Anstey’s second team made the journey down to South Leicestershire to El Presidente’s old club Wigston. Wigston find themselves in the same predicament as Anstey with too many players and not enough teams, with both Anstey and Wigston pushing to try and add another smaller division. With both teams keen to give players games, they agreed to a 7 board match and after negotiating traffic on all roads leading to Wigston, battle commenced just after 7:30pm.

So to the match and battle commenced. First to finish was Aarav with the white pieces against another young player – Madhav Eradi. Aarav opened with the Evans Gambit – Aarav, if you’re reading this please speak to Just Mick who is a massive fan of this line and would be happy to give you some pointers about playing it. Unfortunately, it seemed that the desire to notate was neglected and once notation stopped on move 15, Aarav was already in trouble having slid out of the book lines on move 8. Aarav and Madhav blitzed out the moves and when I looked over, neither player was notating and Aarav was a piece down with most of the pieces off the board. Not much longer after that, Aarav had resigned being heavily down on material and he looked very disappointed. El Presidente tried to reassure Aarav that there is plenty of time and I think he got caught out by his opponent playing quickly and fell into the trap of doing the same. Wins will come Aarav, take your time! Anstey were 1-0 down.

Second to finish was Boris The Toaster. Boris had the black pieces against Joseph Horspool, somebody that The Toaster had already played in the reverse fixture last month – it is a little unusual to face the same team so closely together. Against 1.e4, Boris employed his favourite Caro-Kann defence and his opponent employed the advance variation where we are straight down the book line where black shuffles his light squared Bishop several times to f5, e4 and having met h4 with h6, the light squared Bishop moved from e4 back to g6 and after h5 moved again back to h7. Not content with this merry dance, The Toaster’s opponent played Bd3, offering another move for the Bishop, which was taken. The Toaster’s light squared Bishop had enough for the day and was knackered! White had a slight advantage at this point, the engine giving it +1.2. Both players then sought to develop and castle – the Toaster won the race to castle but had a severely undeveloped Kingside with all of the Kingside pieces still on home squares and white ready to castle either way after black’s 12th move. After a few more moves back and forth, white played c4, seeking to mix it up a bit with The Toaster met with dc. The Toaster played Nb6-d5 which I thought looked correct but turns out to be an inaccuracy, the trade on c4 is better.

Next to finish was board 4 and new man Bob Grindrod who has joined the club this year, after a while out of the game having moved to the area. Bob was another player who was facing somebody that he had played before – the very slippery youngster Sathsara Dissanayake – hereafter to be known as SD! Bob had the black pieces and employed e6 in reply to SD’s 1.e4. Instead of the traditional reply d4, SD played Nf3 and Bob played Bc5. These 4 moves do not have an opening name but SD played 3. d4 which would be logical to force the retreat of the Bishop. Both sides developed their pieces, with Bob managing to get d5 in to stake a claim on the centre. By this time, SD had developed most of his pieces and castled, so Bob was behind in development and was fairly cramped for space with Knights on e7 and d7 and a light squared Bishop which at this stage was jealous of The Toaster’s compatriot on board 2! With the position seemingly level, Bob castled Kingside which allowed SD to trade a Bishop for Knight and finally allow Bob’s light squared Bishop a home on d7 at the cost of a pawn. Both players manoeuvred their pieces into better positions and although a pawn down, Bob had a very comfortable position against SD’s split pawns on e5 and c5, the c5 pawn being the extra pawn. SD played a dubious Na4 move, attacking a Bishop on b6 but this allowed Bob to attempt to deflect the Queen, which was on g4 and protecting the a4 Knight.

