The next challengers of the Anstey third team is none other than the current top standing team in the division: the fourth Ashby team. They are on a current winning streak of three out of three matches, and we are aiming to break that streak! The players for tonight’s match are (in board order, starting on board one): Ben Vaughan, Bob Grindrod, Mike Griffiths, Aarav Sinha, Oskar Rudczenko, Yuvraj Sadhra, and John Graham-Brown. A lot of players for a chess match, which is always welcome, and a lot of players means good games are even more likely.

It was a good evening, even though el captain was slightly late for the match, but we got sorted out quick enough after the captain’s arrival. Ashby brought a strong enough team for us to play against, with most of their roster being 1500-1400, with a few players between 1300 and 1100.

Board 1: Ben “El Presidente” Vaughan plays white; Dominic Lennon plays black

El Presidente’s game starts off with the carro-kann defence exchange variation. Although black seals in his light-squared bishop with e6 after the pawns are exchanged, so it’s a bit of a carro-french hybrid with the so called “french bishop.” A knights and bishops start to get developed with bishops taking d3 and d6 positions, and Ben brings his other bishop to g5 pinning the knight to the black queen. A few moves later, Ben’s rooks are on the f and c files, then black black decides to develop his queen to b6, and Ben mirrors this on b3. However, black then shys away from this move by playing his queen to d8, allowing Ben an extra tempo to improve his position further. Ben talked about maybe developing a big attack with his queen and bishop, threatening mate to tie down black’s f6 knight, then putting more pressure on the d7 knight by playing knight to e5.

However, Ben being human, makes the knight e5 move first before making the battery and then black shoos the queen away with pawn to a4, meaning he can’t have the queen infront of the bishop, so the game continues as normal, but with Ben having a small advantage. Although, Ben gets a big advantage soon enough when his opponent traps his own knight, leaving Ben up a full minor piece! Black retakes with his queen, and Ben then improves his other minor pieces with tempo attacking black’s vulnerable queen. Then, Ben makes good progress on the queen-side of the board with bishop to b5, knight d4, and queen b3. Black then tries to take back the initiative with f6 to break down white’s pawn structure, but Ben plays bishop to c6 x-raying the bishop and rook. Black takes on e5 anyway, and Ben takes back with the rook. The bishops are traded off and Ben brings his knight in.

However, Ben thinks he has blundered his knight as queen to d6 is played, but he can just play pawn to b5 solidifying the position for white. Ben unfortunately doesn’t find it and plays rook c to e1, and gives back the material advantage. Ben takes a few pawns an black makes a threat to check the king with a queen and rook battery. Not seeing a way forward, the players agree to a draw and shake hands, so it’s an even start for Anstey vs. Ashby with half a point each.

Board 2: Tom Gerrard plays white; Bob Grindrod plays black

Bob plays the french and his opponent chooses to follow the advanced french, and we get a normal french set up where the c pawns are traded off, and there’s always these ideas for black to play queen b6 and knight to f5 to put more pressure on the d4 pawn. Both players develop a few more of their pieces, and Bob fianchettoes his dark-squared bishop and white plays knight to a4, which attacks black’s b6 queen and defends b2. Bob then goes queen to c7, but then Tom plays rook to c1 to pin Bob’s c6 knight to his queen, so Bob feels obliged to play queen to d8. Tom centralises his knight, and (soon after this) Bob plays h6 to try and kick away the bishop on g5, so white re-positions the bishop to f6 to challenge black’s dark-squared bishop supported by the advanced e5 pawn.

After this, a couple of minor pieces get traded off, and Bob wins a pawn, which supported white’s bishop. After the scrap, both players reposition their queens, and white begins to attack. Firstly, bringing his rook down to c7, and then pushing his kingside pawns to try and dislodge black’s defences. Fortunately, for Bob, his opponent didn’t see a game winning tactic, where he can sack his rook for a pawn, and if Bob retakes with his queen white can fork the queen and king with a bishop. Bob then realises this is a threat and retreats his king back to the 8th rank of the board.

After this, the g file gets opened up and Tom goes for a few tactical plays, which finishes with Bob’s backwards e pawn getting put under heavy fire. Trying to equalise, Bob tries to encourage a queen trade by checking white’s king, but both players miss another supposedly winning move, which is king to h2, because the e pawn is just under too much pressure and the attack opens up black’s position. However, these two are not computers, so they trade queens and the position equalises, just as Bob wanted. Both players use their two rooks to capture pawns, both rooks are traded off after a few more moves and both players agree to a draw with only one pawn each. A white pawn on g5 and black pawn on a6. Now, both teams have a point each and it’s time to go to board 3 with Mike Griffiths.

Board 3: Mike Griffiths plays white; Jamie Rhodes plays black

Mike started off with his usual english opening, and his opponent responded, “soundly but passively” as Mike himself put it. After some time and trading some pieces, Mike was a pawn up in the middle game, and the game proceeded very evenly. Both players traded off some more pieces, and eventually got into a rook endgame. Mike states he had quite a few chances to force a stalemate and call it a night, but he decided to risk a loss and tried to go for a winning endgame. Mike had 3 pawns and a rook; Jamie had two pawns and a rook, but black had a passed pawn.

Unfortunately, Mike had to sac his rook for the newly made black queen, but he did still have two passed h and g pawns against black’s king and rook, it was still all to play for. Mike managed to herd black’s king away from the pawns, and he managed to slowly but surely advance his pawns towards black’s side of the board. Eventually, Mike managed to queen one of his two pawns and it was a rook vs queen endgame, and some time later Mike forked both black’s king and rook. Black had not much choice but to resign as a queen, pawn and king vs a king is a convincingly lost game. Mike admits he took a risk going for the win with such a tight game in his hands, but it was surely worth the risk as he had won the game and given his teammates a lead in the match! It is now two points for Anstey, and one point for the leading team in division four: Ashby 4.

Board 4: Mick Brown plays white; Aarav Sinha plays black

The game starts off with a d4 d5 opening, with Aarav playing an early bishop to f5, and with white playing a catalan set up with knight f3, e3 and c4. Both queenside knights are developed to the c6 and c3 squares, and white shuts down black’s dark squared bishop with c5. White then starts to attack black by pinning the c6 knight to the king, but Aarav stops the pin by castling kingside. Now there is no reason for the bishop to be on b5, so white takes the knight and Aarav retakes with the b pawn. Then, white castles before launching another attack with queen a4, this time attacking the c6 pawn. Aarav defends the pawn with his own queen, but white jumps the knight into e5, which wins the pawn as Aarav cannot defend the pawn with anymore pieces.

