Our second team proves ‘too hot to handle’ in the six-board home game against Market Harborough 3 as our venue enjoys another busy club night

Last Thursday (13/10/2022) our second team were scheduled to play against Market Harborough 3(MH3) at home. The game was crucial for the confidence of Anstey 2 as the players suffered a disheartening defeat in the previous round. Our guests from the southeast of Leicestershire requested six boards which meant that Leo and Valdas had to step in and join the usual suspects Brian, Boris, Ben and Bob (a.k.a. the B-team). The away team arrived early and with all players ready and set on time the games started promptly at 7:30pm.

David Curran(MH3) vs Brian “The Griller” Foreman (Anstey 2) 0 – 1

Brian was scheduled to play the strong attacking player David Curran. Looking revived after a busy Summer Cups schedule, our top board sat down in his characteristic quiet calming manner and met his opponent’s Queen’s Gambit (yes, just like in the series, go and watch them on Netflix if you haven’t already) with his usual Slav-ish setup. A quick Bg5 from the away team player saw ‘The Griller’ placing a beautiful knight on e4, attacking the bishop and eyeing deliciously looking squares in the enemy territory. The players started their development and brought their pieces quickly on the central ranks of the board. White decided to expand on the queen side (Q-side) and chase our teammate’s queen away, subsequently closing down the centre of the board. Seeing this development, our teammate exchanged his dark-squared bishop for its white-coloured counterpart and recaptured the said bishop with an engine-like Kxe7, connecting his rooks on the eighth rank. Brian continued the development of his pieces, placing a beautiful knight on g4, eyeing the king side (K-side) castled white king. The away team player did his best to chase the knight, falling victim to a nice Nxe3 tactic from Black and further parting ways with his freshly castled rook. Up an exchange, Brian started exchanging the rest of the pieces and before long White was the only player with a minor piece, while a pair of rooks had also headed for a cup of tea. In one last desperate attempt to create counterplay, the MH3 player decided to push the Q-side pawns, but with a strong battery on the e-file and looking to start munching on the white pawns and to threaten checkmate in the process, our teammate looked too dominant for White’s taste and the latter resigned.

Another great performance from the ‘The Griller’ as he deservedly temporarily claims the top spot in the club rankings this season.

Borislav ‘Boris The Toaster’ Lazarov (Anstey 2) vs Gary Joy (MH3) 1 – 0

Coming from a decisive loss against Wigston 4, Boris was looking to get back on the winning track against one of the prospective MH3 players Gary Joy. Boris opened with his typical d4, met with d5 and Slav setup from his opponent who also rushed to get his bishop out of the characteristic triangular pawn structure. ‘The Toaster’ seized the moment to put a pause on any development on the board and started expanding on the K-side with tempi on the bishop. The latter piece was hidden on h7 and the MH3 player offered an exchange of the dark-squared bishop, providing the opportunity for our teammate to finish his development, placing all of his minor pieces on good squares in the centre of the board. Both sets of bishops left the battlefield by the initiative of the away team player who managed to finish his development as well, looking to castle soon. Unfortunately for the MH3 player, our teammate stroke with g5, not giving the opportunity to Black to castle straight away. The latter player underestimated the power of the g-pawn and let ‘The Toaster’ to push it to g6 and further take on f7 with a check. With the black king in the centre, Boris started loading pieces pointing towards the K-side and started preparing e4. Black tried to create a fortress using his two knights which were trying to exchange themselves and cut diagonals and files for the white queen and rook which were lurking in the vicinity. Our teammate was so preoccupied with his plan that he even missed taking a free rook, but nevertheless the tight grip of the white pieces was gradually squeezing Black’s position and before long e4 happened on the board. The centre started opening with a subsequent e5 being played and after an exchange of knights and a check from the black queen, White managed to grab the two black centre pawns, then pick up his knight before getting a mate in one position to seal the deal on board two for Anstey 2.

