Anstey put on a dazzling display, bouncing back to winning ways with a spectacular 4½ – ½ victory over Shepshed in the LRCA Division 1 showdown!

On Thursday, November 7, 2024, the Anstey Methodist Church Centre buzzed with excitement as Anstey faced off against Shepshed in a highly anticipated clash. With captain Matt Connor juggling the lineup due to absences (Dave Bray was off enjoying a Bellowhead concert and Bob Taylor was otherwise occupied), he seized the opportunity to sneak in a game on the bottom board. The team featured Sooraj Raju at the top board, flanked by Alan Agnew, Julian Tarwid, and George Kolbusz. In a cheeky tactical move reminiscent of cricket strategies, Matt shuffled Julian up the order. This match was particularly special for Alan and George, who were squaring off against their former team for the first time.

Shepshed entered the fray having lost their first two matches against top contenders Syston 1 and Wigston 1 – no shame there! However, Anstey boasted a stronger rating on the top four boards, with only Dave Farrall edging out Matt on board five. But as previous matches had shown, ratings mean little when the pieces start flying!

The match kicked off with handshakes and high hopes.

George Steals the Show Early!
Not for the first time this season George finished first! With white against Graham Harrison on board 4 the game had settled into an even middlegame. Graham pushed his kingside pawns forward to grab space but white’s light-squared bishop infiltrated behind them. Graham mistimed an exchange sacrifice to remove the annoying bishop and came out a full exchange down with three weak pawns and an exposed king. He promptly resigned. 1 – 0 Anstey.

Sooraj’s Tactical Triumph
Sooraj faced off against Shepshed’s own new signing Paul Madden an board 1. He saddled Paul with an early positional weakness, an isolated pawn on an open file built up the pressure until Paul cracked under it and succumbed to a nice tactic. 2 – 0 Anstey.

Alan Holds Steady
Alan played his old teammate Rupert Bowley on board 2. Rupert gambited a pawn in the opening but had some compensation for it. Alan played super solidly and gave no chances away but couldn’t convert the slight advantage and the game petered out to a draw. 2½  – ½ Anstey.

Matt’s Thrilling Adventure
Matt’s game as black against Dave Farrall on board five was as entertaining as it comes. It had it all: an opening trap, opposite side castling with half-open g and b files, a dubious exchange sacrifice for the attack, a blunder, time trouble, back rank mate threats galore, a king chase, an incredible 17 move sequence of perfect play from both sides and in the end four queens on the board in! Luckily for Matt white’s queens couldn’t defend their exposed king, the black queens choregraphing perfectly to give checkmate. Phew. 3½ – ½ Anstey.

Julian’s Last-Minute Drama
All Matt’s game was missing was a massive swindle. Step up Julian as black on board 3 versus Sean Shehan. Julian was playing super solidly than gradually turned up the screw building a menacing attack. Somehow Sean defended but had to give up a pawn in the process. The pieces came off (and the time ticked down) and the position came out with king, rook and rook’s pawn versus king and rook. With the white king in front of the pawn and the white rook cutting the black king off. A dead drawn position. Except Sean missed a chance to round up the pawn, Julian repositioned his pieces and Sean went for the pawn again and this time captured it. A draw you would think? But no, the black king stepped in with the opposition and threatened rook across with checkmate. The only defence was to abandon the defence of the rook to a skewer, so Sean resigned. Julian was at least hugely apologetic for his dirty underhand trick LOL. It just goes to show that there’s always a tactic lurking somewhere. 4½ – ½ Anstey.

Scorecard:

League table:

Still early days.

Post-Match Buzz
Captain Matt Connor summed it all up perfectly during his post-match interview with BBC Radio Leicester: “That makes amends for last week’s defeat against Market Harborough—a superb team performance! I especially enjoyed Julian channelling his inner Magnus Carlsen by giving his opponent the chance to go wrong. Next up: Syston 1, bring it on!”

What a match! Anstey is back in business and ready to take on all challengers!

In a match that was meant to be a Halloween-themed chess showdown, Anstey’s hopes were dashed as Market Harborough snatched the victory in a gripping LRCA Division 1 clash.