Knowing this, Aarav offers a knight trade with Ng4, but white takes on c6, which attacks Aarav’s e7 bishop and the bishop repositions on g5. Although, something went completely wrong with white’s calculation, because Mick moves his knight to e7, checking the black king but also blundering his knight as Aarav has bishop takes e7. What was white thinking? White then scares off the g4 knight and the black knight repositions on h6. White retreats his queen to play b4, and Aarav attacks in the centre with e4, supported by the bishop on f6.

However, this weakens black’s structure too much, and white plays e4. Aarav has to take with the d pawn, but white doesn’t take back yet and plays bishop takes h6, which means both bishops are piled on top of each other and both without protection. This allows for the fatal f takes e4 as the f1 rook skewers the bishops. Aarav takes on d4 with his e pawn, and protects the dark-squared bishop over the light-squared bishop. White continues the attack, but keeps holding on.

White trades the bishop and knight off, which allows his queen to join the attack. However, Aarav still defends well and with a few more shuffles of rooks and queens there’s not much white can do to gain a solid advantage. Aarav was on the cusp of losing, but pulled through against a player who is 300 rating points above Aarav. Both players agree to a draw, making it two and a half for Anstey.

Board 5: Oskar Rudczenko plays white; David Holmes plays black

Oskar starts with d4, preparing to play the jobava london. However, his opponent plays b6 most likely preparing to play the owen’s defence, so Oskar follows the theory for the next move, but black then prepares to fianchetto his other bishop too. Confused, Oskar just plays basic chess and develops his pieces to decent squares and gains centre control. Oskar castles queen side to line up a rook battery down the board with the queen on d2. With the occasional waiting move, Oskar gradually makes space and gains an advantage quickly because of this, as well as tempo from his opponent’s confusing play.

Starting to get impatient and thinking about attacking, Oskar plays e5, attacking black’s d6 pawn, blocking the dark-squared bishop, and stopping black’s knight from developing at all. Black doesn’t take and instead castles queenside, leaving the pawn on e5 and hang over the black position as black later plays d5, completely closing the centre. Oskar carries on forward, beginning an attack on the kingside and using pawns to break through black’s position, but black starts to panic and starts pushing his queenside pawns. Oskar tries to take advantage of this as he sees a very nice outpost square for his knight on c5, so as black pushes his pawns Oskar repositions his knight.

Black’s pieces are stumbling over each other and Oskar’s pieces have as much space as they’ll want. With a failed attack on the queenside, Oskar switches right back to the kingside and breaks black’s structure with a quick g4 and this opens up a very nice open file, the only open file. Oskar takes control immediately and doubles rooks, whilst black trades off the powerful night, but Oskar replaces the knight with a pawn, still freezing the position and black’s hopes of drawing. Black tries to defend from Oskar taking black’s pawns but Oskar still keeps going.

After a rook trade and a captured pawn, black goes all into the white position and abandoning the king. Black then secures winning a pawn, but Oskar need not worry as their is an imminent mate on the black king. However, Oskar misses it and pins the rook to the queen, but white checks the white king which wins the queen. Oskar still has some hope as he has a knight and rook working together, but white has a forced mate in 3 that Oskar needs to take care of, but he misses it and black wins with seconds to spare on his time. Damn… it is now two and a half for both teams.

Board 6: Graham Bird plays white; Yuvraj Sadhra plays black

Yuvraj faces a b3 opponent and plays e5, and Graham plays e3 so Yuvraj plays the principled night to f6. White develops his knights and so does Yuvraj, which makes one question why mov b3 in the first place. Yuvraj continues to develop his minor pieces, and white does so too. Yuvraj moves d5, but as soon as he does his opponent pins the black knight to the black king. Yuvraj castles kingside, which is when he loses a pawn to the short sequence of bishop takes c6 and knight takes e5. Yuvraj’s knight gets replaced with a bishop, but this makes the e5 pawn weak and so the white knight can take on e5. Yuvraj scares the horse away with queen to d6, and white simply puts his knight back to f3.

Now, Yuvraj offers a trade of knights, and white accepts but Yuvraj replaces the knight with a pawn, which is where white mis calculates and moves his knight to g5. Yuvraj’s dark-squared bishop covers g5, so white loses a piece. White tries to make something from the loss of a piece by playing queen g4, x-raying the bishop and the g7 pawn, but with a simple bishop to f6 the g7 pawn is defended well enough. The bishop move also attack white’s rook, so white has to move the rook to b1, and Yuvraj tries to trade queens but white doesn’t want any trading going on, so Graham moves his queen closer to the centre. Yuvraj won’t give up on a queen trade though, and still offers a queen trade. Yuvraj chases the white queen around for a few more moves until he forces the white queen in a corner and uses his bishops to herd the white queen into the path of the black queen.

Yuvraj takes the kind queen trade offer from white, and castles queenside leaving the board with a very early end game and with most pawns still on the board. Yuvraj mobilises his pieces and attacks the white position firstly with his pawns, then he starts to work his rooks into the position. Soon later he chops up the kingside and bullies the white king a little bit. A rook trade is forced by Yuvraj, and because of his extra pieces Yuvraj keeps taking white’s pawns and eventually he starts to push his pawns against white’s zero pawns. It was a long game, but eventually Yuvraj came through with a win and checkmated his opponent with a rook and king. Anstey are winning with a one point lead!

Board 7: John Graham-Brown plays white; Stephen Holmes plays black

John starts off with e4 and black starts off with the owen’s defence with b6. John develops appropriately and black goes for a small tactic by pinning the c3 knight to the king, so then black can freely take the e4 pawn. However, John seems to know what to do and defends the e4 pawn before black pins the knight, and when the bishop does arrive John simply unpins with bishop to d2. Black seems to have not acknowledged the e4 pawn is well defended and still captures the knight even though there is no reason to, so the game continues where John has a very small advantage with the bishop pair.

Both players develop their pieces, both sides castle and black tries to attack in the centre with c5. John takes the pawn and the d file opens up. Black places a knight on d5 and John takes advantage of this by pinning the knight to his opponent’s undefended light-squared bishop with his own bishop. Both players position their rooks on the d file, and after the position opens up a bit, the rooks are traded off along with quite a few other pieces, and not many pieces remain on the board for both players.

