Last Thursday – 17th March – we were scheduled to travel to bottom of the league Kirby Castlers at Kirby Bowls Club. Having been advised by Julian that he may not be available, we drafted in upcoming star Hal into the side and kept Kirby up to date with our 5 or 6 board status. Approximately 3 hours before battle was to commence and after saying earlier that he wasn’t available, Julian said that he was available and we travelled with 6 boards. If Kirby’s captain hadn’t got the message that we could play 6 after we had said we can play 5 then 6 then 5 then 6 (I was lost with it too!), I was to sit out and we would play 5.
After assisting Kirby to put out the sets, the new weighted sets seem to be all the rage and I must admit that they are very comfortable to play with, home captain Paul Gray advised that he had toothache and I was happy to drop out. In fairness to Paul, a prospective new member had appeared and he had half an eye on accommodating him too, which as a club captain, I can understand. After all the excitement and handshakes, battle commenced.
John Robinson faced off against Ray Townsend – both he and Paul Gray broke away from Wigston and formed their own club – sound familiar? After a cagey opening, John was in a very assertive position and I am becoming rapidly aware of John’s positional capability. One of John’s Knights had manoeuvred itself to e5 on a tremendous outpost and he re-routed the other Knight to f3 to back it up. Furthermore, he also doubled his Rooks on the aforementioned e file and was in a totally dominant position, winning a pawn, followed by a 2nd, followed by a 3rd and a totally won position. John gave a pawn back to trade off material but John being two pawns up was enough for his opponent to resign.
Board 2 saw our very own Julian who confirmed his availability 3 hours before the game via the WhatsApp group. It was Julian himself who suggested the group so we are grateful to him for that as it is a great idea. He was playing against Nigel Wollen – himself carrying an estimated grade of 1650.
On to the game and Julian played his favourite Caro-Kann defence as black against 1. e4. Julian’s opponent chose the exchange variation and Julian’s strategy was to push his Kingside pawns and castle Queenside. Julian had an excellent position with a dark squared Bishop pointing towards his opponent’s casted King, as well as a pawn storm threatening to blow the position open. He positioned the Rooks on the g and h files, also pointing towards white’s King and once Julian forced the breakthrough, a resignation soon followed with a heavy loss of material inevitable.
On board 3 was Mick Sandham – one of our players that has been with the club since the start, facing off against John Walker.
With white, he played 1. e4 and faced the Philidors’ Defence. I was a little unsure what happened after this but during the middle game, Mick had castled Queenside and had some activity. John’s position looked passive but after opening the a file, John had gained some activity back. Pieces were exchanged and Mick looked in an OK position. This soon changed around quickly because after some more material was exchanged, the move order selected by Mick was slightly inaccurate and let to a slightly worse position for him (for a patzer like me looking on). John subsequently employed his apple crunching gambit (popping out an apple to crunch on during a critical period) but then Mick (to his credit) touched his King with a Bishop hanging to a Knight, realised this but moved his King as he had touched the piece. Thereafter the Rooks came off and Mick didn’t take long to resign after. As it turned out, this was the one loss of the night.
Matt on board 4 was facing Jim Kellock, who had previously beaten Rudy in the home match.
Matt, in his usual style, took a longish time to think and assess the position whilst carefully gaining space on the Queenside. Jim played fairly passively it seemed and let Matt do what he wanted, which in true ‘filler’ style, he capitalised on. Matt launched a Kingside attack with a Knight, Rook and Queen on an open g file and Jim’s game collapsed into an inevitable material loss and subsequent resignation.
Finally, (only because he is on board 5) we come to Hal. Hal was facing Edda Walker (Mick’s opponent’s wife) who is trying to improve her trade having played for a few years.
Hal enjoyed an excellent game with a lead in material, in development and won a Queen for a Rook, a couple of pawns and Edda threw in the towel after a nice combination from Hal, using the pin of a Queen to fork a King check and a Rook, winning more material.
Hal felt bad after the game having won within 45-50 minutes and I empathise with that but you are there to win a board for the team Hal and you did it – that’s all we can ask.
Overall an excellent 4-1 win and dare we say that ‘Our promotion charge continues……….’
On Wednesday, 9th March Anstey Chess club’s second team had another away game against a top three team in their division, this time versus Loughborough 2. Our team consisted of a solid pack of players led by the captain Oskar and including the rising star of the team Hal, the top player so far this year Mike, the young man in form Leo, and last but not least – after being accused by our friends at Market Harborough of having a “frugal” 1300 rating, the now 1500-rated Boris.
The home team welcomed us in a quite spacious venue and we were impressed by the number and the young age of both their team players and casual chess enthusiast who decided to have a go at playing chess on Wednesday evening. As usual, our second team was at the venue 7:30 sharp with the players eager to prove themselves against a solid team outrating them by a margin. Although scheduled to play first board after the rating change, Boris decided that he does not have the necessary “cojones” for the task and Mike stepped up in an effort to outplay the highest rated player from both teams.
Team photo after a valiant effort, Hal has better things to do as usual…
Oskar is pushing his opponent to the point where his rating gets questioned
Hal is contemplating again his dinner while having solid advantage on board 3.
Win, lose or draw, it is always the same passion for 64 squares and 32 pieces that keeps the friendship and respect between us
Eyed critically by our teammate Leo and Peter from the home team, Hal is still deciding on his dinner while converting confidently his position
Oskar working his pieces towards seemingly lost yet winning in the long term position
Great effort from the team with Oskar this time having more interesting things to look at
Mike Griffiths (Anstey 2) vs Reece Whittington (Loughborough 2) 0 – 1
As mentioned in the last sentence of the previous paragraph, Mike had a great challenge in front of him facing the rising star in the county Reece Whittington, rated 1630 (almost 200 points above our teammate). Mike started the game with the usual English 1. c4 to which his opponent decided to create a King’s Indian Defence (KID) setup with playing d6 which might classify it as the Pirc defense. After further development with both players ‘fianchetto’-ing their King’s bishop, our teammate started an expansion on the queen side (Q-side). Unfortunately for Mike, he did not notice the solid preparatory moves his opponent was making in loading an attack on the king side (K-side). The attack started with a thematic attack of Mike’s g2-bishop (the ‘fianchetto’-ed one) which led to an exchange which was followed by another thematic move in the KID – f5. Mike held on the position for a while, but after his opponent started pushing the pawns on the K-side, getting closer and closer to our teammate’s king, the pressure got too big and there was nothing left for Mike to do but to resign.
Peter Hickman (Loughborough 2) vs Borislav Lazarov (Anstey 2)1 – 0
After a sustainable spell of luck combined with some solid games, Boris somehow undeservedly jumped over Hal to play on board 2 (he was supposed to play on board 1 really, but ‘chicken’-ed out in the last minute (apologies to all chickens)). The game started with solid London against what started as a Semi-slav from our teammate (very passive) which then turned into a weird Benoni-type setup which by the time our teammate finished his development (apart from his very sad light-squared bishop) was just a passive yet somehow solid opening inviting a draw by repetition of Rf1-e1-f1-e1-f1. On the other side of the board, White was preparing a K-side expansion, lining up several pieces to look towards the black king. Boris decided to ignore the threat and expand on the Q-side and in the process he managed to exchange most of his pieces leaving the important e5-outpost for his opponent’s knight to land on while keeping the ‘extremely sad’ light-squared bishop. The Loughborough player started squeezing our teammate’s position and after Black’s position eventually crumbled, Boris resigned conceding his first loss of the season and leaving Matt ‘The Filler’ Connor as the only undefeated player so far in the 2021-22 competitive year. Nevertheless, an important lesson for our ‘webmaster’ which will only help him improve as a chess player.
