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.

(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!

In a hard-fought match Anstey 1 were held to a draw in the third round of the Harrod Cup away to Wigston. After three games we are third on “goal” difference:

There was some confusion over Wigston’s line-up, despite a few minutes grace their board 1 didn’t turn up but they must have half-expected it as they had a ready-made replacement. The teams looked fairly even on paper 6,256 vs 6,228.

The Wigston captain wasn’t really bothered about tossing for colours and the first games were played with how we happened to sit down at the boards, we had black on odds and white on evens for the first of the two 20-minute games.

On to the action. Board 2 was the first game to finish. Mick, playing white versus Les Corlett, got a great position out of the Philidor opening (1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6), increased his advantage in the middle game and overwhelmed his opponent in what Mick described as a fairly easy game. Wigston 0 – 1 Anstey.

Not too much is known about Mike’s first game, black against Alex Milligan on board 3. After early skirmishes the game came out level and a draw was agreed. Wigston ½ – Anstey 1½.

Valdas was playing the youngster Madhav Eradi on board 4. This was going to be a tough game as Madhav had had some good results in quick play games of late. Valdas opened with the Rapport-Jobava System and played the ambitious looking Ne5 and Nb5, unfortunately running into Qa5+ pushing the knight back to c3 and giving black some pressure. White succumbed and dropped a piece for a pawn, the position coming out as 2 rooks and 8 pawns vs 2 rooks, a bishop and 7 pawns. Black played this period of the game well, exchanging pawns off to activate his rooks, forcing a rook exchange, winning another pawn and creating 2 advanced passed pawns. Valdas resigned. Wigston 1½ – Anstey 1½.

This left Matt on board 1 as black against Andrew Pike. After a weird English opening 1. c4 e5 2. a3 it looked like white was getting a small advantage on the queenside when he made a mistake with Ne4. After … Nxe4 Bxe4 f5 the bishop was trapped (Bd3 allowed … e4 forking the bishop and knight on f3) so white went with Bxf5 gxf5 and Qxf5 giving him 2 pawns and a draughty looking black king for the piece. However, Matt was able to bring his pieces to the kingside, play e4 kicking the knight and getting a counter-attack down the g-file. In the time scramble white lost the knight but created a passed pawn on d6 before black crashed through with a nice mating attack:

So, at half time the score was Wigston 1½ – Anstey 2½. The players changed ends and battle recommenced immediately, no time for a slice of orange.

Mike’s second game finished first. In a thankfully rare event Mike mis-played the middlegame after his 1. c4 English opening and ended up in a losing position and resigned. Afterward he apologised for, in his own words, cocking it up. So Wigston drew level, Wigston 2½ – Anstey 2½.

But not for long. Matt played a quiet side-line against Andrew’s Caro Kann Defence (1. e4 c6) but came out of the opening with a slight advantage after back’s pieces tangled themselves up on the kingside. He couldn’t convert it to anything meaningful and when the queens came off the position looked equal. Matt offered a draw that was declined, Andrew saying he would play on for a bit. But as so often happens (see below) a few moves later black blundered after trying to get his rooks active, allowing Matt to pin the knight on c4 against the king on c8. Matt followed by up activating his own rooks with pressure down the b file, forcing an exchange of rook leaving a completely won position which black resigned. Wigston 2½ – Anstey 3½.

Valdas’ second game mirrored Matt’s, Valdas this time playing the Caro Kann as black. After a few tactics in the early middlegame the queens came off and the position boiled down to a double rook and pawn endgame, white’s weak looking double and isolated f pawns offset by his active rooks. Madhav offered a draw that Valdas declined thinking he had a slight advantage… only to lose a pawn a few moves later! White calmly played the position well, creating and pushing his passed h-pawn and in the end there was nothing black could do about it, Valdas resigned. Wigston 3½ – Anstey 3½.

