On Wednesday evening (02/03/22) our second team found themselves playing away against the division leaders Market Harborough 3 (MH3). A strong team led by their experienced captain Rene, the home team were determined to get revenge for their second team teammates who lost to our first team the previous evening (more on the first team’s win on this link). With an average rating difference of more than 150 points (worth mentioning that Boris’ 1300 rating is provisional and about to be raised after a consistent spell of luck), it was a hard task in front of our seconds to get anything from the match. However, unmoved by the number mismatch and determined to keep their undefeated status in this calendar year, Mike, Boris, Leo and the captain Oscar played their strongest chess and managed to achieve a draw with Leo being the star of the evening after winning against almost 250 points higher rated opponent.
Strong second team happy with their performance
Mike is calculating lines in his head while Leo and Oscar are in the thick of decisive chess battles
After agreeing to a draw, Boris and the county chess prodigy Alistair are happy to take a photo before going for a pint
After a great match, we all leave the great venue wishing all the best to our excellent hosts
A regular game in the last few seasons, the captains played against each other on board 4. After a series of book moves, the players found themselves in the Accelerated London System opening. Further development followed for both players and the Middlegame started with a battle on the queenside with both players pushing their c-, b- and a-pawns. Almost as they are playing bullet and are in time trouble, the players simplified quickly and by the 23rd move the Endgame has begun. Unfortunately for our captain, he went a little too ‘simplify-happy’ and relinquished the a-file to his opponent. The home team captain managed to further win Oskar’s b-pawn and went on the same ‘simplify-happy’ tangent, giving Oskar the option for a tactical exchange followed by a beautiful bishop sacrifice to free the c-file highway for our teammate’s advanced pawn. Unfortunately, our captain did not see the tactic and White was provided the time to activate his king and cut-off the runaway route in advance. However, a few moves later, Rene completely ignored the same tactic and sent his king the opposite way, but Oskar did not seize the opportunity. Our captain had a few more chances to keep at least some hope for a draw, but a couple of missed ideas and solid play from his opponent led to a white pawn queening with a second on the way to do the same and Oskar resigned.
Leo Abraham (Anstey 2) – George Gowers (MH3) 1 – 0
After a great win in the last week’s second team game against Ashby 3 (more on this match on this link), Leo found himself entering a game against more than 200 points higher rated opponent. Indifferent to the rating difference and galvanised by his success in the previous match, Leo went head on into the bout with a solid opening, meeting his opponent’s threats. The players went on to exchange a couple of minor pieces and a couple of pawns with MH3 player keeping the bishop pair. Leo decided to offer a draw with Oskar’s game still in the balance, but his opponent declined. Our teammate did not seem at all flustered by the latter facts or the semi-open g-file with his king exposed, so our whole team decided to leave him in piece, with the captain Oskar and Boris having a pint with Rene, while Alistair and Mike decided to play a game. In the meantime the players on board 3 reshuffled their pieces for a few moves until George was unfortunate to blunder a fork with Leo picking up his queen. Without his most powerful piece, the MH3 player resigned. A great result for Leo and the team. We are sure many more wins are to come for this young prospective player!
Boris had a great challenge in front of him facing the local hero Alistair within a week of the latter winning the minor section of the Doncaster Congress with a 5/5 performance. The game started with the queen’s gambit where our teammate decided to play a weird London system a tempo down, but fortunately the MH3 player was a tad too timid and did not punish Boris by picking up the free b7 pawn. Both players continued their development peacefully with only an exchange of a bishop for a knight until all hell broke loose in the centre with several tactical opportunities for both players. At move 23 our teammate decided to play for a draw and offered it shortly after but as a result of careful consideration (and despite his own evaluation of the game looking like a ‘dead draw’) the young player from MH3 continued playing. Boris did his best to simplify the position and even created an isolated, albeit passed pawn for his opponent. After the kings got active and went to the centre of the board, Alistair finally got convinced by the drawish situation and offered the draw himself to which Boris agreed and both players shook hands, took a selfie (in the slideshow above), and went for a pint. A good result for our more than 200 points lower rated teammate.
Mike Griffiths (Anstey 2) – Cyril Hill (MH3) 1/2 – 1/2
The top board game included our top second team player Mike and about 100 points higher rated Cyril Hill. As usual, Mike played the English opening to which his opponent responded with the Agincourt defense. The players went into a solid game with ‘fianchetto’-ing their king’s bishops and castling short side. Mike attacked his opponent’s f6-knight and managed to exchange one of his knights for it along with the dark-squared bishops. His opponent decided to reply with striking in the queenside with his b-pawn after which the players exchanged their other two knights. Mike decided to further exchange his light-suqared bishop for his opponent’s one, leaving only ‘the big guns’ on the board. The queens started shuffling around until they finally got exchanged themselves at which point the game started looking more and more drawish. The players positioned their rooks strategically and started pushing pawns while also activating their kings as a rook endgame requires. Pawns started exchanging and a set of rooks also left the board. After further pawn marches, the second set of rooks also got exchanged and following further reshuffling of kings and pawns, the players decided that a draw is the most fitting outcome based on the position, with our top board player getting another valuable half point for the team.
Next week our second team is back in action with an away game against Loughborough 2 where they will try to get more points and cement themselves in the middle of the table.
With the Airthings Masters completed, the world of chess turns their attention to the second leg of the FIDE GP 2022, with a second set of 16 Grandmasters attacking the last chance to qualify for the Candidates 2022.
As usual, you can follow the action on our website. To access the chess.com stream on YouTube head to the home page and scroll down to the bottom or just click here.
In tthe first leg of the competition GM Hikaru Nakamura showed an amazing form and won the event with great performance against GM Levon Aronian in the final. For the second leg, Belgrade welcomes some of the first leg competitors, including GM Aleksandr Grischuk as well as new faces including the favourites GM Anish Giri and GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.
Welcome to another chess review where we comment on last week’s news from our own club, county, country and the world. We will also take a look at what to expect next week.
In our own club, we celebrated another win for the second team along with the debut of our first female competitor Deepa. Although she had a tough game, we are wishing her many more games to come with many wins to be achieved! For more on the match, follow this link.
For next week, there will be plenty of action for all players with both teams hosted by Market Harborough’s second and third teams on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively. On Thursday as usual there will be a club night in the Anstey Methodist Church from 7:30pm. All abilities welcome!
In the county, there were several games played last week. In Division 1, Syston 1 and Shepshed 2 secured wins against Thurnby and Market Harborough 1, respectively. In the second division Loughborough 1 defeated Wigston 2 away while Melton Mowbray’s first won against their own second team. In Division 3 all teams took a break while in the fourth division Braunstone 2 defeated Wigston 4.