3-0 down and with things looking bleak, Mike was next to finish with the white pieces on board 5, facing El Presidente’s conqueror in the return fixture, Luke Muir. Employing his favourite 1.c4 English opening, the game started very evenly, with both players cautiously developing their pieces. Mike fianchettoed his Kingside Bishop and Luke spent a couple of moves initiating Bh3 and the trade off of the light squared Bishop. Mike traded the f6 Knight which was recaptured with a Bishop and got his Knight to e4, hitting the Bishop on f6. Mike felt this was crucial as Luke captured Mike’s g2 Bishop, Mike took on f6 with check and using the intermezzo to ruin black’s pawn structure before re-capturing on g2. The players shuffled their pieces about, denying one another crucial squares that the pieces were looking to occupy. With all of the pawns on the board, there were no open files and things looked pretty even.

Your author is a little unsure whether it was actually Mike or our board 1 that finished before the other but Brian The Griller was on board 1, facing off against somebody that he had beaten in the reverse fixture – Phil Watkinson with Brian having the white pieces. The game opened with Brian’s usual 1.d4 which was met with a Slav setup from Phil and transpired into an Alapin variation with 4. … dxc4 followed by 5. a4. Development of pieces was quick from both players with Brian trading off his Kingside Knight for black’s dark squared Bishop, opening the h file for Phil’s uncastled Rook, forcing 11. h3. Brian had to negotiate g5 a timely g5 from his opponent and found the only defence 13. g4 as mate was being threatened from a Queen on c7 and the open h file. Tension had remained earlier in the game via a Bishop on b4 and a Knight on c3. After Na2 and a questionable Ba5 from Phil, The Griller had the opportunity to trap the dark squared Bishop. Oozing class, Brian delayed the opportunity – it was trapped anyway, no need to rush. A sequence of moves allowed the Bishop to be released but the attacking potential and co-ordination of The Griller’s pieces is scary against black’s castled King. A monster a pawn ran up the board and The Griller’s Kingside attack really took shape.

I think that it was Noor who finished next but only just finishing ahead of El Presidente. Noor had the black pieces on board 6, facing off against Chris Brown who had beaten Mike after Mike blundered a piece in the return fixture. The players went down the lines of the Giuco Pianissimo – the quiet Italian which gets both players some play with their pieces. Noor’s slightly unusual approach to retreat the dark squared Bishop and the f6 knight costed him a pawn which was greedily accepted by his opponent. Noor’s pieces got in to a tangle early on as a promising looking Bishop on f4 had to retreat back to c8 after Qf3, threatening both Bishop and the b pawn and white enjoyed a couple of tempi developing pieces. After white’s move 13, the eval bar is at +4.9. After castling, Noor gave up a further two pawns by walking in to a couple of minor tactics deflecting the pawn’s defenders. Indeed, after Qxb7, the eval bar is now at +7.3. Instead of accepting a 4th pawn, Chris (logically) decided to try to trade Queens which the computer doesn’t like, dropping the bar down to +3.3. Some inaccurate play followed from Noor’s opponent and whilst Chris shuffled his pieces, Noor grabbed a pawn back and after a Queen trade, got another pawn back.

On board 3, El Presidente faced off against a new face and name Peter Collings with the white pieces. Peter met El Presidente’s 1. e4 with the Scandi and instead of the traditional 3. Nc3 hitting the Queen, played 3. Nf3 – a free developing move. One can play Nc3 at any time – why rush? Quick development ensued and the game remained fairly even after a couple of trade-offs of minor pieces. The critical position appeared below, where El Presidente offered a draw.

After the match, El Presidente spoke to Sky Sports News:

SS: You must be delighted with the result?

Damn right I am, I haven’t won a game since January in Classical chess, I’m absolutely buzz-‘

SS: I meant the team result

Oh – Is this being recorded? (Clears throat) Yes, delighted by the draw, it really feels like a win. Thank you to everyone who played, it’s a long way to come and I am really pleased for those that won. Noor looks like he’s going to be a little superstar for us this year getting a draw from 3 pawns down. Someone also said that Wigston’s first division 1st team were playing and them patzers were all finished before me and Noor! Great to see some old and new friendly faces though, on a serious note. I know for sure that the guys that lost put up a massive fight and I am proud of them all. Wins be a coming for them just around the corner – we win, lose and draw as a team. Can you edit that first part out please?

