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On Thursday, 7th April, Anstey Chess club’s second team took on a fourth great challenge in a row, this time against the division favourites Braunstone 2 who entered the match with six wins and only one loss. With Hal and Leo unable to play, the captain Oskar was left with a great challenge to find someone to play on board one, but as usual the first team delivered when needed and Mick jumped in to fill the missing space. This left a very strong team of Mick, Boris, Mike and Oskar, all eager to prove themselves in a difficult game. The away team arrived with a strong team of their own, led by 1810 rated James Bingham who was scheduled to face our guest start in the second team Mick. A quick glance on the team score sheet got our hearts racing, with the only player outrated by less than 100 points being Boris on board 4 (Boris was outrated ‘only’ by 93 points). Needless to say, our players were not moved at all by the difference on paper and went into the match with plenty of heart and brain, delivering solid games and fighting for the win until the very end.

Oskar Rudczenko (Anstey 2) vs Daniel Wilkinson (Braunstone 2) 0 – 1

Massive challenge in front of Oskar, as he faced more than 400 points higher rated young Daniel Wilkinson. Playing white, our team captain decided to follow on Julian’s steps and openned with the Jobava London system to which his opponent replied with (apparently the best move by Black, based on Stockfish, depth=20 evaluation) 3…a6, preventing Oskar’s knight jumping on b5 and trying to create characteristic havoc on the queenside (Q-side). On the following move, Oskar’s opponent decided to attack the centre, guiding the game into the depths of the most testing lines with early c5 push. The players continued their development and both castled kingside (K-side). The Braunstone player continued his attack on the centre in an attempt to open up the game and after a long forcing sequence, our teammate found himself a pawn down, but holding the bishop pair while his opponent’s extra pawn was doubled on the e-file. Determined not to lose a big chunk of his rating, Black played more actively, pushing pawns and chasing our captain’s bishops all around the board, only to be faced by Oskar’s impenetrable white wall.

Following a sequence which included a rook exchange and many jumps of the black knight before the equine-shaped piece was exchanged for our teammate’s light-squared bishop, Oskar found himself a proud owner of a passed pawn on the c-file, with the black king squeezed alongside his light-squared bishop on the eighth rank. With more active pieces, our captain managed to pick up another pawn while Black started attacking Oskar’s king, blundering his rook in the process which unfortunately our teammate missed. Under pressure, both players continued their game with a pattern of bad moves, leading to Daniel picking up Oskar’s ‘passer’ and exchanging the rooks. Unfortunately, our captain did not receive another opportunity to win the game and with Black two pawns up and having a passed pawn on the e-file, Oskar resigned. A big challenge and a great lesson for our teammate.

Martin Steel (Braunstone 2) vs Mike Griffiths (Anstey 2) 0 – 1

On board 3, the mismatch in rating terms was not as pronounced and unsurprisingly one of the leaders in the top player table Mike delivered again for the second team. Playing with the white pieces, Mike’s opponent opened with the English, the benchmark opening our teammate is usually using as White. Apparently familiar with the position, both players developped confidently without engaging too early in the battle but focusing on king safety, with fianchetto’d bishops and castled on the K-side. With the e-h side of the board sorted and middle game starting, our teammate decided to show White how is the English properly played and started an expansion on the Q-side in an attempt to utilise the power of his g7 bishop further down the road. The Braunstone player attempted a response but in the Q-side chaos Mike managed to place a beautiful knight in his opponent’s half, waiting to unleash an attack. Always a class solid player, our teammate started also eyeing his opponent’s g2 bishop, and created a bishop led battery on the c8-h3 diagonal.

Still navigating a complicated middlegame, the players decided to continue the battle in the centre, where again Mike made the better positional choices and under the pressure from his powerful pieces, Mike’s opponent finally crumbled and lined up his queen and rook for a beautiful knight fork. Our teammate seized the opportunity and with the resulting lead in material decided to simplify earlier rather than later and exchanged the queens. Having the power of the rooks, Mike started a slow and steady positional squeeze on his opponent which resulted in placing the ‘pigs on the seventh’ and pressuring the cornered white king. Realising the inferiority of his position, the Braunstone player had nothing better but to resign. An amazing seventh win this season for Mike which places him again half point in front of ‘Filler’ Matt in the Top player table.