In the country, the ECF has announced a new ECF Manager of Arbiters in the face of FA Ravi Sandhu who is replacing IA Alan Atkinson. We wish him long and successful career. More on the story on this link.
Worldwide, the Airthings Masters 2022 finished in a dramatic way after Magnus Carlsen managed to break again Ian Nepomniachtchi in their first meeting after the World Championship 2021. In addition to the Norwegian’s excellent performance, the tournament showcased some great young chess talents such as Andrey Esipenko, Vladislav Artemiev, Vincent Keymer, Eric Hansen and the teenager Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa who managed to defeat the world champion during the prelims. All action was streamed on our own website and a replay of the second day of the final is currently on our home page (to watch it follow this link).
On Thursday, 24/02/22 the Methodist Church in Anstey hosted another great evening for the local chess enthusiasts, with Anstey Chess club’s seconds playing against Ashby’s third team in a seven-board match. The event marked an historical moment for our club as Deepa made her debut and became the first female chess player from Anstey Chess club to participate in a league game. We wish her many more league games to come and many for her to win! Our players showed their characteristic grit and class and secured a 4.5 – 2.5 win over our opponents in a league game involving some dramatic finishes for both teams. The evening started in an usual manner with the team reshuffled probably more than five times due to Hal’s phone malfunction and dramatic 19:25 entrance, accompanied by misunderstanding on boards 5 and 6, but at 19:40 all players were ‘in the thick of it’.
As usual for a Thursday night, there was a quiet club night ongoing in the other corner with Julian and Mick engaging in several chess games in Rapid format, while ‘El Presidente’ Ben and our club’s top rated player John decided to closely monitor the league action.
Deepa making her debut in league chess battling the ‘Ruy Lopez’.
Seven boards and true celebration of chess in Anstey Chess club!
John is monitoring closely the games during the busy league match
The captain Oskar is planning his attack
Back from a long break, teenager Leo was back in action to secure a win for the team
Hal is figuring out a plan to take advantage in the position
One of our most solid players, Mike is confident in his plan to slowly crush his opponent’s defence
‘The Killer’ Matt taking his time as usual in planning tactical sequences
Boris is playing a weird game of ‘touch your nose’ while looking blankly at the board.
John is carefully watching the action on the top board
Boris and Brian from Ashby showcasing what is chess about – rivals on the night and friends for life
Last crucial moments of the game on board 1 with the match result depending on the outcome
Everyone overseeing the great conversion from Mike to secure the team win
Happy faces from ‘El Presidente’, our top rookie this year and ‘the webmaster’.
Only smiles after a great night of chess
Julian and Mick enjoying club night while the league match was going on in the other corner
Tom Gerrard (Ashby 3) vs Deepa Kalyanji (Anstey 2) 1-0
A first league game for Deepa with her spot secured in the last minute, it was tough game against more experienced opponent. White started the game with 1. e4 and after the standard continuation with 1…e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 Deepa’s opponent played 3. Bb5 entering the ‘Ruy Lopez’.
Reluctant to exchange her knight for White’s bishop, Deepa decided to try and gain advantage using the piece to attack her opponent’s centre. Unfortunately, in the process she overlooked the White’s bishop’s diagonal coverage and had to give up the knight. Not impressed by the latter, Deepa started pushing her centre pawns in an attempt to create initiative. Her opponent managed to counter the threat and with a piece up consolidated his position with a clear +6.1 advantage based on Stockfish (depth = 20) as provided by chess.com.
With the lead in development and material, Deepa’s opponent started his plan by exchanging the knights and offering a further exchange of bishops which our teammate correctly ignored and instead decided to try and expand on the queenside (Q-side). Unfortunately, White used the opportunity to create a double attack with the move 16. Qd3 threatening checkmate on h7 and picking up the pawn on b5. Deepa was unfortunate to fall victim to the commonly encountered in chess ‘tunnel vision’ and protected the pawn as opposed to the checkmate which was delivered on the next move. 16…a6 17. Qxh7# 1-0.
Tough first league game for Deepa, but we are sure that she will learn from the experience and take the lessons for her further games and wins.
Oskar Rudczenko (Anstey 2) vs Jamie Rhodes (Ashby 3) 0-1
Our second team captain started the game with the king’s pawn (1. e4) and after the same response from Black as in the above game, Oskar decided to play 3. d4 leading the action towards the Scotch game.
Oskar’s opponent decided to leave the book immediately by protecting his e-pawn with 3…f6 which is uncommon reply with the engine clearly not impressed and providing evaluation of +1.8 with equal material. Seeing the reply, Oskar advanced his d-pawn, gaining space and attacking the c6-knight which found itself in a dim situation on the rim. Our teammate continued his attack in a ‘beserker’ style, explanding on the centre and sacrificing pawns to gain initiative. After further giving his opponent the opportunity to castle and create a passed pawn on the Q-side, Oskar found himself in a position highly unfavoured by the engine, but fortunately he was playing a human. Our teammate’s opponent saw beautiful fork on move 13, completely ignoring the White’s light-squared bishop and the fact that his powerful knight and his king are on the same diagonal. Oskar is not one to miss such a chance and counter-forked his opponent with the best move, 14. Bc4+.
After picking up the knight, Oskar continued consolidating his position with further exchange of bishops, clearing the a- and b-file through pawn exchange and doubling his rooks on the a-file. With two-point advantage in material and more active pieces, our second team captain looked to solidify his position through simplification. Unfortunately, eager to exchange the queens, Oskar completely forgot about his knight on b2 with the latter becoming a rook’s dinner after being abandoned by the white queen.
Unfortunately, 25…Rxb2 was the turning point of the game and despite our teammate’s best efforts, when the dust settled, his opponent found himself with a two-pawn advantage, with the players left only with pawns and one knight each. Stockfish clearly likes Black with evaluation of -3.2.
His opponent managed to capitalise on his winning position and after Black pushing his passed pawn to the sixth rank and exchanging the knights, our teammate resigned.
Stephen Holmes (Ashby 3) vs Leo Abraham (Anstey 2) 0 – 1
It has been a couple of months since Leo’s last appearance for the second team but he proved that no chess mastery was forgotten on his part. Just like in Deepa’s game, the Ashby player decided to play the ‘Ruy Lopez’ opening to which Leo responded with the ‘Old Steinitz defence’ as per chess.com’s opening database.
After attack on the bishop with a6, White went into the thematical bishop-knight exchange on c6, thus giving up the bishop pair but deteriorating Black’s pawn structure on the Q-side. Indifferent to the configuration of his Q-side pawns, Leo continued his development with ‘fianchetto’-ing both of his bishops, castling kingside (K-side) and keeping his knight on f6, protecting the king. His opponent decided to pin the knight with 11.Bg5 and create a queen led battery on the e-file supporting the thematical pawn break 15.e5.