Great win for ‘The Toaster’ who gets back on the winning track and is looking to help out the first team next Thursday.

George Gowers (MH3) vs ‘El Presidente’ Ben Vaughan 1/2 – 1/2

Arguably the hardest task of the evening was set for Ben who was scheduled to play the County Champion from the summer George Gowers. The game started with the Tarrasch version of the French defence, whereby our teammate decided to develop with pressure on the d4 pawn. The players started the battle for the centre and before long they found themselves in a very tense position, both castled K-side, with the centre of the board ready to explode any minute. Unsurprisingly the centre was opened in a couple of moves and in his typical tactical style the MH3 player delivered ‘the Greek gift’ to our teammate with Bxh7+ to which the Anstey Chess Club chairman unmoved took the bishop and further sacrificed the exchange to remain with a bishop and knight against a rook and pawn, albeit with a little insecure king position. The position became highly tactical, with plenty of space for both sets of pieces and the potential for a spectacular finish for either side. The away team player brought his bishop to the attack on the K-side, while ‘El Presidente’ shuffled his knight back to a more active position and brought his queen back to the seventh rank, offering the exchange of queens. Ben’s opponent accepted the offer and our chairman re-took the queen with his dark-squared bishop. At this point ‘El Presidente’ heard Brian’s opponent resigning and after a brief look on Boris’ board our teammate decided to offer a draw which after careful consideration his opponent accepted. Both players headed for a quick postmortem where Ben was surprised to first see that the engine’s evaluation differs from his own and he was not in any major trouble, and second to hear that his opponent had given him the respect to prepare before the game in the French defence.

Overall, a solid performance for Ben who is looking to get back on the winning track, hopefully in the rematch against Wigston 4.

Bob Grindrod (Anstey 2) vs Daniel Savin (MH3)

The last regular member of the B-team, Bob, had to face one of the season debutants in Daniel Savin. The young player from MH3 was flying high having drawn against the strong player John Redding in the beginning of the season. The game ended being a ‘swings and roundabouts’ exhibition in the engine’s records (Stockfish 15, depth = 20, powered by chess.com). Our teammate’s Queen’s Gambit was met by the Baltic defence (as per chess.com’s definition) whereby the away team player developed his bishop and g-knight quickly and spend an extra couple of tempi to first attack the white dark-squared bishop and then to double Bob’s pawns on the c-file after exchanging the knight. Both queens suddenly got activated, one attacking and the other defending the c3-pawn, and the players decided to leave it be and casually continued their development and even played dubious pawn pushes which made the engine dizzy due to the swinging of the evaluation bar. Eventually, Bob decided to tuck his king behind the K-side pawns, and then started taking space on the Q-side. After an engine like Kf7 from the MH3 player, our teammate continued pushing pawns on the Q-side, ignoring a K-side attack which made him bring his knight back to the very unattractive h2-square and then get his bishop attacked as well. Daniel opened the g-file, looking to attack the castled white king, while Bob brought his bishop back to protect the g2-pawn. The apparent battle for the g2-pawn continued while the engine went dizzy again, screaming for cxd5 from White on a sequence of at least 6 moves whereby Bob’s almost +2 advantage melted down to -2.2 at some point. Eventually, Black made the surprising decision to take on c4, fixing Bob’s pawn structure and leading the game back to equality.. Nevertheless, Black was unveiling a diabolic plan to skewer one of the white rooks with his light-squared bishop and our teammate decided to sacrifice his own bishop for a pawn and missed an idea to capture the black knight due to an absolute pin. Fortunately, Bob managed to fork the said knight and the black queen and managed not only to restore equality, having been in a -5.5 position, but for a brief moment found himself with +2.0 advantage, only needing to finally open up the centre. Unfortunately, Bob missed an interesting exchange sacrifice to open up the black king’s position and the game went back to equality. This time the MH3 player managed to get his king to safety on the Q-side and created too strong a battery to hold on on the h-file and with the time scramble already running in full steam, our teammate found himself on the wrong end of the position and resigned.