The Spooky Setup

On Thursday 31 October 2024, Anstey hosted their friendly foes Market Harborough at the Anstey Methodist Church Centre, kicking off their first home game of the new LRCA league season. With summer signings Alan Agnew and Bob Taylor making their debuts, and Dave Bray off enjoying jazz in Bologna (nice!), the team was ready for battle. Sooraj led the charge on board one, supported by Julian and George, while captain Matt was left on the sidelines (you could just pick yourself – Ed).

The Tale of Mixed Fortunes

Market Harborough entered the match with a rollercoaster of results – trouncing Syston 2 five-nil but suffering heavy defeats to Loughborough 1 and Wigston 2. On paper, Anstey had the upper hand with higher ratings across all boards. But as any seasoned chess player knows, paper ratings don’t always translate to victory on the board.

The Battle Begins

With team sheets exchanged and handshakes completed, the chess pieces danced into action.

• Board Three: George, playing black against Romilly Ilersic, took a bold approach but soon found his king exposed in the centre. Despite his efforts to untangle his position, he lost pawns and ultimately succumbed to Romilly’s endgame prowess. Market Harborough took an early lead: 1 – 0.
  
• Board Two: Alan faced Patrick McHale as white. In a tightly contested match, Alan seized a slight positional edge that turned decisive when Patrick’s pawn advances created vulnerabilities around his king. With a clever tactic that trapped black’s rook, Alan levelled the score: 1 – 1.
  
• Board One: Sooraj faced off against Paul Colburn in a tight game. After equalising easily out of the opening and sacrificing a pawn for dynamic play, Sooraj then found a brilliant exchange sacrifice getting a pawn back then another. He was now an exchange for a pawn down but the position was dynamically equal. As a few more pieces came off and the time ticking inexorably down Sooraj won another pawn but with just 20s left on his clock in a complex position the players repeated moves and a draw was agreed: 1½ – 1½.
  
• Board Four: Julian took on Dave Walker in an intense game filled with tactical fireworks. After gambiting a pawn early on, Julian found himself under pressure from Dave’s aggressive kingside attack. Ultimately, Julian had no choice but to resign after being outmanoeuvred: 1½ – 2½.
  
• Board Five: Bob battled Andrew Foulds with black pieces and also opted for an early pawn gambit. The game dragged on with tension mounting as Andrew gained space and eventually converted his two-pawn advantage into victory over Bob in an opposite-coloured bishop endgame: 1½ – 3½.

Final Scorecard

Post-Match Reflections

In an interview with Sky Sports, Anstey captain Matt Connor lamented the disappointing outcome after their promising start against Loughborough two weeks prior. “What a shame! This match is a reminder that anyone can beat anyone on any given night,” he noted. Looking ahead, he expressed determination to regroup and make amends against Shepshed in the next match.

Thus ended Anstey’s Halloween adventure – a night filled with tactical tricks but unfortunately no treats!

Anstey struggle against early league leaders

Thursday 26/10/2023. Anstey 1 made the trip to the Wigston Liberal Club for their third match in LRCA league division 1. Having just missed out on a win against Thurnby the week before captain Matt tried to boost team morale by saying that all he wanted this time out was three wins for white (on the odd boards) though to be fair against the early league leaders that was always going to be a big ask. Ben was back from holiday so for the first time this season Anstey fielded their regular side. Wigston didn’t field their strongest possible side but still out-rated Anstey 10,204 vs 8,790. The teams shook hands and battle commenced.

The first fatality was Julian on board one with white against Martin Burrows. He seemed to be doing ok out of the opening but just a few moves later he had resigned. (Some kind of catastrophic error? – Ed).

Boris faced off against Lewis Tuner as white on board three. The game was fairly even but as all the minor pieces came off Boris lost a pawn. But with most of his pawns on dark squares and all but one of Lewis’s pawns on light squares there was still plenty of work for black to do. Though he did it inexorably, infiltrating with his queen and with the queens exchanged he had created a monster passed-pawn. Boris tried in vain to rustle up some counterplay in the rook and pawn ending but ultimately it came to nowt with black’s pawns crashing through.

Ben played Stefan Savic as white on board 5. He played a steady opening variation and for 30 moves the game was very close even considering Ben’s doubled, isolated but passed pawns on the b-file in a queen rook and five pawns each endgame. Ben got a bit tangled up trying to defend and blundered a pawn as black’s rook and queen switched direction to attack white’s king. Ben moved his queen over to defend but fell into a classic remove the defender tactic and lost his queen for a rook and resigned.