The second team occupy a respectable 6th place out of 9 and face off against Loughborough 2 on Wednesday which is sure to be a big game.

In a hard-fought match Anstey 1 were held to a draw in the third round of the Harrod Cup away to Wigston. After three games we are third on “goal” difference:

There was some confusion over Wigston’s line-up, despite a few minutes grace their board 1 didn’t turn up but they must have half-expected it as they had a ready-made replacement. The teams looked fairly even on paper 6,256 vs 6,228.

The Wigston captain wasn’t really bothered about tossing for colours and the first games were played with how we happened to sit down at the boards, we had black on odds and white on evens for the first of the two 20-minute games.

On to the action. Board 2 was the first game to finish. Mick, playing white versus Les Corlett, got a great position out of the Philidor opening (1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6), increased his advantage in the middle game and overwhelmed his opponent in what Mick described as a fairly easy game. Wigston 0 – 1 Anstey.

Not too much is known about Mike’s first game, black against Alex Milligan on board 3. After early skirmishes the game came out level and a draw was agreed. Wigston ½ – Anstey 1½.

Valdas was playing the youngster Madhav Eradi on board 4. This was going to be a tough game as Madhav had had some good results in quick play games of late. Valdas opened with the Rapport-Jobava System and played the ambitious looking Ne5 and Nb5, unfortunately running into Qa5+ pushing the knight back to c3 and giving black some pressure. White succumbed and dropped a piece for a pawn, the position coming out as 2 rooks and 8 pawns vs 2 rooks, a bishop and 7 pawns. Black played this period of the game well, exchanging pawns off to activate his rooks, forcing a rook exchange, winning another pawn and creating 2 advanced passed pawns. Valdas resigned. Wigston 1½ – Anstey 1½.

This left Matt on board 1 as black against Andrew Pike. After a weird English opening 1. c4 e5 2. a3 it looked like white was getting a small advantage on the queenside when he made a mistake with Ne4. After … Nxe4 Bxe4 f5 the bishop was trapped (Bd3 allowed … e4 forking the bishop and knight on f3) so white went with Bxf5 gxf5 and Qxf5 giving him 2 pawns and a draughty looking black king for the piece. However, Matt was able to bring his pieces to the kingside, play e4 kicking the knight and getting a counter-attack down the g-file. In the time scramble white lost the knight but created a passed pawn on d6 before black crashed through with a nice mating attack:

So, at half time the score was Wigston 1½ – Anstey 2½. The players changed ends and battle recommenced immediately, no time for a slice of orange.

Mike’s second game finished first. In a thankfully rare event Mike mis-played the middlegame after his 1. c4 English opening and ended up in a losing position and resigned. Afterward he apologised for, in his own words, cocking it up. So Wigston drew level, Wigston 2½ – Anstey 2½.

But not for long. Matt played a quiet side-line against Andrew’s Caro Kann Defence (1. e4 c6) but came out of the opening with a slight advantage after back’s pieces tangled themselves up on the kingside. He couldn’t convert it to anything meaningful and when the queens came off the position looked equal. Matt offered a draw that was declined, Andrew saying he would play on for a bit. But as so often happens (see below) a few moves later black blundered after trying to get his rooks active, allowing Matt to pin the knight on c4 against the king on c8. Matt followed by up activating his own rooks with pressure down the b file, forcing an exchange of rook leaving a completely won position which black resigned. Wigston 2½ – Anstey 3½.

Valdas’ second game mirrored Matt’s, Valdas this time playing the Caro Kann as black. After a few tactics in the early middlegame the queens came off and the position boiled down to a double rook and pawn endgame, white’s weak looking double and isolated f pawns offset by his active rooks. Madhav offered a draw that Valdas declined thinking he had a slight advantage… only to lose a pawn a few moves later! White calmly played the position well, creating and pushing his passed h-pawn and in the end there was nothing black could do about it, Valdas resigned. Wigston 3½ – Anstey 3½.

