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!

Thursday 30/03/2023. Anstey 1’s push for a top 2 finish in the division was dealt another blow as Market Harborough 1 took all the points in this LRCA Division 2 clash. Hopes were high going into the match after walloping Wigston 2 the week before but despite a brave effort they could not replicate the performance.

With John returning from ill-health Anstey fielded their regular side against an odd-looking Harborough team. Harborough out-rated Anstey on the top 3 boards but fielded an unknown (at least to us) 1,250 player rated on board 4. (A ringer? – Ed). At 19:30 the players shook hands and battle commenced.

John Robinson’s game against Dave Walker on board 2 was the first to finish and immediately put the home team on the back foot. Dave, with black, had equalised out of the opening and countered John’s queenside castling and kingside expansion with his own queenside attack leaving his king in the centre. John’s attack lost momentum and he went defensive before Dave made a brilliant knight sacrifice:

The game continued 22. … Nxb2!! 23. Kxb2 Qa4 24. Kc1 Qa2 25. Re2 Ba3+ 26. Nxa3 b2+ and John resigned a hopeless position. Instead of 22. Rd1-e1 John should have played 22. h5! when both 22. … Nxb2 and 22. … Ne3 are met with 23. hxg6 but hey-ho, that’s chess! Anstey 0 – 1 Market Harborough.

Mick Sandham was white on board 4 against Steve Bizley. Mick got the better of the opening and had a development and space advantage. Steve tried a desperate counter with 12. … e5 but after a few careful moves by white this lost a pawn. Mick then found what looked to be a lovely outpost for his knight on b6 but this turned out to be a blunder:

Steve found the brilliant defensive tactical resource 18. … Bxc5+!! winning back the pawn and then won another to be up in material. Mick lined up his queen and bishop against black’s king and Steve made a defensive inaccuracy with 21. … g6 rather than 21. … h6 allowing 22. f5! The bishops came off and with a slightly exposed king Steve accepted Mick’s draw offer despite being the pawn up. (Stockfish eval was 0.0 – Ed). Anstey ½ – 1½ Market Harborough.

Matt Connor had a strange game against Romilly Ilersic with black on board 3. After an odd opening line it looked like black had an edge, with lots of little tactical motifs at play but Matt missed a key move harassing white’s queen on c2 with 10. … Nb4. Instead, he defended his e4 pawn with 10. Bf5 but this allowed Romilly to regroup and re-position his knights on c3 and c4 targeting black’s soft underbelly and slightly exposed king. The pressure eventually told and white won a pawn and had a lovely position with black squarely on the back foot. Matt tried to mix it up and get some counterplay, it was just enough with the clocks running down to give Romilly pause for thought and to accept Matt’s (rather cheeky – Ed) offer of a draw although this pretty much secured the points for Harborough in the match situation. Anstey 1 – 2 Market Harborough.

Last to finish was board 1, Julian Tarwid as black against Ian Clarke. The game was even throughout with no side gaining any advantage to speak of (reflected in both sides move accuracy of over 95%). In the endgame Julian activated his rook and pushed and prodded for a weakness but Ian made no mistakes defending. In the end it came down to a completely level opposite colour bishops ending and a draw was agreed. This secured match victory for Harborough. Anstey 1½ – 2½ Market Harborough.

Anstey remain 3^rd in the division but are now only 2 points ahead of Braunstone who have a game in hand, yikes:

Anstey’s next game is home against Syston 2 on the 20^th April.

Anstey captain Matt Connor told Men’s Health:
Once again I’m very disappointed, our third loss this season. True, the losses are all against the teams above us in the league but our biggest problems have been the number of drawn matches and points lost against lower sides. Two matches to go, we now need to ensure that we finish third.

Thursday 23/03/2023. Anstey 1 made the trip to the Wigston Liberal Club for the second time in a week for this LRCA Division 2 fixture against Wigston 2. Self confidence in the team was at an all-time low having drawn their last two matches against the bottom two sides in the division. Err, apart from Julian that is who is Mr Confidence. Still, they were hoping to improve on the 2-2 draw in the reverse fixture. Once again super-sub Boris (who’s having a superb run in the 1^st team – Ed) was called upon after John Robinson pulled out of the team due to ill health.

Once again, the team were warmly greeted by Wigston. When the captains exchanged team sheets it was revealed that Anstey had a significant rating disadvantage on paper (7,467 vs 6,933). The players shook hands and battle commenced.

For only the second time this season Matt Connor finished first, playing black on board 2 versus Stefan Savic. Matt equalised out of the opening and built up a bit of an edge in the position but this petered out and a draw was agreed. Yawn. Still, it gave him the opportunity to enjoy watching the other games. Wigston ½ – Anstey ½.

Julian Tarwid was out for revenge for his loss in the reverse fixture against Lewis Turner. Playing white on board 1 the middlegame was fairly even until Julian managed to mobilise his bishops and rooks and was putting pressure on black’s position. Tempted by a cheap checkmate threat Julian then made a mistake allowing black’s white-squared bishop into the game with tempo, a potentially game-changing move. Unfortunately for Lewis he then returned the favour, Julian swinging into full kingside attack mode:

Julian replied with 24. Bxf5! And after 24. … Bxe1 (24. … gxf5 25. Rg3+ leads to mate in 9) 25. Rg3 Kh7 26. Qf3 was crushing, Lewis resigned. Sweet. Wigston ½ – Anstey 1½.