So the three Anstey wins with white wasn’t happing…

Mick finished next on board four with black against Lee Robinson. Deploying one of his famous wing openings he got into an ok position though for much of the middlegame white had a noticeable space advantage. Lee missed a chance to take advantage of black’s overworked queen but Mick dug in and defended hard. Lee improved his knight and found a great outpost on e6 but then traded it early for black’s bishop on c7. White still had +2.7 advantage but Lee lost the will to continue and agreed to a draw, praising Mick for his play and saying he deserved a draw. A great result for Mick, outrated by 367 points.

Last to finish was Matt on board two, black against Phil Horspool. A fairly normal looking opening became a bit Mick-esque when Matt played for a speculative looking (but planned) attack on the kingside with h6 and g5 followed by jumping his knight into f4 and leaving it there when challenged with g3. Phil snapped of the knight with g3xf4 but had a problem with his bishop on e3 after g5xf4, the bishop remained enprise for 5 or 6 moves before it was captured. Matt had a promising looking attack but couldn’t see a concrete way through and this gave Phil some time to organise his defence. But then as the time ticked down Matt castled long and Phil had a glimmer of counterplay and went for it. Matt had seen the five move sequence which included temporarily losing his queen only to fork white’s king and queen a few moves later and in theory to come out with a huge material advantage. Only inexplicably didn’t take the queen and blundered a second chance to win the game. Phil came out with a queen for rook, bishop and 2 pawns but with black’s exposed king probably stood better. With both sides perilously low on time a draw was agreed.

So Wigston took the win:

Wigston retain their 100% start to the season while Anstey drop to 7th:

Anstey captain Matt Connor told East Midlands Today:
Well, we were well beaten! I can only blame chess blindness for my blunder, the only crumb of comfort being the outcome of the match wasn’t dependent on my game! A superb result for Mick

Anstey score their first point of the season

Thursday 19/10/2023. Anstey 1 welcomed Thurnby to the Anstey Methodist Church Centre for their first home game in LRCA league division 1. Coming off a hammering by Shepshed the week before Anstey were targeting this match as a must-win with Thurnby likely to be their main challengers for relegation! With Ben away on holiday John stepped up from the second team to deputise and Mick being back from holiday took over the board five duties from Noor).

In likely to be a very rare occurrence this season Anstey actually out rated their opponents 8,852 vs 8,126 but unfortunately the numerical advantage came to nowt. Even the brand-new wooden sets and pieces donated to the club by Ben from his earning at the British Chess Championships couldn’t get them over the line.

The two Johns finished first on board three, pretty much playing out a grandmaster draw in twenty moves. John P as white eked out a small advantage but neither side looked that interested in starting any kind of attack and a draw was agreed.

Matt played Roland on board two and was the next to finish. In a change of approach this season Matt has eschewed some of his wilder lines with white and played much more solid openings. Or misplayed as it turns out. Having doubled black’s c pawns at the expense of a bishop for a knight exchange he missed a crucial move order nuance which allowed black to activate his pieces and untangle his pawns. The queens came off and it looked like Roland would be able to double his rooks on the c-file and invade but Matt defended accurately, and the game petered out to a draw.

Mick was playing the slightly inexperienced Ross Martin on board 5 as black. Now going for a more flexible interchangeable system he still ended up with a backward d-pawn but at least he managed to castle. Out of the opening white may have stood slightly better but with a more solid (than usual) setup Mick launched his infamous g5 and h5 kingside attack, doubled his rooks on the f-file and put white under some serious pressure. Looking for defensive resources white dropped his bishop back from b2 to c1 hitting black’s rook on f4 and offered a draw. Mick checked on Julian’s and Boris’s games and thinking that Boris was winning and Julian was about equal he took the draw. What both players had missed was that Bc1 left the pawn on d4 undefended and black could simply play Rxd4 going a pawn up with a winning position…

Boris was winning on board 4 against Michael Busby. Then he wasn’t. Then he was. Then he wasn’t. Then he was. Then he nearly gave away a draw before finally wearing down his opponent who made a final blunder and Boris took the win! (Yay, our first win of the season!). A 70-move thriller, a real rollercoaster of a game. Quoting Tartakower “The winner of the game is the player who makes the next-to-last mistake”.