Borislav Lazarov (Anstey 2) – Vijay Gulab (Braunstone 2) 1 – 0

The return of the website maintenance guy Boris was marked by his opponent being more than half hour late for the match. While our teammate was casually drinking coffee, taking photos and chatting around with the first team players, his opponent stormed the room and both sat down for the game. After a little play around with the Catalan, Boris decided to get back to his favourite London system, conscious of his opponent’s superior experience and rating. Possibly still a little panicked due to his late arrival and already being down more than 20 minutes on the clock, Vijay played quickly and on the fifth move made a positional mistake by challenging Boris’ light-squared bishop with 5…a6. Our teammate hapily exchanged his bishop for the c6-knight, leading to the effective funeral of the Black’s light-squared bishop. As the saying goes, the rest is history. Up on the clock, Boris placed a beautiful knight on e5 and started squeezing his opponent with pawns on the Q-side. The second knight also helped in the process and was eventually exchanged for the light-squared bishop of the Braunstone player, but only after it won a pawn for our teammate.

Black responded with attack on the K-side which led to White doubling pawns on the e-file, but also opened the g-file and subsequently the route to the black king. Boris continued to create chaos with his powerful knight on the sixth, seventh and eighth rank, leading to his opponent exchanging it for a rook. Leading in material, Boris exchanged queens and then activated his king, giving his opponent some good opportunities in the process, fortunately missed by the Braunstone player. Eventually, the last black rook was exchanged and still leading in material, Boris activated his rook and picked up the black c-pawn, creating a ‘passer’ on the b-file which, with the black bishop controlled by the white king and the black king cut out by the white rook, could not be stopped and Boris’ opponent resigned. A great game for our teammate which gets him back on the winning track.

James Bingham (Braunstone 2) vs Mick Sandham (Anstey 2) 1 – 0

With Hal and Leo unable to play on the night, it was down to the first team to help out. The man of the evening ended being Mick, who readily stepped up to the occasion and sat down on board 1. Our teammate had the black pieces facing the wily and experienced Jim Bingham, who was also the highest rated player in the whole building (current rating, John Sr. has been rated well into the 2000s in his glorious past). After 1.d4 Mick replied with his benchmark e6, b5 and a6 setup, facilitating slow development and striking on the centre with pieces. His opponent decided to strike back by taking as much space in the centre as possible. A cagey middle game followed, then in his tactical style Mick decided to try and blow open white’s K-side with an attack by sacrificing a piece. Unfortunately, the Braunstone player was able to consolidate the position and gave some material back, leaving him a pawn up on the 6th rank and keeping our teammate’s King and Bishop honest. Aware of the result on Mike and Boris’ boards, Mick offered a draw a couple of times, but his opponent was adamant on converting White’s superior position.

Our teammate’s remaining pieces ended being a little too overworked and as soon as the bishops were about to be forcibly exchanged, Black resigned. A tough day in the office for Mick but nevertheless our second team and the whole club are grateful for his bravery in taking on a higher rated opponent on a very short notice.

With a total result of 2 -2 against the team considered favourite in the division, our second team continues to show that they can fight as equal against the big guns and remain unbeaten in this calendar year. Sitting comfortably on fourth place, their utlimate fixture will be home against Melton Mowbray 3 as they make full circle to face the first team they have beaten this year.

Anstey 2 invaded Wigston like a clan of marauding Vikings and plundered a 5-1 away win, extending their unbeaten run to 6 games and moving up to 3rd in the division. Wigston had indicated before the match that they could play 8 boards drafting in a couple of 2nd division players. Team captain Oskar did likewise, bringing in first team stalwarts Mick and Matt to bolster the team. In the end 6 boards were played and on-paper the sides were evenly matched 8436 vs 8410.

