Thursday 10/11/2022. Anstey 1 welcomed Wigston 3 to the Methodist Church Centre in this in LRCA Division 2 clash and scored an emphatic 4-0 win, the first whitewash in the division this season. With John back from injury Anstey looked to field their regular first team of Julian, John, Matt & Mick until Mick himself withdrew in the pre-match warm up after a reaction to a course of anti-biotics. The last-minute change saw super-sub Boris once again stepping in. No such luck as a night off Boris! With the team lists hurriedly updated Anstey had a decisive on-paper advantage (7,048 vs 6,633) and as the clock ticked past 19:30 battle commenced.

The first game to finish was board 2, John playing as white against Les Corlett. After a steady opening Les left his a-pawn en prise which John gobbled up with his rook infiltrating on the queenside. John’s pieces streamed forward squeezing the life out of black’s position. It looked like John was really enjoying the game as he threw in a nice tactic to win another pawn:

Les carried on courageously but John forced home his advantage and took the win. Anstey 1 – Wigston 0.

Boris was white against Paul Mottram on board 4 and was the next to finish. Boris went for his trademark kingside attack throwing his pawns forward opening the h-file and winning a pawn followed by ganging-up his rook and queen on said h-file. Paul defended by swapping off the major pieces but this left knight and 7 pawns vs knight and 6 pawns and a +3 advantage. Knights are tricky pieces of course but Boris made no fatal errors as he ground out a 60-move win. Anstey 2 – Wigston 0.

Matt fished next playing Stuart Dawkins on board 3 with the black pieces. Against Stuart’s e4 and c4 setup Matt delayed the breaking d5 until he was a bit more developed and castled. Stuart expanded on the queenside but delayed castling giving Matt just enough time to grab the white pawn on b4 with his bishop and defend in the centre. White offered an exchange of queens giving black a solid edge. But white’s light-squared bishop was lurking with menace on g2 and had control of the whole diagonal. Matt went for the plan of swapping it off but lost his edge in the double rook, knight and 5 pawns vs 4 ending. As time ticked down both sides made errors, the rooks came off leaving another tricky knight endgame. Luckily Matt managed to win another pawn and with connected passed pawns (and no further mistakes) Stuart resigned. Anstey 3 – Wigston 0.  

Julian faced off against Andrew Pike with black on board 1. In a departure from his regular setup Julian came out of the opening slightly cramped. Andrew continued to press his space advantage but just when he seemed to be about to break through an inaccuracy allowed black’s dark-squared bishop to get into the game with Bd4+. Julian followed this up with the delicious 26. … Nxd5:

Unfortunately, Andrew then made another mistake, Julian pushed his b-pawn all the way, giving up a rook but queening the pawn. In a hopeless position Andrew’s flag fell. Anstey 4 – Wigston 0.

Anstey 1 remain unbeaten in the league and move up to second place.

Anstey captain Matt Connor told East Midlands Railway:
I’m relieved! Mine and Julian’s games could easily have gone either way but I’ll gladly take the win. We’ve made a solid start to the season but so far have only played the bottom 4 teams, the next few games will be make or break!

Tuesday 01/11/2022. Anstey 1 travelled to the deep south for the away match vs Market Harborough 2 in LRCA Division 2. Conditions were very different to their last visit with darkness, wind and rain vs a balmy summer’s evening. But the result was the same, another win for the soon to be hopefully unstoppable Anstey 1 LOL. MH are a friendly bunch and there was a jovial atmosphere between the players as they settled down, discussing the strength difference between divisions 2 and 3 (both teams having been promoted last year). The captains exchanged team lists, Anstey 1 again calling on super-sub Boris to stand-in for injury-hit John. With the teams evenly matched on paper (6,921 vs 6,933) battle commenced.

Boris played black against Jon Redding on board 4 and was the first to finish. In a sharp back and forth game where both players had chances, Boris accepted Jon’s gambit pawn on move 3 and after Jon played a few inaccurate moves coming out of the opening Boris consolidated his position and had a nice edge – a pawn up and a better pawn structure. Jon fought back and managed to infiltrate on the 7^th rank with his queen leading to winning a pawn. The major pieces were swapped off and it came down to a bishop and knight vs two bishops endgame. Unfortunately, Boris couldn’t take advantage of the two bishops as one of them was pretty much relegated to defensive duty. Plenty of probing followed on both sides, the light-squared bishops were exchanged and the position came out dead even. A draw by repletion followed shortly after. MH ½ – Anstey ½.