A hard day in the office for Bob, who is still fighting the rustiness. Nevertheless, we are looking forward to more exciting games from our teammate who will be back on the winning track sooner rather than later.

John Oliver (MH3) vs ‘Big Daddy’ Valdas Matutis (Anstey 2)

Stepping in to play for the second team, unlike most of his teammates, Valdas had to face one of the players who ‘have been around the block’ in John Oliver. Another Queen’s Gambit opening was met by a Semi-Slav setup from our teammate. Both players developed in the good traditions of the opening, albeit in its most solid variations. Before long, both players had castled K-side and had developed their pieces on logical squares. Pawns were exchanged on d5 and then the light-squared bishops went to watch from the sidelines, as ‘Big Daddy’ decided to use the chance to open up the f-file for his rook. Eventually, another set of central pawns and a pair of knights also left the battlefield, leaving White in the famous IQP (isolated queen’s pawn) situation, with a rook slightly misplaced on e4. The major piece was immediately attacked by the remaining black knight and had to retreat back to the first rank. Our teammate woke up his sleeping a8-rook and brought it to the game to support the d-file and the important white IQP’s safety net on d5. White tried to pin the black knight to the said rook, but Valdas moved it quickly and the MH3 player found nothing better but to exchange the knight for his dark-squared bishop and fix the pawn structure in front of the black king. Both players decided to double rooks on the central files, with White taking full control of the d-file, while ‘Big Daddy’ aimed the d4-pawn with his battery. The away team player tried to infiltrate Black’s position with his queen but our teammate defended well and even though there was still plenty of play on the board, the players decided that it is too equal and too risky for anyone to make a move for the win, and after shuffling a couple of pieces, both players agreed to a draw.

A solid appearance for Valdas who starts getting in good form and is looking to get his first win of the season, hopefully next week against Loughborough 3.

Leo Abraham (Anstey 2) vs Rene Butler (MH3)

One of the most interesting games was on board 6 where the away team captain Rene Butler was looking to challenge the ever-improving, probably most developed player from the Anstey Chess Club Leo. ‘The Lion’ opened up with his characteristic e4 which was met by the Sicilian defence from his opponent. The players started their development promptly, taking a slightly passive approach regarding the centre and ‘fianchetto’-ing their K-side bishops. Following short castling for both sides, the away team captain decided to exchange his light-squared bishop for one of the white knights. The players started shuffling their pieces, both looking for a nice setup to execute some sort of a crushing attack on their opponent’s position. The players exchanged knights in the process and for a brief moment Black enjoyed some good space but the dynamics of the position changed quickly following a premature Qc6 from the MH3 player, ending with a chase of the e5-knight with a well-timed f4. Although looking logical, Leo decided to ignore the e5-pawn break and instead continued pushing the f-pawn, creating tension between itself and its g6-counterpart. The players shuffled their minor pieces in an attempt to place them on the best possible squares and with the potential energy on the board rising, before long Rene played a discovered check after pushing the c-pawn. Unfortunately, the move backfired against him as it trapped his bishop and the away team player decided to exchange it for the g3-pawn in an attempt to prise open the white K-side. Instead, ‘The Lion’ started putting pressure on Black’s position, opening the e-file and taking control of it, while also squeezing in a brilliant discovered skewer to exchange his dark-squared bishop for one of the black rooks. Our teammate further activated his pieces to exchange the majority of them, and by move 39 he was already up a full rook with bishop and rook against knight in a completely winning endgame. Leo pushed his d-pawn and even ignored a fork from the black knight as after the piece exchanged itself for the white rook, the white bishop locked itself with the d-pawn on c8 and d7 leaving the black king only the option to shuffle between d8 and e7 while protecting the promotion square. In the meantime, ‘The Lion’ activated his king, attacking the black pawns, and since he did not have many squares for his king, the MH3 player decided to push his own pawns in an attempt for a ‘cheepo’ but our teammate was paying attention and picked them all. Eventually, in spite of his valiant efforts, the captain of the away team found himself with a lone king against an armada of pawns and decided to call it a day.