Julian’s game as black against Ray Burgess was the last to finish and another long one with 80-odd moves, Julian playing the last 40-odd moves with less than a minute on the clock. With Julian going into time trouble Ray did have a 30-minute advantage as well as an advantage on the board. He’d  pushed a pawn up to a7 and this was causing Julian a real headache, in the end he had to give up material to eliminate it. Ray then played carefully as Julian fought for counterplay and used up his time advantage in doing so. Julian did manage to create a passed-pawn but it was doomed, he promoted it to a bishop rather than a queen in an attempt to throw Ray off his game but it didn’t work. Ray snapped it off then gave back most of his material advantage to get to a won king and pawn vs king ending, rubbing salt into Julian’s wound by also under-promoting (sadly to a rook not a bishop).

So the match finished as a draw:

Both teams are going to find it hard this season but at least the shared points meant that Braunstone drop to last place:

Anstey captain Matt Connor told BBC Sport:
Arrghh, so close! To be fair Boris’s game could have gone either way so we could have lost the match but Mick was mullering his opponent. A real case of “would’ve, could’ve, should’ve”!

Anstey have baptism of fire in league division 1

Thursday 12/10/2023. Anstey 1 travelled to The Black Swan in Shepshed for their inaugural game in the LRCA league division 1 full of hope. Mick was unavailable (sacrilege – Ed) so Noor stood up to the plate making his third appearance for the first team (thanks Noor!). With division 1 having five boards per match this season new first team regulars Boris & Ben joined Julian and captain Matt to make up the team.

Shepshed had started the season on a flyer beating champions (and favourites) Syston 3 – 2 in their opening match but fielded an even stronger side this time out. With an average 270 rating point difference per board this was going to be a tough night for Anstey.

And so it turned out. Board five was first to finish, George and Noor blitzing through their game. George didn’t fall for Noor’s little trap and ended up two pawns to the good with a completely won endgame.

Ben finished next on board three, getting a great draw against Bobby never having been in any trouble. The same could not be said for Matt who was too passive and then missed a simple tactic in time pressure.

So with the match score Shepshed 2½ – ½ Anstey it came down to Julian and Boris, Julian was doing ok against Alan Agnew but had an inferior pawn structure whilst Boris had a very interesting endgame against Sean Sheahan. Sean was up two pawns in rook an and same-coloured bishop ending but was severely down on time. Boris dug in and defended hard, playing super accurately. Sean made a mistake and a draw played out. A superb result for Boris.

During this time Julian had lost a piece for a pawn, Alan took no chances and remorselessly improved his pieces and position. Nothing Julian tried to get counterplay worked, Alan broke through and the defence crumbled leading to a nice mate.

Board 1: Alan Agnew vs Julian Tarwid [DRAFT]
After a steady opening an exchange of minor pieces gave Julian as white doubled pawns on the kingside. As the middlegame progressed Julian lost a piece for a pawn or two. Alan proceeded to play with remorseless efficiency, improving his pieces and snubbing out all efforts of counterplay. Eventually he got his central pawns rolling and with his pieces beautifully coordinated crashed though and mated the white king on the back rank.

Board 2: John Molyneux vs Matt Connor
Matt went for a solid setup as black but missed a chance to expand on the queenside with … b5 and ended up with a way too passive position:

John played 12. f4! then jumped his knight to f5 and castled long. It took a few moves for black to untangle his pieces before he finally rustled up some counterplay. After a tactical sequence a pair of minor pieces and the queens came off before Matt (in a bit of time pressure) walked straight into a deadly pin from which there was no answer and he resigned.

Board 3: Sean Sheahan vs Borislav Lazarov
Boris went for his standard setup with the white pieces and came out of the opening with a +1.5 advantage after Sean jumped his f6 knight into e4 instead of concentrating on development. He couldn’t maintain it though and a tense middlegame ensued. On move 26 Boris played a reasonable looking rook move:

But this allowed Sean to play the very nice 26. … Bxc5!! winning a pawn. Black then doubled rooks on the a-file and infiltrated, eventually winning the a-pawn with an exchange of rooks. Now 2 pawns down Boris dug in and made Sean work hard. Sean was getting very low on time made an error on move 44:

After 45. Kd2! Rc2+ 46. Kd3! Rb2 47. Kc3 Rb1 48. Rxb3 Rxb3+ 49. Kxb3 c5?! 50. dxc5 the position is probably theoretically drawn. There was still fun to be had though in the next 17 moves as pawns were whittled down, white’s king got in behind black’s pawns, the bishops came off and both sides queened a pawn! In a level king and queen vs king and queen position the draw was agreed.