Black does eventually get an advantage though when white’s king becomes slightly more vulnerable, and black uses his queen to herd white’s king around the kingside of the board. John also attacks the oppositions king and he picks up a few pawns along the way, however, black might get a bit more than what John had intended as black moves his pawns up along with his king and John’s king. White’s king becomes locked into a position, by the black queen and the finishing blow by black with a pawn knocks John’s king out cold. This leaves the score with both teams having an equal amount of points (three and a half).

Finishing Lines

This match ended in a draw on the night of the match, but there was a bit of bad planning by the Anstey team as we used an illegal amount of players from the second Anstey team, meaning that we have to forfeit the top board, which means we actually lose this match. This incredibly disappointing result, means we are now in seventh place on the leader board in division four, but we have still did very well considering Ashby 4 are the top team in our division, and it was a night to remember as there were a lot of happenings. Such as, low time and moves being blitzed out. An illegal move was thought to have been played, but on closer inspection this was not the case, and a good night of social analysis from both sides. We may not have beaten Ashby this time, but this gives us an idea of the team’s potential.

The next match is against a new club of the league: Leicester University. We don’t know much about them, but we’ll find out soon enough what they’re made of. Until next time, bye bye for now readers.

The first away match of the new season for the third Anstey team, and it was a very interesting one! All sorts of things happened, and you’ll get to read all about it in this week’s recap of the Leicestershire Chess League.

Anstey 3 played Melton Mowbray 3, and the Anstey team this time was Borislav “The Toaster” Lazarov on board one followed by Noor Datoo on board two, with their team captain Oskar Rudczenko playing on the third board. You maybe asking yourself why I’m only mentioning three out of four of the team’s players, and I’ll get to that when we talk about board four in this report. Melton Mowbray brought quite a solid team to challenge us, and their was good sportsmanship from both captains as we agreed to only play one player, who was rated 1600. Every other player would be our normal team players in division 4.

With the context explained, and suspense exuded, lets jump right into the games!

Board 1: Borislav “The Toaster” Lazarov plays white; Quentin Jacquemard plays black

Normal d4 opening with black adopting a semi-slav set up, and with Boris being very aggressive on the kingside as he pushes f3 and g4 to attack black’s light-squared bishop. The bishop retreats and black is forced to push h6 to protect the bishop, and Boris encourages a bishop trade which black accepts. Black then offers a trade of dark-squared bishops and Boris takes the time to develop his last piece (aside from the rooks) and black trades bishops leaving only brave knights on the board of 64 squares. Black has a slight space disadvantage with his knights slightly further back than white’s knights, which are firmly in the centre or attacking the centre. There is no tension on the board, for now…

On the very next move, black creates tension by playing e5, which attacks white’s d4 pawn. The tension is left there as both sides develop their knights to better squares and both sides push pawns and trade a pawn each. Boris makes some tension on the kingside with g5 attacking black’s h6. Black calmly castles queenside, and the standoff in the centre and kingside is still on-going. Black moves his knight to attack Boris’ queen, x-raying the d4 pawn with the rook to white’s queen. Boris says no and moves his queen to attack the f7 pawn with rook and queen, also attacking an undefended knight. Black offers a knight trade with exd4 attacking the c3 knight. Boris moves his knight and black has hxg5 defending his knight with the h8 rook.

Boris puts more pressure on the f7 pawn with his knight, and black plays rook d-f8 defending the f7 pawn. Boris then thinks he should take back the centre by playing rook takes d4, and a few improving moves later black solidifies his f7 pawn and Boris has two rooks on the d file. Black makes some counter play to attack the e4 pawn, but Boris defends and all the four knights get traded off leaving equal material for both sides with two rooks and a queen each. Boris makes black’s queen retreat and moves his queen forward. Black intercepts the white queen with his and Boris retreats his queen all the way back to g1 to allow black a fork of white’s king and e4 pawn. Boris, being a pawn down, nabs one of black’s pawns, but this unfortunately leaves his rook hanging even though he has doubled rooks, as he can’t retake because a black rook would checkmate on the back rank on e1. Boris resigns leaving a taste of disappointment in his mouth. Melton 1 – Anstey 0.

Board 2: Peter Smith plays white; Noor Datoo plays black

This game starts of with the usual e4 e5 with Nf3 and Nc6, Bc4 and Bc5. The last two knights come out to play and both players solidify their pawns with d3 and d6, an identical position for white and black. Although, when white plays h3, Noor breaks the mirror with Be3, offering an exchange of the light-squared bishops and white takes as Noor has to take with the f pawn. Noor’s pawn structure is slightly damaged, but it’s nicely placed behind two protected pawns, so it might be an asset in the future. White castles kingside and pins the f6 knight to the queen, and Noor says, “no you can’t do that.” Noor plays h6 to say, “go away bishop.” White then retreats the bishop back to d2, and the game continues at Noor’s disposal as he now has the initiative.

Noor finishes his king’s development by castling queenside. White manoeuvres his knights to try and set up a more defensive position, or to re-route the knights and Noor plays g5 with rook d-g8 to start a kingside attack. White mostly ignores this thinking everything is well enough defended and plays c3, trying to make some counter play in the centre and Noor continues his attack on the kingside. A couple of trades are made, and both sides have one less knight and pawn in their armies, which leaves Noor’s rook on g4 looking directly at white’s king, and the computer marks this position at about -4.2, which is a significant advantage for black!

Although, the position is only -4.2 if white plays g3, but white instead plays d4 and basically says, “where’s your attack? Come get me!” Something you really shouldn’t be saying partly because it’s rude, but now the position is -5. Noor can play exd4, which again leads to more exchanges and Noor would have a big advantage. Although, Noor has other ideas and doubles his rooks with rook h-g8, and white plays knight g3, which guards the king for now. Noor plays exd4, white plays c4, Noor plays d3, and white plays queen to e1, which blunders a knight as the only thing guarding the knight was the f2 pawn. However, the pawn can’t take because the bishop on c5 is pinning it to the king. White plays king to h1, and now it’s mate in 2 moves, because the h file is completely open. The black queen can go to h4 with check, then the white king has to go back to g1 and rook takes g2 is mate because the black rooks are doubled.

A terrific game from Noor as he beat an opponent, who was just under 200 points above Noor! Melton 1 – Anstey 1.