Another brilliant performance from Leo as he is looking to challenge his teammates for the top board spots soon.

Following the brilliant performance from the team, Anstey 2 defeated their opponents with a decisive 4-2 result. This places our second team temporarily on the third spot with several teams below them with a game or two to spare. The next test for the B-team will be against Wigston 4 again, this time at Ben’s former club venue.

The evening saw another busy club night, with a good chunk of our juniors engaging in different games while the experienced first team members along with a good part of the third team also got involved in the fun. If you enjoy playing the great game of chess and are looking for an entertaining, friendly and inclusive environment, or even the opportunity to play competitive OTB chess, come and join us every Thursday evening from 7:30pm. All abilities welcome!

Two debutants from Ben’s former club with excellent performances to seal the deal for our friends from South Leicester.

The new season started last week for Anstey 2 as they played Wigston 4 at home on the last Thursday of September. Following the successful end of the last season, our second team headed into the fixture with confidence. A strong side consisting of Brian ‘The Griller’, Boris ‘The Toaster’, ‘El Presidente’ Ben, Bob and Mike, outrated slightly a talented away team, represented by young prospective players, including three league debutants. Unfortunately for our side, the rating difference did not show on the boards as the visitors won decisively the match 3.5 – 1.5, hence, delivering the first defeat for any Anstey team in the league this calendar year.

Phil Watkinson (Wigston 4) vs Brian ‘The Griller’ Foreman (Anstey 2) Result: 0 – 1

On the top board, the Anstey Methodist Church saw the return of ‘The Griller’ in OTB league chess. The game started with a typical QG position, led into the Slav defence by our teammate. The players developed promptly as our teammate decided to take on c4 in an effort to equalise quickly while his opponent commits pawns in the process of getting back his pawn. Both players emerged from the opening with each still having an undeveloped piece and castled kingside (K-side). Brian tried to annoy his opponent by placing a knight in the centre of the board, but the Wigston player exchanged it without much thinking. On the very next move White decided to try the same thing by playing Ne5, only to give a clear target for the still undeveloped, possibly enjoying a hot drink black b8-knight. With another exchange taken place, the proceedings were concluded for all horse resembling L-shape hopping pieces. Deep into the middle game, a positional battle was undertaken, as the players did their best in contesting the semi-open c- and d-files. Eventually, ‘The Griller’ decided to strike in the centre with e5, followed by prise opening both c- and d-files with cxd5. Both players went into the depths of engine moves with Kf8 and Kh1, as the tension in the centre kept rising by the move. White had decided to double his rooks on the d-file, while Black had each rook on an open file. Brian offered a bishop exchange and with the potential energy in the centre of the board reaching nuclear levels, pieces started being exchanged violently, with our teammate initiating the exchanges. With most of the pieces exchanged, the players found themselves in a completely equal endgame with a rook and light-squared bishop each, topped up by a completely symmetrical pawn structure. Our teammate activated his king while his opponent pushed his K-side pawns. The players further exchanged their bishops, and after strategic positioning of his king, ‘The Griller’ infiltrated White’s back rank with his remaining rook. Despite the clear equality at the start of the position, the Wigston player made some significant positional mistakes and given his experience OTB, Brian capitalised on his brand new advantage in the endgame to get the only Anstey win on the night. An excellent comeback for our second team first board.