Hal Jardine (Anstey 2) vs Ric Dawson (Loughborough 2)1 – 0
While the top boards were going all red in shame, Hal and Leo showed their opponents a great Antey Chess club hospitality by playing their pieces out. On board 3, probably the “Rookie of the season” and one of our top players so far, Hal started the game with his benchmark London system opening against the KID with our teammate showing no consideration of the famous e5 fork. However, his opponent did not even consider the latter and decided to go for the other typical pawn break pertinent for the Modern and the KID, c6. Our teammate calculated a long but dubious line where he volunteered his knight to be subjected to a relative pin by his opponent. Although in a -2.5 position, Black decided to go for a dubious line himself, with the tactical exchange leaving the Loughborough player with two pawns vs a bishop. Our teammate further received the opportunity to put pressure and exchange queens, leaving White with a +3.9 advantage, based on Stockfish (depth = 20, powered by chess.com). Naturally, Hal went on to think about his dinner, while slowly putting pressure on his opponent. Our teammate continued by exchanging the rooks leaving him with a bishop against a pawn and after very active play from White’s king, Black did not found a way out and resigned. Another great game from our teammate after which Hal finds himself again in the top 5 players this season.
Stewart Gordon (Loughborough 2) vs Leo Abraham (Anstey 2) 0 – 1
Leo had another tough challenge in front of him as he had to play against a player almost 100 points higher rated than our teammate. Unmoved by his opponent rating yet again, Leo decided to play the Berlin against the Ruy Lopez defence, playing a6 and doubling pawns on the c-file while keeping the bishop pair. Black decided to keep the open file for his rook, while ‘fianchetto’-ing his dark-squared bishop. White on the other hand went on to pin the f6 knight and take control of the centre with Re1. The home team player then decided to go for a dubious tactical line which ended in him losing a piece. Smelling the advantage piling up, Leo played like a proper lion and applied immense pressure on his opponent leading to the latter losing another piece. Our teammate found himself ahead 6 points of material and with clear advantage, with the engine evaluating the game as -11. Leo went on to further win an exchange and subsequently capture his opponent’s rook for free after which White resigned giving our teammate his third in a row.
Oskar Rudczenko (Anstey 2) vs James Page (Loughborough 2) 1/2 – 1/2
In the decisive game of the match, our captain Oskar had to face 130 points higher rated opponent. The leader of our second team started with a queen’s pawn opening which after a couple of moves transposed into the Steinitz variation of the French defense. The players continued their development as expected, with Anstey 2 captain gaining space in the centre while the home team player started an attack on the Q-side. Following opening of the c-file, the players started a positional battle with their rooks staring at each other and keeping the pressure. After exchanging a set of bishops, followed by a rook exchange, the players continued their development and further exchanged a set of minor pieces while maintaining the fight for the open c-file. Following another rook exchange, our teammate found himself unfortunate to blunder a pawn while being questioned about his rating, with his opponent evaluating him as 1500 player. Left with nothing to lose, Oskar turned his attention to Black’s king and loaded an attack on the K-side. After pushing the g-pawn all the way until the seventh rank, our teammate did the smart thing in exchanging the rooks and creating immense pressure on the K-side. Our second team captain loaded a series of checks, creating havoc on the K-side and exchanging queens after picking up a couple of pawns. The race between the white g-pawn and the black b-pawn started and led to both pawns queening with White to move. Another blast of checks followed, but Oskar missed a perpetual check by his opponent and after a couple of repeats, the players agreed to a draw. A missed chance for our teammate who nevertheless appears to be in great form.
Just short of claiming the win, our teammates showcased another resilient performance and got a well-deserved point against a great team full of talent. Anstey 2 have three more games to go against the strong teams of Wigston 4, Braunstone 2 and Melton Mowbray 3.
On Wednesday evening (02/03/22) our second team found themselves playing away against the division leaders Market Harborough 3 (MH3). A strong team led by their experienced captain Rene, the home team were determined to get revenge for their second team teammates who lost to our first team the previous evening (more on the first team’s win on this link). With an average rating difference of more than 150 points (worth mentioning that Boris’ 1300 rating is provisional and about to be raised after a consistent spell of luck), it was a hard task in front of our seconds to get anything from the match. However, unmoved by the number mismatch and determined to keep their undefeated status in this calendar year, Mike, Boris, Leo and the captain Oscar played their strongest chess and managed to achieve a draw with Leo being the star of the evening after winning against almost 250 points higher rated opponent.
Strong second team happy with their performance
Mike is calculating lines in his head while Leo and Oscar are in the thick of decisive chess battles
After agreeing to a draw, Boris and the county chess prodigy Alistair are happy to take a photo before going for a pint
After a great match, we all leave the great venue wishing all the best to our excellent hosts
A regular game in the last few seasons, the captains played against each other on board 4. After a series of book moves, the players found themselves in the Accelerated London System opening. Further development followed for both players and the Middlegame started with a battle on the queenside with both players pushing their c-, b- and a-pawns. Almost as they are playing bullet and are in time trouble, the players simplified quickly and by the 23rd move the Endgame has begun. Unfortunately for our captain, he went a little too ‘simplify-happy’ and relinquished the a-file to his opponent. The home team captain managed to further win Oskar’s b-pawn and went on the same ‘simplify-happy’ tangent, giving Oskar the option for a tactical exchange followed by a beautiful bishop sacrifice to free the c-file highway for our teammate’s advanced pawn. Unfortunately, our captain did not see the tactic and White was provided the time to activate his king and cut-off the runaway route in advance. However, a few moves later, Rene completely ignored the same tactic and sent his king the opposite way, but Oskar did not seize the opportunity. Our captain had a few more chances to keep at least some hope for a draw, but a couple of missed ideas and solid play from his opponent led to a white pawn queening with a second on the way to do the same and Oskar resigned.
Leo Abraham (Anstey 2) – George Gowers (MH3) 1 – 0
After a great win in the last week’s second team game against Ashby 3 (more on this match on this link), Leo found himself entering a game against more than 200 points higher rated opponent. Indifferent to the rating difference and galvanised by his success in the previous match, Leo went head on into the bout with a solid opening, meeting his opponent’s threats. The players went on to exchange a couple of minor pieces and a couple of pawns with MH3 player keeping the bishop pair. Leo decided to offer a draw with Oskar’s game still in the balance, but his opponent declined. Our teammate did not seem at all flustered by the latter facts or the semi-open g-file with his king exposed, so our whole team decided to leave him in piece, with the captain Oskar and Boris having a pint with Rene, while Alistair and Mike decided to play a game. In the meantime the players on board 3 reshuffled their pieces for a few moves until George was unfortunate to blunder a fork with Leo picking up his queen. Without his most powerful piece, the MH3 player resigned. A great result for Leo and the team. We are sure many more wins are to come for this young prospective player!
Boris had a great challenge in front of him facing the local hero Alistair within a week of the latter winning the minor section of the Doncaster Congress with a 5/5 performance. The game started with the queen’s gambit where our teammate decided to play a weird London system a tempo down, but fortunately the MH3 player was a tad too timid and did not punish Boris by picking up the free b7 pawn. Both players continued their development peacefully with only an exchange of a bishop for a knight until all hell broke loose in the centre with several tactical opportunities for both players. At move 23 our teammate decided to play for a draw and offered it shortly after but as a result of careful consideration (and despite his own evaluation of the game looking like a ‘dead draw’) the young player from MH3 continued playing. Boris did his best to simplify the position and even created an isolated, albeit passed pawn for his opponent. After the kings got active and went to the centre of the board, Alistair finally got convinced by the drawish situation and offered the draw himself to which Boris agreed and both players shook hands, took a selfie (in the slideshow above), and went for a pint. A good result for our more than 200 points lower rated teammate.
