Author: Ben V

Anstey’s Harrod Cup 2nd team start with a win

/ Ben V / 1 Comment

Anstey’s second team in the Harrod Cup started off their campaign with a convincing (on paper) 6-2 win at home against Ashby’s 3rd team. The match wasn’t without incident (albeit not as incident-packed as Anstey’s first team win away at Ashby’s first team!), with ‘El Presidente’ shifting around nervously at 7:31pm having agreed to relinquish his place in the starting 4 players for the return of ‘The Griller’ Brian Foreman. It was most unusual to not have ‘The Griller’ in his seat and ready for 7:20pm, so when he wasn’t in his seat at 7:31pm, with all of Ashby’s players ready to start, ‘El Presidente’ left it with Ashby’s board 1 to decide when to start the match. A phone call to Brian’s house confirmed that he was on his way so it was a case of waiting. Eventually, Nick Wyld (Ashby 3’s board 1) decided that he wanted to get home at some point that evening and he and ‘El Presidente’ faced off in a dull and un-interesting French Exchange line. No sooner had a few pieces come off the board, ‘The Griller’ walked in and Nick (probably bored of the game that he and ‘El Presidente’ were playing, agreed to allow Brian to play – thanks must go to nick for his understanding.

Board 1 – Brian ‘The Griller’ Foreman vs Nick Wyld: 2 draws = 1 point

After play eventually began, Brian settled down to quite a stodgy game with the black pieces with Nick very happy to trade pieces right down until the endgame, where both players were very happy to trade down to an ending. A rook and pawn ending was on the board and with both rooks active, both players agreed to a draw as it was a tricky endgame to navigate for both players.

With the white pieces, Nick managed to get a potent attack down the h-file looking like mate was inevitable, but ‘The Griller’ calmly played f4, allowing his King the f2 square to escape to. Yet again, after more pieces came off the board, Brian was able to win 2 pawns and be 2 pawns up in the endgame but with Brian low on time, Nick repeatedly checked Brian’s King with a Knight and after the second repetition, both players agreed a draw.

It’s great to have Brian back with us – we all look forward to more grillings from ‘The Griller’ (not to be confused with Gorilla).

Brian doing well to scrape two draws on board 1

Board 2 – Mike ‘Nickname TBC’ Griffiths vs Neil Roberts: two wins = 2 points

Mike deep in thought as he considers his plan

For those that don’t know, Mike joined us from Ashby so Mike was facing off against a friend (and probably a former captain) in Neil Roberts on board 2.

With the black pieces, Mike was able to equalise easily and with Neil having some pressure on the Kingside and trying to prize Mike open, it was Mike himself who made the breakthrough with an attack down the h file, with Neil’s King in the centre, Mike forced a resignation with a strong attack in the centre of the board.

With the white pieces, Mike employed his favourite English opening – 1.c4. It is a system he knows well and one cannot fault him for this as his opponents seem to have difficulty choosing what their response should be with black. Eventually, pieces came off the board and Neil left a vulnerable back rank, which Mike took full advantage of, sacking his Queen which would have allowed his Rook to deliver the mate. Neil resigned.

Board 3 – Valdas ‘No nickname’ Matutis vs Jamie Rhodes: 1 loss, 1 win = 1 point

With all of Anstey’s players starting with the black pieces, Valdas gained equality in the opening quite easily and after some trade-offs was forced to defend a backward a-pawn. Unfortunately, this meant lifting his rook off the back rank and his opponent seized control of the open file. Valdas subsequently threatened a Bishop capture which unfortunately left his back rank open and his opponent seized the opportunity to deliver the mate with unerring speed.

Valdas sought revenge with the white pieces and played his game extremely well, co-ordinating his pieces and forcing a passed a-pawn which marched its way up the board with his opponents pieces powerless to stop it. The end was when Valdas’ pawn got to the eighth rank and forced heavy material loss and his opponent resigned.

Valdas carefully considers his next move

Board 4 – Oskar ‘Capitan’ Rudczenko vs Graham Bird: two wins = 2 points

Oskar evaluates the position in his mind, preparing the next move.