The centre was opened up and the queens decided to leave the board after being exchanged on the e-file. Our teammate then decided to exchange his second knight for the opponent’s only bishop in an argument that the bishop pair is worth more than the knight pair. And it was not long before Leo would provide evidence of the superiority of his bishops after forking a knight and a rook with the great move 19…Bf6.
After White picked up the h7-pawn as a consolation price, Leo was considerate to take the route of picking up the knight through a rook exchange, hence leaving less pieces on the board. The decision to keep the bishop pair later paid off, after our teammate managed to isolate his opponent’s knight while simultaneously open the d-file for the powerful black rook. The latter managed to infiltrate the White’s K-side and with the help of the two powerful bishops delivered a beautiful checkmate with our teammate getting the W.
Borislav Lazarov (Anstey 2) vs Brian Wood (Ashby 3) 1 – 0
After finding out about ten minutes before the match starts that he is playing White, Boris decided to do the responsible thing and asked our first team’s second top player Julian about the opening to be played. Met with the two d4 options – London System vs The Catalan, Julian hesitated a little as he is a notorious fan of d4 openings and suggested the opening named after the people famous for Estrella and Barcelona. Boris obliged in spite of his confusion or plain lack of knowledge on any lines in The Catalan and the game started with the closed variation.
Completely unaware of the key pawn breaks in the position, Boris decided again to do the responsible thing and after spying on Leo’s game, copied the latter’s idea and ‘fianchetto’-ed both of his bishops. His opponent decided to prepare the thematic e5 pawn break, used against many d4 openings, however, in the good tradition of the London system (even though Boris decided not to play it) our teammate placed his knight on e5, blocking the pawn advance.
Black tried to destabilise White’s powerful knight with another thematical pawn break, 10…c5, but White’s e-pawn had the decency of finally start the working day and helped out. Brian’s pressure, however, was just beginning and the Ashby player exerted a series of pins on Boris’ queen and rook, making our teammate use tempo after tempo to get his pieces out of the pinning web. In the process, Black managed to even get a clear advantageous position, but was a tad too timid to take the opportunity and instead played 18…a6. Boris decided to stop playing with fire and got his queen out of the way of attack completely ignoring the apparently winning move (according to the engine, for Boris was just a good move) Nc6. Both players continued to ignore the threat of the latter move until, Black miscalculated a long sequence and played 21…Nf8 burying his knight in a dim situation on the rim. Finally deciding to use the presented opportunity, Boris finally played 22. Nc6 attacking the queen, and after Black’s strongest piece hid away behind the rook, the knight retreated to put pressure on the light-squared bishop.
Although it looks scary, in the above position Black could play Nfd7 holding everything together but miscalculation from Boris’ opponent provided our teammate the opportunity to break open the K-side with the thematical exchange 25.Bxf6. With the main cover of the black king destroyed, Boris hurried to bring his rook to the attack with the e1-e4-h4 rook lift, creating a battery on the h-file. Black was not yet ready to give up and brought a brave knight to try and hold onto the position while trying to run the king towards the centre, but the battery accompanied by the sneaky h-pawn proved too strong to battle and despite bringing the queen Black found himself under too much pressure and resigned.
It is worth mentioning that the players showed class and respect to each other and although they started the evening as rivals, they ended it with the happiness of making a new friend with the same bug in their brain – the amazing game of chess.
Graham Bird (Ashby 3) vs Hal Jardine (Anstey 2) 1/2 – 1/2
The first game of ‘the big guns’ was on board three with our top rookie this year Hal taking on a strong opponent. Prior to the game, Hal unintentionally put the whole team under pressure after he had issues with his phone and postponed his arrival until 19:25, five minutes before the match starts. In his chacteristic way Hal forgot to bring a pen but nothing could deter him to play beautiful chess on the night.
The game started with both players deciding to play the first moves with the principle of pieces before pawns in mind, engaging in the ‘Black Mustang defence’ variation of the Reti opening, or for short 1.Nf3 Nc6.
The players continued their development by ‘fianchetto’-ing their dark-squared bishops, with White looking to control the centre while Black cautiously taking some space with e5. After getting his army ready, Hal showed his class again by playing a typical engine move, popular among Grandmasters in situations where there is nothing to do – 9…a5!. Hal’s opponent responded with 10.e4 kicking the bishop out of White’s K-side and after reshuffling of the pieces, our teammate managed to place his knight on f4.
Hal brought his queen in an attempt to break open the K-side which he succeeded to do with the help of his light-squared bishop. Eager to create counter-attack, his opponent placed his rook on the open h-file, completely ignoring the double attack on his knight, protected only by his queen. Our teammate did not hesitate and picked up the free piece with the hope of also exchanging the queens, but his opponent wisely kept them on the board. Unfortunately for our teammate, he did the notorious relaxing when in advantageous position and let his opponent’s queen to infiltrate on the seventh rank, then further provided White with the opportunity to equalise material with better piece activity. However, luck was on Hal’s side and his opponent missed the best move Bc1 (X-raying Black’s bishop on h6, attacked by the rook as well), too eager to create a battery on the open h-file.
Hal attacked his opponent’s queen and the latter decided to start building the h-file battery with White’s most powerful piece in front. The battle on the K-side continued and Hal’s opponent finally got the opportunity to play 25.Bc1 with the X-ray for Black’s bishop prepared. After long consideration of the position, Hal decided to go Tal’s way and sacrifice in a beautiful, although dubious way his queen, which the engine evaluates as a straightforward blunder.
Nevertheless, our teammate showed amazing calculating skills and gained plenty of initiative for the material ‘loss’ (1 point which is the equivalent of one pawn) and further used his knight to put immense pressure on White’s position. The horse-shaped piece hopped around the board, creating threat after threat until it got to the critical f4 square, paralysing the king with threats of Hook mate from the h-file. At this point, Hal’s winning idea was a battery on the h-file, but instead our teammate miscalculated and decided to play the only drawing move in the position 31…Rh3+ and after brief consideration, both players agreed to a draw.
Mike Griffiths (Anstey 2) vs David Holmes (Ashby 3)
Our top performer this year Mike had a serious challenge in front of him taking on the second top ranked player from Ashby 3. Mike started with the English opening and the game went into the symmetrical variation.
Both players developped with K-side castling and creating a King’s Indian style setup with ‘fianchetto’ of the bishops on g7 and g2 and knights on f6 and f3, respectively for Black and White. With symmetrical position, Mike decided to keep his dark-squared bishop in the centre while his opponent went for the ‘double fianchetto’.