Board 4: Robert Henfrey vs Ben Vaughan
Bobby played a very steady system against Ben’s favoured European opening as black allowing Ben to equalise fairly easily before he was slightly inaccurate with 7. … a5. But Bobby eschewed playing e5 (gaining space and hitting black’s knight on f6) on moves 8, 9 and 10 and the game settled down to a fairly staid affair. A few minor pieces were traded off and with no side looking to jeopardise their position with any sort of attack a draw was agreed. A great result for Ben.

Board 5: George Kolbusz vs Noor Datoo
George played a very solid if slightly passive opening but chased Noor’s bishop on g5 with h6 then g5 gaining space on the kingside. Neither side had managed to castle when Noor went for a trappy pawn push with d5:

Unfortunately for Noor this loses the pawn after 13. … Bxb5. Despite a few inaccuracies from both sides shortly afterwards George simplified the position exchanging the queens and all the rooks and when his knight jumped in the c4 forking the b2 and e5 pawns he had a winning position. The remaining minor pieces were swapped off leaving black 2 pawns up in a king and pawn endgame and with no chances Noor resigned.

Shepshed maintain their 100% record and remain top, Anstey are in 6^th place with a crunch game against Thurnby next week.

Anstey captain Matt Connor told Sky Sports:
A tough start to our league campaign. It’s a big step up from division 2 to division 1 and I’m under no illusion that we’re not going to struggle, our sole aim is to avoid relegation. We are targeting the Thurnby games for wins and then try to sneak a couple of points against the higher rated teams. On an individual basis I’m delighted with Boris and Ben’s draws against superior opponents, two great efforts.

Thursday 06/07/2023. Anstey welcomed Wigston to the Methodist Church in Anstey for this LRCA 2023 Chapman Cup semi-final fixture. After squeezing past Shepshed in round 1 Anstey were full of confidence though made two changes to that team with John and Mick coming in for Boris and Ben respectively.

The Chapman Cup has a handicap system in place effectively giving lower rated teams a head start in the match, meaning the higher rated team has to win more points on the real boards to win the match. In round 1 Wigston fielded a decent team versus a relatively mediocre Market Harborough side and faced a 3½ point deficit meaning they had to win on all 4 boards… which they did! Against Anstey, Wigston had a weakened team (with Lewis Turner playing his county championship match) and so they benefited from a ½ point handicap advantage.

So with Anstey needing 2½ points to take the match the captains tossed for colours, Wigston winning and choosing white on odd boards. The players shook hands and battle commenced.

Board 1: Stephen Smith (Wigston 1822) v Julian Tarwid (Anstey 1947)
Stephen went for a solid opening but Julian equalised easily. Before fully completing development white pushed his king’s knight forward swapping it for black’s queenside counterpart and when the queens came off black ended up with an unusual diamond pawn formation:

Despite the pawn structure black stands better due to the open lines and his piece activity. This was enhanced further after Julian played a couple of super accurate moves and when white exchanged his dark-squared bishop for black’s knight, black’s bishop pair ran riot in white’s position. Stephen gave up a knight and exchanged a pair of rooks to try and ease the pressure before finally blundering into a deadly mating net:

In an already hopeless position white played 30. Ke1? giving black mate in 2 with 30. … Bc3+. Stephen resigned.

Board 2: Matthew Connor (Anstey 1769) v Peter Collings (Wigston 1698)
Matt was the only Anstey player to lose in round 1 so was out to make amends. He came out of the opening with a tiny edge in a very classical game of chess, both sides playing their own game developing calmly. Until move 16. Having used up a bit too much time on the clock Matt decided it was going to be easier to attack than defend or just push wood and started a speculative kingside attack. This gave Peter something to think about and a couple of defensive mistakes when trying to complicate quickly gave Matt a crushing advantage:

Black is horribly weak on the white squares, Peter resigned after a few more moves before the inevitable checkmate in the middle of the board.