So it all came down to Mick as black vs Les. The game started as a Sicilian (1. e4 c5) but quickly headed to a St George after an early … a6. In a very tactical game and as the time slipped away Mick ended up with rook, bishop and knight against queen and 2 pawns, technically equal on paper and what would have been a fascinating game in a longer time format. But Mick’s king was a bit exposed and white’s queen started harassing. In time pressure when it looked like a draw by perpetual check was the likely outcome, a draw was agreed. Wigston 4 – Anstey 4.

So the match was drawn!

With two rounds to go in the Harrod Cup we are still in with a shout of winning it though it depends on the outcome of the other matches. For example, if Ashby 2 beat Wigston and we beat whoever we are paired against then it will be a final showdown, winner takes all match against Ashby 2. Bring it on!

In round three of the 2022 Harrod Summer Cup, Anstey’s second team travel away from home to Ashby’s very nice Ivanhoe Social Club to go up against a strong Ashby second team. The scores in the Harrod were quite equal between the two teams as Ashby sat at a comfortable fourth place, and Anstey sat just below them in a nice fifth place. The Anstey team on the night was Mike, a solid and experienced player on board one; the new but strong Valdas on board two; the experienced second team captain Oskar on board three, and a very young John who was making his debut match, and as rumours had it he was very excited about his first professional match in the competitive Leicestershire chess scene. 

Anstey two had come into the match with one win from round one of the Harrod, and a lose from round two. Hoping to get a win, Oskar, the team captain, was ready for a fight, as he had been playing rather well in the last two rounds. Mike and Valdas were as ready as can be, as they quenched their thirst at the bar before making their way towards the back room of the social club. John was patiently waiting for the games to start, with his mum, making friendly conversation with his opponent for the night. 

As the players were ready to play a gentleman’s game, the Anstey players headed through the snooker room of the social club into a cosy back room with its own toilet. The captains of both teams filled in the score sheet to mark who was playing, and then got to the coin toss to decide who would be playing white, and who would be playing black for the first games. The Ashby team captain, Andrew Wilson, was to call and as the coin flipped and flipped in the air Andrew called, “heads.” Luck was on Andrew’s side as the Anstey team captain, Oskar, revealed the coin to show heads. Andrew picked white for his team, with board one and three to play white first and Ashby’s boards two and four to play black first. Although, with some confusion from Oskar, the teams decided to have all of Ashby’s players to play white first. 

All eight players began to sit down to play some serious chess. It was peaceful in those last few moments, but soon there would be a brutal clash between the two teams. The leader board scores of both teams hung in the balance; who would come out on top to cement their position in the Harrod Summer Cup table scores? There’s only one way to find out… 

First Games of the Night – Ashby Plays White; Anstey Plays Black 

Board 1 – Andrew Wilson plays white; Mike Griffiths plays black. 

With white’s first move being an aggressive d4, Mike responded with a classy Sicilian defence. With the game being equal for most of the game, pieces getting traded off quite quickly, and with a rook and opposite-coloured bishop endgame, Mike seemed to be facing a certain draw. However, with only Mike’s bishop from stopping his opponent’s king and rook getting in behind Mike’s pawns, the game was far from over. Andrew’s time was running much lower than Mike’s, and so Mike had to put Andrew under some pressure. With one move of his bishop, Mike realised that he made a mistake, and his opponent seized his opportunity to get behind Mike’s pawns, but Mike was not done with yet. It took a while longer before Andrew had captured a pawn with his king, Mike knew he had to work hard to recover from his inaccuracy. He moved his drink to one side, trying to calculate a way out of his position, but he knew he couldn’t find a way out. Unfortunately, Mike knew his opponent would win eventually, so he put his hand out over the board for Andrew to shake. White was victorious, and it was one for Ashby. 

Mike plays white; Andrew plays black. 