Board 3: Oskar Rudczenko plays white; Peter North plays black

The first moves of the game are e4 and e6, so we get a french defence with d4, d5 and then e5 from Oskar. Black immediately goes for c5 to try and disrupt Oskar’s pawn structure, but Oskar says, “no mate, I’m playing c3. I want to keep my pawn structure intact.” Black responds with, “okay, I’ll attack your d pawn with Nc6, Qb6, and Ne7, Nf5.” Oskar is in a bit of trouble unless he plays Be3, keeping everything together, but he plays Na3 and black gets scared and doesn’t take on d4. Black instead plays a6, which gives Oskar a chance to play Nc2 and everything is solid in the white position. Black develops his last piece to allow him to castle, and Oskar develops his rook to e1. Black castles and white goes wild with the move g4, trying to displace the f5 knight, but black goes Nh4 and is fine. Oskar does take the knight and plays g5, and black’s knight goes back to f5.

Oskar slides his king over to make way for rook to g1 in the future (possibly). Black takes on d4 with the c pawn and Oskar takes back with his c pawn. Then, black gallops his knight in the middle of no where to b4 trying to trade the c2 knight, but Oskar simply plays knight to e3 trying to displace the f5 knight. Black takes with the f5 knight and takes back with the dark-squared bishop, completing his development of his minor pieces, and black’s light-squared bishop (or the french bishop) is still on it’s home square. Although, black finally develops his light-squared bishop on the next move.

Now, a fight starts to materialise for the queenside, with some rerouting of black’s knight and then a trade of light-squared bishops is offered by black and accepted by white. Another trade of knights occurs leaving black with quite a nice looking connected pawn on the c file. Then, white tries to set up an attack on the kingside with Rg3, looking to double rooks, but black defends well and there’s not much happening for white’s attack. However, Oskar still does for the attack, even sacking a pawn and the game for it, as the computer says it’s -3 when black takes on b2 with his queen. A few moves later though, black forces a queen trade and both players consolidate and defend their position. Black tries to attack and get a past pawn moving, but Oskar comes in with some counter play that blunders his bishop, but black doesn’t see it so black defends from a fake back-rank mate.

The endgame becomes filled with blunders by both players as different tactics swamp the board, but Oskar is low on time and black thinks he’s won so the game continues as if nothing is happening. However, black makes one blunder that Oskar doesn’t miss, and that is f5 which can be taken with en-passent by the e pawn and the e pawn is protected on f6 and is now a past-pawn. There is of course a mate in two on the board, but neither player sees this. Low time; black assuming he’s won.

Oskar does win a few moves later though, separating the black king from the h pawn, taking the h pawn and making a queen with it to ladder mate his opponent, with seconds to spare on his time. Melton 1 – Anstey 2.

Board 4: Steve Martin plays white; Anstey player 4 plays black

Now, I (as the captain) had thought that Yuvraj Sadhra was playing, but I had forgotten that he is still in India at this time with his family. We did play with a player down, which means that the score was Melton 2 – Anstey 2, so we drew with a player down which is a pretty good result. It also means we could’ve won with an equal amount of players, but let’s not get into the nitty-gritty of these things, as I don’t want to make myself look too bad.

Final Words

With this match said and done, this puts Anstey in 7th place out of nine with two draws and one loss, which is a lot better than last year as we lost most of the games at the start of the last league season. Drawing for us is decent enough, but we always and will still try to go for some wins whenever we have a chance. Our next match is away in Ashby against the very friendly and welcoming Ashby Chess Club. Win or lose, it will be a good night!

See you all in two weeks.

The second match of the league season, and it was an interesting one with Anstey 1 and 3 both playing at home on the same night, which resulted in a lively night (as lively as chess can get). Loughborough had brought a relatively strong team, but it was to be expected as most players in the league are rated 1300 or above. No matter though, the Anstey players put up a good fight even though we had been out rated.

The Anstey 3 players for the night were Mike Griffiths, Noor Datoo, Oskar Rudczenko, and John Graham-Brown. Noor and John are still new players to Anstey, but they are still showing bright potential for the future.

Board 1: Peter Hickman plays white; Mike Griffiths plays black

The game starts with a d4 and d5, with white playing a very solid pawn structure of e3 and c3 to protect the d4 pawn. White playing his bishop on d3 with Mike developing his knights and protecting d5 with e6. Quite a strange and unusual opening, but quite interesting and different. Mike had said it was an even and tight game with both players taking space in the centre with pawns and developing their pieces around said pawns.

A little later, a few more trades with white pulling an intermezzo, and after the dust settles an even trade had occurred. Black then offers a queen trade which white accepts, and we have an endgame at large. A little later on is where things get a little hairy, as white moves his light squared bishop with a discovered attack against black’s last remaining rook and a check against black’s king. The bishop was placed perfectly as it was x-raying the rook through the black king, so Mike had to make the unfortunate choice of taking a bishop and trading it with a rook. Not a good situation, but it had been forced. Having trouble defending his position with two bishops against a bishop and a rook, Mike resigned a few moves after the fateful exchange. Anstey 0 – Loughborough 1.

Board 2: Noor Datoo plays white; Keir Hayden plays black

Both players open with an e4 and e5 opening, with Noor launching a queenside attack as black had castled queenside. Throwing his pawns forward and developing his pieces towards the black king, Noor became slightly worried about his own king and he castled soon after black castled. Black tried to block the attacks with his own pieces, moving his forces to defend the king, but Noor kept coming.

Black was putting up a fight though, as he had started to get a hold of the center of the board, but black’s king was soon to get exposed as Noor destroyed the defending pawns. Soon there was only pieces on the queenside and Noor started to give continuous checks making black dance with his king all over the board. With black’s king staying on the queenside, Noor wasn’t going to be short of checks, and eventually traded a rook for black’s queen.

Noor had a seemingly better position, as he was up a queen but his opponent had two rooks, which can be better than a queen if the rooks are working together continuously. This can be very hard to do, and with black’s pawns scattered it seemed to be almost over, almost. Black had started to consolidate and eventually did get a fortress, Noor was defending himself very well too but his attacking chances were dwindling as time passed.

Noor was very close to being mated by the two rooks, but he spotted a way to perpetual check black and got a forced draw. Even though this was a draw, it’s a good personal victory for Noor as he drew someone who was 300 rating points above him, which is very impressive. Anstey 1/2 – Loughborough 1 1/2.