Mike Griffiths (Anstey 2) – Cyril Hill (MH3) 1/2 – 1/2
The top board game included our top second team player Mike and about 100 points higher rated Cyril Hill. As usual, Mike played the English opening to which his opponent responded with the Agincourt defense. The players went into a solid game with ‘fianchetto’-ing their king’s bishops and castling short side. Mike attacked his opponent’s f6-knight and managed to exchange one of his knights for it along with the dark-squared bishops. His opponent decided to reply with striking in the queenside with his b-pawn after which the players exchanged their other two knights. Mike decided to further exchange his light-suqared bishop for his opponent’s one, leaving only ‘the big guns’ on the board. The queens started shuffling around until they finally got exchanged themselves at which point the game started looking more and more drawish. The players positioned their rooks strategically and started pushing pawns while also activating their kings as a rook endgame requires. Pawns started exchanging and a set of rooks also left the board. After further pawn marches, the second set of rooks also got exchanged and following further reshuffling of kings and pawns, the players decided that a draw is the most fitting outcome based on the position, with our top board player getting another valuable half point for the team.
Next week our second team is back in action with an away game against Loughborough 2 where they will try to get more points and cement themselves in the middle of the table.
JJ hard at work. JJ = John Robinson (background) and Julian Tarwid (foreground) Both secured excellent individual results
Anstey’s first team maintained their 100% record in 2022 with a superb 3-1 win over table-topping Market Harborough’s (hereafter MH2 because I’m not typing Market Harborough every time!) second team.
Having been made aware beforehand of the fact that MH2 could only field 4 players, (having previously agreed 5) Captain/Chairman/Founder/Dogsbody/Taxi Ben Vaughan selected only his finest 4 players to take on the mighty table-toppers who are all but guaranteed promotion – John, Julian, Mick and Matt.
With the transport to make the long journey already in place, and thinking that Matt would be in the hairdressers car Porsche, Taxi for the evening Ben decided to not upset the status quo and chauffeur JJ to the venue. (For an explanation of JJ, please look to the right). Upon arrival, Ben observed that Matt had bought the not such a hairdressers car 4×4 (couldn’t tell the make as it was dark). Conceivably, Matt could have played chauffeur.
With the words from the captain that it is only a game and not to be too fired up still ringing in their ears, the squad of 5 and team of 4 made their way into the venue. We were greeted almost instantaneously my MH2’s friendly captain Mike Garland who proceeded to welcome us and escort us to the nice and cosy playing room and battle commenced at 7:30 sharp.
On board 1, John Robinson was facing off against the experienced Romilly Ilersic, carrying with him a FIDE rating of 1908. John was disappointed not to be facing Mark Waterfield who had previously beaten John in the home fixture and John fancied a rematch with the white pieces. Anyway, a stodgy game emerged with pieces developed slowly and a semi-locked up centre with a half open c file. After shuffling pieces around, John offered a draw which Romilly declined, citing the match situation and he wanted to play on. Space on the board was at a premium and once both players got to around 8 minutes each left on the clock, both players agreed a draw. As Romilly said after the game ‘It would have taken one of us to blunder which would have been unfair and very possible given the time’. Romilly strikes me as the type of chap that when he talks, you listen.
On to board 2 and Julian faced the conqueror of Mick in the home game – Jon Redding. AKA ‘Bigfluffything’ on chess.com – can’t let him get away with that username! Jon has recently played well and received a boost in his estimated FIDE rating, placing him on board 2 and sitting opposite Julian, with Julian having the black pieces. In an accelerated London system, Jon played a gambit line, gambitting the e pawn for either for quick development or just because. Julian managed to hold onto the e pawn, defending it with a Knight, Bishop and pawn. After the game Julian remarked ‘If he is going to let me have it, I am going to try and defend it whilst creating other threats and trying to pick up another pawn or whatever material.’ In this case, it was a big ‘whatever material’ as Jon captured a Knight with his Queen and almost immediately realised that Julian could play a discovered attack, winning said Queen. It was one of those ‘OMG’ moments and I think I heard Julian apologise once he captured the Queen for Knight. Thereafter, it was a case of converting the win by trading off pieces. There was a passed a pawn to be careful of but once Julian had amassed enough material to win that pawn, Jon resigned.
‘MM’ on boards 3 and 4. Mick Sandham on board 3 (foreground) and Matt Connor on board 4 (Background).
Next in this wholly uninteresting read (can’t you tell that Boris is due to go on holiday soon!?) to Mick on board 3. Mick was playing David Curran, who had beaten Julian on Julian’s debut in the reverse fixture. Seemingly the most uninteresting game after John’s game on board 1, my assumption that this game was uninteresting was actually incorrect. With Bishops on b2 and c1 ominously pointing at his opponent’s King, Mick had a lot of play, whilst trying to manage David’s Knights leaping around the board, occupying good squares. After a little bit of jockeying (that’s the last horse-led reference I’m afraid), Mick completed a menacing looking Rook-lift over to join in with the attack on the Kingside. With a good-looking Kingside attack and being the last to finish, the match was already won in our favour at 2.5-0.5 so Mick (very sportingly) offered a draw saying that the result was done, which was accepted. Post-game analysis (with David instantly whipping his phone out to analyse) indicated that Mick had a very strong attack three moves before the draw was agreed. Aside from that it was very even. Once everybody had tediously offered their critique on the 3rd board, it was time to go home after deciding that we all like to blunder other people’s pieces.
Finally and last but not least, to Matt on Board 4. Matt was playing the aforementioned Mike Garland Jnr on the last board. Captain Ben and Mike had a notquiteaGM draw in the home leg. Matt is affectionately known as ‘the Killer’ in the second team, a nickname that seems to be growing amongst the club, he is also known as, erm, ‘the Killer’ by his first team captain. Matt has a habit of running low on time and even made the effort to make himself an approximate guide in relation to move count and time elapsed on his scoresheet but I can assure you as his captain, he will kill me off one day! The approximate guide to his time was basically saying by move 10 (for example) he should have used 10 minutes and so on. That was well and truly out of the slightly open window. The game itself was actually pretty even although about half way through, Mike had connected Rooks, an active army of pieces versus Matt’s not-quite-artificially-castled King and seemingly defensive pieces. The next time I looked, Mike had a pawn on the 7th rank with Matt’s Rook blockading it. Mike’s Bishop was directly protecting said 7th rank pawn and Matt’s position was looking fairly lost, given the inevitable time trouble Matt was in by now. The next time I looked again, Mike had resigned and when I looked at Matt, he shrugged his shoulders. That was all the explanation I needed.
All in all, congratulations to MH as a club; A) For a fantastic website (better than ours but we are getting there), B) For the fab venue – I really liked it and C) For being good sports and being such a friendly club. Whilst the 4 boards were getting down to business, I had quick sanity breaks chatting with Rene, Amrik, Robert Mills and new Doncaster Minor Champion Alistair Geear. Thankfully, we won’t have to drive for such a long way any time soon, apart from the second team that travel there tonight!
On Thursday, 24/02/22 the Methodist Church in Anstey hosted another great evening for the local chess enthusiasts, with Anstey Chess club’s seconds playing against Ashby’s third team in a seven-board match. The event marked an historical moment for our club as Deepa made her debut and became the first female chess player from Anstey Chess club to participate in a league game. We wish her many more league games to come and many for her to win! Our players showed their characteristic grit and class and secured a 4.5 – 2.5 win over our opponents in a league game involving some dramatic finishes for both teams. The evening started in an usual manner with the team reshuffled probably more than five times due to Hal’s phone malfunction and dramatic 19:25 entrance, accompanied by misunderstanding on boards 5 and 6, but at 19:40 all players were ‘in the thick of it’.
As usual for a Thursday night, there was a quiet club night ongoing in the other corner with Julian and Mick engaging in several chess games in Rapid format, while ‘El Presidente’ Ben and our club’s top rated player John decided to closely monitor the league action.
Deepa making her debut in league chess battling the ‘Ruy Lopez’.
Seven boards and true celebration of chess in Anstey Chess club!
John is monitoring closely the games during the busy league match
The captain Oskar is planning his attack
Back from a long break, teenager Leo was back in action to secure a win for the team
Hal is figuring out a plan to take advantage in the position
One of our most solid players, Mike is confident in his plan to slowly crush his opponent’s defence
‘The Killer’ Matt taking his time as usual in planning tactical sequences
Boris is playing a weird game of ‘touch your nose’ while looking blankly at the board.