So it all came down to Mick as black vs Les. The game started as a Sicilian (1. e4 c5) but quickly headed to a St George after an early … a6. In a very tactical game and as the time slipped away Mick ended up with rook, bishop and knight against queen and 2 pawns, technically equal on paper and what would have been a fascinating game in a longer time format. But Mick’s king was a bit exposed and white’s queen started harassing. In time pressure when it looked like a draw by perpetual check was the likely outcome, a draw was agreed. Wigston 4 – Anstey 4.

So the match was drawn!

With two rounds to go in the Harrod Cup we are still in with a shout of winning it though it depends on the outcome of the other matches. For example, if Ashby 2 beat Wigston and we beat whoever we are paired against then it will be a final showdown, winner takes all match against Ashby 2. Bring it on!

In round three of the 2022 Harrod Summer Cup, Anstey’s second team travel away from home to Ashby’s very nice Ivanhoe Social Club to go up against a strong Ashby second team. The scores in the Harrod were quite equal between the two teams as Ashby sat at a comfortable fourth place, and Anstey sat just below them in a nice fifth place. The Anstey team on the night was Mike, a solid and experienced player on board one; the new but strong Valdas on board two; the experienced second team captain Oskar on board three, and a very young John who was making his debut match, and as rumours had it he was very excited about his first professional match in the competitive Leicestershire chess scene. 

Anstey two had come into the match with one win from round one of the Harrod, and a lose from round two. Hoping to get a win, Oskar, the team captain, was ready for a fight, as he had been playing rather well in the last two rounds. Mike and Valdas were as ready as can be, as they quenched their thirst at the bar before making their way towards the back room of the social club. John was patiently waiting for the games to start, with his mum, making friendly conversation with his opponent for the night. 

As the players were ready to play a gentleman’s game, the Anstey players headed through the snooker room of the social club into a cosy back room with its own toilet. The captains of both teams filled in the score sheet to mark who was playing, and then got to the coin toss to decide who would be playing white, and who would be playing black for the first games. The Ashby team captain, Andrew Wilson, was to call and as the coin flipped and flipped in the air Andrew called, “heads.” Luck was on Andrew’s side as the Anstey team captain, Oskar, revealed the coin to show heads. Andrew picked white for his team, with board one and three to play white first and Ashby’s boards two and four to play black first. Although, with some confusion from Oskar, the teams decided to have all of Ashby’s players to play white first. 

All eight players began to sit down to play some serious chess. It was peaceful in those last few moments, but soon there would be a brutal clash between the two teams. The leader board scores of both teams hung in the balance; who would come out on top to cement their position in the Harrod Summer Cup table scores? There’s only one way to find out… 

First Games of the Night – Ashby Plays White; Anstey Plays Black 

Board 1 – Andrew Wilson plays white; Mike Griffiths plays black. 

With white’s first move being an aggressive d4, Mike responded with a classy Sicilian defence. With the game being equal for most of the game, pieces getting traded off quite quickly, and with a rook and opposite-coloured bishop endgame, Mike seemed to be facing a certain draw. However, with only Mike’s bishop from stopping his opponent’s king and rook getting in behind Mike’s pawns, the game was far from over. Andrew’s time was running much lower than Mike’s, and so Mike had to put Andrew under some pressure. With one move of his bishop, Mike realised that he made a mistake, and his opponent seized his opportunity to get behind Mike’s pawns, but Mike was not done with yet. It took a while longer before Andrew had captured a pawn with his king, Mike knew he had to work hard to recover from his inaccuracy. He moved his drink to one side, trying to calculate a way out of his position, but he knew he couldn’t find a way out. Unfortunately, Mike knew his opponent would win eventually, so he put his hand out over the board for Andrew to shake. White was victorious, and it was one for Ashby. 

Mike plays white; Andrew plays black. 