Ever-improving second team ‘El Capitan’ Oskar managed to secure equality with black very early on in proceedings in his first game. Once the e file was blown open and Oskar managed to get his two rooks staring down the e file, there was only really going to be one winner. Oskar took full advantage and the actual game over the board was won on time, with Graham’s flag dropping. With the end nigh, Neil and ‘El Presidente’ had mercy on Graham by pointing out the flag fall a few moves after it fell with ‘El Capitan’ in a totally dominant position.

With the white pieces ‘El Capitan’ was able to assert his authority on the game with Graham seemingly let him do so. After a few piece trades, ‘El Capitan’ was able to infiltrate Graham’s position whereby all Graham could do was move Kingside pawns doing absolutely nothing about his poorer position. Eventually, Graham did the noble thing and resigned.

All in all, a very good 6-2 win for the team – well done everyone.

Anstey’s Wylie Cup team lose on debut

/ Ben V / 2 Comments

Anstey Chess Club made their proud debut in the elite Summer Cup event in Leicestershire – the Wylie Cup. In the first round, we were drawn at home against Thurnby – likely to be fighting against ourselves to avoid the wooden spoon.

The format is rapidplay – 20 minutes per player with 10 second increments for each player throughout. Furthermore, you play one game with the white pieces and one game with the black pieces against the same opponent.

Early team news meant that Anstey suffered an early blow with the best graded player in the squad – Julian Tarwid – being away in the picturesque Corby and not available. El Presidente was resourceful at short notice and recruited Valdas for his debut for the team having been keen to get involved.

Thurnby arrived early and with the pieces and boards set up in good time – as usual – we actually started the game early with Thurnby’s captain and driver John Pattinson eager to try and get home whilst it was still light. Having decided to keep the boards as they were (Anstey starting with the black pieces) rather than mess around with tossing for colours and playing alternate colours (it is also easier to fill in the score sheet as both captains agreed!), battle commenced around 10 minutes earlier than advertised.

Board 1
Matt ‘Dark Destroyer’ Connor vs Ray Burgess
Matt with black – draw
Having been involved in my own game and with Matt being furthest from my board, I didn’t see much of Matt’s games. However, Matt (in a great run of form it must be said) achieved a draw against an opponent significantly higher rated than him. When I joined the game, both players were short on time with Matt a pawn up in a notoriously difficult Rook and pawn ending. The problem for Matt was that both Rooks were active and Ray checked Matt’s King as often as he could which eventually meant that they agreed a draw. A victory was far from clear for either player.

Matt with white – draw
Matt also achieved a draw on board 1 – making a mockery of the FIDE ratings. Thankfully Matt’s rating is an actual rating else other clubs might feel like they would want to have their say about Anstey’s estimated ratings. Again I didn’t see much of the game, but from what I did see it again looked very even with Matt once again holding his own against a stronger player.

Board 2
Mick ‘Just Mick’ Sandham vs Roland Graf
Mick with black – draw
Having been sat next to Mick, I was able to see what was going on in his game. Employing what appeared to be his favoured St George defence, Mick appeared to be more than equal over the board against his higher rated opponent (let’s be clear, we are very much underdogs in the Wylie Cup this year). After a fairly level looking position, both players agreed to a draw with Mick being slightly up on time.

Mick with white – loss
The second game with Mick as white was quite simply a joy to watch, albeit Mick finished on the wrong side of the game. Mick had said before this game that ‘We had to go for it’ because of the match score. At the time after the games with the black pieces, we were down in the match. My goodness did Mick go for it and so did his opponent. The game itself was one that as chess players, we all ought to have agreed draws and watched. It was a Sicilian Najdorf/Dragon amalgamation setup with Mick attacking on the Kingside and Roland attacking on the Queenside. Unfortunately, Mick blinked first with his attack and defended and was on the back foot after that. Mick resigned in a lost position and I think we all nearly applauded both players after the game!

Board 3
Ben ‘El Presidente’ Vaughan vs John Pattinson
Ben with black – loss
Both captains faced off on board 3. John is also the league chairman so I had to be nice. Playing his old friend the English with white (I wish I’d have known), the game transposed into a Semi-Slav type setup but with John having played c5 as white, I had a backward c6 pawn. Once the heavy artillery came off, the Rooks and the Queens, I offered a cheeky draw which was declined. The c6 pawn was eventually picked off by a marauding Knight and Bishop in tandem, then I lost my a pawn. The end came when I walked into a simple pawn fork with a King and Knight and I resigned.