In game two, Mike kept up the spirit of the Sicilian by playing c4 as his first move as white, and again everything came down to the endgame. Pieces were quickly traded off during the opening and middle game, and again Mike reports that a draw “looked obvious.” There was even some discussion between him and his opponent that they had in fact repeated moves, however, Andrew had clarified that you have to repeat a position three times rather than it being you repeat moves three times. Both players mutually agreed to continue the game, and black tried to lead an attacking charge with his king. Rather courageous to let the king go first, but Andrew had little to fear in his position, or so he thought. Determined to not allow black to win, Mike looked across the board for any slither of an advantage, and there was. A knight sacrifice, with check too; very juicy! However, with sacrifices you have to be sure that the sac will give you a winning advantage, if not win material. Mike was sure, after precise calculations and methodical planning Mike sacrificed his brave knight. Andrew unknowingly took the knight with a pawn of his, and this allowed white to push a 

pawn with a clear pathway to becoming a queen. Black realised what he had done, but it was too late and there was no visible way of stopping that pawn, it was queening no matter what. With that done and dusted, Mike had gained a victory, his opponent resigned. It was one all between Ashby and Anstey. 

Board two – Paul Gibson plays white; Valdas Matutis plays black. 

In Valdas’ first game, he played the Caro-kann defence as advised by the club’s secret coach, and Valdas clearly agrees he should play the caro. With successfully developing his pieces, Valdas patiently waited until his opponent had made an opportunity for black, and as Paul castled king-side Valdas pushed his a pawn forwards. Valdas castles queen-side, a very confrontational move as this puts his rook in the centre files of the board. As white’s pieces start attacking black’s king, black contains the attack well and pushing his b pawn forwards to try and create a blockade of pawns, although, this may weaken his king more than he would like. The position looked promising for Valdas, his king was safe, his pieces were coordinated, and he had some attacking chances for himself. Although, after a hard days work, sometimes your brain can only cope with so much thinking. Valdas wanted to exchange the queens off the board with the help of his knight. With the escort of the knight, the queen confidently faced off against white’s queen, so Valdas had successfully traded off his own queen as he had forgotten that his knight was pinned by white’s rook. Realising his mistake, Valdas did the honourable thing and resigned. Ashby with two, and Anstey with one. 

Valdas plays white; Paul plays black. 

In game two on board two, Valdas played a London variation, also recommended by the club’s secret coach. Valdas had used this same opening a few times before, but after his devastating loss in game one, Valdas began to struggle. White’s pieces hadn’t been developed very well and with little coordination, Valdas had lost the initiative in the mid-game. Valdas still had some chances to defend his weakened position, but he was barely hanging by a thread of fabric above a pit of angry pieces heading towards his king. After gaining the extra tempo, Paul began trying to pry open the centre of the board by using his centre files, along with the teamwork of his pieces. However, Valdas was not about to give up hope, he tried his hardest to take back his advantage and to rid the chances that black had of winning. There were not many trades happening, this game was a positional fight. As both players kept on fighting, Valdas was defending everything that black could throw at him, and Paul was getting tired. There was still a chance for black to win, but it was small and unclear; Paul would have to grind for this win. Knowing this, being tired and wanting to go home, Paul offered Valdas a draw, and Valdas happily accepted. The score was Ashby with two and a half, and Anstey with one and a half. 

Board three – Lawrence Hayden as white; Oskar Rudczenko as black. 

With white first playing e4 and Nc3, Oskar comfortably played e5 and Nf6, however, things would not remind comfortable for Oskar as white entered the Vienna Gambit. Oskar had head of this opening before but did not know much about it. Unsure of what to do but willing to play on, black played d6 hanging onto the centre pawn of his. The game carried on with Oskar being unsure of every move he was making, but he was holding back white’s attacks for now. White castled king-side and black castled queen-side, the fight was on, but Oskar took a lot of time to think. This was more of a positional fight, with only a couple of pieces traded off. White was slowly making progress into black’s territory, and with every move made Oskar’s position was starting to suffocate his pieces. As time ticked down, Oskar had half of his opponent’s time, but he was still not giving up. Oskar was holding back his opponent’s pieces, but time had ran out for Oskar. After the game Lawrence had admitted that the position was looking to be a draw, and with that the score was three and a half for Ashby, one and a half for Anstey. 