Mick and Matt travelled together to the game but due to city centre traffic were delayed, not helped by a police incident closing Aylestone Road. Well, that’s their story and they’re sticking to it. Oskar was relieved when they arrived in the nick of time, taking their seats literally seconds before the match started. In a strange twist, that was the only time-trouble Matt had that night! Leo’s opponent on board 5 was also late, Oskar was very charitable offering a 10-minute grace period before starting the clock when he was well within his right to start straight way.

Mick Sandham (Anstey 2) vs Ben Noyvert (Wigston 4) 1 – 0

So, onto the action. We had barely sat down when we heard the words “check” then “checkmate” from Mick on board 1. Mick’s Italian Game opening turned into a Scotch Game (Benima Defence) with young Ben Noyvert riskily taking on c3 (allowing Qd5) and missing the mate threat, oops: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Be7 4. d4 exd4 5. c3 dxc3 6. Qd5 d6 7. Qxf7+ Kd7 8. Be6#. Mick takes the lead in the quickest win of the season competition, relegating John Robinson to 2nd with his leisurely 12-move win at Latimer. A great start, 1-0.

Leo Abraham (Anstey 2) vs Madhav Eradi (Wigston 4) 1 – 0

Another very tactical game, where Leo decided to go for the notorious bishop sacrifice Bxf7+ with the decision helped by his opponent blundering a knight for a pawn. Nevertheless, the Wigston player decided to keep himself in the game by being active and started attacking our teammate’s knights from all corners and even placed a beautiful knight on d4. Under immense pressure, Leo calmly engaged his pieces, led by his fierce queen, into a tactical combination, and when the dust settled, our teammate found himself a piece up, with the right to castle his king to safety unlike his opponent, and ahead positionally with a +5.1 evaluation by Stockfish (depth = 20, powered by chess.com). Eventually, Leo consolidated his position and after a long castle, our club’s youngest active competitor unleashed a barrage of attacks towards his opponent’s king, leaving with plenty of material and practically delivering a checkmate on move 30, securing his fourth straight win. 2-0.

Mike Griffiths (Anstey 2) vs John McKiernan (Wigston 4) 1 – 0

Next to finish was Mike against John McKiernan. Again deploying his trademark English opening, after a cagey opening all bishops were exchanged off and the knight maneuvers began. A pair of knights came off then Mike doubled rooks on the b-file and with a lovely knight on d5 won black’s b6 pawn. Black tried to mix things up in the centre to get some counterplay but Mike handled it deftly, exchanging the rooks and knights and picking up a couple more pawns in the process. A couple of queen checks was all black could muster and in the cold light of day 3 pawns down in a queen and pawn ending he resigned. 3-0.

Chris Brown (Wigston 4) vs Hal Jardine (Anstey 2) 1 – 0

The only fly in the ointment was Hal’s defeat on board 4 as black against Chris Brown. It is unknown at this point whether Hal brought a pen, we think that might be what threw him off his game. At some point Hal dropped a pawn, most of the pieces came off and in the ensuing rook and pawn ending (Hal’s nemesis) white was set to win another pawn and Hal gracefully resigned. 3-1.

Callum Holgate (Wigston 4) vs Oskar Rudczenko (Anstey 2) 0 – 1

With just ½ point required to secure the win attention turned to Oskar’s game against Callum Holgate on board 6. Against white’s 1. d4 Oskar went for the Modern Defence 1. … g6 with white going for a London style setup with Bf4, e3 and c3. After a few developing move Oskar tried to crack open the position with c5, both sides making a few mistakes in a chaotic phase of the game – it was really wild! After a few exchanges the dust settled and white came out a pawn up with a dangerous looking passed pawn on c5. White pushed it on to c7 and was in full control, it wasn’t looking good for black. On move 35 Oskar played Qc8 to block the pawn and challenge the white queen on e6. In what can only be described as a moment of madness white played Bf4 defending the pawn on c7 but overlooking the fact his queen wasn’t defended. Oskar snapped up the queen, the engine eval going from +8 to -8, the biggest swing of the night (where’s Jeremy Vine with the swingometer?). White did eventually queen his c pawn but at this point black’s queen and bishop were making mincemeat of the white king’s meagre defences. Oskar eschewed a chance to mate the king instead toying with his opponent going for the simple method of exchanging off all the pieces leaving king and 3 pawns vs king. He queened a pawn and delivered checkmate on f1. What a game! 4-1.