John is carefully watching the action on the top board
Boris and Brian from Ashby showcasing what is chess about – rivals on the night and friends for life
Last crucial moments of the game on board 1 with the match result depending on the outcome
Everyone overseeing the great conversion from Mike to secure the team win
Happy faces from ‘El Presidente’, our top rookie this year and ‘the webmaster’.
Only smiles after a great night of chess
Julian and Mick enjoying club night while the league match was going on in the other corner
Tom Gerrard (Ashby 3) vs Deepa Kalyanji (Anstey 2) 1-0
A first league game for Deepa with her spot secured in the last minute, it was tough game against more experienced opponent. White started the game with 1. e4 and after the standard continuation with 1…e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 Deepa’s opponent played 3. Bb5 entering the ‘Ruy Lopez’.
Reluctant to exchange her knight for White’s bishop, Deepa decided to try and gain advantage using the piece to attack her opponent’s centre. Unfortunately, in the process she overlooked the White’s bishop’s diagonal coverage and had to give up the knight. Not impressed by the latter, Deepa started pushing her centre pawns in an attempt to create initiative. Her opponent managed to counter the threat and with a piece up consolidated his position with a clear +6.1 advantage based on Stockfish (depth = 20) as provided by chess.com.
With the lead in development and material, Deepa’s opponent started his plan by exchanging the knights and offering a further exchange of bishops which our teammate correctly ignored and instead decided to try and expand on the queenside (Q-side). Unfortunately, White used the opportunity to create a double attack with the move 16. Qd3 threatening checkmate on h7 and picking up the pawn on b5. Deepa was unfortunate to fall victim to the commonly encountered in chess ‘tunnel vision’ and protected the pawn as opposed to the checkmate which was delivered on the next move. 16…a6 17. Qxh7# 1-0.
Tough first league game for Deepa, but we are sure that she will learn from the experience and take the lessons for her further games and wins.
Oskar Rudczenko (Anstey 2) vs Jamie Rhodes (Ashby 3) 0-1
Our second team captain started the game with the king’s pawn (1. e4) and after the same response from Black as in the above game, Oskar decided to play 3. d4 leading the action towards the Scotch game.
Oskar’s opponent decided to leave the book immediately by protecting his e-pawn with 3…f6 which is uncommon reply with the engine clearly not impressed and providing evaluation of +1.8 with equal material. Seeing the reply, Oskar advanced his d-pawn, gaining space and attacking the c6-knight which found itself in a dim situation on the rim. Our teammate continued his attack in a ‘beserker’ style, explanding on the centre and sacrificing pawns to gain initiative. After further giving his opponent the opportunity to castle and create a passed pawn on the Q-side, Oskar found himself in a position highly unfavoured by the engine, but fortunately he was playing a human. Our teammate’s opponent saw beautiful fork on move 13, completely ignoring the White’s light-squared bishop and the fact that his powerful knight and his king are on the same diagonal. Oskar is not one to miss such a chance and counter-forked his opponent with the best move, 14. Bc4+.
After picking up the knight, Oskar continued consolidating his position with further exchange of bishops, clearing the a- and b-file through pawn exchange and doubling his rooks on the a-file. With two-point advantage in material and more active pieces, our second team captain looked to solidify his position through simplification. Unfortunately, eager to exchange the queens, Oskar completely forgot about his knight on b2 with the latter becoming a rook’s dinner after being abandoned by the white queen.
Unfortunately, 25…Rxb2 was the turning point of the game and despite our teammate’s best efforts, when the dust settled, his opponent found himself with a two-pawn advantage, with the players left only with pawns and one knight each. Stockfish clearly likes Black with evaluation of -3.2.
His opponent managed to capitalise on his winning position and after Black pushing his passed pawn to the sixth rank and exchanging the knights, our teammate resigned.
Stephen Holmes (Ashby 3) vs Leo Abraham (Anstey 2) 0 – 1
It has been a couple of months since Leo’s last appearance for the second team but he proved that no chess mastery was forgotten on his part. Just like in Deepa’s game, the Ashby player decided to play the ‘Ruy Lopez’ opening to which Leo responded with the ‘Old Steinitz defence’ as per chess.com’s opening database.
After attack on the bishop with a6, White went into the thematical bishop-knight exchange on c6, thus giving up the bishop pair but deteriorating Black’s pawn structure on the Q-side. Indifferent to the configuration of his Q-side pawns, Leo continued his development with ‘fianchetto’-ing both of his bishops, castling kingside (K-side) and keeping his knight on f6, protecting the king. His opponent decided to pin the knight with 11.Bg5 and create a queen led battery on the e-file supporting the thematical pawn break 15.e5.
The centre was opened up and the queens decided to leave the board after being exchanged on the e-file. Our teammate then decided to exchange his second knight for the opponent’s only bishop in an argument that the bishop pair is worth more than the knight pair. And it was not long before Leo would provide evidence of the superiority of his bishops after forking a knight and a rook with the great move 19…Bf6.
After White picked up the h7-pawn as a consolation price, Leo was considerate to take the route of picking up the knight through a rook exchange, hence leaving less pieces on the board. The decision to keep the bishop pair later paid off, after our teammate managed to isolate his opponent’s knight while simultaneously open the d-file for the powerful black rook. The latter managed to infiltrate the White’s K-side and with the help of the two powerful bishops delivered a beautiful checkmate with our teammate getting the W.
Borislav Lazarov (Anstey 2) vs Brian Wood (Ashby 3) 1 – 0
After finding out about ten minutes before the match starts that he is playing White, Boris decided to do the responsible thing and asked our first team’s second top player Julian about the opening to be played. Met with the two d4 options – London System vs The Catalan, Julian hesitated a little as he is a notorious fan of d4 openings and suggested the opening named after the people famous for Estrella and Barcelona. Boris obliged in spite of his confusion or plain lack of knowledge on any lines in The Catalan and the game started with the closed variation.
Completely unaware of the key pawn breaks in the position, Boris decided again to do the responsible thing and after spying on Leo’s game, copied the latter’s idea and ‘fianchetto’-ed both of his bishops. His opponent decided to prepare the thematic e5 pawn break, used against many d4 openings, however, in the good tradition of the London system (even though Boris decided not to play it) our teammate placed his knight on e5, blocking the pawn advance.
Black tried to destabilise White’s powerful knight with another thematical pawn break, 10…c5, but White’s e-pawn had the decency of finally start the working day and helped out. Brian’s pressure, however, was just beginning and the Ashby player exerted a series of pins on Boris’ queen and rook, making our teammate use tempo after tempo to get his pieces out of the pinning web. In the process, Black managed to even get a clear advantageous position, but was a tad too timid to take the opportunity and instead played 18…a6. Boris decided to stop playing with fire and got his queen out of the way of attack completely ignoring the apparently winning move (according to the engine, for Boris was just a good move) Nc6. Both players continued to ignore the threat of the latter move until, Black miscalculated a long sequence and played 21…Nf8 burying his knight in a dim situation on the rim. Finally deciding to use the presented opportunity, Boris finally played 22. Nc6 attacking the queen, and after Black’s strongest piece hid away behind the rook, the knight retreated to put pressure on the light-squared bishop.
Although it looks scary, in the above position Black could play Nfd7 holding everything together but miscalculation from Boris’ opponent provided our teammate the opportunity to break open the K-side with the thematical exchange 25.Bxf6. With the main cover of the black king destroyed, Boris hurried to bring his rook to the attack with the e1-e4-h4 rook lift, creating a battery on the h-file. Black was not yet ready to give up and brought a brave knight to try and hold onto the position while trying to run the king towards the centre, but the battery accompanied by the sneaky h-pawn proved too strong to battle and despite bringing the queen Black found himself under too much pressure and resigned.
It is worth mentioning that the players showed class and respect to each other and although they started the evening as rivals, they ended it with the happiness of making a new friend with the same bug in their brain – the amazing game of chess.