Mick played with the white pieces (for the first time this season) against MH’s captain Michael Garland on board 3 and was the next to finish. Michael gambited a pawn on just move 3 but Mick ignored it and carried on with normal development leading to a small but noticeable advantage out of the opening. Mick provoked g6 and f6 to weaken black’s kingside pawn structure before all the bishops were swapped off and the knight manoeuvres began. Unfortunately for Michael, one of his knights was stuck on the edge of the board and with pressure growing on the weak e6 pawn he missed the threat to trap it:

Michael rustled up a little counterplay on the open g file doubling rooks but ultimately it came to nothing. White’s queen roamed around the board with aplomb picking up a couple of free pawns on the kingside before swapping to the queenside and winning the other knight. Michael tried a cheap trick to give up his queen but Mick saw the back-rank mate threat and defended easily. Two knights and a pawn down Michael resigned. MH ½ – Anstey 1½.

Boards 1 and 2 both ended in time scrambles. Matt fished just before Julian playing David Curran on board 2 with the black pieces. No early gambits here, after a quiet opening Matt had equalised fairly easily. After an exchange of knights on e4 he made a space grab with f5 then e4, David responding with f4 taking the juicy looking e5 square away from black’s knight. Play transferred to the queenside and Matt infiltrated the 7^th rank with 21. … Rd2:

After 22. Qf1 Matt though long and hard over 22. … Rxc2 and lost a lot of time before not going for it (another missed tactic) instead retreating the knight followed by the rook. After a few poor moves on both sides the following wild position was reached:

All hell then broke loose. David went for more complications with 28. Bxe4 then recapturing with his knight eyeing f6. Pawns were exchanged and pushed with check before black’s knight swooped in to d5 both attacking and defending. After more rushed moves (including an illegal one, oops), Matt transferred a rook to the half open h-file and after a final blunder Matt skewered white’s King and Queen with Rh3. MH ½ – Anstey 2½.

Julian faced off against Romilly Ilersic with white on board 1. After getting an edge in the opening he went on to dominate proceedings, at no point did black generate any real threats. The only fly in the ointment, unusual for Julian, was that he used up too much time in the early middlegame and ended up chronically short of time just when he was in a position to play a rook sacrifice for a mating attack with 27 Rd7!:

But with just 10 seconds left on the clock he had to blitz out the moves and Romilly wriggled out and transitioned to an equalish position. With the match already won, Julian offered a draw that Romilly accepted (with relief). MH 1 – Anstey 3.

So a draw and two wins in the first three games and a promising league position:

Anstey’s next game is against bottom of the table Wigston 3, a must-win match in what already looks to be shaping up as a five-way scrap for top honours!

Anstey captain Matt Connor told East Midland News:
An excellent result on the road. I’m particularly pleased that we suffered no individual loss as “goal difference” could once again be an important factor at the end of the season.

Thursday 20/10/2022. Anstey 1 registered their first win of the season in LRCA Division 2, putting up a good performance against a strong Kirby Muxloe side who out-rated Anstey by 7,288 to 6,933. Anstey remain unbeaten in the league having drawn against Braunstone in the first game whilst Kirby have now lost their first two matches.

With John on international duties (playing in the Guernsey Chess Festival), Matt and Mick shuffled up a board and super-sub Boris slotted in on board 4. At 19:30 the teams shook hands and battle commenced. Well, mostly, Julian had messaged in saying he was running and late and to start without him LOL.

The first game to finish was Mick with black against Kirby’s captain Ray Townsend on board 3. After another cagey start, some knight manoeuvring on both sides and the swap off of a couple of minor pieces Mick looked to start his trademark kingside attack with f5, g5, g4 and h5. At this point Ray blundered his queen to a discovered attack:

Ray played on a queen for a bishop down for another 30 moves but it was a complete rear-guard action. Mick took his time before eventually breaking through and forcing Ray to resign. Anstey 1 – Kirby 0.

Boris finished next on board 4 with white against David Walton. After an interesting game with white’s king stuck in the corner and black attacking on the kingside but with his own king stranded in the centre Boris blundered:

At this point Boris offered a draw… and David accepted! The very definition of a lucky draw because after 25. … Rh4+ black comes out with queen and king vs two rooks and a horribly exposed white king. And a -10 evaluation. In his defence David was short on time but even so a lucky ½ point for Anstey. Anstey 1½ – Kirby ½.

Julian faced off against Simon Lazarus on board 1. He was about 15 minutes down on the clock by the time he got to the board but blitzed out the first dozen or so moves and had comfortably equalised in a Caro-Kann Panov. White had a small space / activity advantage in return for a crippled pawn structure. Julian calmly manoeuvred and exchanged off pieces and it came down to a same-coloured bishop ending. Simon had a passed c pawn and exchanging off the bishops looked sensible but he had underestimated the mobility of Julian’s kingside pawns. He pushed them forward mercilessly and threatened to create his own passed pawn with white’s king too far away to catch it:

Simon resigned the completely lost pawn ending a couple of moves later. A 93.6% accurate game from Julian, he’ll want to improve on that! Anstey 2½ – Kirby ½.