In game two, Mike kept up the spirit of the Sicilian by playing c4 as his first move as white, and again everything came down to the endgame. Pieces were quickly traded off during the opening and middle game, and again Mike reports that a draw “looked obvious.” There was even some discussion between him and his opponent that they had in fact repeated moves, however, Andrew had clarified that you have to repeat a position three times rather than it being you repeat moves three times. Both players mutually agreed to continue the game, and black tried to lead an attacking charge with his king. Rather courageous to let the king go first, but Andrew had little to fear in his position, or so he thought. Determined to not allow black to win, Mike looked across the board for any slither of an advantage, and there was. A knight sacrifice, with check too; very juicy! However, with sacrifices you have to be sure that the sac will give you a winning advantage, if not win material. Mike was sure, after precise calculations and methodical planning Mike sacrificed his brave knight. Andrew unknowingly took the knight with a pawn of his, and this allowed white to push a 

pawn with a clear pathway to becoming a queen. Black realised what he had done, but it was too late and there was no visible way of stopping that pawn, it was queening no matter what. With that done and dusted, Mike had gained a victory, his opponent resigned. It was one all between Ashby and Anstey. 

Board two – Paul Gibson plays white; Valdas Matutis plays black. 

In Valdas’ first game, he played the Caro-kann defence as advised by the club’s secret coach, and Valdas clearly agrees he should play the caro. With successfully developing his pieces, Valdas patiently waited until his opponent had made an opportunity for black, and as Paul castled king-side Valdas pushed his a pawn forwards. Valdas castles queen-side, a very confrontational move as this puts his rook in the centre files of the board. As white’s pieces start attacking black’s king, black contains the attack well and pushing his b pawn forwards to try and create a blockade of pawns, although, this may weaken his king more than he would like. The position looked promising for Valdas, his king was safe, his pieces were coordinated, and he had some attacking chances for himself. Although, after a hard days work, sometimes your brain can only cope with so much thinking. Valdas wanted to exchange the queens off the board with the help of his knight. With the escort of the knight, the queen confidently faced off against white’s queen, so Valdas had successfully traded off his own queen as he had forgotten that his knight was pinned by white’s rook. Realising his mistake, Valdas did the honourable thing and resigned. Ashby with two, and Anstey with one. 

Valdas plays white; Paul plays black. 

In game two on board two, Valdas played a London variation, also recommended by the club’s secret coach. Valdas had used this same opening a few times before, but after his devastating loss in game one, Valdas began to struggle. White’s pieces hadn’t been developed very well and with little coordination, Valdas had lost the initiative in the mid-game. Valdas still had some chances to defend his weakened position, but he was barely hanging by a thread of fabric above a pit of angry pieces heading towards his king. After gaining the extra tempo, Paul began trying to pry open the centre of the board by using his centre files, along with the teamwork of his pieces. However, Valdas was not about to give up hope, he tried his hardest to take back his advantage and to rid the chances that black had of winning. There were not many trades happening, this game was a positional fight. As both players kept on fighting, Valdas was defending everything that black could throw at him, and Paul was getting tired. There was still a chance for black to win, but it was small and unclear; Paul would have to grind for this win. Knowing this, being tired and wanting to go home, Paul offered Valdas a draw, and Valdas happily accepted. The score was Ashby with two and a half, and Anstey with one and a half. 

Board three – Lawrence Hayden as white; Oskar Rudczenko as black. 

With white first playing e4 and Nc3, Oskar comfortably played e5 and Nf6, however, things would not remind comfortable for Oskar as white entered the Vienna Gambit. Oskar had head of this opening before but did not know much about it. Unsure of what to do but willing to play on, black played d6 hanging onto the centre pawn of his. The game carried on with Oskar being unsure of every move he was making, but he was holding back white’s attacks for now. White castled king-side and black castled queen-side, the fight was on, but Oskar took a lot of time to think. This was more of a positional fight, with only a couple of pieces traded off. White was slowly making progress into black’s territory, and with every move made Oskar’s position was starting to suffocate his pieces. As time ticked down, Oskar had half of his opponent’s time, but he was still not giving up. Oskar was holding back his opponent’s pieces, but time had ran out for Oskar. After the game Lawrence had admitted that the position was looking to be a draw, and with that the score was three and a half for Ashby, one and a half for Anstey. 