Ben with black – loss
Unfortunately, the losses continued but not without a fight. Ben was out of opening theory after John played 2. .. Qe7 against e4 e5, Nf3. The development of pieces occurred with central squares being contested along with board space. John managed to get a pawn and subsequently a Knight into advanced spaces on the board which led to a dangerous passed pawn on d3.A few moves later and John’s pieces came to life and a nice deflection tactic secured John a checkmate on the board.

Board 4
Valdas ‘No nickname yet’ Matutis vs Mick Busby
Valdas with black – draw
Valdas’s opponent played a fairly passive opening and allowed Valdas to contest the centre with ease. A few exchanges took place and another double rook and pawn ending was on the board. Mick had the more active rooks and seemingly instead of using them to pick off pawns, repetitively checked Valdas’s King and the players agreed to a draw, despite Valdas’s Rooks lacking connection and harmony.

Valdas with white – win
Congratulations to Valdas for securing the team’s only individual win on the night. In a London system opening, Valdas secured the centre and Mick seemed to let him. Valdas then embarked on attacking Mick’s King. In the process Valdas secured a pawn and a good attack and Mick seemed to take a lot more time after he lost the pawn and eventually, Mick’s time ran out and Valdas claimed the win on time. With the digital clocks we use as a club, there was a little flag visible on the clock to indicate the ‘flag fall’ of time running out.

And so a 5-3 defeat on the night but one can’t help but wonder what might have been because some of these games could quite literally have gone either way.

Charnwood Borough Councillors visit/donation

/ Ben V / Leave a comment

Thursday 12th May 2022

Running a chess club isn’t easy. It takes time, dedication, money and above all it needs players to play for it. We have been exceptionally fortunate this year in so many ways. We have ‘el Presidente’ on hand to run the club and we have so many members that help us to pay for our venue.

Having played so many games, the equipment is bound to wear out and get run down so somebody on the Parish Council suggested that we contact the Borough Council. After a long process, ‘el Presidente’ was contacted by two Borough Councillors – Councillors Taylor and Baines, each offering to pledge an incredibly generous £250 each. More money was offered by both but quite simply, we just needed some fresh equipment for the club. Our leader started sourcing new equipment straight away from Chess & Bridge in London and within a week, some new equipment had arrived and the Councillors were invited to come and present the equipment to us and perhaps even have a game of chess – a notion that was welcomed by both of them.

On arrival, ‘el Presidente’ welcomed the Councillors, explained who we are and what we do and before long Councillor Taylor was sat down opposite one of our younger players – Marcus (aged 9). To her credit, Cllr Taylor was very keen to play a game having not played for a few years. Cllr Baines was very happy to take a watching brief and acknowledge just how intricate the game of chess is.

A long game ensued with some good piece development, and quite a few moves were played before any pieces were captured. (We are looking for players Cllr Taylor!) Marcus did a good job of gaining space on the board and Cllr Taylor was eventually checkmated after several moves – a lot longer game than both players thought!

An ‘action’ shot of Cllr Taylor deep in thought
Councillors Deborah Taylor and Paul Baines (centre) and some of the members (including 9 year old Marcus) that will benefit from their donation and the equipment bought with the money.

All in all, an enjoyable evening took place with some fun, laughter and chess – all that we can ask for as a chess club.

First team continue winning ways

/ Ben V / 1 Comment

More photos

Anstey Chess Club’s first team continued the club’s winning start to 2022 by beating Ashby’s 2nd team. Ashby brought with them a strong side – a little stronger than previous matches and stronger than the team that beat the first team 3-1 in the reverse fixture. Captain Ben was a little nervous when battle commenced at 7:30 due to the strength of the opponents. El Presidenté’s nerves were not helped by a WhatsApp from Julian saying he was going to be late and to start without him. Whilst the other 3 boards started on time, Julian’s opponent – very graciously it must be said – didn’t start Julian’s clock for around 10 minutes.

And so to the action on board 1. With the black pieces, John Robinson was facing Andrew Wilson. Andrew opened with the London system but with John having played h6, and with Andrew’s Queen on d2 and the London dark squared bishop on f4, John was unable to castle Kingside for a while and John’s pieces seemed to be in a bit of a mess. A bishop was on e6 blocking the e pawn’s advance to challenge the centre and Andrew’s pieces seemed well developed. However, with a plan for white unclear and John’s plan to get his pieces onto better squares, John had time to untangle his position and in the end managed to get a comfortable draw with the team 2-0 up at the time and perhaps a slightly better position. The half point earned by John secured the match. Andrew Wilson wasn’t aware of the match score and shook hands before checking – whoops.