Borislav ‘Boris The Toaster’ Lazarov (Anstey 2) vs Joseph Horspool (Wigston 4) Result: 0 – 1

After a good summer cups campaign, Boris started the season on the back of some good performances, playing on the second board of the second team. Across the board, our teammate found a debutant in the league in the face of Joseph Horspool whose father also happened to be in the Anstey Methodist Church on the night fighting for the first place in the Open division of the County Championship against one of the local legends – Shabir Okhai from Syston. The young Wigston player on board 2 immediately showcased his chess roots and met Boris’ development with a slightly passive, yet effective defence. ‘The Toaster’ positioned his pieces in what appeared to be excellent squares, taking space in the centre and having developed all of his minor pieces as soon as move 9. Nevertheless, our teammate wasted move 10 on a far-fetched idea starting with h3, only to be met by a well-timed c5 from Black. The move unleashed a long sequence of exchanges, leaving Boris with doubled f-pawns and a possible slight advantage, had he kept his centre pawns. Unfortunately, our teammate decided to take an alternative route, greedily picking up the black a-pawn, as the Wigston player exchanged the queens, leaving our teammate with terrible pawn structure in a slightly worse endgame. Although the game was far from over, ‘The Toaster’ decided to take the action into a two rooks vs two rooks endgame, a notorious struggle for our teammate which costed him half point in the last round of the Chapman cup a fortnight earlier. Black decided to double his rooks on the worst possible file, while our teammate managed to occupy the open files, while also partially fixing his own pawn structure. Boris decided to try and further damage his opponent’s pawn structure by sacrificing his h-pawn and put himself in a good situation with solid drawing chances (Stockfish, depth=15 from chess.com evaluates it at 0.0). However, our teammate missed the brilliant f4 move and played Rh1 instead, followed by Rh2 and Rf1, completely freezing his pieces in a wait to be demolished, with the engine evaluating the position as -1.1. ‘The Toaster’ managed to activate his king and sacrificed the f-pawn to get one of the black h-pawns, but went over the top with another unnecessary pawn sacrifice. Our teammate managed to activate his rooks and even had good drawing chances at several points, but after several inaccuracies and obvious mistakes got himself in a completely losing pickle and resigned. The game ended being a harsh beginning of the new season for Boris who will be looking to perform better in the next fixture against the Division 4 winners from last year Market Harborough 3.

Lucas Muir (Wigston 4) vs ‘El Presidente’ Ben Vaughan (Anstey 2) Result: 1 – 0

(reported by Ben himself)

On board 3, ‘El Presidente’ faced off against another debutant – Lucas Muir. Against 1.e4 (proper chess player!), he replied with the usual French Defence. However, instead of replying cxd4, ‘El Presidente’ responded to a3 by playing c4 in a brand new move for him. Was this the time to experiment? Probably not but once you’ve moved a piece, you cannot take it back. ‘El Presidente’ followed up c4 with Na5-b3 – the b3 square being a big hole in White’s position. The idea was to follow up with the e7 Knight coming to c6-a5 to reinforce b3 but with a trade off happening straight away, Black had to re-capture with a pawn, after an attempt to pin the capturing Knight with Ba4 – a nice little find. The pieces came off and Black seemed to have gained equality but Lucas played some sensible moves without being aggressive and was able to squeeze the position, forcing a mistake from ‘El Presidente’. The engine evaluation at this point of the game was +7 and even over the board it was looking fairly bleak for Black. However, ‘El Presidente’ cut his losses and eventually castled and shifted his pieces to the K-side. White did blunder, allowing Qd1+ which swung the game to -7 in Black’s favour. Unfortunately, by this point El Presidente was low on time and did not have sufficient time to calculate sophisticated capitalisation on his superior position. What followed was the trade of Queens and some exceptionally poor endgame play from both players. ‘El Presidente’ did not have much time and was down to 8 seconds at one point. Lucas held his nerve and eventually mated Black with a Queened pawn, King and Bishop in tandem.

‘El Presidente’ certainly looked rusty and felt rusty – on to the next one!