Board 3: Ric Dawson plays white; Oskar Rudczenko plays black

On board 3, a queen’s pawn opening was played, with Nf3, Bf4 from white and c5, Nc6 from black. Quite a normal start to a d4 opening: black tries to put pressure on the d4 pawn and white tries to defend it and make a solid center. Although, early on, black blundered the b pawn by playing b5 and when white played Bxb5 black was going to be in a very bad position. The pawn blunder wasn’t too bad as white didn’t have much to take advantage of it. However, it did give white a better position which was quite dominant, and with an inaccurate bishop move black was in serious trouble. The queen came in to attack and because white’s knight was on e5, the only move that didn’t lose was king to e7. This move staggered black’s development, blocking in black dark squared bishop.

Black was in a worse position, but it wasn’t completely clear how white should proceed, so white forced a queen trade by giving a check, and we were put into an endgame. Material was equal, white had more space but black was catching up with development. Black traded off the undeveloped bishop for white’s powerful dark squared bishop, which cut through black’s position. A few more shuffling of pieces and black tried to open the center with f6, e5 and white responded by taking the (soon to be) open file. Rooks were traded off, and only knights were left standing, with the position in white’s favour still as white could advance his knight with his king, but black had to keep the king on the queenside as white could easily make a pasted pawn.

The king side was being teared open, with horses kicking and charging at each other, but unfortunately black had pushed his pawns a bit too far. White gathered up the loose pawns, allowing a unchallenged pawn to pass. Black had no choice but to resign. Anstey 1/2 – Loughborough 2 1/2.

Board 4: John Graham-Brown plays white; Stuart Gordon plays black

With a traditional and popular e4, black played c5 with the adventurous idea of playing a sicilian. John responds with a calm Nf3 and black plays e3, and even though this is a very theoretical opening John plays pretty well against his opponent. With a solid opening of the center with d4, a pawn trade happens and then a knight trade straight after that. With an open sicilian on the board the game only went from known theory to chaos. As soon as both sides castle, black queen side and white king side, black immediately goes for a pawn attack on the king side with g5, and even though John can take it that didn’t stop black from hunting white’s king.

The black queen attacked John’s king repeatedly, driving the white king onto the e file, and the hunt finally stopped with the queen’s final attack blocked by the f pawn. John didn’t take this attack lightly, and attacked the black position as soon as he got the chance, with a bishop check and snatching a few pawns with his queen. However, his queen became trapped with black’s rook moving in to block the queen’s only escape, and John tried to minimise the damage by taking black’s rook as a trade, but after this white became over whelmed and, soon after the loss of the queen, white got check mated on the queen side. Final score: Anstey 1/2 – Loughborough 3 1/2.

Final Words

The final score of 1/2 to 3 1/2 puts Anstey at a modest 7th place out of 9 teams. Not a great place, but it is still the start of the season, with 16 more matches to go so anything can happen from now until the end.

Quite an unfortunate end to an exciting night of sicilians, strange positions and good games. Anstey have got some practise, as all chess players do, but the games were quite even still in terms of gameplay, as 3 of the 4 Anstey players were outclassed by rating. Unfortunate yes, but we are and will prevail to playing the game we love with our faithful comrades. Thanks all for reading, and I hope you have had a good read; we’ll see you next week against Melton Mowbray.

The first league match of the new league season in Leicestershire is here! An exciting time for Anstey’s third team as this was our debut match, and the team for this match was made up of quite a few juniors! An exciting time for the Anstey chess club, and for the future of chess too. The team for this match was made up of Valdas Matutis, Leo Abraham, Noor Datoo, Aarav Sinha, and John Graham-Brown.

The team Braunstone had brought to Anstey was quite strong, and the average grade difference between each board was 265 rating points. The average rating of either team was Braunstone with 1459 and Anstey with 1195, so Anstey being the underdog by a long shot. However, that doesn’t stop us from playing chess, and it didn’t that fateful evening.

Board 1: Vijay Gulab plays white; Valdas Matutis plays black

Valdas plays a solid opening to his opponent’s e4 Nf3 opening, and the Valdas gains a good pawn structure in the opening. Valdas attempts to give the game some tension with d5, but his opponent rejects the idea by playing e5 and locking the centre. Later on, Valdas activates his queen and Vijay allows Valdas to take two pawns for free, which allows Valdas to open white’s queenside and start to take advantage of how much space he’s been given.

Much later on, Valdas continues to press his attack and tries to trade off some pieces, however, the position looks a bit more equal that it did in the opening. There was a cheeky tactic Valdas missed and he has to give up a piece, meaning that Vijay had a piece up in the endgame and Valdas later resigns. Not a great start, but Valdas put up a good fight still. Anstey 0 – Braunstone 1.

Board 2: Leo Abraham plays white; Shaun Wilkinson plays black

Leo played his traditional e4, and his opponent responds with a Pirc defence. Early on, Leo miscalculates, and unfortunately he had to give up a rook for a minor piece. This didn’t mean Leo was a piece down, but it did mean he had to give up a good quality piece for a slightly worse piece. No matter, Leo continued to play the game, and he locked the position with his pawns to minimise the impact of the extra rook his opponent had. With a rook up and down a minor piece, black had a difficult time as the rooks can’t attack through the gaps of a pawn structure, which can mean he was down a piece himself.

However, there began an opening of the h file, which Leo couldn’t allow and he lodged the position once more with his kingside pawns. There was still play on the kingside, but it was difficult for black to make many impactful moves, especially with Leo’s knights being so powerful. Shaun saw this, and he decided to offer Leo a draw and Leo gladly accepted. Shaun and Leo had a pleasant conversation after the game, and Shaun did admit that Leo played better than his rating was letting on. Anstey 1/2 – Braunstone 1 1/2.

Board 3: Guy Closs plays white; Noor Datoo plays black

The game started out with the common e4, e5, Nf3, and Nc6. The game then transposed into the Giuoco Piano center attack, where white has a comfortable space advantage, but black has some play as well as white. The game continued with white launching a queenside attack on black, and it became a very positional game, where each player made slight improving moves to hopefully grind down their opponent. The game continued as a calm disagreement between two gentlemen, and there wasn’t many pieces being traded off too quickly.

As the position slowly approached the endgame, the grind still continued and the time was showing this, as board three was the last to finish playing out of the five. Speaking of time, Noor had some time advantage at the beginning and this only grew and grew as the game went on. With white’s time slowly but surely decreasing and the game continued to be positional and complex. Time would tell who won this war between men, and Noor finally won by white resigning. A great win by Noor, as he defeated someone who was well over two hundred points above himself. Anstey 1 1/2 – Braunstone 1 1/2.

