were playing very quickly and it was very easy for your author to miss large sections of both games. Young John won the first game quite nicely with a spectacular ‘ladder’ mate/lawn mower mate with a Queen and Rook working together to mate white’s King.
Unfortunately in the second game playing quickly went against John and he finished second in the rematch with the white pieces.

Overall, although it was a loss, it was a pleasing result as the Anstey juniors side showed their fight, grit and determination and whilst some of the individual results didn’t go our way, quite literally some of the games could have gone either way and no player should be unhappy with their performance.

20/4/23 – With El Capitan Oskar unable to captain the team on the night, El Presidente volunteered to captain the 3rd team against our old friends Heathcote Arms (again, hereafter HA’s) 2nd team.

Having been in the midst of the chess grind for a few years now, your author has made some friends and close acquaintances along the way – none more so than the 4 players that turned up to face our third team. Visiting the Anstey Methodist Arena was Ray Beach (aka Raymondov), Bill Roberts (aka Bill, sorry Bill, no nickname yet!), Gordon Milner (aka G-Man) and Dave Ricketts (aka Haka Dave, or if you’re Colin Ross, Hacker Dave). Haka Dave was making a welcome return to the chess plight after a 10 year absence and I must say that it was a delight to see him, albeit I am never quite sure that the feeling is reciprocated or not. In the spirit of seeing Haka Dave I am going to divulge away from the formula of our traditional match reports and write it in the style of Haka Dave – a more relaxed and less formal report and use every opportunity to poke fun at old friends.

First to finish on the evening was Aarav Sinha with the white pieces against Bill Roberts on board 2. Bill had said to me before the game that he’d hoped he wasn’t going to face one of the youngsters as they can be a bit tricky. That words ‘youngster’ and ‘tricky’ basically sum up Aarav and he certainly mixed it up for Bill by employing an Italian fried liver attack, with the thematic sacrificial Knight path of the Two Knights defence. (Somebody has been learning from Just Mick!) The Knight on g1, heads to f3, g5 and takes on f7, uncovering Bill’s King and removing his right to castle. Aarav then mercilessly attacked Bill’s King and after calmly castling Kingside and opening a path for developing pieces, Aarav saw out the game with Bg5, pinning Bill’s Queen with the bishop at which point, on only the 13th move, Bill gracefully resigned. The end was so swift, the game was played along the book line for the first 8 or 9 moves. This won’t be the only Bishop-pinning-Queen motif we will hear about either.

Second to finish was the Silent Destroyer Yuvraj Sadhra with black vs the G-Man on board 3. Having kept an eye on the proceedings, the speed in which pieces were traded off the board was mind-blowing. The G-Man’s plan must have been to trade everything off until it was King vs King and get a draw. By black’s move 12, both the Queens were off, a couple of minor pieces and a couple of pawns had also left the board for the evening. The G-Man’s tongue in cheek plan was working. The only slight issue is that Yuvraj had the Bishop pair and a wide open centre to work with. Further piece trades occurred and Yuvraj did well to develop his pieces with tempo and for a brief while, the G-Man’s Knight was hopping round the board being chased by the Silent Destroyers Rook (all that was missing was some Benny Hill type music). This was until the G-Man made a tactical blunder by defending his Knight with his Rook, effectively pinning the Knight which the Silent Destroyer capitalised on immediately and thereafter, whilst Yuvraj’s notation is far from perfect, the G-Man resigned with little option but to in a lost endgame a piece down.