Graham Bird (Ashby 3) vs Hal Jardine (Anstey 2) 1/2 – 1/2
The first game of ‘the big guns’ was on board three with our top rookie this year Hal taking on a strong opponent. Prior to the game, Hal unintentionally put the whole team under pressure after he had issues with his phone and postponed his arrival until 19:25, five minutes before the match starts. In his chacteristic way Hal forgot to bring a pen but nothing could deter him to play beautiful chess on the night.
The game started with both players deciding to play the first moves with the principle of pieces before pawns in mind, engaging in the ‘Black Mustang defence’ variation of the Reti opening, or for short 1.Nf3 Nc6.
The players continued their development by ‘fianchetto’-ing their dark-squared bishops, with White looking to control the centre while Black cautiously taking some space with e5. After getting his army ready, Hal showed his class again by playing a typical engine move, popular among Grandmasters in situations where there is nothing to do – 9…a5!. Hal’s opponent responded with 10.e4 kicking the bishop out of White’s K-side and after reshuffling of the pieces, our teammate managed to place his knight on f4.
Hal brought his queen in an attempt to break open the K-side which he succeeded to do with the help of his light-squared bishop. Eager to create counter-attack, his opponent placed his rook on the open h-file, completely ignoring the double attack on his knight, protected only by his queen. Our teammate did not hesitate and picked up the free piece with the hope of also exchanging the queens, but his opponent wisely kept them on the board. Unfortunately for our teammate, he did the notorious relaxing when in advantageous position and let his opponent’s queen to infiltrate on the seventh rank, then further provided White with the opportunity to equalise material with better piece activity. However, luck was on Hal’s side and his opponent missed the best move Bc1 (X-raying Black’s bishop on h6, attacked by the rook as well), too eager to create a battery on the open h-file.
Hal attacked his opponent’s queen and the latter decided to start building the h-file battery with White’s most powerful piece in front. The battle on the K-side continued and Hal’s opponent finally got the opportunity to play 25.Bc1 with the X-ray for Black’s bishop prepared. After long consideration of the position, Hal decided to go Tal’s way and sacrifice in a beautiful, although dubious way his queen, which the engine evaluates as a straightforward blunder.
Nevertheless, our teammate showed amazing calculating skills and gained plenty of initiative for the material ‘loss’ (1 point which is the equivalent of one pawn) and further used his knight to put immense pressure on White’s position. The horse-shaped piece hopped around the board, creating threat after threat until it got to the critical f4 square, paralysing the king with threats of Hook mate from the h-file. At this point, Hal’s winning idea was a battery on the h-file, but instead our teammate miscalculated and decided to play the only drawing move in the position 31…Rh3+ and after brief consideration, both players agreed to a draw.
Mike Griffiths (Anstey 2) vs David Holmes (Ashby 3)
Our top performer this year Mike had a serious challenge in front of him taking on the second top ranked player from Ashby 3. Mike started with the English opening and the game went into the symmetrical variation.
Both players developped with K-side castling and creating a King’s Indian style setup with ‘fianchetto’ of the bishops on g7 and g2 and knights on f6 and f3, respectively for Black and White. With symmetrical position, Mike decided to keep his dark-squared bishop in the centre while his opponent went for the ‘double fianchetto’.
Our teammate started building pressure on both sides of the board while keeping the slight tension in the centre. Black found himself backing off until the Q-side was completely closed and White’s dark-squared bishop found itself on h6, pointing at the f8-knight. With no other options for a breakthrough, Mike decided to try and open the centre with the pawn break 18.d4.
Opening the centre led to many tactical opportunities and positional decisions. Black managed to exchange a knight for the dark-squared bishop in an attempt to gain full control of the dark-squares. Mike managed to maneuvre his knights to control the powerful black bishop while on the other hand managed to open the long h1-a8 diagonal for his light-squared bishop after his opponent exchanged its black equivalent for a powerful centralised knight. Too focused on opening the centre, Mike’s opponent miscalculated a powerful relative skewer from our teammate’s bishop which led to Mike winning an exchange.
After a series of exchanges, Mike found himself with a rook against bishop and pawn with rook and knight still on the board for both players. While Black was busy developping his king, Mike managed to get his knight in a very good position with the opportunity to exchange it for Black’s bishop. After the exchange, Mike decided that entering a notoriously tricky rook endgame will benefit him, especially with the passed pawn on the b-file. His opponent found it difficult to protect his a-pawn which left Mike with a clear pawn-up with two passers on their way to become queens.
Our teammate started to push his pawns up the board with his opponent unable to defend or create counter-play. Nevertheless, the player from Ashby decided to try and create a counter-attack, getting in a position seeming hopeless with the b-pawn queening imminent.
Although completely losing, Mike’s opponent decided to try and get something out of the game, including offering a draw mid-way through a 20-minute thought spent on the above position. Unable to get anything concrete, Black tried a few checks picking up White’s pawns and hoping that after promoting the two pawns, White will not be able to catch the three black pawns on the road to become queens themselves. A tremendously solid player, Mike showed a no-nonsense attitude, promoted his two pawns to queens and shattered Black’s attempt for counter-play, eventually delivering checkmate.
Neil Roberts (Ashby 3) vs Matthew ‘The Killer’ Connor (Anstey 2)
On board 1, the undefeated so far this season Matt was taking on Ashby 3’s captain. The game started with the Bird’s opening to which Matt responded with a Dragon-like setup with ‘fianchetto’-ed dark-squared bishop and pawn on c5 supported by pawn on d6. His opponent decided to control the centre with pawns and keep the pieces behind them until move 10 which was a surprising rook lift.
‘The Killer’ responded with the typical engine move 10…a6 and after further reshuffling of the pieces, White decided to strike in the centre with d4. The centre was opened and White offered a queen trade, which our teammate politely declined. The light-squared bishops got exchanged instead and our top ranked player on the night decided to trade off one of his knights for the second bishop in the hope to capitalise on his dominance of the dark squares. Matt got active on the Q-side and White kept backing off, including undevelopping his rook. The players decided to trade off one set of rooks with our teammate keeping the control of the key c-file. ‘The Killer’ activated his bishop and got to a dominant position, evaluated as -2.9 by Stockfish with equal material. Instead of capitalising on the position, however, Matt decided to go for a beautiful, but very dubious move 29…Rxc3 losing an exchange.
White managed to keep everything together while Matt found himself in a very complicated position not even slightly interested in the time situation. Instead, with 11 minutes on the clock (his opponent had 55) our teammate managed to find excellent moves to keep it together and stay only a single point of material down. White decided that he needs to do something in his winning position and managed to get his queen on the eighth rank with a tempo. Matt was defending bravely in a difficult situation with less than 4 minutes on the clock when he received a gift by his opponent who fell victim to the discussed in Deepa’s game common in chess ‘tunnel vision’. Seeing the opportunity to both attack Black’s queen and place his knight on the perfect square c6 where it will exert great power, White completely missed a mate in one. Always a class act, Matt apologised for the following move and swiftly delivered checkmate with 36…Qe1#.
With Mike winning on board 2, Matt’s win was crucial for securing the win for the team. After the match, our second team find themselves in the middle of the table in Division 4 with their next match against the strong team of Market Harborough 3 who are leaders in the division with 7 wins and only 1 draw. Nevertheless, a big success for our second team who remain undefeated in 2022.
While the match was taking place, Julian and Mick stayed faithful to the club night and engaged in several Rapid games with 20 minutes time limit. Ben and John were also present but they decided to skip playing and focus on overseeing the action during the league game.
Whether you want to be part of the excitement during league games or just spend some time with casual chess and friendly banter, pop over to the Methodist Church in Anstey every Thursday from 7:30pm. All abilities welcome!