I will not poke any fun at Julian for being late because the game that he played was absolutely outstanding. You will note that the image I have included is not one of deep concentration from one or both of the players but the final position which is, quite simply, a work of art. White has just delivered check on h3 with the Bishop which leads to a beautiful forced mate and the even better bit is that White had just played Ng5 and I don’t think black could stop Bh3 at all.

I am unsure of the opening (the Maddigan Gambit apparently), although it looked incredibly bizarre with castling neglected (Julian had ‘artificially castled’ I think on the image and Paul Gibson wasn’t able to castle at all). All of white’s pieces are pointing towards black’s King and this gambit seemed to invite Julian to attack – playing into Julian’s hands.

On to board 3 next and Mick had the black pieces against Larry Hayden. Against Mick’s reply to 1.e4 – e6 along the French line, Larry played Qe2 – apparently some sort of Anti-French system so Mick continued with his St George defence with a6 and b5. Development of pieces continued but Mick didn’t get time to castle. Larry attacked on the Kingside and Mick had to divert his Queen from the Queenside to the Kingside to help with the defence. The Queens came off and this helped Mick and he tried a pawn push to upset White’s defences but soon after board 1 had agreed a draw, a draw was agreed on this board almost immediately after.

On to board 4 and Matt had the white pieces (hurrah!) and it was surprising that he knew what to do with the white pieces having had black for most of his games. He was playing one of the only other ladies on the Leicestershire chess scene – Liz Gist. The game looked even after black struck back in the centre with c5 but once the Rooks came off, Matt found a good combination to pinch black’s h pawn by making us of the overworked King on g7. In a devastating (what turned out to be the final) blow, Matt played Bxg6+ after Qf8 which forced a resignation two pawns down and a lost endgame. The resignation seemed a bit premature and Liz exited stage right in quick fashion. A good result for Matt.

Deepa plays against young John’s Dad – Matt whilst Boris plays against John. Ben and Oskar are playing in the background.
Posing for pictures at the end demonstrating the club’s unity.

Meanwhile – away from the intensity of the league game – there were some friendlies going on with Boris playing against new member Junior John after Oskar had played against John before. John attended the Junior sessions but was too good and wouldn’t get anything out of the junior sessions. Hopefully both he and his Dad will get something out of the sessions with us and improve – as we are all trying to! There was the inevitable photo shoot after as above.

First team topple table toppers to maintain unbeaten 2022

/ Ben V / 3 Comments
JJ hard at work. JJ = John Robinson (background) and Julian Tarwid (foreground)
Both secured excellent individual results

Anstey’s first team maintained their 100% record in 2022 with a superb 3-1 win over table-topping Market Harborough’s (hereafter MH2 because I’m not typing Market Harborough every time!) second team.

Having been made aware beforehand of the fact that MH2 could only field 4 players, (having previously agreed 5) Captain/Chairman/Founder/Dogsbody/Taxi Ben Vaughan selected only his finest 4 players to take on the mighty table-toppers who are all but guaranteed promotion – John, Julian, Mick and Matt.

With the transport to make the long journey already in place, and thinking that Matt would be in the hairdressers car Porsche, Taxi for the evening Ben decided to not upset the status quo and chauffeur JJ to the venue. (For an explanation of JJ, please look to the right). Upon arrival, Ben observed that Matt had bought the not such a hairdressers car 4×4 (couldn’t tell the make as it was dark). Conceivably, Matt could have played chauffeur.

With the words from the captain that it is only a game and not to be too fired up still ringing in their ears, the squad of 5 and team of 4 made their way into the venue. We were greeted almost instantaneously my MH2’s friendly captain Mike Garland who proceeded to welcome us and escort us to the nice and cosy playing room and battle commenced at 7:30 sharp.