Our teammate started building pressure on both sides of the board while keeping the slight tension in the centre. Black found himself backing off until the Q-side was completely closed and White’s dark-squared bishop found itself on h6, pointing at the f8-knight. With no other options for a breakthrough, Mike decided to try and open the centre with the pawn break 18.d4.
Opening the centre led to many tactical opportunities and positional decisions. Black managed to exchange a knight for the dark-squared bishop in an attempt to gain full control of the dark-squares. Mike managed to maneuvre his knights to control the powerful black bishop while on the other hand managed to open the long h1-a8 diagonal for his light-squared bishop after his opponent exchanged its black equivalent for a powerful centralised knight. Too focused on opening the centre, Mike’s opponent miscalculated a powerful relative skewer from our teammate’s bishop which led to Mike winning an exchange.
After a series of exchanges, Mike found himself with a rook against bishop and pawn with rook and knight still on the board for both players. While Black was busy developping his king, Mike managed to get his knight in a very good position with the opportunity to exchange it for Black’s bishop. After the exchange, Mike decided that entering a notoriously tricky rook endgame will benefit him, especially with the passed pawn on the b-file. His opponent found it difficult to protect his a-pawn which left Mike with a clear pawn-up with two passers on their way to become queens.
Our teammate started to push his pawns up the board with his opponent unable to defend or create counter-play. Nevertheless, the player from Ashby decided to try and create a counter-attack, getting in a position seeming hopeless with the b-pawn queening imminent.
Although completely losing, Mike’s opponent decided to try and get something out of the game, including offering a draw mid-way through a 20-minute thought spent on the above position. Unable to get anything concrete, Black tried a few checks picking up White’s pawns and hoping that after promoting the two pawns, White will not be able to catch the three black pawns on the road to become queens themselves. A tremendously solid player, Mike showed a no-nonsense attitude, promoted his two pawns to queens and shattered Black’s attempt for counter-play, eventually delivering checkmate.
Neil Roberts (Ashby 3) vs Matthew ‘The Killer’ Connor (Anstey 2)
On board 1, the undefeated so far this season Matt was taking on Ashby 3’s captain. The game started with the Bird’s opening to which Matt responded with a Dragon-like setup with ‘fianchetto’-ed dark-squared bishop and pawn on c5 supported by pawn on d6. His opponent decided to control the centre with pawns and keep the pieces behind them until move 10 which was a surprising rook lift.
‘The Killer’ responded with the typical engine move 10…a6 and after further reshuffling of the pieces, White decided to strike in the centre with d4. The centre was opened and White offered a queen trade, which our teammate politely declined. The light-squared bishops got exchanged instead and our top ranked player on the night decided to trade off one of his knights for the second bishop in the hope to capitalise on his dominance of the dark squares. Matt got active on the Q-side and White kept backing off, including undevelopping his rook. The players decided to trade off one set of rooks with our teammate keeping the control of the key c-file. ‘The Killer’ activated his bishop and got to a dominant position, evaluated as -2.9 by Stockfish with equal material. Instead of capitalising on the position, however, Matt decided to go for a beautiful, but very dubious move 29…Rxc3 losing an exchange.
White managed to keep everything together while Matt found himself in a very complicated position not even slightly interested in the time situation. Instead, with 11 minutes on the clock (his opponent had 55) our teammate managed to find excellent moves to keep it together and stay only a single point of material down. White decided that he needs to do something in his winning position and managed to get his queen on the eighth rank with a tempo. Matt was defending bravely in a difficult situation with less than 4 minutes on the clock when he received a gift by his opponent who fell victim to the discussed in Deepa’s game common in chess ‘tunnel vision’. Seeing the opportunity to both attack Black’s queen and place his knight on the perfect square c6 where it will exert great power, White completely missed a mate in one. Always a class act, Matt apologised for the following move and swiftly delivered checkmate with 36…Qe1#.
With Mike winning on board 2, Matt’s win was crucial for securing the win for the team. After the match, our second team find themselves in the middle of the table in Division 4 with their next match against the strong team of Market Harborough 3 who are leaders in the division with 7 wins and only 1 draw. Nevertheless, a big success for our second team who remain undefeated in 2022.
While the match was taking place, Julian and Mick stayed faithful to the club night and engaged in several Rapid games with 20 minutes time limit. Ben and John were also present but they decided to skip playing and focus on overseeing the action during the league game.
Whether you want to be part of the excitement during league games or just spend some time with casual chess and friendly banter, pop over to the Methodist Church in Anstey every Thursday from 7:30pm. All abilities welcome!
Welcome to another chess review where we comment on last week’s news from our own, county, country and the world. We will also take a look at what to expect next week.
In our own club we had an amazing week for the first team which remains undefeated this calendar year with three wins out of three games. Our top-rated players defeated Heathcote Arms 1 with a crushing 4-0 with all players showcasing amazing resilience. For more information on the match, follow this link. Two of our most promissing players, Hal and Julian, took on another challeng today as they participated in the Nottingham Rapid tournament, with both having both good and bad games. Nevertheless, an amazing experience for both, from which they will only learn.
The upcoming week will feature another home league game for our club, with our second team facing Ashby 3 in an expected eight-board match. We wish our second team success in what is scheduled to be a true celebration of the game.
In the county, there were a few games played last week. In Division 1, Shepshed 1 defeated the next in the table Braunstone 1. In the second division Ashby 1 got back on the winning track after 3-1 against Wigston 3 who are surprisingly two places above Wigston 2. In Division 3 Syston 2 secured another important win, this time against Market Harborough 2 which puts pressure on our first team as our top players are eyeing the first two places in the table. In the fourth division Melton Mowbray 3 conceded another loss this year, this time against Loughborough 2.
In the country, the ECF has announced an England vs Sweden Challenge Match in which GM David Howell will take on GM Nils Grandelius in London this March. For more information on their website, follow this link.
Worldwide, the first leg of the FIDE Grand Prix 2022 finished with GM Hikaru Nakamura claiming the top spot after amazing final games against GM Levon Aronian. The victor did not spend much time in celebrations and went straight into the Rapid Chess Championship, currently taking place on chess.com. The American Grandmaster even made it to the final but was denied a second crown in a row by his countryman GM Fabiano Caruana. On the topic of online chess, the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour, the competition with the richest prize pot in online chess, has started on Saturday, 19th February and is currently taking place with the preliminaries ongoing. The current leader in the standings is the last World Championship challenger GM Ian Nepomniachtchi who decided that he is done with playing bad after losing the first game and won the following five games, finishing round 8 with 19 points, four points clear of the second GM Ding Liren and the third GM Eric Hansen who appears to be the pleasant surprise in the tournament so far. It is worth mentioning that the World Champion in classical chess GM Magnus Carlsen lost his game against the 16-year old GM Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa. You can follow all of the action on our own website on this link.