Board 4: Aarav Sinha plays white; Steve Barlow plays black

In Aarav’s game, the opening was the Petrov Defence with e4, e5, Nf3, Nf6, but the centre pawns weren’t taken straight away. Aarav did have a few tactical tricks up his sleeve with Bc4, and black responded with the passive h6 trying to prevent any fried liver tricks. However, Aarav still has Nxe5 which still enables him to put pressure on the f7 pawn, but black has a good defensive resource which is d5. Unfortunately for Braunstone, Steve didn’t find d5 and instead plays queen to e7, which blunders bishop takes f7 check.

Aarav decides not to go for this and instead plays d4, a good alternative move to try and keep the knight in the centre. Black plays Nc3; Aarav plays Bf4, and black takes trying to avoid the pressure of the knight. Though, Aarav takes with the pawn instead and attacks the f6 knight because the knight is trapped. Fortunately for Steve he has queen to b4 check and he can pick up the light squared bishop for the knight. A few improving moves later and Aarav makes another great move: knight to d5, which forces black to play defensive again with Bd6. Aarav plays e5 and this is not a good position for black at all, in fact the computer gives a +9 for white’s position, which is equivalent to black losing a queen for nothing.

However, in the absolutely terrible position for black, it could be worse and it does become worse! Black takes on e5, enabling a bishop trade which Aarav takes. Black maybe up a pawn but Aarav will be up a queen with rook to e1, pinning the queen to the king. Black defends the queen, Aarav takes, black takes back, and knight takes c7 means it is forced mate in 1. Black resigned and walked straight out of the room to go to the nearby pub. One hell of an exciting and fantastic result for Aarav! Anstey 2 1/2 – Braunstone 1 1/2.

Board 5: Hatle Mehta plays white; John Graham-Brown plays black

The game starts off with d4 and d6 and begins to turn into a London system game, but John accidently loses a pawn with e5. After d takes, John goes d5 leaving his opponent with doubled pawns on the e file, which could be good in the long run, so maybe John was playing a gambit rather than simply losing a pawn. Pieces are developed normally for a few moves, then John notices he can take on e5 meaning white’s bishop hangs and is forced to trade bishops, meaning John is up a pawn and his knight can safely retake the bishop. A very nice tactic by John.

As the game continued, John managed his development very well, as he placed his knights on squares where they were attacking and defending his pawns against white’s overly aggressive queen. John ended up being in a near equal position with his opponent, who was 500 rating points above John, so a very impressive start by John!

As John wanted to press the attack even further than he had done, John pushed his pawn to attack one of white’s knights. White responded with quite a good move to attack John’s queen, and John took the knight. In response, white took John’s queen giving up two knights for the powerful piece. John honourably played until the end of the game, when his opponent checkmated John with two queens. A great start by John, as he managed to get an almost equal position after the opening, and the computer gave his position +0.2 at one point, so a fantastic first league match for John!

Final Words

The result finished on a draw with 2 1/2 points to Anstey and Braunstone, so a great first match for Anstey 3 by drawing against a team that was significantly higher rated. As a captain, I am very proud of the team for playing so well and giving it their all. Even though there were loses, it still doesn’t change how well everyone played and how many winning chances we had against a strong opponent. This only means that we have strong potential as a team, as individual players, and as a club. I am proud to say I am a member of the Anstey Chess Club! The next match will be against Loughborough’s third team, and, if we play as well as we did against Braunstone, I have strong confidence that we can defeat Loughborough.

In the last and final round of the Harrod Summer Cup, Anstey 2 travel to the Ashby Ivanhoe Social club to tackle one of the top teams of the Harrod: Ashby’s first team. Ashby 1 and Anstey 2 are quite close on the leader board, so this should make for an interesting match (much like the last match against Loughborough). The Anstey team was Valdas Matutis, Leo Abraham, Oskar Rudczenko, and John Graham-Brown (aka Little John). It was quite a casual evening as the Ashby chess club are a notoriously friendly bunch of people, so we all sat back, relaxed and played as we would as gentlemen. There was a bit of an inaccuracy with Leo’s absence, but it was no one’s fault, he eventually arrived and he still gave the match his all.

Board 1 (game 1) – Valdas Matutis plays white; Steve Emmerton plays black

Valdas opens with an abstract London system (nice and solid opening I might add), and his opponent carefully developing his pieces leaving little for Valdas to take advantage of. As the game progressed, the fighting became themed around the c file of the board; Valdas sensibly doubled his rooks on said file allowing him to dominate the only open file of the board. As a result, Valdas thought exchanging his pieces would be the best plan to progress in the position, so he started simplifying the game. Although, he had soon realised this was a mistake, as his opponent had set up a cunning trap which would mean Valdas had to trade one of his rooks for a bishop. Valdas had managed to win the rook back later on, but his opponent was not laying back to take the beating; this would be a tough game for Valdas. The game transitioned into an endgame, and Valdas’ position was not looking good as he was down a bishop. As the game progressed even more, it was clear to Valdas that this was a losing position and there wasn’t much he could do to ease the pain. Valdas had lost this game, but there was one more to play. The score started off with Ashby having one point to Anstey’s zero.

Board 1 (game 2) – Steve plays white; Valdas plays black

With his opponent opening with a popular e4, Valdas opened with a solid c6 and the opening became a variation of the Caro-kann. As the moves were played and the game progressed, both parties had solid defences with little leeway for their opponent. Pieces were traded off, and the position became more and more open. With more breathing room for each player, there were a lot more available moves and a lot more available room for error. More and more pieces were traded off, and the board looked a lot more empty. Eventually, the endgame transitioned into a king, rook and three pawn endgame, with the pawns being on the same files on the same side of the board. With the end to the game looking not so clear, both players blitzed out their moves and they both agreed to a draw. Unfortunate for Valdas, but he had still played well against an opponent, who was 200 rating points above Valdas. The score was Ashby with one and a half points, and Anstey with half a point.

Board 2 (game 1) – Leo Abraham plays white; Les Fancourt plays black

As previously mentioned, Leo was slightly late to the venue, but he had turned up just in time to play a little game of ‘catch up’, since he was 10 minutes late he had to play being down 10 minutes on the clock, which is half his time gone. No matter though, Leo still played through the game. Although, Leo had to play a bit more quickly than he might like to as he had to make up for lost time, so he often blitzed out his moves where possible. Leo had mentioned after the match that he often uses fear to play better, and this does make sense as your opponent does have the chance to beat you. However, you have the same chance, as long as you play the best or better moves than your opponent, and that’s exactly what Leo did. Before you could know it, Leo had won his opponent’s rook and had gained a winning position, all with time to spare. Leo did win, and this made the score equal with one and a half points to each team.