On board 1, John Robinson was facing off against the experienced Romilly Ilersic, carrying with him a FIDE rating of 1908. John was disappointed not to be facing Mark Waterfield who had previously beaten John in the home fixture and John fancied a rematch with the white pieces. Anyway, a stodgy game emerged with pieces developed slowly and a semi-locked up centre with a half open c file. After shuffling pieces around, John offered a draw which Romilly declined, citing the match situation and he wanted to play on. Space on the board was at a premium and once both players got to around 8 minutes each left on the clock, both players agreed a draw. As Romilly said after the game ‘It would have taken one of us to blunder which would have been unfair and very possible given the time’. Romilly strikes me as the type of chap that when he talks, you listen.

On to board 2 and Julian faced the conqueror of Mick in the home game – Jon Redding. AKA ‘Bigfluffything’ on chess.com – can’t let him get away with that username! Jon has recently played well and received a boost in his estimated FIDE rating, placing him on board 2 and sitting opposite Julian, with Julian having the black pieces. In an accelerated London system, Jon played a gambit line, gambitting the e pawn for either for quick development or just because. Julian managed to hold onto the e pawn, defending it with a Knight, Bishop and pawn. After the game Julian remarked ‘If he is going to let me have it, I am going to try and defend it whilst creating other threats and trying to pick up another pawn or whatever material.’ In this case, it was a big ‘whatever material’ as Jon captured a Knight with his Queen and almost immediately realised that Julian could play a discovered attack, winning said Queen. It was one of those ‘OMG’ moments and I think I heard Julian apologise once he captured the Queen for Knight. Thereafter, it was a case of converting the win by trading off pieces. There was a passed a pawn to be careful of but once Julian had amassed enough material to win that pawn, Jon resigned.

‘MM’ on boards 3 and 4.
Mick Sandham on board 3 (foreground) and Matt Connor on board
4 (Background).

Next in this wholly uninteresting read (can’t you tell that Boris is due to go on holiday soon!?) to Mick on board 3. Mick was playing David Curran, who had beaten Julian on Julian’s debut in the reverse fixture. Seemingly the most uninteresting game after John’s game on board 1, my assumption that this game was uninteresting was actually incorrect. With Bishops on b2 and c1 ominously pointing at his opponent’s King, Mick had a lot of play, whilst trying to manage David’s Knights leaping around the board, occupying good squares. After a little bit of jockeying (that’s the last horse-led reference I’m afraid), Mick completed a menacing looking Rook-lift over to join in with the attack on the Kingside. With a good-looking Kingside attack and being the last to finish, the match was already won in our favour at 2.5-0.5 so Mick (very sportingly) offered a draw saying that the result was done, which was accepted. Post-game analysis (with David instantly whipping his phone out to analyse) indicated that Mick had a very strong attack three moves before the draw was agreed. Aside from that it was very even. Once everybody had tediously offered their critique on the 3rd board, it was time to go home after deciding that we all like to blunder other people’s pieces.

Finally and last but not least, to Matt on Board 4. Matt was playing the aforementioned Mike Garland Jnr on the last board. Captain Ben and Mike had a notquiteaGM draw in the home leg. Matt is affectionately known as ‘the Killer’ in the second team, a nickname that seems to be growing amongst the club, he is also known as, erm, ‘the Killer’ by his first team captain. Matt has a habit of running low on time and even made the effort to make himself an approximate guide in relation to move count and time elapsed on his scoresheet but I can assure you as his captain, he will kill me off one day! The approximate guide to his time was basically saying by move 10 (for example) he should have used 10 minutes and so on. That was well and truly out of the slightly open window. The game itself was actually pretty even although about half way through, Mike had connected Rooks, an active army of pieces versus Matt’s not-quite-artificially-castled King and seemingly defensive pieces. The next time I looked, Mike had a pawn on the 7th rank with Matt’s Rook blockading it. Mike’s Bishop was directly protecting said 7th rank pawn and Matt’s position was looking fairly lost, given the inevitable time trouble Matt was in by now. The next time I looked again, Mike had resigned and when I looked at Matt, he shrugged his shoulders. That was all the explanation I needed.

All in all, congratulations to MH as a club; A) For a fantastic website (better than ours but we are getting there), B) For the fab venue – I really liked it and C) For being good sports and being such a friendly club. Whilst the 4 boards were getting down to business, I had quick sanity breaks chatting with Rene, Amrik, Robert Mills and new Doncaster Minor Champion Alistair Geear. Thankfully, we won’t have to drive for such a long way any time soon, apart from the second team that travel there tonight!