Lastly, better late than never, we missed to mention in the last Sunday chess review that the oldest Grandmaster, GM Yuri Averbakh turned 100 years and is officially the only GM to reach a centenary. We wish him strong health and many years to come!
When it comes studying chess, one of the most underestimated parts of the game are the checkmating patterns. In this series we look at this very important part of the game, focusing on the most common checkmates and characteristic patterns leading to them.
In the first part of the series we will look at some of the most basic checkmating patterns which are more or less compulsory to know by any player regardless of their level.
1. Fool’s mate.
The Fool’s mate is the only two-move checkmate in chess. It is achieved by through the sequence 1. f3 e5 2. g4 Qh4#. As the name of the checkmate suggests, it requires a significant blunder by White which rarely occurs even at beginner levels. However, it is always a useful pattern to have in mind as it places emphasis on the importance of protecting the e1-h4 diagonal for White and the e8-h5 diagonal for Black which are the routes for the mating attack. The usual way of doing this (for example, in the Dutch defence) is by placing your knight on f3 for White or f6 for Black, protecting the entry points on h4 and h5, respectively. A famous trap in the Dutch defence exploits the above idea:
Teed vs Delmar, 1986
2. Scholar’s mate.
Another basic checkmatting pattern is the four-move checkmate, known as the Scholar’s mate. The nightmare of many beginner players, it is by far the most used checkmating pattern at the lower ratings. The name of the pattern comes from a 1656 text by Francis Beale The Royal Game of Chess-Play.
There are various ways to get to the actual checkmate, the most common being via:
1. e4 e5
2. Qh5 (White attacks the pawn on e5) Nc6 (Black defends the pawn)
3. Bc4 (the bishop attacks the weak f7-pawn) Nf6?? (Black gets carried away with attack on the queen, blundering checkmate)
4. Qxf7#.
The position can be reached in different ways and it is one of the most played checkmating patterns in general, leading to quick wins even at online levels of 1000+ on chess.com. Although more experienced players are trained at the main ways to avoid it, as well as counter-attacking through exploitation of the early queen development by White, it is always an important pattern to remember, mainly due to its emphasis on the vulnerability of the f7-pawn.
In general, at the beginning of a chess game there are two ‘weak’ pawns on the board – f2 for White and f7 for Black. The reason they are called ‘weak’ is that they are basically protected by only one piece – the king. The latter fact often makes them a point for attack by the opponent’s pieces, including further on in the middlegame.
An easy defence and further plan for Black is to play 1. e4 e5 2. Qh5 Nc6 3. Bc4 g6 4. Qf3 Nf6. At the end of the sequence, Black has advantage in development, clear plan to fianchetto their bishop (click here for more on the fianchetto) and castle short, while White has a queen in the centre which is a target for pawns and minor pieces and is occupying the f3 square which is rather annoying for the g1-knight.
3. Back rank checkmate.
Another very common checkmate is the Back Rank mate which exploits situations when the white king cannot move on the second rank or the black king cannot move on the seventh rank and the first, respectively the eighth rank, is not sufficiently protected. As suggested by the name, one of the major attacking pieces (queen or rook) moves to the back rank delivering checkmate.
The most common checkmate on the back rank is when the king is still in an usual castled position with all three pawns restricting his movement and all major pieces have left the back rank. One of the simplest examples is shown below, where Black is so carried away with going for a checkmate, they completely forget about the weak back rank of their own and get checkmated in three moves.
Another common pattern leading to back rank checkmate exploits the abovementioned weak f2- or f7-square combined with the king being on the back rank on the g-file and the g- and h-pawn restricting his movement. The attacker uses a queen-led battery on the f-file and the patter starts with a check, pushing the king in the corner. In the following diagram, Black is ahead nine points of material, but their back rank is vulnerable leading to checkmate in three moves.
Although the most common obstruction of the attacked king consists of pawns in front of him, other pieces such as knights or bishops can also limit the king’s movement. In the game Bird-Zukertort from 1886, a beautiful combination by Bird leads to resignation by Black due to several threats of a back rank mate, with Zuketort incapable of dealing with all of them. With the endgame in sight on move 36 Black picks up the e4 pawn in an attempt to gain material advantage providing Bird with the opportunity to use the position of the white knight combined with the powerful rook on the d-file and the queen controlling two key diagonals. After 37. Qxf6+ Black resigned, a possible continuation with a back rank mate is shown below.
4. Arabian checkmate.
Possibly one of the simplest, yet often missed checkmates, is the Arabian mate. It is considered by some to be the oldest checkmate pattern in the game of chess and according to this article it has featured in old Arabian manuscripts intended for an older version of chess where the rooks and the knights were the most powerful pieces. The way to deliver an Arabian mate is with a rook and knight when the king is in the corner of the board.
The rook boxes the king to leave him only the h7 square, which is protected by the kinght while the latter also protects the white major piece. Whenever the king is in the corner and both rook and knight are in the proximity, it is a good idea to look for a pattern which will lead to the Arabian mate. For example, in the Reiner-Steinitz game from 1860, after being attacked by 15. f4 the black knight jumps on the f3-square from where it is capable to coordinate with a rook for delivering Arabian mate. White misses the combination that follows and greedily picks up the g4-pawn, opening the g-file for the rook. What follows is a beautiful queen sacrifice typical for the good old days of romantic chess.
It is worth noticing that Black offers the hanging queen first on h4 with the idea that Rxh4 would lead to the same checkmate pattern which is why White refuses the sacrifice. Nevertheless, after Qxh2+ Reinier is left with no choice and in the tradition of the period plays until the very end. In another game from the same era, Anderssen – Schallopp, played in 1864, Black delivers an Arabian mate with a beautiful combination and under the threat of a back rank mate (discussed above).
Black utilises successfully the f4-pawn, using it as an anchor for the rook, and the pin on the second rank, and after the rook sacrifice, the Arabian checkmate is delivered.
5. Damiano’s checkmate.
The last pattern discussed in this very first part of the series is the Damiano’s checkmate. The name comes from the work of Pedro Damiano, a 16th century chess player, who is considered to be the first person writing about this checkmate pattern, in 1512. Commonly encountered, this mate is delivered by the queen which is protected by a pawn on g6 (if White attacks) or g3 (if Black attacks) and it relies on the king being restricted by the pawn and another piece to move onto the f-file (or c-file if the attack is on the other side of the board, with the pawn on b6/b3 respectively).