Our first team won their third game in a row and remain undefeated in 2022 after a crushing 4-0 against Heathcote Arms 1. Having been narrowly defeated in the reverse fixture, our team entered the bout hungry to prove that they can do better than last time. With slightly different team after ‘El presidente’ Ben decided to step down for this match and give ‘The Killer’ Matt Connor a chance to add more points to his already high rating, Anstey Chess club’s top players showcased amazing positional and tactical understanding along with surprisingly good time management.
The match was accompanied by a quiet club night in which five of our regular players engaged in long chess battles and some rapid games in preparation for the upcoming Nottingham Rapid tournament. Two of our prospect players – Julian and Hal are taking part in the tournament this Saturday.
Boards are ready for the game!
As usual, only Matt gets the memo…
The team preparing for battle.
Everyone is focused seconds before the game (apart from Julian who is watching the empty space in front of him)…
Respectful handshake…
…and the battle begins under Ben’s watchful eye!
Various openings on all boards.
Players are extremely focused, while Boris is taking notes on how to play proper chess in the background.
Matt is figuring out how to break through.
John is casually chilling, familiar with the orthodox King’s Indian defence
Mick is mentally preparing himself for a pawn sacrifice in an attempt to open the Kingside
Julian with his signature noise cancelling ear muffs is playing the best moves to equalise the position
Running low on time and preparing for another dramatic finish, Matt is still trying to break trough…
John is thinking on a plan against the e5 pawn break.
Julian is trying to survive another attack from his opponent.
A hint of a smile on John’s face in a clearly winning position.
Better late than never, Matt has finally broken through!
Mick is 20 minutes up on the clock and placing his opponent under all sorts of pressure.
Julian is about to engage in a winning sequence.
On final fork from ‘The Killer’ to seal the game.
Mick is casually chilling, four minutes up on the clock and in a winning endgame.
The final position from Julian’s winning sequence, with the ‘Rambo’ g-pawn supporting the rook.
A clear checkmate from Mick finishing a great evening for the first team!
The happy heroes of the night, the captain Ben decided he is not worthy to be in the photo.
Oskar and Mike in an opening battle in the opposite corner.
While the battle between our second team captain and top second team player gets more tactical, Ben is quietly texting with a friend.
Ben teaching Boris some proper chess while Oskar and Mike are going through their second game.
A precious cold pint after a hard game of chess…
Matt Connor (Anstey 1) vs Ray Beach (Heathcote Arms 1) 1-0
Another brilliant game by Matt who is gradually establishing himself as the new/old star player in the club. The game started with an unusual opening after 1. e4 by our teammate was met by 1…e6 and just when Matt started thinking to himself: ‘I love a good French defence game’, the response to his natural 2. d4 was 2…d6 which led to a position known on chess.com as the ‘Small Centre Defence’. Not impressed by his opponent’s defensive style, Matt began proper development just to see on the board Black creating a Constantinople-style blockade on the 6th, 7th and 8th rank within the first ten moves despite Stockfish (depth=20) evaluation of +1.4 with equal material.
Having prepared his army for an attack on the Kingside in his usual style – without rushing and significantly down on the clock, Matt decided to strike with the e5 pawn break, exchange the dark-squared bishops and unleash his killer attack with the old brilliant (even by engine standards, as shown below) bishop sacrifice known as the ‘Greek gift’ 15. Bxh7!!.
The sacrifice was accepted and the move was followed by a sharp attack from White’s knight and queen which was met by Black bringing his queen to defend the Kingside and running his king in the centre of the board. With his solid play (and plenty of time), Black managed to equalise the position, but Matt’s dramatic performance (induced by both blunders and amazing moves along with 20 minutes time deficit) continued with another brilliant move (again, by engine standards) 21. Nxe6!!.
The position leads to an exchange of queens and after White’s knight is chased away and pieces are reshuffled, both players decide to exchange knights and pawns after d5 advance. At the end of the tactical sequence, ‘The Killer’ finds himself in a worse position after 29. Nxd5??, with Stockfish’ evaluation being -1.0 and his opponent having the chance to capitalise on the position with bishop against three pawns. Fortunately for our teammate, under the immense pressure applied by Matt’s knight and rook, Black blunders his bishop and returns the initiative back to White after 29….Be6??
Inspired by his opponent’s blunder, ‘The Killer’ unleashed a ‘forking hell’ on Black’s pieces with White’s knight jumping around and picking up pieces like Pac-Man picking up Pac-Dots (for the younger readers, Pac-Man was a very popular game in the past, look it up in Wikipedia here). Then the rook joins the attack, forking the king and knight to pick up another piece. The final blow was dealt again by the knight with the ‘Killer’ finish 43. Ne5+ after which Black resigned. 1-0
Michael Cowley (Heathcote Arms 1)vs. Mick Sandham (Anstey 1)0-1
Mick had to play with Black and he went with his favourite 1…e6 2…a6 denying his experienced opponent any opportunity to delve into the book. After a couple of natural moves for Mick’s opponent, Black did not lose any time and stroke with 4…c5 challenging White’s centre.
After a St. George style development, Mick managed to hold on the jumpy White queen by undevelopping his bishop twice. With the ongoing expansion on the Queenside, Mick decided that King safety is overrated and started an attack on the Kingside which included a pawn gambit. Threatened by Black’s battery on the g-file, Mick’s opponent rushed to exchange queens, thus returning the one-point material after 25…Nxe5. With better positioned pieces and a strong bishop eyeing White’s king, Stockfish absolutely loves Mick’s position, evaluating it at -3.1 with equal material.
At this point, the g5-knight became a target protected by the d2-bishop. Unfortunately, Mick went against the engine’s recommendation and attacked the knight, providing his opponent the opportunity for an equal knight exchange and avoiding the issues on the g-file after the rook recapture. White managed to further exchange Mick’s monster bishop on b7 and to protect the passer on the h-file before blundering the b2-pawn. At this point Mick decided that he is too far ahead and the h3-rook would not dare touch his hanging knight after he played 35…Nd3 with the hope of forking White’s rook and bishop.
Unfortunately for our teammate, after capturing the knight and subsequently the e6-pawn with a check, White found himself in a very good position with a +4.9 advantage based on Stockfish evaluation. As usual, Mick proved a tough nut to crack, which is most likely rooted in his rugby career as an adolescent, and managed to equalise within a couple of moves with the great move (based on engine evaluation) 39…Bxg5.
Completely caught off-guard by Mick’s resilience, after a few moves White unexpectedly blundered an exchange leaving himself with bishop vs rook and pawn. Nevertheless, Mick’s opponent impressed with his determination to go to the very end, but our teammate showcased his ability to grind opponents down when ahead and converted his advantage, finishing with a little bit of showboating before delivering checkmate. 0-1
Julian Tarwid (Anstey 1) vs John Manger (Heathcote Arms 1) 1-0
Our second top rated player Julian went on to play White against a very experienced opponent. A big fan of Jobava London, Julian immediately went with his d4 and Bf4 setup with Nc3 and f3 played within the first four moves which were met by …d5 and …Nf6 from Black in a position that on move 3 transposes into the Chigorin variation of the Queen’s pawn opening. With Black’s light-squared bishop placed on f5, Julian decided to start a Kingside expansion with a gain of tempo on each pawn advance, as the bishop found itself running away on all possible squares and even asking the h-pawn to make some room. After the thematical 8. Bd3 Julian’s opponent gladly exchanged the bishop and just when we thought that the queen has developed and Queenside castling is imminent for White, our teammate decided that castling is a nonsense and opened the c-file, while doubling his pawns.
Although Stockfish does not completely disapprove of this move, at this point it evaluates the position as equal. After finishing his development, Julian decided to start marching his whole army, including his king towards the eighth rank and got so carried away that he completely missed a tactic from Black to win a pawn. Frustrated with the pawn loss, our teammate decided that it is time to strike at his opponent’s Kingside, with his g-pawn marching like Rambo towards its counterpart on g7. Although the advancement of the g- pawn appeared enthusiastic, the engine evaluated it as an amalgam of mistakes and inaccuracies, leading to an evaluation of -3.5 at 15.g6. However, humans are not computers and Julian’s opponent, probably a little wary of the ‘Rambo’ pawn decided to respond with 15…f6 unaware of the engine’s recommendation of short castling leading to a position evaluated at -4.97.