Third to finish was Mike Griffiths with the black pieces vs Raymondov on board 1. Given the events on the other two boards and their respective finishes within an hour of starting, the proceedings on board 1 were positively serene. Sensible piece development, pieces looking for their best squares and a pawn trade on move 6 was as exciting as it got for the first few moves. Mike had the better of the opening and had an advantage after move 13 from Raymondov. (In case you were wondering – I know you were – Raymondov derives from Ray’s full name with an ‘ov’ on the end to give him a more imposing nickname than ‘Ray’). Anyway, back to the action and Mike got a Knight to c4 in what was the most exciting thing to happen for a while and marked a bit of progress in the game as pieces danced non-commitment style on the board. In a flurry of activity said Knight was traded off and a Bishop pair left the board to get a coffee together, leaving the position solid for both players and practically level. All of a sudden, Raymondov made a brave looking f4 move, staking a claim on the centre and finally igniting the game to life. It certainly had this effect but gave Mike a boat load of activity which he used with gusto, claiming two pawns and by the time Raymondov threw in the towel, it was about to be a free minor piece for Mike. The end of a great game and I was sure that I heard Ray saying ‘don’t push pawns, don’t push pawns’ multiple times to himself on his way out of the door at the end of the evening.

Last to finish was Young John on board 4 with the white pieces against our friend Haka Dave. Now, before we get into the action, I know that you’re wondering where the nickname comes from. No, he isn’t a secret Mauri tribesman on the side during his 10 year absence, or indeed a former New Zealand rugby player. He was once seen to perform a little dance after a favourable result once upon a time. It was jovially referred to as a Haka and it kind of stuck with him. Dave was hoping not to get chopped up quickly by a whizz-kid so when Young John sat opposite him, Haka Dave must have feared the worst. After a comparatively sensible opening, full of piece development that transcended into chaos, John set a trap for Haka Dave with the bizarre looking Nd5 move, seemingly giving up a Knight for nothing. One of those moves where you think – that must be for a reason and you stress at the board trying to find why. It had a devastating effect though, as Dave found out by accepting the poisoned gift with cxd5 followed by Bb5! – pinning the Queen with a Bishop for the second time in the evening. Young John seemed delighted with his new prize and proceeded to confidently ebb away at his own advantage with Haka Dave fighting with every ounce of what he’s got. El Presidente was warning Young John’s Mum that John’s opponent is a real fighter and so it proved. Later on in the game, pieces were traded leaving John a bishop and 3 pawns vs a Rook and 2 pawns and Young John, very maturely it must be said, offered a draw which was accepted. My sources tell me that a Haka DID NOT happen but after looking at the game, I am unsure why. Spare a thought for Young John here, last to finish in the third team, everybody from HA watching his every move, this is competitive chess at its most pressurised and a draw is still a fantastic result for John, despite any disappointment he may feel.

After all of that excitement and a 3.5-0.5 win, coupled with a 1st team match also going on, it was another full-on night at the Anstey Methodist Arena with some good and bad chess played (and that was just the first team!). Great to see the HA boys again and we will look forward to seeing them, as always, during the Summer and next season.

Stand-in skipper El Presidente spoke to Vogue Magazine:

Firstly, great to see the HA chaps come over and lovely to see an old friend in Dave Ricketts. Obviously a very well deserved victory for the third team and well done to them all with some very sharp games and good performances. A very satisfying evening overall.

The 2nd team were scheduled to entertain our good friends the Heathcote Arms’s 1st team (hereafter HA) in a home match on Thursday 13th April.

El Presidente received a phone call the night before from HA’s skipper Pete Harrison saying that he wasn’t able to get a team together given the 2nd team of HA had played on the Thursday and their usual 1st team players were not available. Being the accommodating person he is, El Presidente agreed to re-schedule the match to the 11th May which was agreed by all.

Subsequently, El Presidente realised that the 11th May is the first night of the County Championships at our illustrious venue and consequently, El Presidente contacted Pete Harrison to advise that we had no option but to claim the game by default. Pete Harrison – ever the Gentleman – agreed to this and the match was defaulted.

Not in any way how we want to accrue our points this season but as The Toaster eluded to – ‘a win is a win’ despite the circumstances.

Captain El Presidente told Good Housekeeping Magazine:

It is a shame that we couldn’t play the game – obviously the preference is to gain our points through OTB results but this time it wasn’t to be. I am sorry for Heathcote Arms that they could not raise a team – they still remain very good friends of the club. We have a hectic summer, with the County Championships being hosted here (shameless plug!), and the Summer Cups so it simply wasn’t possible to play the game on another date.