One of the most common patterns leading to this checkmate starts with a rook sacrifice, either to lure the king on the h-file(a-file) or to open the latter file by taking the corresponding pawn on the seventh/second rank. In the below example, Black sacrifices two rooks in order to keep the white king on the h-file, before delivering the final blow with Qh7#.
A variation of the Damiano’s checkmate is the so called Damiano’s Bishop checkmate, where the anchor for the queen is a bishop as opposed to a pawn. In the following example, White uses their rook to attack the king and removing the knight and opening the g-file for the queen. Nxh8 is compulsory as without the knight to protect h8, the move will be a different type of checkmate known as the Opera mate, which we will discuss in a further part of the series. With the rook on e8 preventing the king’s escape, Qg7# is unavoidable.
The first tournament of the 2022 Meltwater Championship Chess Tour has started on 19th February and the first round of preliminaries has already seen plenty of action with Ding Liren in the lead. As usual with big Masters events, you can follow the action on our own website by going on our home page and scrolling all the way to the bottom or just follow this link.
The Meltwater Tour is the biggest online chess championship with prize pot of over $1 000 000 and this year it will consist of 9 events. Unsurprisingly the richest pot in online chess has attracted the biggest names in the game, including the World Champion Magnus Carlsen and the top Grandmasters such as Ding Liren, Fabiano Caruana, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Anish Giri, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Aleksander Grischuk, Hikaru Nakamura and many more. This year the tour kicks off with Airthings Masters which will include 16 players, including the Rapid champions Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Alexandra Kosteniuk.
The players will play in a preliminary 15 game round robin and the top 8 players will advance to the knockout stage. Follow all of the action on our website!
Our first team won their third game in a row and remain undefeated in 2022 after a crushing 4-0 against Heathcote Arms 1. Having been narrowly defeated in the reverse fixture, our team entered the bout hungry to prove that they can do better than last time. With slightly different team after ‘El presidente’ Ben decided to step down for this match and give ‘The Killer’ Matt Connor a chance to add more points to his already high rating, Anstey Chess club’s top players showcased amazing positional and tactical understanding along with surprisingly good time management.
The match was accompanied by a quiet club night in which five of our regular players engaged in long chess battles and some rapid games in preparation for the upcoming Nottingham Rapid tournament. Two of our prospect players – Julian and Hal are taking part in the tournament this Saturday.
Boards are ready for the game!
As usual, only Matt gets the memo…
The team preparing for battle.
Everyone is focused seconds before the game (apart from Julian who is watching the empty space in front of him)…
Respectful handshake…
…and the battle begins under Ben’s watchful eye!
Various openings on all boards.
Players are extremely focused, while Boris is taking notes on how to play proper chess in the background.
Matt is figuring out how to break through.
John is casually chilling, familiar with the orthodox King’s Indian defence
Mick is mentally preparing himself for a pawn sacrifice in an attempt to open the Kingside
Julian with his signature noise cancelling ear muffs is playing the best moves to equalise the position
Running low on time and preparing for another dramatic finish, Matt is still trying to break trough…
John is thinking on a plan against the e5 pawn break.
Julian is trying to survive another attack from his opponent.
A hint of a smile on John’s face in a clearly winning position.
Better late than never, Matt has finally broken through!
Mick is 20 minutes up on the clock and placing his opponent under all sorts of pressure.
Julian is about to engage in a winning sequence.
On final fork from ‘The Killer’ to seal the game.
Mick is casually chilling, four minutes up on the clock and in a winning endgame.
The final position from Julian’s winning sequence, with the ‘Rambo’ g-pawn supporting the rook.
A clear checkmate from Mick finishing a great evening for the first team!
The happy heroes of the night, the captain Ben decided he is not worthy to be in the photo.
Oskar and Mike in an opening battle in the opposite corner.
While the battle between our second team captain and top second team player gets more tactical, Ben is quietly texting with a friend.
Ben teaching Boris some proper chess while Oskar and Mike are going through their second game.
A precious cold pint after a hard game of chess…
Matt Connor (Anstey 1) vs Ray Beach (Heathcote Arms 1) 1-0
Another brilliant game by Matt who is gradually establishing himself as the new/old star player in the club. The game started with an unusual opening after 1. e4 by our teammate was met by 1…e6 and just when Matt started thinking to himself: ‘I love a good French defence game’, the response to his natural 2. d4 was 2…d6 which led to a position known on chess.com as the ‘Small Centre Defence’. Not impressed by his opponent’s defensive style, Matt began proper development just to see on the board Black creating a Constantinople-style blockade on the 6th, 7th and 8th rank within the first ten moves despite Stockfish (depth=20) evaluation of +1.4 with equal material.
Having prepared his army for an attack on the Kingside in his usual style – without rushing and significantly down on the clock, Matt decided to strike with the e5 pawn break, exchange the dark-squared bishops and unleash his killer attack with the old brilliant (even by engine standards, as shown below) bishop sacrifice known as the ‘Greek gift’ 15. Bxh7!!.
The sacrifice was accepted and the move was followed by a sharp attack from White’s knight and queen which was met by Black bringing his queen to defend the Kingside and running his king in the centre of the board. With his solid play (and plenty of time), Black managed to equalise the position, but Matt’s dramatic performance (induced by both blunders and amazing moves along with 20 minutes time deficit) continued with another brilliant move (again, by engine standards) 21. Nxe6!!.
The position leads to an exchange of queens and after White’s knight is chased away and pieces are reshuffled, both players decide to exchange knights and pawns after d5 advance. At the end of the tactical sequence, ‘The Killer’ finds himself in a worse position after 29. Nxd5??, with Stockfish’ evaluation being -1.0 and his opponent having the chance to capitalise on the position with bishop against three pawns. Fortunately for our teammate, under the immense pressure applied by Matt’s knight and rook, Black blunders his bishop and returns the initiative back to White after 29….Be6??
Inspired by his opponent’s blunder, ‘The Killer’ unleashed a ‘forking hell’ on Black’s pieces with White’s knight jumping around and picking up pieces like Pac-Man picking up Pac-Dots (for the younger readers, Pac-Man was a very popular game in the past, look it up in Wikipedia here). Then the rook joins the attack, forking the king and knight to pick up another piece. The final blow was dealt again by the knight with the ‘Killer’ finish 43. Ne5+ after which Black resigned. 1-0
Michael Cowley (Heathcote Arms 1)vs. Mick Sandham (Anstey 1)0-1
Mick had to play with Black and he went with his favourite 1…e6 2…a6 denying his experienced opponent any opportunity to delve into the book. After a couple of natural moves for Mick’s opponent, Black did not lose any time and stroke with 4…c5 challenging White’s centre.