Captain Matt was last to finish on board 2 with white against Kevin Dalley. In a terrible game by him he missed a chance to trap black’s queen followed by missing what would have been a beautiful tactic to create weaknesses around the black king:

He then mis-played the attack, retreated and lost a piece. Kevin gave him another chance by blundering a bishop back but then (admittedly in time trouble) Matt inexplicably gave away a knight when he had a slight advantage in an unbalanced position. A game best forgotten. But it didn’t matter as Anstey had already secured the win. Anstey 2½ – Kirby 1½.

So a draw and a win in the first two games and a mid-table league position:

Anstey’s next game is against Market Harborough 2, one they are definitely targeting for a win.

Anstey captain Matt Connor told BBC Sport:
I’m really pleased with this one, another engine-like performance from Julian and a great confidence-inspiring win for Mick. Yes, Boris got out of jail with that draw but that’s the way it is in this division, anything can happen!

Anstey 1 scored a great win away at Braunstone on Wednesday night to take outright victory in the Chapman Cup. With one round to go they have an unassailable 4-point lead:

Braunstone fielded a tough looking side, headed up by their first division board one Thomas Brown. Anstey put out their strongest available team but were once again out-rated overall, though that did mean they’d have a ½ point lead in this handicap competition. Captains Mike Salisbury (non-playing) and Matt Connor tossed for colours, Matt winning the toss and selecting black on odd-numbered boards.

It was a tense start with all the games looking fairly even. John Robinson with white on board 2 finished first with a draw against his ex-teammate (John has been around a bit!) Richard Hanscombe. John opened with his usual queen’s pawn and Richard went for a 1. … b6 and 2. … e6 setup allowing white to establish a fine centre of pawns with full development and getting safely castled on the kingside. Black did not manage to castle but tried an attack on the queenside which ultimately was not successful. After a number of exchanges white won a couple of pawns. However, by this stage John was in a bit of time trouble and ceded a pawn back then in the scramble missed a win somewhere along the line. A draw was agreed in a position which although John had a material advantage he was very low on time. Nonetheless, a steady start. Braunstone ½ – 1 Anstey.

The next game to finish was Mick Sandham against Daniel Wilkinson on board 4. Mick opened 1. e4 and Daniel deployed the French Defence, 1. … e6, Mick going for the advance variation. In a slightly unusual line black managed to swap off his (normally bad) light-squared bishop for white’s (normally good) counterpart. A couple of moves later Mick had the opportunity to play a neat tactic with Nxd5 but eschewed it, correctly calculating that material would come out equal but underestimating the difficulty black would have finalising development. Instead, he went for a more combative line giving up a pawn and then another to infiltrate on the 7^th rank with both rooks. In the meantime, black had pushed his passed a-pawn all the way to a2 and although Mick was just one move away from being able to checkmate on the back rank Daniel always had a1=Q with check to scupper it. In the time scramble in the double rook ending black made no mistakes and came out on top. Braunstone 1½ – 1 Anstey.

Julian Tarwid faced off against Thomas Brown on board 1, out-rated by 156 points. The game started off as a slow positional Slav defence, Julian playing for the centre with a delayed … e5 and then … e4. After a few manoeuvring moves the position looked fairly level but then Julian thought stuff this, swung his queen over to the kingside and started what turned out to be a deadly attack with … g5! Thomas made a a defensive mis-step and allied with ferocious attacking play Julian broke through, bringing both rooks in turn to the now open g-file and with his king trapped on the back rank by his own bishops white resigned:

A candidate for game of the season commented John. Braunstone 1½ – 2 Anstey.

Matt Connor played black against Gavin Hart on board 3 and was the last game to finish. Matt equalised fairly easily with his Pirc defence out of the opening before uncharacteristically being tempted by a loose pawn, playing … Bxa2 and hoping to launch an attack with … a5 and …a4. That didn’t happen, Gavin playing accurately and Matt being forced to give up his bishop for a further 2 pawns. That did mean he had 3 connected passed pawns but they were a long way from becoming a menace. White simply completed development, improved his pieces and started picking off black’s loose kingside pawns. It was looking bleak for black until white, looking to exchange pieces, swapped off the remaining rooks leaving him a piece for a pawn up but with his knight and bishop being too far way from the action on the queenside. The passed pawns began motoring, black’s king and knight backing them up with white’s king being the only defence:

The b-pawn queened and Matt made no mistake in the queen vs bishop and knight ending, picking up the knight and forcing the win. Braunstone 1½ – 3 Anstey.

Another fine team performance by Anstey, their fifth straight win in the competition to be crowned champions! We’re just waiting to hear when the ticker-tape parade through the streets on Anstey will take place…

Anstey captain Matt Connor told Sky Sports:
I’m so proud of our team, the tenacity, commitment and integrity that we play the game with is nothing short of amazing. Our star player Julian has had a fantastic Chapman Cup, unbeaten with 3 wins and 2 draws against some highly rated opponents. Good contributions too from John and Mick. A big thanks also to Boris, Mike, Valdas and Oskar who have stepped in to play when required. My team. My club. My Anstey. #thesoulofchessincharnwood.