Although pretty much back in the game at this point (according to Stockfish; based on our own biased opinion Julian was winning the whole time), Julian managed to get to engine evaluation of -3.9 in a couple of moves. However, his opponent decided to play some inaccuracies with the whole sequence of checks, knight moves and pawn advances and exchanges leading to 19…Qxd4+ which Stockfish evaluated as a clean blunder.
Julian happily exchanged queens and put pressure on his opponent’s knight, while keeping an eye on the open d-file. His h5-knight decided to have a quick snack with the pawn on g7, opening the file for the notorious ‘Rambo’ g-pawn, still eager to transform itself from a brave one-move soldier to the all-encompassing chess queen. Julian’s opponent, however, got back on the ‘best move’ track and quickly put pressure on our teammate’s position, connecting his knights and threatening both a fork and picking up the ‘Rambo’ passer. Out of the two threats, Julian decided that the g-pawn will magically survive and gave one last attempt at trying to prevent the fork with 28. Nd4. In the following moves the engine went all red, after Black responded with 28…c5, threatening the knight protecting the fork. Julian then decided to lose an exchange for no compensation by taking the knight on g4, but his opponent had other plans, despite engine evaluation of -5.0 following 29…hxg4, and took the d4-knight.
Finally sensing a decent chance in winning the game (although we all thought that he is clearly winning the whole time), our teammate played several best moves answered by mistakes and pure blunders from his opponent. After a rook exchange and with all sorts of pressure while munching on isolated and plainly unprotected pawns, Julian found himself in a position evaluated as +3.9 by the engine on move 36, only seven moves after he was in trouble. Inspired by this change, our teammate’s rook started attacking from all sides, while its black counterpart was trying to create some counter-attacking chances, but ‘too little, too late’ as the saying goes. Both players managed to pick up a knight and a pawn from their opponents, before Julian delivered the final blow with his rook supported by no one else but the notorious ‘Rambo’ pawn! 44. Rh8! 1-0
Peter Harrison (Heathcote Arms 1)vs. John Robinson (Anstey 1)0-1
On board 1 John took on his well-known opponent – the top player and captain of Heathcote Arms 1 Peter Harrison. The game started with the orthodox variation of the King’s Indian Defence, John’s long time favourite to play with and against (follow this link for a very instructive game where John defeated the King’s Indian defence of our own Leicester-born GM Glenn Flear).
John decided to exchange his light-squared bishop for a knight after 7…Bg4, obviously ignoring such nonsense as keeping the bishop pair, and after natural development the players decided to leave the book with the moves 10…a5 11. Qd2. After further reshuffling of the pieces, White decided on a plan to attack the Black’s Kingside, starting with 17. f4. Unmoved by this aggressive approach and unaware of his opponent’s +2.2 advantage as evaluated by Stockfish, John brought his knights to the defence, calmly waiting for White’s next mistake which happened not long after. John’s opponent decided to play the e5 pawn break, which did not impress much our teammate, who decided to slide his rook one square where the latter was eyeing hungry White’s queen on the d-file. Overestimating the threat, John’s opponent moved his queen aside, giving John the opportunity to equalise with 19. dxe5.
After the recapture with the f-pawn, John decided to stop the e-pawn march with his f8-knight who appeared to be drinking coffee with the king on the 8th rank and ignoring the action a couple of ranks in front of them. Then the players decided to reshuffle pieces again in the centre, completely ignorant of the engine shouting: ‘c5!’ to both of them during a four-move sequence which ended with a beautiful, yet hated by Stockfish knight sacrifice from John 22…Nxe5.
Counting on the fact that he is playing a man and not a computer, John began to create pressure on the Kingside and equalised the position in a couple of moves. Our teammate attacked his opponent’s light-squared bishop and after White retreated the latter, John stroke with a long waited pawn break of his own. After a quick exchange, John decided to get into a really complicated position with discovered attacks, pins and exchange offers threatened from all sides. His opponent, probably overwhelmed from the complexity of the position, decided to take on the most obscure response with 27. Nf7+, evaluated as a missed win by the engine with the best move being the quiet 27. Rce1.
Having a clear advantage, with a serene expression on his face John picked up the knight with his rook and comfortably relaxed on his seat, confident in his win regardless of him being in a bit of a time trouble. Our teammate further exploited his opponent’s reluctance to exchange queens and completely shattered White’s Kingside with his queen. After exchanging both rooks and loading up a battery on the h2-b8 diagonal, John exerted so much pressure on his opponent that the next blunder was inevitable and after 35…Qh3+, White resigned. 0-1
After the amazing success last night, our first team find themselves in third place with their next game against Market Harborough 2 being decisive for the table. Nevertheless, another team performance which makes us all proud to be part of Anstey Chess club and we wish ourselves plenty more to come!
Club Night
While out top players were sweating over the clocks and match boards, in the opposite corner a quiet club night was taking place. Oskar and Mike decided to engage in several chess battles while Boris and Ben played a long game intended to help Boris leave his ‘bullet’ way of playing and adopt a style of playing which will not lead to a -5.0 disadvantage with 56 minutes on the clock.
Shortly after 8pm, the rising second team star Hal also joined the party, regretting on his decision to arrive so early and wait for Boris and Ben to finish. After they did, Hal took on a few 20 minutes rapid games against both Ben and Boris in preparation for the Nottingham Rapid tournament where both him and Julian will play. We wish them both good luck!
After the relatively early conclusion of the evening, a few of our team members decided to celebrate the success in the nearby pub. If you want to experience the thrill and fun of both match and club nights, come and join us every Thursday from 7pm in the Anstey Methodist church! All abilities welcome!
There was drama late in the match in Leicester last night as stand-in captain Matt delivered checkmate in the dying seconds to put Latimer to the sword to secure Anstey 1’s first back-to-back win of the season and move the team to third in the division. Having now done the double over them this season maybe we can finally dismiss the idea of Latimer being our bogey team!
Despite the team being ravaged by injury with captain Ben and Boris out due to Covid, we outgunned our opponents by an average of 113 rating points per board. And had we put down our secret weapon Hal’s real grade of 1800 it would have been more of course. If only he remembered to bring a pen he could have been board 1!
Mike is closely watching the decisive game, while Matt is keeping his relaxed poker face on in spite of the time trouble.
The match conditions were a bit unusual; we had gone togged up prepared for the usual brass monkey temperature but someone had actually turned the heater on and it proved to be near tropical! Matt almost fainted at one point and poor old Mick was right under the heater and he was sweating cobs!
We started the match well. After half an hour John stood up from board 1 and folded up his scoresheet, we all assumed he had agreed a Grandmaster draw but no, his opponent had tried something new in the opening that had completely backfired and he was lost before he blundered his queen on move 12. 1 – 0.
Soon after Mike’s opponent resigned after struggling to deal with our board 5’s classy English opening. Mike took control on the queenside eventually pushing pawns forward inexorably before breaking through and winning a rook on the eighth rank. 2 – 0.
Hal finished next. He came out of the opening with a small positional disadvantage which his opponent maintained throughout the game. Hal tried to avoid his nemesis rook and pawn ending by swapping them off but it came down to a bishop and three pawns vs knight and four very strong pawns and Hal capitulated, not even offering his trademark draw sign. 2 – 1.
Wearing his signature noise cancelling earmuffs, Julian is carefully evaluating his position.
Mick then agreed a draw. After a very sharp Italian Game opening the tactics continued long into the middle game before slightly petering out. Mick knew a draw would push us closer to the match win so agreed to the draw. 2½ – 1½.
Julian had his opponent on the ropes with a strong kingside attack. His opponent defended well but was still under the cosh when he offered a cheeky draw. This seemed to fluster Julian a bit but taking in the match position (Matt seemed to be winning easily on board 4) he took one for the team and took the draw. 3 – 2.