After a St. George style development, Mick managed to hold on the jumpy White queen by undevelopping his bishop twice. With the ongoing expansion on the Queenside, Mick decided that King safety is overrated and started an attack on the Kingside which included a pawn gambit. Threatened by Black’s battery on the g-file, Mick’s opponent rushed to exchange queens, thus returning the one-point material after 25…Nxe5. With better positioned pieces and a strong bishop eyeing White’s king, Stockfish absolutely loves Mick’s position, evaluating it at -3.1 with equal material.
At this point, the g5-knight became a target protected by the d2-bishop. Unfortunately, Mick went against the engine’s recommendation and attacked the knight, providing his opponent the opportunity for an equal knight exchange and avoiding the issues on the g-file after the rook recapture. White managed to further exchange Mick’s monster bishop on b7 and to protect the passer on the h-file before blundering the b2-pawn. At this point Mick decided that he is too far ahead and the h3-rook would not dare touch his hanging knight after he played 35…Nd3 with the hope of forking White’s rook and bishop.
Unfortunately for our teammate, after capturing the knight and subsequently the e6-pawn with a check, White found himself in a very good position with a +4.9 advantage based on Stockfish evaluation. As usual, Mick proved a tough nut to crack, which is most likely rooted in his rugby career as an adolescent, and managed to equalise within a couple of moves with the great move (based on engine evaluation) 39…Bxg5.
Completely caught off-guard by Mick’s resilience, after a few moves White unexpectedly blundered an exchange leaving himself with bishop vs rook and pawn. Nevertheless, Mick’s opponent impressed with his determination to go to the very end, but our teammate showcased his ability to grind opponents down when ahead and converted his advantage, finishing with a little bit of showboating before delivering checkmate. 0-1
Julian Tarwid (Anstey 1) vs John Manger (Heathcote Arms 1) 1-0
Our second top rated player Julian went on to play White against a very experienced opponent. A big fan of Jobava London, Julian immediately went with his d4 and Bf4 setup with Nc3 and f3 played within the first four moves which were met by …d5 and …Nf6 from Black in a position that on move 3 transposes into the Chigorin variation of the Queen’s pawn opening. With Black’s light-squared bishop placed on f5, Julian decided to start a Kingside expansion with a gain of tempo on each pawn advance, as the bishop found itself running away on all possible squares and even asking the h-pawn to make some room. After the thematical 8. Bd3 Julian’s opponent gladly exchanged the bishop and just when we thought that the queen has developed and Queenside castling is imminent for White, our teammate decided that castling is a nonsense and opened the c-file, while doubling his pawns.
Although Stockfish does not completely disapprove of this move, at this point it evaluates the position as equal. After finishing his development, Julian decided to start marching his whole army, including his king towards the eighth rank and got so carried away that he completely missed a tactic from Black to win a pawn. Frustrated with the pawn loss, our teammate decided that it is time to strike at his opponent’s Kingside, with his g-pawn marching like Rambo towards its counterpart on g7. Although the advancement of the g- pawn appeared enthusiastic, the engine evaluated it as an amalgam of mistakes and inaccuracies, leading to an evaluation of -3.5 at 15.g6. However, humans are not computers and Julian’s opponent, probably a little wary of the ‘Rambo’ pawn decided to respond with 15…f6 unaware of the engine’s recommendation of short castling leading to a position evaluated at -4.97.
Although pretty much back in the game at this point (according to Stockfish; based on our own biased opinion Julian was winning the whole time), Julian managed to get to engine evaluation of -3.9 in a couple of moves. However, his opponent decided to play some inaccuracies with the whole sequence of checks, knight moves and pawn advances and exchanges leading to 19…Qxd4+ which Stockfish evaluated as a clean blunder.
Julian happily exchanged queens and put pressure on his opponent’s knight, while keeping an eye on the open d-file. His h5-knight decided to have a quick snack with the pawn on g7, opening the file for the notorious ‘Rambo’ g-pawn, still eager to transform itself from a brave one-move soldier to the all-encompassing chess queen. Julian’s opponent, however, got back on the ‘best move’ track and quickly put pressure on our teammate’s position, connecting his knights and threatening both a fork and picking up the ‘Rambo’ passer. Out of the two threats, Julian decided that the g-pawn will magically survive and gave one last attempt at trying to prevent the fork with 28. Nd4. In the following moves the engine went all red, after Black responded with 28…c5, threatening the knight protecting the fork. Julian then decided to lose an exchange for no compensation by taking the knight on g4, but his opponent had other plans, despite engine evaluation of -5.0 following 29…hxg4, and took the d4-knight.
Finally sensing a decent chance in winning the game (although we all thought that he is clearly winning the whole time), our teammate played several best moves answered by mistakes and pure blunders from his opponent. After a rook exchange and with all sorts of pressure while munching on isolated and plainly unprotected pawns, Julian found himself in a position evaluated as +3.9 by the engine on move 36, only seven moves after he was in trouble. Inspired by this change, our teammate’s rook started attacking from all sides, while its black counterpart was trying to create some counter-attacking chances, but ‘too little, too late’ as the saying goes. Both players managed to pick up a knight and a pawn from their opponents, before Julian delivered the final blow with his rook supported by no one else but the notorious ‘Rambo’ pawn! 44. Rh8! 1-0
Peter Harrison (Heathcote Arms 1)vs. John Robinson (Anstey 1)0-1
On board 1 John took on his well-known opponent – the top player and captain of Heathcote Arms 1 Peter Harrison. The game started with the orthodox variation of the King’s Indian Defence, John’s long time favourite to play with and against (follow this link for a very instructive game where John defeated the King’s Indian defence of our own Leicester-born GM Glenn Flear).
John decided to exchange his light-squared bishop for a knight after 7…Bg4, obviously ignoring such nonsense as keeping the bishop pair, and after natural development the players decided to leave the book with the moves 10…a5 11. Qd2. After further reshuffling of the pieces, White decided on a plan to attack the Black’s Kingside, starting with 17. f4. Unmoved by this aggressive approach and unaware of his opponent’s +2.2 advantage as evaluated by Stockfish, John brought his knights to the defence, calmly waiting for White’s next mistake which happened not long after. John’s opponent decided to play the e5 pawn break, which did not impress much our teammate, who decided to slide his rook one square where the latter was eyeing hungry White’s queen on the d-file. Overestimating the threat, John’s opponent moved his queen aside, giving John the opportunity to equalise with 19. dxe5.