Mick Sandham faced off against Stephen Smith with white on board 3. Despite being out-rated by over 200 points Mick played a great game, building up an advantage in the middlegame and creating a menacing looking attack against black’s draughty looking king. In one of those positions where you think there must be something here but you can’t quite see it (yes Matt – Ed) he missed a great but very hard to spot move:

Mick could now have played 26. Rf6! After 26. … Nxf6 27. Qg5+ Qg7 28. Qxg7+ Kxg7 29. Nxe6+ Kg8 30. exf6 white comes out with a knight and 2 pawns for the rook with black probably having to give back the exchange to deal with the monster passed pawn on f6. But that didn’t happen, instead with the clocks running down pieces were traded off and it came down to queen, 2 knights and 6 pawns vs queen, bishop, knight and 6 pawns. White still had a tiny advantage but a draw was agreed. Wigston 1 – Anstey 2.

With just a draw required to secure the W it was down to Boris on board 4 (with the black pieces) against Andrew Pike. Andrew played slightly passively in the opening giving himself a bad dark-squared bishop. He eventually went for a Stonewall like setup pushing on the kingside with g4 then f5. But black had a solid grip on the centre. Pawns came off, white ending up with an isolated queen-pawn. Boris piled on the pressure on the d4 pawn. Andrew defended manfully but became extremely short on time. Boris manoeuvred his knight around in an attempt to find the perfect square, Andrew reduced to shuffling pieces at this point. Eventually the black knight threatened to jump in to the 6^th rank and Andrew walked into a fatal fork:

41. … Ne3+ game over. Wigston 1 – Anstey 3.

A great win for Anstey, consolidating their 3^rd place in the division but still 4 points behind the leaders.

Anstey face Market Harborough 1 in the next match on 30^th March, another “6-pointer”.

Anstey captain Matt Connor told Self Confidence Magazine:
I am delighted with that team performance, that’s probably our best win of the season so far. The way Julian converted his queenside pressure into a sudden, devastating kingside attack was Grandmaster-esque. Boris’s superb form also continues, he made Andrew squirm like a squirmy thing.

Thursday 16/03/2023. Anstey 1 made the first of two consecutive visits to the Wigston Liberal Club for this LRCA Division 2 fixture against Wigston 3. They were full of confidence having won the reverse fixture 4-0 (to date, still the only whitewash result in the division). The was despite star-player Julian crying off at the last minute with an eye condition (he could have played blindfolded surely? – Ed). Super-sub Boris once again stepped up to the plate (or sat down at the board, whatever).

After being warmly greeted and getting the mingling out of the way, the captains exchanged team sheets. Anstey had a significant rating advantage on paper (6,358 vs 6,796) but as we’ve seen before this often counts for nowt. The players shook hands and battle commenced.

John Robinson was first to finish, playing white on board 1 versus Les Corlett. John was no doubt hoping to do the double over Les having defeated him in the reverse fixture but it was not to be. Les equalised easily out of the opening, a few pieces were exchanged off and with neither player making any mistakes the position was dead-level. A draw was agreed after 21 moves. Wigston ½ – Anstey ½.

The other games pretty much went down to the wire but Mick Sandham’s game against Phil Watkinson on board 3 was the next to finish. Mick, with white, had a small advantage after the very sharp opening but was slow developing his queenside pieces. After an exchange of a white bishop for a black knight Phil equalised then moved into the ascendency with his dangerous looking bishop pair. Mick continued with a rook lift and kingside attack and the game descended into chaos with both sides making errors as the clocks ticked down. As so often happens a final blunder decided the game with Mick moving his rook where it could just be taken (albeit backwards) by black’s (now sole remaining) bishop. An outburst of “blast deary me!” gave the game away, Phil took the rook and the win. Wigston 1½ – Anstey ½.

Matt Connor was black on board 2 versus our good friend Paul Mottram. In a cagey game, Matt equalised fairly easily out of the opening. After pushing pawns and jamming up the queenside, Paul stood well in the centre of the board with a commanding e4 square for a knight whilst Matt built up pressure down the half open f-file. Matt mobilised his queen and both rooks and started probing for weakness against white’s castled king. As the clocks ticked down Paul defended well and the position was dynamically equal. Realising a draw would not be enough for the team Matt set a sneaky trap with a discovered attack on white’s rook on a1. Paul missed the threat (had he seen it he would have stood better), Matt gobbled up the rook with his bishop and a few moves later Paul resigned. Wigston 1½ – Anstey 1½.

So it all came down to Boris, also with black, against Peter Collings on board 4. Peter made an of inaccuracy in the opening allowing Boris to fork pawns on d4 and b2 with 10. … Qb6. Boris followed up winning another pawn then another and had a healthy advantage. Peter won a pawn back then followed a long spell in the game where various pieces came off and we were left with rook and 5 pawns vs rook and 3 pawns. Even though white’s rook (and king) were active and black’s rook slightly passive, this was still winning easily. Until Boris had a rush of blood to the head:

Boris inexplicably played 48. … e5+? and after 49. Kxd5 f4 50. exf4 exf4 51. gxf4 g3 52. Rb2 the position is completely drawn. Boris carried on for another 30-odd moves, the rooks coming off and ending up with king and rook’s pawn vs king before the draw was finally agreed. Wigston 2 – Anstey 2.

A great result for Wigston but not so much for Anstey, another dropped point against lower teams. They do move up one place in the league but remain 4 points off the lead.

Anstey return to Wigston on the 23^rd March for the “6-pointer” against Wigston 2.

Anstey captain Matt Connor told Chess.com:
Wow, what a shocker, another disappointing result. Too many dropped points against lower sides and the highest number of draws in the division, I fear this is going to be the story of our season.