Alex Milligan (Wigston 4) vs Matt “The Filler” Connor (Anstey 2) 0 – 1

This left Matt on board 2 as black against Alex Milligan. White opened with the Nimzo-Larsen 1. b3. Matt went for a solid if slightly passive setup with pawns on e5, d6 and c6 but missed a chance to gain space in the centre with e4 (kicking white’s knight on f3) and d5. Instead, white played d5 and after a little manoeuvring Matt closed the centre / queenside with c5. He thought he could reposition his pieces to the kingside and get some play with the pawn strike f5. Unfortunately, white was able to transition to the kingside much more quickly and build up pressure on the f-file, then the g-file and then the h-file. Matt’s pieces were all tangled up and just when it looked like white was making the decisive break through came the second biggest blunder of the night, white gave check with Bg6 just losing the piece to Nxg6. Engine eval swing +5 to -5 (Jeremy?). Matt then made his first foray into the other half of the board on move 34(!) threatening the cheeky Ne2 forking the king and queen but also attacking the rook on h5 so he won an exchange leaving him a rook up. White still had attacking chances but Matt calmly defended (no doubt helped by his time advantage (yes you heard that right)) bringing his queen and bishop to defend the king before opening up the queenside and infiltrating on the back rank with his extra rook. White lost on time before he was mated by queen and rook. Boom. 5-1.

Commiserations to Hal for the only defeat of the night (we have all been there mate) but for the two massive blunders the result could have been very different. But that’s chess, in the end an excellent result for the team continuing the great form since Christmas.

Mike Griffiths (Anstey 2) vs Reece Whittington (Loughborough 2) 0 – 1

As mentioned in the last sentence of the previous paragraph, Mike had a great challenge in front of him facing the rising star in the county Reece Whittington, rated 1630 (almost 200 points above our teammate). Mike started the game with the usual English 1. c4 to which his opponent decided to create a King’s Indian Defence (KID) setup with playing d6 which might classify it as the Pirc defense. After further development with both players ‘fianchetto’-ing their King’s bishop, our teammate started an expansion on the queen side (Q-side). Unfortunately for Mike, he did not notice the solid preparatory moves his opponent was making in loading an attack on the king side (K-side). The attack started with a thematic attack of Mike’s g2-bishop (the ‘fianchetto’-ed one) which led to an exchange which was followed by another thematic move in the KID – f5. Mike held on the position for a while, but after his opponent started pushing the pawns on the K-side, getting closer and closer to our teammate’s king, the pressure got too big and there was nothing left for Mike to do but to resign.

Peter Hickman (Loughborough 2) vs Borislav Lazarov (Anstey 2) 1 – 0

After a sustainable spell of luck combined with some solid games, Boris somehow undeservedly jumped over Hal to play on board 2 (he was supposed to play on board 1 really, but ‘chicken’-ed out in the last minute (apologies to all chickens)). The game started with solid London against what started as a Semi-slav from our teammate (very passive) which then turned into a weird Benoni-type setup which by the time our teammate finished his development (apart from his very sad light-squared bishop) was just a passive yet somehow solid opening inviting a draw by repetition of Rf1-e1-f1-e1-f1. On the other side of the board, White was preparing a K-side expansion, lining up several pieces to look towards the black king. Boris decided to ignore the threat and expand on the Q-side and in the process he managed to exchange most of his pieces leaving the important e5-outpost for his opponent’s knight to land on while keeping the ‘extremely sad’ light-squared bishop. The Loughborough player started squeezing our teammate’s position and after Black’s position eventually crumbled, Boris resigned conceding his first loss of the season and leaving Matt ‘The Filler’ Connor as the only undefeated player so far in the 2021-22 competitive year. Nevertheless, an important lesson for our ‘webmaster’ which will only help him improve as a chess player.