Board 3: Les Corlett (Wigston 1660) v John Robinson (Anstey 1701)
John didn’t mess about and gambited a pawn on move 3. He got a lead in development and then messed up white’s queenside pawn structure swapping bishop for knight on c3. But he never quite had enough compensation for the pawn, Les played calmly and very slowly untangled his position. Plenty of manoeuvring and probing followed with both sides playing ok but white’s advantage gradually increased. As time ticked down John had a few tactics to keep Les on his toes but none came off and with just a few seconds left on the clock John blundered a rook and resigned.

Board 4: Mick Sandham (Anstey 1637) v Chris Brown (Wigston 1425)
With the biggest rating differential this game was earmarked as a must win for Anstey. Mick rocketed out of the blocks and gambited a pawn in one of his favourite European openings. But Chris was well prepared and played very accurately. As minor pieces were swapped off Mick ruined black’s kingside pawn structure and had good compensation for the pawn. But with fewer pieces on the board it was hard to see a way to attack for white. Mick started to shuffle his kingside pawns forward but they never really got going. In the meantime, Chris activated his queen and rook on the open e-file, played Qh3 and pushed his own h-pawn. Mick checked with Nf5 and after Kf8 thinking he was threatening mate in 2 with Qh6 played Qd3-d2 unfortunately leaving the f5 knight en-prise with Qh3xf5. Oops. Mick played on as Chris was very short on time (down to less than 3 seconds on at least a couple of occasions) but he handled the endgame well and although Mick queened a pawn it was too late as Chis had queened first and white’s horribly exposed king was getting mated. Mick resigned.

Summary
So with 2 wins each Wigston take the match with the ½ point handicap:

Wigston will play Loughborough in the final.

Anstey captain Matt Connor told Sky Sports:
Our cup dream is over, I’m gutted. Our two defeats were actually very close games and, on another day, we could easily have got the ½ point we needed to see us over the line. But hey-ho, that’s knockout chess for you (not to be confused with chess-boxing), good luck to Wigston in the final!

Thursday 25/05/2023. Anstey’s Chapman Cup team made the trip to the Black Swan Inn in Shepshed for this LRCA 2023 Chapman Cup round 1 fixture against Shepshed. After last year’s Swiss-style event (which you may recall Anstey won in some style…) the Chapman Cup this year reverts to a FA Cup style knock out tournament. With only six teams though this meant that two teams had byes in the first round and progressed straight to the semi-finals (LOL). You’d have thought that the reigning champions might have had a bye but no such luck.

The Chapman Cup has a handicap system in place effectively giving lower rated teams a head start in the match (meaning the higher rated team has to win more points on the real boards to win the match). Anstey benefited from this to great effect last year having the bonus in five of the six matches so it was with some surprise that after the players’ ratings were totted up Anstey out-rated Shepshed by 305 points giving Shepshed a ½ point lead in the match. This was due to Shepshed’s board 4 (ringer? – Ed) being unrated and given a notional rating of 1300 which is to the letter of the law if not in the spirit of the game (he was clearly a much better player than 1300, he registered 92.9% accuracy!! – Ben) (sanitised for publication).

Anyhoo… the captains tossed for colours, Shepshed winning and choosing white on odd boards. The players shook hands and battle commenced.

Board 1: Robert Henfrey (1906) v Julian Tarwid (1947)
Bobby went for a solid if slightly passive opening allowing black to equalise easily then activating his pieces in the centre of the board and getting an edge. White then started to expand before Julian tried to open up the white king by exchanging knight and bishop for rook and pawn. Bobby missed a defensive resource then Julian snaffled another pawn before Bobby blundered:

Bobby played the natural looking move 28. Qg2?? allowing Julian to smash out 28. … Rg4! with multiple threats. Bobby gave up his queen for rook but his position was hopeless, Julian made no mistakes and simplified to a completely won endgame. Bobby resigned.

Board 2: Matthew Connor (1769) v Graham Harrison (1881)
Matt was the only Anstey player out-rated by his Shepshed opponent. Graham played a slightly unusual but flexible move order in the opening but was a bit passive. Matt played natural moves before deciding to castle long and launch a kingside attack. Graham’s queen was active but his other pieces were a bit tied up. Matt opened up the h-file and looked to have a crushing attack looming:

Matt was very low on time and he continued with 25. g5. This was ok but 25. e5! would have been decisive, the idea to free up the e4 square for the c3 knight to join in the fun and if 26 … d5 then 27. f5. The game continued for a few moves but Matt’s position imploded due to the time pressure and some nice defensive moves by Graham, Matt blundered then lost on time (FFS – Ed).