Oskar plays white; Lawrence plays black. 

With game two starting off solidly for Oskar, he brought his bishop and knight out quickly, while his opponent had opened with the Kings Indian Defence. Oskar had faced this many time before and knew what to do, but he was too preoccupied with trying to force his opening prep against the unexpected passive play by black. Both sides had castled king-side, but Oskar was after blood playing h4 after castling. Fierce, but ignorant, Oskar continued to push his h pawn into black’s position without the help of a rook on the h file. Using his queen and bishop, putting pressure on the fianchettoed bishop and allowing his h pawn a clear passage to h5. Although, with the lack of support the pawn had, Oskar had to use his light-squared bishop to help the lone pawn. Again, this was a positional game, black was manoeuvring his knights to many different squares in the position, trying to push his b pawn into the attack. White’s 

position was looking good enough to maintain a small advantage, but the pieces were tripping over each other and eventually Oskar had blundered. His misplaced knight became even more misplaced and unwelcome, as Oskar had accidentally severed the line of sight between his queen and dark squared bishop. Black took the free piece and exchanged the knight off too, allowing his queen to face down onto white’s king. Time was equal for most of the game, until the unfortunate mistake and Oskar was down by more and more time in the last few moves. Oskar had tried to defend himself, but it was very tricky and, consequently, he had lost on time again. It was four and a half for Ashby, and one and a half for Anstey. 

Board four – Tom Gerrard plays white; John Graham-Brown plays black. 

John opened strongly in his first match of his chess career, making it difficult for his opponent to gain the initiative. John is a very quick player, and he does not like to give his opponents any breathing room at all. There were even times when John had all his time left, whereas his opponent had half his time remaining. Although, playing so quickly, John had less time to think about which moves to play, and this gave him less time to contemplate what his opponent might do. John started to run out of threatening moves, and, consequently, Tom could gain some breathing room and eventually it became an equal middle-game. John continued to play quickly, whereas Tom continued to ponder over his moves. As black played quickly, he did not think about many threats that white could make, so this gave white an opportunity to start making threats and attacks of his own. Eventually, John’s pieces were backed up in the corner of the board along with his king, so as time went on and with black’s options getting less and less favourable, John, unfortunately, got checkmated. Ashby 5 and a half; Anstey one and a half. 

John plays white; Tom plays black. 

In the second game, John, again, came out strong and fast. Attempting to make sure his opponent does not have any breathing space on the board. Tom had to work hard once again, as attacks kept coming from every possible angle, but white’s attacks were light and rushed with not much weight behind them. Black parried all of white’s attacks. John wanted to press his attack, so he brought out his most powerful piece: The Queen. Unfortunately for John, things took a turn for the worst, as black slayed the white queen. John tried to hang onto the position with the pieces he had left, he tried to coordinate his pieces to create a fortress for his king, but it was not enough to save John’s king. White was checkmated. John did not win against his opponent that night, but he fought fiercely and harshly. Tom had admitted multiple times that he did had to work hard for both wins against John, and with John being two hundred and fifty points lower than Tom things look bright for John’s chess career. With enough practise of patience and discipline, John could become a formidable chess player. 

Final Result 

The final match result was six and a half to Ashby’s second chess team, and one and a half for Anstey’s second team. The leader board table now puts Anstey two at eight place out of eleven. Although the result is a landslide in Ashby’s favour, this does not share the full story that happened, on the night of the fourteenth July twenty twenty-two. All of Anstey’s players were out graded by an average of two hundred and eighty-five ECF points, and all of Anstey’s players had fighting chances all throughout the match. Especially the games on the first two boards, those games were not lost completely and looked quite equal for a while. With more experience and training, every player on the Anstey second team can become even stronger. For now, though, we will have to wait until the next round of the Harrod Summer Cup to see how Anstey two will fair against their next challengers, or maybe, even, victims. 