Oskar plays white; Lawrence plays black. 

With game two starting off solidly for Oskar, he brought his bishop and knight out quickly, while his opponent had opened with the Kings Indian Defence. Oskar had faced this many time before and knew what to do, but he was too preoccupied with trying to force his opening prep against the unexpected passive play by black. Both sides had castled king-side, but Oskar was after blood playing h4 after castling. Fierce, but ignorant, Oskar continued to push his h pawn into black’s position without the help of a rook on the h file. Using his queen and bishop, putting pressure on the fianchettoed bishop and allowing his h pawn a clear passage to h5. Although, with the lack of support the pawn had, Oskar had to use his light-squared bishop to help the lone pawn. Again, this was a positional game, black was manoeuvring his knights to many different squares in the position, trying to push his b pawn into the attack. White’s 

position was looking good enough to maintain a small advantage, but the pieces were tripping over each other and eventually Oskar had blundered. His misplaced knight became even more misplaced and unwelcome, as Oskar had accidentally severed the line of sight between his queen and dark squared bishop. Black took the free piece and exchanged the knight off too, allowing his queen to face down onto white’s king. Time was equal for most of the game, until the unfortunate mistake and Oskar was down by more and more time in the last few moves. Oskar had tried to defend himself, but it was very tricky and, consequently, he had lost on time again. It was four and a half for Ashby, and one and a half for Anstey. 

Board four – Tom Gerrard plays white; John Graham-Brown plays black. 

John opened strongly in his first match of his chess career, making it difficult for his opponent to gain the initiative. John is a very quick player, and he does not like to give his opponents any breathing room at all. There were even times when John had all his time left, whereas his opponent had half his time remaining. Although, playing so quickly, John had less time to think about which moves to play, and this gave him less time to contemplate what his opponent might do. John started to run out of threatening moves, and, consequently, Tom could gain some breathing room and eventually it became an equal middle-game. John continued to play quickly, whereas Tom continued to ponder over his moves. As black played quickly, he did not think about many threats that white could make, so this gave white an opportunity to start making threats and attacks of his own. Eventually, John’s pieces were backed up in the corner of the board along with his king, so as time went on and with black’s options getting less and less favourable, John, unfortunately, got checkmated. Ashby 5 and a half; Anstey one and a half. 

John plays white; Tom plays black. 

In the second game, John, again, came out strong and fast. Attempting to make sure his opponent does not have any breathing space on the board. Tom had to work hard once again, as attacks kept coming from every possible angle, but white’s attacks were light and rushed with not much weight behind them. Black parried all of white’s attacks. John wanted to press his attack, so he brought out his most powerful piece: The Queen. Unfortunately for John, things took a turn for the worst, as black slayed the white queen. John tried to hang onto the position with the pieces he had left, he tried to coordinate his pieces to create a fortress for his king, but it was not enough to save John’s king. White was checkmated. John did not win against his opponent that night, but he fought fiercely and harshly. Tom had admitted multiple times that he did had to work hard for both wins against John, and with John being two hundred and fifty points lower than Tom things look bright for John’s chess career. With enough practise of patience and discipline, John could become a formidable chess player. 

Final Result 

The final match result was six and a half to Ashby’s second chess team, and one and a half for Anstey’s second team. The leader board table now puts Anstey two at eight place out of eleven. Although the result is a landslide in Ashby’s favour, this does not share the full story that happened, on the night of the fourteenth July twenty twenty-two. All of Anstey’s players were out graded by an average of two hundred and eighty-five ECF points, and all of Anstey’s players had fighting chances all throughout the match. Especially the games on the first two boards, those games were not lost completely and looked quite equal for a while. With more experience and training, every player on the Anstey second team can become even stronger. For now, though, we will have to wait until the next round of the Harrod Summer Cup to see how Anstey two will fair against their next challengers, or maybe, even, victims. 