Board 3: Kevin Bennet (1661) v Borislav Lasarov (1701)
Boris got an advantage right from the opening doubling white’s c-pawns with an early BxNc3. Kevin eschewed the chance to go a pawn up by taking black’s c5-pawn but this would have landed him with tripled pawns! Each side pushed central pawns and after a mass exchange (including the queens) black came out a pawn up. Boris consolidated his advantage before a couple of inaccuracies allowed Kevin to slowly get back into the game and eventually recapture the pawn he was down. Having done the hard work, the position came down to knight and 3 pawns against bishop and 3 pawns when Kevin made a fatal mistake:

Instead of going with 53. Nb3 in an effort to create another passed pawn, Kevin played 53. Ne2? trying to defend but after 53. … f3 54. Nd4 Kd3! 55. Nxf3 Bxf3 56. Kxf3 Kc3! black wins the race to queen his rook pawn first (by 1 move but 1 is enough!) and white resigned. Great calculation by Boris!

Board 4: Ben Vaughan (1636) v Igbinobaro Osaretin (1300?)
Out of the opening the position was roughly level when Igbinobaro eyed up and pinched white’s b2 pawn with his g7 bishop. He then went after and took white’s a2 pawn with his other bishop. Ben calmly developed, swapped off the dark square bishops and despite being 2 pawns down had a +1 eval. A couple of inaccuracies on both sides followed but Ben won a pawn back with a roughly level eval. Pieces were swapped off and Ben won back his pawn deficit leaving both sides with 2 rooks, a knight and 4 pawns each with black having a tiny advantage due to his outside passed pawn. But then Ben made a defensive error allowing black’s knight take white’s c-pawn leaving him a pawn up with connected outside passed pawns. But Ben is a battler (resilient – Ed), he gave up his knight for the two passed pawns leaving him a rook and 3 pawns vs rook, knight and 2 pawns. But black’s king was stuck on the side of the board and with the time ticking down Igbinobaro had to be careful not to mated there. As the time scramble developed, Igbinobaro gave up his knight for 2 pawns (and the rooks came off) leaving him a pawn up. Mr Resilient engineered his defence brilliantly swapping off a pawn leaving king and rook pawn vs king and with the white king behind the pawn the position was drawn! A great performance Ben, a real joint-captain’s effort!

So with 2 wins and a draw Anstey take the match despite the ½ point handicap!

In the other round 1 match Wigston overcame a 3½ (!) point handicap by winning on all 4 boards against a relatively weak Market Harborough side to win 4 – 3½ and to set up a Wigston vs Anstey semi-final. Kirby Muxloe play Loughborough in the other semi-final on the 15^th June.

Anstey joint-captain Matt Connor told Sky Sports:
I am delighted with the win, relieved actually that my “oops” didn’t cost us going out in round 1. Great wins for Boris and especially Julian, he’s something else isn’t he? But it was Ben’s resilient performance (have we mentioned that?) with his back against the wall that brought the result home. It sets up a great semi-final against Wigston, two more wins now and we are champions again! Why do Anstey players eat mushrooms on toast in the morning I hear you ask? It’s the breakfast of champignons…

Thursday 20/04/2023. With Anstey 1’s push for a top 2 finish in the division well and truly over the team was pretty much playing for pride (and to hopefully secure 3^rd place) they welcomed Syston 2 to the Methodist Church Centre in this this LRCA Division 2 clash.

With John Robinson out once again due to ill-health Boris once again stepped up, this time being slotted in on board 3 above Mick on board 4. Syston turned up early but by 19:30 Anstey were still missing Julian and Boris. The pleasantries were over and clocks had just started when the pair arrived and apologetically took their seats. With team ratings 6,933 vs 6,584 Anstey had the on-paper edge.