Match report written by Oskar E. S. Rudczenko.

Anstey 1 secured their third straight win in the Chapman Cup with a comfortable victory away to Loughborough. At the halfway stage of the competition, we have a two-point lead over Braunstone.

Planning for the match began early with a discussion between captain Matt and board 1 Julian over colour choice should we win the toss with Julian deciding he wanted to be black (less psychological pressure!). It suited our team choice as John and Mike would be white and Matt also black.

We turned up to the venue early to find the doors didn’t even open until 19:30 so be the time we were in and the boards setup it was nearly 19:45. Loughborough fielded a fairly strong looking team out rating us by 354 points. That did mean we’d have ½ point lead due to the handicap system so we’d only need two points over the board to win the match.

We won the toss for colours, implemented our plan of black on odds ands settled in for the battle. Well, I say settled in, it was a warm night so the back door was open and clearly Wednesday was also the campanologists club night and the church bells were ringing out, lovely but loud. That wasn’t the only musical disturbance of the night as a little while later the folk music club struck up and a bit later still jukebox music came on in the function room. So not conducive for great chess, maybe we should all get ear defenders like Julian!

On to the action. It was a tense start with all the games looking fairly even. Mike on board 4 finished first with a great win over his albeit young but highly graded opponent, Kajus Mikalajunas, the 193 rating point differential being the biggest on all the boards. Mike wheeled out his trademark English 1. c4 and proceeded to deliver a positional masterclass, creating doubled isolated black pawns on both the c and e files and winning a couple of pawns in the process. Black’s kingside attack never really got going with Mike defending easily, nullifying the attack and trading off pieces to leave him three pawns up in a king and rook ending. Black battled on for another 20 moves before eventually capitulating. This game was both the shortest (timewise) and longest (number of moves) of the night so there was some rapid play going on. Nonetheless, a great start. Loughborough 0 – 1½ Anstey.

The next game to finish was John on board 2 against Stephen Morris, with John outrated (on paper) by 91 points. In a cagey Indian Game, Knights Variation with  2…e6, all the knights came off and the pawns  blocked up the position. With neither side having had any advantage, a draw was agreed much to John’s relief after the musical distractions. Loughborough ½ – 2 Anstey.

Matt was outrated by 111 points against Jim Miller on board 3 but having not lost with the black pieces all season was feeling confident. Playing his usual Philidor setup he came out of the opening with a slight advantage with a nice black squared bishop on a7 eyeing the juicy f2 pawn after white had castled long. With his king’s rook stuck on f1 defending the pawn white decided that maybe 0-0-0 was a mistake and marched his king to c2 to d2 to e2 back to the kingside. This allowed Matt to bring his rooks to d8 and e8 and exert pressure down the central files, bearing down on the white king. White then played the natural looking Kf3 to unpin and shore up the defence of the under-attack e4 pawn. Unfortunately, this allowed Bh5 skewering the king and rook on d1 followed by the delightful Nd3+ and Nxf2 taking advantage of the x-ray pin.

White resigned a couple of moves later ceding Anstey victory! Loughborough ½ – 3 Anstey.

This left Julian on board 1, the only board where we outrated Loughborough but only by 41 points. Henderson Mullen opened with the Reti which morphed into English Opening, Caro-Kann Defensive System with Julian’s setup. He got away with a slight oops in opening with 8. … Bd6, white missing the plan of Nd4 and Nb5:

White made a couple of further inaccurate moves and the game settled into an even middlegame. Even though the position was level there a few tactical skirmishes that Julian played with aplomb and ended up with a draw-ish rook and pawn ending. A few moves later a draw was agreed, cementing the match score line: Loughborough 1 – 3½ Anstey.

Overall an excellent result and we are nicely setup for the second half if the competition!