Bob Grindrod (Anstey 2) vs Sathsara Dissanayake (Wigston 4) Result: 1/2 – 1/2

Although a seasoned league player most recently (albeit in pre-pandemic times) in Norfolk, Bob made his debut in the Leicestershire league, playing White against a third young debutant in the league from Wigston. The inexperience of the visitors’ player along with the rustiness over the board of our teammate whose last competitive game was in 1 B.C. (first year before COVID), the game ended being a little bit of a ‘swings and roundabouts’ display. After a typical Italian game in the ‘Giuoco pianissimo’ our teammate found himself with the bishop pair after his opponent equalised early in the opening and carelessly exchanged his dark-squared bishop for one of the white knights. Already castled K-side, Black decided to strike in the centre with d4 which was met by Bob with an ambitious plan to spend some time getting a good square for the queen so he could castle queenside (Q-side). Black used the presented initiative to occupy the centre with his knight while exchanging his other knight for White’s dark-squared bishop. With the addition of relative pin on the remaining white knight, our teammate found himself in a very uncomfortable position, evaluated by the engine at -1.5 with equal material. Luckily, Black exchanged the wrong piece and the position got back to more or less equal, as the queens got off the board as well. Having the worse pawn structure, Bob started a series of improving moves, exchanging a set of rooks and taking advantage of an absolute pin to win a couple of pawns and get the material advantage, albeit with an ugly, almost unfortunate pawn structure. A sequence of pawn exchanges combined with tactical moves finished with Bob having the better part of a symmetrical and ugly pawn structure alongside a light-squared bishop and a rook on each side. Under the pressure of losing the initiative and the positional advantage, the young Wigston player made several mistakes to give our teammate a clear +5 advantage, with 4 pawns and fixed structure against two lonely isolated pawns. Unfortunately, our teammate’s rustiness showed up as he missed the opportunity to capitalise on his clearly winning position. With more active rook and nothing to lose, the young player from the away team managed to create havoc over the board and eventually the position ended being too drawish for any player to make any advance and the draw was agreed. Although a missed opportunity, Bob’s Anstey debut showcased how lucky our team is to have him in their line-up.

Chris Brown (Wigston 4) vs Mike Griffiths (Anstey 2) Result: 0 – 1

On board five Mike stepped up to reinforce the team as our opponents on the night requested five board match. The game started with the Smith-Mora Gambit line of the Sicilian defence, with the players quickly exchanging pawns on d4 and opening the c-file. A rapid development followed, whereby our teammate decided to ‘fianchetto’ his bishop in the good tradition of a seasoned English player. Both players positioned their pieces on favourable squares, castled K-side and the battle for the centre began. Our teammate went on to tactically win a pawn, only to fall victim to a nice knight fork on both black rooks. Eventually the a8-rook fell victim and Mike found himself one point of material down following the loss of the exchange. Nevertheless, the potential energy from his well-placed strong minor pieces kept him in the game and he tried to take the initiative by pushing his pawns on the K-side and in the centre. The Wigston player defended well and even managed to create a counter attack, taking back a pawn in the process and achieving a nice two point material advantage, with the position evaluated at around +3 by the engine. However, our teammate was far from giving up and used first his bishop and then his knight to harass White’s rooks. Eventually, the horse-shaped piece managed to exchange itself for one of white rooks, taking the game back into equality. Moreover, with a couple of improving moves Mike managed to take the advantage and the initiative. Unfortunately, finding himself in a winning position, our teammate fell victim to complacency and blundered his rook. With no prospects of saving the game, Mike resigned. A tough start of the league season for our teammate but nevertheless a good warm-up before his third team top board appearance next week against Braunstone 3.

In conclusion, not the best start for our second team which would fall under the learning experience label. Next they are playing Market Harborough 3 at home on the 13th October and they will be looking to turn the tide against a strong opponent, deservedly won division 4 last year.

The evening also saw another busy club night accompanied by two finals of the County Championship. In the Open division Shabir Okhai from Syston got the win while in the Challengers division Anstey’s own Julian ‘Mr. Engine’ conducted another endgame masterclass to seal his championship and perfect record 5/5 in the competition, hence, taking the trophy in the division.