First to finish was Boris as black against Taz Dhillon on board 3. Taz is a wily old fox and many a half-decent player have come unstuck against him but Boris showed excellent opening knowledge and had equalised easily. As the middlegame progressed Boris swapped his light-squared bishop for white’s knight on f3 (crippling the kingside pawns) but after a swap off of queens and a few other pieces white sorted his pawns out. But black’s position was active and looked to have a slight edge when the blunder came:

Boris played 26. … Nd3 but missed 27. Rd1 pinning the knight to the rook! A piece down Boris played on but lost another pawn then another and eventually resigned when checkmate was inevitable with white’s bishops co-ordinating very well:

So not a great start to the match from the Anstey perspective. Anstey 0 – 1 Syston.

Next to finish was Matt on board 2 playing against Janis Utinans, a rematch from the reverse fixture back in December. But that was board 3 so the colours were the same with Matt as white. Janis played an early … Bb4 instead of the more usual …Nf6 and by move 6 Matt was out of his opening book. He pushed the bishop back to b6 but missed the opportunity to expand on the queenside with a4 and a5 harrying the bishop further instead swapping the bishop off for his knight on d5. This allowed Janis to exchange pawns in the centre and hit back with d5 equalising the position. But it remained double-edged with both kings stuck in the centre. Matt went for a pawn sacrifice with 11. 0-0 and the lure was too much for Janis:

Play continued 11. … dxe4? 12. d5! exf3? 13. dxc6 fxg2 14. Re1+ Be6 15. cxb7+ leading to this weird position:

After 15. … Kf8 16. bxa8=Q Qxa8 white is a rook up and winning easily. Janis resigned a few moves later. Anstey 1 – 1 Syston.

Mick was white on board 4 against Aron English (who you’ll remember resigned a drawn position against Boris in the reverse fixture). Mick was hoping for the same LOL. But it wasn’t required, in an ultra-sharp opening Aron played an early, passive … h6. Mick responded by temporarily sacrificing his d pawn for rapid development and proceeded to a classic “oh no my queen!” move:

Play continued 10. … Be6 11. Nxc6 Qd6 12. Qf3 Nf6 13. Nxd4 after which white is a pawn and has a winning advantage. But Aron could have taken the queen with 10. … Bxd1 as after 11. Nxc6+ Kd7 12. Nxd8 Bh5 there is still all to play for. Mick played on calmly moving his pieces over to the kingside to exert some pressure against the black king when he gave Aron a glimmer of hope:

Despite looking risky 19. … Qxb2 is ok but Aron didn’t go for it instead playing 20 … c5 white time to defend b2. The knights and a pair of rook came off before white’s queen wet on the rampage capturing both black’s a and c pawns. 3 pawns down in a losing position Aron gracefully resigned. Anstey 2 – 1 Syston.

This left Julian on board 1 with black against the lovely Brian Galligan. In a game very similar to Julian’s last game against Ian Clarke, black equalised in the opening and built up a tiny edge before pieces were swapped off and the position came out equal. More pieces were swapped off and it went down to an opposite-coloured bishops ending (notoriously difficult to win – Ed). Brian thought he had a slight edge in the position and grinded on but Julian defended well. Where Brian did have an edge was on the clock, Julian played the last 40(!) or so moves with less than 1 minute on the clock and on at least 3 occasions was down to 1 second! Brian picked up Julian’s h-pawn but still the position was theoretically drawn until the time pressure eventually told:

58. … Kg7! is still drawing but Julian made a mistake with 58. … Kg8? allowing 59. Kg6 with Brian calmly converting the win. Julian battled on for a few more moves before his flag fell. What a shame. Anstey 2 – 2 Syston.

Anstey 1 remain 3^rd in the division but with Braunstone 2 beating Ashby 1 on the same night they are now only 1 point ahead of Braunstone who still have a game in hand, double-yikes:

Anstey’s last game of the season is home against Ashby 1 on the 4^th May (Star Wars Day). Ashby 1 need to beat Wigston 2 and hope Market Harborough 1 slip up against Braunstone 2 for Ashby to still have something to play for in the last game of the season.

Anstey captain Matt Connor told Autocar:
Once again I’m very disappointed, our sixth draw this season. Too many points given away against lower sides. We could easily have won this one though, an uncharacteristic blunder by Boris (we’ve all been there mate) and an epic battle for Julian. One match to go, finishing third is now not in our hands, we could do with Market Harborough beating Braunstone!