The following evening was a normal club night at the Methodist Church in Anstey, the winning team convening for their champions photo and analysis of the previous night’s games. Julian did a training session with the juniors, John showed off a classic game of his against Tony Miles (England’s first Grandmaster!) and a little opening theory looked at. All topped off with a few casual games, all in all a great club night.

(edited: bobideco)

Anstey 1 continued their amazing run of form in the Chapman Cup with a superb away win at our friends Market Harborough (MH).

MH fielded a near full strength side outgunning us by a total of 742 rating points. That did mean that once again we’d have a head start in this handicap competition with a lead of 1½. Their captain Romily won the toss for colours and chose white on odds. Handshakes completed; battle commenced.

It was a tense start, you could cut the atmosphere with a kn…, well, any blunt instrument really. And measure the temperature with a thermometer; on a hot summer night the playing room just got warmer and warmer and warmer, it was rivalling Wigston’s venue at the end!

Boris was a late replacement for John and faced off again David Curran on board 4. He played his favourite 1. d4 setup against the King’s Indian Defence but wasted a couple of tempi early on and his king was stranded in the centre for good part of the game. He managed to preserve his dark squared bishop and place a beautiful knight on e5 but David played an early Qb6 and built up pressure on the queenside before prising open the centre with c5. White eventually managed to castle kingside but was still slightly on the back foot albeit with a fairly solid setup. A few pieces and pawns were swapped off and with some tactical play white’s pieces came to life and with Qd7 he attacked the black rook on e8. At this point Boris offered a draw as David only had about 5 minutes left on the clock. In a tricky position for both sides he swiftly agreed. MH ½ Anstey 2.

Next to finish was Mick. Against Romily’s 1. Nf3 he went straight for the St George with 1. … b5. White developed calmly fianchettoing his light squared bishop and castling short. The dark squared bishops were exchanged on f4, white recapturing with gxf4 giving black a half-open file to go for. Not one for a quiet game Mick went all out for the attack on the kingside with a knight on g4 and pushing Harry the h pawn and followed up with sacrificing his knight for a pawn and the attack. The black queen went to g5 to join the attack but white’s queen, bishop and rooks were well placed to repel black’s forces. White played the excellent 20. Rd4 defending sideways (against black’s rook on g4) followed by a cheeky knight move forking bishop and rook. When the dust settled Mick was a rook for a pawn down and resigned immediately. MH 1½ Anstey 2.

Julian was black against Ian on board 1. After a quiet opening (literally, D11 Slav Defence: Quiet Variation) we could be rude and say it was a quite game and nothing much happened, the most exciting thing being Julian’s pen ran out of ink half way through and he had to pen share with Matt until Dave Walker kindly offered a replacement. But no, the game was quite sharp, going back and forth with both sides having chances. Black had the edge through the middlegame and into the endgame it looked like his 2 to 1 queenside pawn majority and two bishops might pay dividends but the dark squared bishops came off and with white’s pawns on dark squares in a knight vs light squared bishop ending the position was dead equal and a draw was agreed. At 51 moves this was the longest game of the night. MH 2 Anstey 2½.

Not for the first time this season the outcome of the match came down to Matt’s game. Having gone to the dark side this season he opened 1. e4 and Dave replied with the French Defence, 1. … e6. Two firsts for Matt this game, a dodgy sideline against the French and mimicking Julian with ear defenders. When Dave didn’t accept Matt’s gambit pawn, Matt was out of his book knowledge (maybe not the best plan against a near 1900 rated opponent). However, he played the opening and middlegame fairly accurately and came out with a slight edge although a bit down on time (quelle surprise). Black eventually castled short and Matt started his kingside attack with h4 and h5 (go Harry!). Dave defended by playing f6 followed by swapping off a knight and a bishop. Matt kept attacking but Dave had counter chances down the f file and a tactical finish to the game looked likely. Time was now very short for both sides and with Matt having less than a minute offered a cheeky draw which Dave declined. Play continued and Julian’s heart rate spiked when Matt was down to 2 seconds on the clock. There was also a touch move incident, Dave picking up his queen and Matt’s pawn on c3 before pausing mid-air before putting the pawn back down and moving his queen elsewhere. Matt should have insisted on Qxc3 (rules is rules) which would have had the benefit of giving him mate in one with Nf7:

After a few more move in the time scramble and under pressure on the board Dave’s flag fell handing Matt, and the team, the win. Phew! MH 2 Anstey 3½.

After four rounds we are in pole position in the competition, we can only be overtaken by Braunstone who we play in the next round, a real crunch game!