Match report written by Oskar E. S. Rudczenko.

Anstey 1 secured their third straight win in the Chapman Cup with a comfortable victory away to Loughborough. At the halfway stage of the competition, we have a two-point lead over Braunstone.

Planning for the match began early with a discussion between captain Matt and board 1 Julian over colour choice should we win the toss with Julian deciding he wanted to be black (less psychological pressure!). It suited our team choice as John and Mike would be white and Matt also black.

We turned up to the venue early to find the doors didn’t even open until 19:30 so be the time we were in and the boards setup it was nearly 19:45. Loughborough fielded a fairly strong looking team out rating us by 354 points. That did mean we’d have ½ point lead due to the handicap system so we’d only need two points over the board to win the match.

We won the toss for colours, implemented our plan of black on odds ands settled in for the battle. Well, I say settled in, it was a warm night so the back door was open and clearly Wednesday was also the campanologists club night and the church bells were ringing out, lovely but loud. That wasn’t the only musical disturbance of the night as a little while later the folk music club struck up and a bit later still jukebox music came on in the function room. So not conducive for great chess, maybe we should all get ear defenders like Julian!

On to the action. It was a tense start with all the games looking fairly even. Mike on board 4 finished first with a great win over his albeit young but highly graded opponent, Kajus Mikalajunas, the 193 rating point differential being the biggest on all the boards. Mike wheeled out his trademark English 1. c4 and proceeded to deliver a positional masterclass, creating doubled isolated black pawns on both the c and e files and winning a couple of pawns in the process. Black’s kingside attack never really got going with Mike defending easily, nullifying the attack and trading off pieces to leave him three pawns up in a king and rook ending. Black battled on for another 20 moves before eventually capitulating. This game was both the shortest (timewise) and longest (number of moves) of the night so there was some rapid play going on. Nonetheless, a great start. Loughborough 0 – 1½ Anstey.

The next game to finish was John on board 2 against Stephen Morris, with John outrated (on paper) by 91 points. In a cagey Indian Game, Knights Variation with  2…e6, all the knights came off and the pawns  blocked up the position. With neither side having had any advantage, a draw was agreed much to John’s relief after the musical distractions. Loughborough ½ – 2 Anstey.

Matt was outrated by 111 points against Jim Miller on board 3 but having not lost with the black pieces all season was feeling confident. Playing his usual Philidor setup he came out of the opening with a slight advantage with a nice black squared bishop on a7 eyeing the juicy f2 pawn after white had castled long. With his king’s rook stuck on f1 defending the pawn white decided that maybe 0-0-0 was a mistake and marched his king to c2 to d2 to e2 back to the kingside. This allowed Matt to bring his rooks to d8 and e8 and exert pressure down the central files, bearing down on the white king. White then played the natural looking Kf3 to unpin and shore up the defence of the under-attack e4 pawn. Unfortunately, this allowed Bh5 skewering the king and rook on d1 followed by the delightful Nd3+ and Nxf2 taking advantage of the x-ray pin.

White resigned a couple of moves later ceding Anstey victory! Loughborough ½ – 3 Anstey.

This left Julian on board 1, the only board where we outrated Loughborough but only by 41 points. Henderson Mullen opened with the Reti which morphed into English Opening, Caro-Kann Defensive System with Julian’s setup. He got away with a slight oops in opening with 8. … Bd6, white missing the plan of Nd4 and Nb5:

White made a couple of further inaccurate moves and the game settled into an even middlegame. Even though the position was level there a few tactical skirmishes that Julian played with aplomb and ended up with a draw-ish rook and pawn ending. A few moves later a draw was agreed, cementing the match score line: Loughborough 1 – 3½ Anstey.

Overall an excellent result and we are nicely setup for the second half if the competition!