Hal Jardine (Anstey 2) vs Ric Dawson (Loughborough 2) 1 – 0

While the top boards were going all red in shame, Hal and Leo showed their opponents a great Antey Chess club hospitality by playing their pieces out. On board 3, probably the “Rookie of the season” and one of our top players so far, Hal started the game with his benchmark London system opening against the KID with our teammate showing no consideration of the famous e5 fork. However, his opponent did not even consider the latter and decided to go for the other typical pawn break pertinent for the Modern and the KID, c6. Our teammate calculated a long but dubious line where he volunteered his knight to be subjected to a relative pin by his opponent. Although in a -2.5 position, Black decided to go for a dubious line himself, with the tactical exchange leaving the Loughborough player with two pawns vs a bishop. Our teammate further received the opportunity to put pressure and exchange queens, leaving White with a +3.9 advantage, based on Stockfish (depth = 20, powered by chess.com). Naturally, Hal went on to think about his dinner, while slowly putting pressure on his opponent. Our teammate continued by exchanging the rooks leaving him with a bishop against a pawn and after very active play from White’s king, Black did not found a way out and resigned. Another great game from our teammate after which Hal finds himself again in the top 5 players this season.

Stewart Gordon (Loughborough 2) vs Leo Abraham (Anstey 2) 0 – 1

Leo had another tough challenge in front of him as he had to play against a player almost 100 points higher rated than our teammate. Unmoved by his opponent rating yet again, Leo decided to play the Berlin against the Ruy Lopez defence, playing a6 and doubling pawns on the c-file while keeping the bishop pair. Black decided to keep the open file for his rook, while ‘fianchetto’-ing his dark-squared bishop. White on the other hand went on to pin the f6 knight and take control of the centre with Re1. The home team player then decided to go for a dubious tactical line which ended in him losing a piece. Smelling the advantage piling up, Leo played like a proper lion and applied immense pressure on his opponent leading to the latter losing another piece. Our teammate found himself ahead 6 points of material and with clear advantage, with the engine evaluating the game as -11. Leo went on to further win an exchange and subsequently capture his opponent’s rook for free after which White resigned giving our teammate his third in a row.

Oskar Rudczenko (Anstey 2) vs James Page (Loughborough 2) 1/2 – 1/2

In the decisive game of the match, our captain Oskar had to face 130 points higher rated opponent. The leader of our second team started with a queen’s pawn opening which after a couple of moves transposed into the Steinitz variation of the French defense. The players continued their development as expected, with Anstey 2 captain gaining space in the centre while the home team player started an attack on the Q-side. Following opening of the c-file, the players started a positional battle with their rooks staring at each other and keeping the pressure. After exchanging a set of bishops, followed by a rook exchange, the players continued their development and further exchanged a set of minor pieces while maintaining the fight for the open c-file. Following another rook exchange, our teammate found himself unfortunate to blunder a pawn while being questioned about his rating, with his opponent evaluating him as 1500 player. Left with nothing to lose, Oskar turned his attention to Black’s king and loaded an attack on the K-side. After pushing the g-pawn all the way until the seventh rank, our teammate did the smart thing in exchanging the rooks and creating immense pressure on the K-side. Our second team captain loaded a series of checks, creating havoc on the K-side and exchanging queens after picking up a couple of pawns. The race between the white g-pawn and the black b-pawn started and led to both pawns queening with White to move. Another blast of checks followed, but Oskar missed a perpetual check by his opponent and after a couple of repeats, the players agreed to a draw. A missed chance for our teammate who nevertheless appears to be in great form.

Just short of claiming the win, our teammates showcased another resilient performance and got a well-deserved point against a great team full of talent. Anstey 2 have three more games to go against the strong teams of Wigston 4, Braunstone 2 and Melton Mowbray 3.