So, this just left Matt. After a cagey opening Matt provoked his opponent to play b4 which weakened his queenside, Matt was able to build up some pressure on the c file and after an exchange of pieces to relieve the pressure his opponent blundered his bishop on b2. He then sacrificed a pawn in the hope of a bank rank cheapo but then lost another as Matt’s queen dined on white pawns. The pawn sac did open up the f file though and with queens and rooks still on the board gave white a few chances especially with Matt a bit low on time. Matt went into defensive mode which with hindsight may not have been the best plan. After a massive time scramble (down to 2 seconds on his clock at one point apparently giving onlookers Julian, Mick and Hal near heart attacks) and white throwing his kingside pawns and his king(!) into the attack Matt manged to trap the white king on the side of the board with a nice checkmate. Phew! 4 – 2.
Overall a great team effort which sets us up nicely for the rest of the season.
On 27th January it was a busy night in the Anstey Chess club. Our second team engaged in a serious four-board battle against the experienced team of Heathcote Arms 2 in an attempt to achieve second win in a row and get their revenge for a crushing 4-0 defeat back in October. In the opposite corner of the Anstey Methodist Church, the casual and first team players engaged in the usual sharp and fun chess battles typical for club nights. The cherries on the top were our birthday boys Oscar and Julian who brought plenty of treats and chocolate to the party. We wish them all the best and plenty of wins to come their way!
The league match started promptly at 7:30 with a variety of opennings on all boards. The most dedicated player to the club motto was Matt who opened up with Phillidor defence; he was obviously the only one to get the memo.
Another busy night at the Anstey Chess club
While Boris is under immense stress, Hal is as chill as Guinness Extra Cold.
John and Deepa engaged in a positional battle in which Deepa seems a lot happier
John and Peter enjoying advantage in the middlegame against the ‘En passant?’ duo Boris and Ben
Club night going on with 4 boards, lots of chess and plenty of fun
Intense games with Boris and Oscar notating their opponent’s moves
Plenty of action during club night
Mike and Mick, serious players heading into a serious endgame
Deepa decided to stay solid while Ben tried openings he does not understand
Mick is closely observing club night games, while the captain Oscar is watching closely the match
Ben and Peter in a sharp positional battle
Stressful games on all four boards with Boris looking like he is about to have a mental breadown
The big guns, John and Mick, in another typical positional battle during club night
Typical Anstey Chess club night – lots of chess and lots of fun
On board 2 the top performer Hal decided to take the centre with e4 and d4 which were met by a strange variation of a Queen’s Indian defence. The captain Oscar had a difficult task engaging in a very weird variation of the Indian game, while Boris’ game took the direction of the Caro-Kann exchange variation. The Bulgarian was so flustered by Bd3 that threw the cap of his pen at Hal’s shoulder – all players agreed that it was not his proudest moment.
Around 20 minutes into the match Boris managed to take advantage of a blunder by his opponent and secured the first win for the night and for himself in general. Our joy unfortunately did not last long as the birthday boy Oscar was backed in the corner and although he fought hard against immense pressure, his opponent managed to capitalise on the position. As Oscar is the third best performer for the club, we are sure that he will bounce back from this experience and get back on winning terms.
About half-way through his game, Matt found himself with undeveloped light-square bishop and rook, as he was busy taking his opponent’s king out for a walk. In the meantime, Hal was stretching and doing yoga and all sorts of other activities, but not castling.
Ten minutes later, Matt had finally decided to develop his bishop and had his opponent in what people would refer to as a pickle. Next to him, Hal had his opponent’s king squeezed in the corner and his face had the distant expression of a person deciding what takeaway to order tonight.
With twenty minutes to go, Matt found himself a piece up and he was making sure that his opponent’s king will hit his step count target. On his left, Hal’s opponent was shaking his head like Ben’s fans when watching his puzzle rush blunders, while Hal seemed confident in his attack on the board and his choice of takeaway for tonight.
Not long after, Matt won decisively while Hal found himself again with a significant time advantage in an infamous favourite of his – the rook and pawn endgame. His opponent decided that he had enough and offered a draw which our top performer gladly accepted, just a little annoyed that he could not offer a draw himself by making signs characteristic for exorcists and enthusiasts in the rituals targeted at summoning a demon.
In summary, it was a good night for our second team players who proved that they have learned from their previous loss against a solid and strong opponent. Our second team find themselves in the middle of the Division 4 table mid-season with 2 wins and 1 draw.
In the other corner of the room, there was plenty of action with first team players Ben, Mick, John, Julian and Mike playing casual chess and observing the league match from a distance. We were happy to welcome again John who is slowly becoming a regular attendee of our club nights. In addition, two new strong players, Pete and Deepa, decided for the first and hopefully not last time to join us for some chess and fun. Eventually, the evening finished on a high note, with the birthday boys Julian and Oscar bringing treats for every taste. Both young guys, we wish them many years to come and many games over the board to be played with plenty of wins to be accomplished!
On 4th January our first team went to Syston to play the local second team in a four-board match. The match proved to be a test for our top players, who rose to the challenge with a spectacular 3-1 win.
John had the hardest challenge in front of him as he had to clash with an experienced over 2000 rated player. Although John showed the usual solidity and positional understanding which we praise him for, the task at hand proved to be too difficult after John missed a better move than what he played, which would have caused his opponent some difficulty. Subsequently John conceded the game after putting up a brave fight.
On the other side was our captain Ben who found himself playing against a dangerous opponent. Ben overran his opponent in the middle game and his opponent actually picked up a Knight when his Queen was under attack and conceded the game a couple of moves later. It was good sportsmanship for his opponent to admit this.
On board 3 Mick took on a hard challenge himself but was able to outmaneuvre his opponent at crucial times and hence securing the advantage of our team. A sharp tactical player, Mick showed again thorough understanding of the position in front of him and ability to take advantage of it, whilst his opponent’s clock ran low and Mick eventually won on time, in a better position.
Our second top-rated player Julian was scheduled to participate in the clash of 1600’s. Julian showcased amazing growth in classical chess understanding and play and secured the win very early.
Happy New Year to all our players and we wish them this victory to be one of many this year!
It has been a difficult season this year for the second team. Prior to our last encounter with Melton Mowbray 3, we found ourselves at the bottom of the table in division 4 of the Leicestershire chess league with only one draw and 5 losses. The trip to our neighbours’ venue in the beautiful town famous for their amazing pork pies, was crucial for our second team’s confidence and position in the league.
In the blistering cold on 12th January we were heading for Melton Mowbray’s chess club with the intention to play a five-board match when we received the news that Leo was not able to make it. Already scheduled five boards, our team started on the back foot, with Leo’s game lost by default.
The first person from our team to stand up from the board was Mike. As the top-rated player within the squad during the match, he took on our opponents top-rated player and after a solid positional game they agreed to a draw.
On board 3 Boris made his debut for our second team after months of deliberation. As usual, he decided to take the path of a complicated tactical battle which ended in a draw with both him and his experienced opponent left with dangerous prospects for strong attacks which eventually cancelled each other.
On the second board, Hal showed again why he is the new class act of the second team. With his opponent making a crucial mistake, Hal took the advantage and guided the game to a winning endgame. The infamously tricky ‘rook and pawn’ endgame proved to be hard test for Hal but he managed to keep the game solid and took advantage of another mistake by his opponent. This gave us hope as it led to a 2-2 result before the end of the last game.
Eventually, it all came down to our captain Oscar gradually took the reigns of the board and after about 30 moves he got his opponent in a pickle, with rook, pawns, bishop and king all under immense pressure and direct attacks. Eventually the play continued towards a winning endgame for Oscar when his opponent resigned. There could not have been any better end than our captain securing the win for our team.
We wish all our second team players good luck ahead and to keep it in the same spirit! The result place us in 7th position currently, with Melton Mowbray 3 having 3 more games to play.
Anstey Chess Club 