Board 2 (game 2) – Les plays white; Leo plays black

With a surprising win under his belt, Leo had gained more respect from his opponent, and Les was a lot more weary of Leo’s moves. The first few moves were very fast and both players blitzed out the few 10 moves of the opening stage of the game. Later on it became a lot more of a calm, with both players being out of opening knowledge of the position. With the game being a lot more equal, Leo and his opponent traded pieces off quite quickly, and things soon transposed into an endgame. Although, with Leo getting tired and running out of stamina, he eventually blundered a piece to an unfortunate trap. Leo was down a bishop and had to defend with only a rook versus a rook and bishop. Eventually, Leo was forced to trade rooks, and soon after he resigned the game. An unfortunate end to his evening, but Leo still fought well as his opponent was over 300 rating points above Leo. The score was two and a half to Ashby and one and a half to Anstey.

Board 3 (game 1) – Oskar Rudczenko plays white; Stephan Holmes plays black

With a good start from the first two boards, it was all up to the bottom two to bring the match home to Anstey. Oskar started off with an e4 and his opponent responded with e5. The opening then transposed into the Vienna opening, and with Oskar having the slight edge in the position. As the game continued slowly, Oskar kept pressing his attack, opening up the centre of the board and giving his rook solid control over the open e file. The game progressed, and the position was marginally equal with both players having chances to tactically out manoeuvre the other. The position was wide open and still Oskar had the advantage, making space for his pieces and starting to swat away black’s pieces from the black king. Unfortunately, Oskar had made a small error in evaluating the position, and he didn’t realise that the f file was open which allowed the opponent to make a check. Soon after, there came an unstoppable attack against the white king, and it all fell apart in an instant. Soon later, white was check mated and black won a point for Ashby. An unfortunate ending to a good looking position, the score being three and a half for Ashby versus Anstey’s one and a half.

Board 3 (game 2) – Stephan plays white; Oskar plays black

First move from white: d4, and from black was d5. A queen’s gambit. Oskar solidifies the d pawn and the game continues as an average game, pieces get developed and tensions are high in the position. Oskar dances his pieces into decent positions on the board, and white locks the queen side. With most of the space being on the kingside, that’s where Oskar put his pieces. Although, white would counter attack, pressuring and pushing the black pieces into the corner with black’s king, not a great situation to be in. However, Oskar fired back, sacing a piece for a few pawns and some initiative. As a check mating attack was brewing for black, white developed their last couple of pieces to make a defence. Oskar tried his best to complicate the position and throw in some tactics against white, but white managed to handle the chaos and put up a fight. As Oskar grew more impatient and tired, he missed a simple tactic that white did not miss, and a few moves later Oskar resigned the game. The score was Ashby with four and a half to Anstey’s one and a half.

Board 4 (game 1) – John Graham-Brown plays white; Joshua Cherrington plays black

Little John started his opening with e4 and an early queen attack, enthusiastic to start attacking. As the opening when on, it was clear that everything was equal even wit John’s aggressive style. In the mid game, black started to gain some positional advantage over John, which John didn’t take too kindly to so John pressed the attack even more than he already was doing. Brave? Certainly, but not quite good enough on the 64 squares, unfortunately. John lost one or two minor pieces after a violent brawl, and things quickly moved into the endgame as John was eager to fight and black was eager to win. Being a couple of pieces down, it can be very difficult to play in the endgame as you can get out manoeuvred much more easily as there is simply more pieces. This was the inevitable case for John’s game one on the fourth board, so John had been check mated but he is one hell of a fighter. Five and a half to Ashby with Anstey’s one and a half. One more game to go.

Board 4 (game 2) – Joshua plays white; John plays black

With white playing their first move to e4, John played the traditional e5, and there after John played an early queen attack again. Some people say that a good offence is the best defence, just like how a good defence can be a good offence, if you’re experienced enough in such positions. For Little John, he is still quite young, so being without much experience he lost ground fairly quickly. Because of an early queen attack, white can develop with tempo by attacking John’s queen continuously and that can give a significant advantage to white. With space being dramatically lost, John didn’t really know what to do and a few moves later he had lost. Even though this was a terrible defeat for John, he and his opponent agreed that they had both played a good match and John had learnt one or two things from playing against Joshua.

Final Say

With that match done and dusted, Ashby won with a five point lead, which puts Ashby in the top four teams of the cup and Anstey in ninth place. At least it’s not last, and there were quite a few good games from each match played, so it’s not that bad of a summer cup for the second team in Anstey. Maybe we’ll do better next year, with the rate we’re going at I think there’ll certainly be that chance next year. For now, it’s back to the league season and back to notating our moves and playing with an hour on the clock leaving plenty of time to have a fantastic game with your opponent. See you all in the Leicestershire chess league, we’ll be ready and waiting.

In the fourth and penultimate round of the Leicestershire Harrod Summer Cup, the second Anstey team travelled to their next opponents in Loughborough. Similar to the previous round of the Harrod cup, Loughborough and Anstey 2 were quite close on the scoreboard, as both had one win and two losses at the bottom of the board; Anstey 2 were in 10th Place and Loughborough were in 11th place. Not as much hanging in the balance when Anstey 2 faced off against Ashby 2, as both were place in the middle of the scoreboard. However, it would be beneficial to the team’s morale and inflated ego that they didn’t end up at the bottom in the last round of the cup.

The Anstey team consisted of Mike Griffiths, Leo Abraham, Oskar Rudczenko, and Deepa Kalyanji. Unfortunately, Deepa had not turned up during the entire evening due to unforeseen circumstances, which left Anstey with a two point disadvantage from the start, but the mighty chess players of Anstey were not going to back down and we stayed for a good evening of strategized board play.

Board 1 (Game 1) – Mike Griffiths plays white; John Glover plays black

Mike’s opponent was a total 159 ECF rating points above Mike, so Mike had to fight for a victory if he was hoping to win at least one match against John Glover. Mike opened with a usual English set up in the opening, Mike was seemingly more prepared than his opponent as Mike had over 17 minutes of his time left on the clock, whereas John had no time left. It was quite an “uninteresting match” as Mike had put it, with equal material on the board for both sides. Mike’s opponent was quite stunned that he lost on time as he was over-heard talking about his defeat, to a fellow Loughborough club member, by one or two of the Anstey players.