After the recapture with the f-pawn, John decided to stop the e-pawn march with his f8-knight who appeared to be drinking coffee with the king on the 8th rank and ignoring the action a couple of ranks in front of them. Then the players decided to reshuffle pieces again in the centre, completely ignorant of the engine shouting: ‘c5!’ to both of them during a four-move sequence which ended with a beautiful, yet hated by Stockfish knight sacrifice from John 22…Nxe5.
Counting on the fact that he is playing a man and not a computer, John began to create pressure on the Kingside and equalised the position in a couple of moves. Our teammate attacked his opponent’s light-squared bishop and after White retreated the latter, John stroke with a long waited pawn break of his own. After a quick exchange, John decided to get into a really complicated position with discovered attacks, pins and exchange offers threatened from all sides. His opponent, probably overwhelmed from the complexity of the position, decided to take on the most obscure response with 27. Nf7+, evaluated as a missed win by the engine with the best move being the quiet 27. Rce1.
Having a clear advantage, with a serene expression on his face John picked up the knight with his rook and comfortably relaxed on his seat, confident in his win regardless of him being in a bit of a time trouble. Our teammate further exploited his opponent’s reluctance to exchange queens and completely shattered White’s Kingside with his queen. After exchanging both rooks and loading up a battery on the h2-b8 diagonal, John exerted so much pressure on his opponent that the next blunder was inevitable and after 35…Qh3+, White resigned. 0-1
After the amazing success last night, our first team find themselves in third place with their next game against Market Harborough 2 being decisive for the table. Nevertheless, another team performance which makes us all proud to be part of Anstey Chess club and we wish ourselves plenty more to come!
Club Night
While out top players were sweating over the clocks and match boards, in the opposite corner a quiet club night was taking place. Oskar and Mike decided to engage in several chess battles while Boris and Ben played a long game intended to help Boris leave his ‘bullet’ way of playing and adopt a style of playing which will not lead to a -5.0 disadvantage with 56 minutes on the clock.
Shortly after 8pm, the rising second team star Hal also joined the party, regretting on his decision to arrive so early and wait for Boris and Ben to finish. After they did, Hal took on a few 20 minutes rapid games against both Ben and Boris in preparation for the Nottingham Rapid tournament where both him and Julian will play. We wish them both good luck!
After the relatively early conclusion of the evening, a few of our team members decided to celebrate the success in the nearby pub. If you want to experience the thrill and fun of both match and club nights, come and join us every Thursday from 7pm in the Anstey Methodist church! All abilities welcome!
Welcome to another chess review where we comment on last week’s news from our own, county, country and the world. We will also take a look at what to expect next week.
In our own club we had a busy club night last Thursday with ten people turning up for some proper chess and fun. We were happy to welcome back John and Deepa who both become regular attendees of our club nights, as well as the OG ‘Squish’ who came, played and left with a mic dropping joke. For more on the club night, follow this link. Next week our first team hosts Heathcote Arms 1 in a match where our top players will look to get the W in a move to attack the second place in their division.
In the county, there were a few games played last week. In Division 1, Shepshed 2 got back on the winning path defeating Market Harborough 1. In the second division Melton Mowbray 1 won against Ashby 1. In Division 3 there Syston 2 secured an important for their team win against Latimer. In the fourth division Melton Mowbray 3 won against Ashby 3, while Wigston 4 drew with Heathcote Arms 2.
In the country, the ECF has announced the 21st IPCA World Individual Chess Championship for the Physically Disabled 2022 in Ashdod, Israel from 8th – 17th May 2022. More information on their website – IPCA World Individual Chess Championship.
Worldwide, the first leg of the FIDE Grand Prix 2022 is still taking place in Berlin. In the semifinals a brave Richard Rapport could not hold on Hikaru Nakamura who is having an amazing tournament. Another GM in great form is Levon Aronian who managed to capitalise on a mistake by his opponent in the semis, Leinier Dominguez. Aronian and Nakamura will face each other from 15th to 17th February, you can follow all of the action on our website.
On 10/02/22 our favourite Anstey Chess club hosted another club night. The expectations for a quiet club night were torn apart from the start with nine people turning up, all of them hungry for some chess games. Around one hour later, Boris decided to arrive following his family tradition of always being late.
The club was happy to welcome back John and Deepa who are now becoming regular attendees of the club nights. A great addition to the evening was the returning legend Mick ‘Squish’ Squire who played a few chess games alongside the usual suspects ‘El presidente’ Ben, Oskar, Mick, Boris, Hal, Julian and our new old top player, ‘Killer’ Matt. (for more information on Matt’s nickname, follow this link)
A successful club night – five boards and plenty of chess and fun!
Although up two points of material, Mick is trying to stop John’s passers in a complicated endgame.
While John is thinking how to proceed with the complicated endgame, Mick throws a disapproving look to the distracting photographer.
Fallen victim to his own Englund gambit, Oskar is trying to play two knights down against the unusually focused Boris.
Matt is trying to find the best plan for Black’s position while Julian is consulting the neighbouring board.
Give Hal an opportunity and he will always deliver.
And while Hal is showing his fitness body from all angles, Deepa is looking to exchange her knight for his bishop and launch an attack.
‘El presidente’ decided to bring some educational material.
The evening started with some non-timed games, with John and Mick engaging in some sharp tactical battles typical for our third top rated player. They proceeded to play until the end of the club night, with John proving to be a potential asset for our competitive teams if he decides to join the league. Next to them, returning ‘Squish’ played with second team captain Oskar with both players trying to keep their focus in spite of Julian and Hal who were trying hard to play serious chess but their personalities took over. Not impressed by the latter, Ben was half-playing with returning Deepa, half-recruiting her for the second team. Once Boris decided to show up, he engaged in a serious battle against Matt, with the ‘Killer’ naturally claiming the win.
Only John and Mick stuck strictly to playing chess with each other. After playing a few serious games with Oskar, ‘Squish’ decided to call it a night and left with the funniest joke of the evening. The players reshuffled with Ben stepping out of the boards and taking the role of the ‘Sideline Expert’. Boris and Oskar engaged in tactical chess battles full of both brilliant moves and absurd blunders from both sides. Julian and Hal went for some snacks as the evening was long and tiresome and after their return Julian decided to step into the depths of serious chess against Matt. Next to them, Hal and Deepa went trough a variety of instructional positions and games with the always improving Hal explaining various opening lines and strategical principles.
As usual, the evening was full of amazing chess games and plenty of fun – traits becoming more and more characteristic for club nights in the young Anstey Chess club. Whether you are a serious chess player or a casual chess enthusiast looking to combine hobby and fun evenings, pop over to the Methodist Church in Anstey every Thursday from 7:30pm. All abilities welcome!
Anstey Chess Club 