Board 1 (Game 2) – John plays white; Mike plays black

The second game between the two board 1 players was quite a bit more eventful. John opened with d4, and Mike opened with a quite interesting c5 Sicilian opening. Immediately, there was potential for the position to erupt, and open up violently. Later on in the game, Mike had said he “tempted” his opponent to take a three piece exchange and John accepted this trade offer, confident that he had the upper hand on Mike. However, Mike had a tactic up his sleeve with a simple knight check after taking John’s rook, and this switched the tempo of the position in Mike’s favour and Mike used this to trade off even more pieces, but it was trading in his favour. Mike had gained a rook and a pawn for only a bishop. Mike managed to keep the tempo and material he had gained from this exchange, and he turned his position into a won game. John eventually resigned with one move away from being certainly checkmated, and with that result the score between Anstey and Loughborough was 2-2. A solid start from the Anstey team, but this was only the start of the chaos.

Board 2 (Game 1) – Leo Abraham plays white; Ric Dawson plays black

Leo had one of the biggest challenges of the evening, as he was playing against an opponent, who was over 200 rating points higher than Leo was. Although, Leo is a very good player, considering his current rating and he has pulled victory against the odds on many occasions.

The game opened with e4 and e5, and as the game progressed the position was as equal as Mike’s first game. Leo would try to poke at his opponent’s position from time to time, trying to either find or provoke some sort of weakness. As the game progressed Leo pushed an initiative on the kingside of the board, and he attacked with good progress as the black kingside opened up as Leo took more pawns. Leo traded off a few more of his pieces and pressed the attack, for he had the tempo to do so. Towards the end of the game Leo turned his tempo into a winning position, and of course won against Ric Dawson. Although, with one more to play, the match between these two was far from over.

Board 2 (Game 2) – Ric plays white; Leo plays black

This next game was a bit more of a close shave. The game started as the first game had, with e4 and e5 being the first moves of each player. A few moves later, Leo had pinned Ric’s knight to his king and Leo won the piece almost for free. Although Leo was a piece up, the position was not in his favour so Leo had to keep fighting for the winning chances he was looking for. As more pieces were developed, Leo managed to improve his position in a slow but sure fashion, and later on Leo was attacking similarly to how he had attacked his opponent in the previous game: attacking on the kingside of the board. Since Leo’s opponent had castled on the kingside, Leo created some significant threats of checkmating Ric; the more threats Leo made, the more pressure his opponent was under. Soon enough, Leo’s threats encouraged Ric to make some mistakes and Leo took full advantage of these mistakes, which cost Ric one or two more blundered pieces. After realising that he was in some deep do-do, Ric accepted his bad position and resigned against Leo, making the score of this match 2-0 to Leo. The score between the two teams was now 2-4 to Anstey, which put the team in a great position to win, and to get higher on the cup’s scoreboard. There were still drawing chances for the Loughborough team, so there was still some caution to be had.

Board 3 (Game 1) – Oskar Rudczenko plays white; Stewart Gordon plays black

With winning chances looking good for Anstey, there wasn’t too much pressure on Oskar to assure the victory, but where there is hope there are still chances, and Loughborough still had some chances to draw the match. Oskar was out rated by 145 ECF points, not as much as Mike or Leo was but still out rated by quite a lot of points. Although, similarly to Leo, Oskar was playing much better than his rating would suggest.

The first game on board 3 started with a d4 and d5, followed by a bishop out and a black knight attacking the unprotected d4 pawn. Oskar moved e3 resulting in a London system set up. As the game progressed, Oskar had to deal with a pinned knight and the potential pressure his opponent could put onto the knight. However, the pressure was not enough to create significant danger, so there were a few exchanges with not much advantage being gained by either side. Further along in the game, Stewart seemed to get a little impatient with the position as he pushed one of his kings pawns to attack one of the white pieces, although, Stewart had already castled so this was risky for him to do. Oskar developed and improved his position around this sudden aggression, and winning chances started to occur within the position.

Black was trying to attack on the kingside but white had not castled yet, so what was it that black was attacking? Nevertheless, black continued the attack, and had helped white to open the h file for white. As queens were traded off the board and the black king wide open, white’s chances of winning became clearer and clearer. Oskar had doubled his rooks on the h file and he started to threaten checkmate, and that’s exactly what had happened. The score became 2-5 in Anstey’s favour, and any drawing chances had evaporated.

Board 3 (Game 2) – Stewart plays white; Oskar plays black

The second game opened with an e4 and e5, and Stewart opened with a Ruy Lopez. The game continued with not many pieces getting traded off, but with Oskar’s position getting a little crammed and tight. Although, there were a few tactics that were on the board, one of which being a bishop skewer on white’s rook and queen for black to play, Oskar just had to be patient for white to move his knight. A few moves later, the knight had moved and the bishop moved into position. White gave an in-between move, which resulted in a knight trade, and, after the dust settled, black had gained a rook for a bishop, but the game was still not over, as this was a closer game than any of the Anstey team had wanted it to get.

With both queens being traded off and the position looking equal, Stewart kept attacking Oskar with some success, defending off black’s attacks and creating some good attacks of his own. However, white’s pieces were slightly over worked, and with this in mind Oskar took some pawns as white took some pawns back, but this wasn’t good for black since white had an outside past pawn and it was rather close to promoting. Oskar had to trade a rook for a knight to deflect white’s only bishop from the outside passer. With the pawn taken, white then placed his bishop to attack the black rook, but black then pinned the white bishop to the white rook. After added pressure on the bishop, white decided to trade the rook for a bishop and a pawn, but Oskar still had some tactics left in him as he skewered the active white king and a free pawn. Moving his king to protect the pawn, Stewart didn’t see a brutal winning move in the form of a second check. Oskar found it and played it, forking the king and bishop and with no way to protect his king and bishop, Stewart resigned. A fantastic 2-6 win for Anstey.

Final Conclusions

With the result of the match being 2 for Loughborough and 6 for Anstey, this puts Anstey 2 at sixth place on the Harrod Cup leader board, leaving Loughborough behind in 11th place on the table. The incredible players in Anstey are still showing themselves to be as formidable as the spirit they fight with, and that’s not just in the second team. The next match will be against Ashby 1, which may be a hard match to win as their board one is a 1700 rated player, along with a few 1600 and 1500 rated players, but Anstey 2 have beaten similar rated opponents before. There’s only one way to find out who will win between Anstey’s and Ashby’s second teams.