Third for Anstey 2 after a draw in their last game

27th Apr 2023 / bobideco / Leave a comment

A successful season for the second team concludes with a solid performance, leaving them third in the overall standings in Division 3

Last Wednesday (26/04/23) marked the last fixture for our second team. Needing a solid win (ideally 4-0) to keep fighting chances for second, a strong Anstey 2 team turned up in the Royal British Legion in Melton Mowbray(MM). The return of Brian The Griller alongside Boris The Toaster, and the addition of Matt The Dark Destroyer and Just Mick, all meant that fireworks were to be expected in the upcoming fixture. Our team was greeted by a solid three-quarters of a Melton team, with the last quarter being their junior up-and-comer Bohdan Stamat. Overrated on every board (admittedly, based on September 2022 ratings), our team fought hard and brave in a set of exciting games, only to share a point with the home side at the end.

Brian The Griller Foreman (Anstey) vs Bohdan Stamat (MM) 0 – 1

After a long-ish pause to give playing opportunities to other players, Brian made a comeback to challenge the young Melton rising star Bohdan Stamat. Our most solid teammate opened with the usual Queen’s Gambit setup, and his opponent responded with the QGD (Queen’s Gambit Declined), a very theoretical variation, favourite to many Grandmasters. The Griller brought his knight to c3, challenging the centre, but the Melton player pinned the said the knight with the typical Ragozin Bb4. The players continued to follow the book for several more moves, with the white dark-squared bishop exchanging itself for the black f6-knight, followed by solidifying on the dark squares with e3 by our teammate and kingside(K-side) castling from his opponent. Brian decided to protect his knight with Qc2 with potential on creating a battery on the b1-h7 diagonal, when his opponent decided to enter the middlegame underdeveloped, but attempting to exploit the slightly exposed white king with a quick c5 push.

Our teammate immediately left the book with Rc1, his opponent took the d4-pawn, and the players engaged in a battle for the centre. The Griller re-took with the f3-knight, and Black seized the opportunity to push his central pawns in an attempt to exploit the pin on c3. The d4-knight jumped swiftly on b5, attacking the c7 square, and naturally Black kept pushing to pick up the c3 knight. Here, unfortunately, Brian did not see the best continuation, which was to challenge the bishop with a3 and instead went for the Nc7 move, giving up two pieces for a rook. The exchange was executed swiftly with the black dark-squared bishop freezing the queenside (Q-side) for White, and our teammate was unfortunate to find himself with a king stuck in the centre, underdeveloped, versus well-coordinated active black pieces on an open board. The Melton player maneuvered his pieces well, and in spite of our teammate going after material, before long the advantage for the home team player was too great, and Brian threw in the towel.

A little bit of rustiness showing, but we are sure that The Griller will get over the loss quickly to come back stronger soon.

Alan Jex (MM) vs Matthew The Dark Destroyer Connor (Anstey) 0 – 1

Returning to help the second team, The Dark Destroyer was scheduled to play a solid Alan Jex from Melton, finding himself as joint second for the most games for Anstey Chess Club this season with Mick and Noor, and looking to turn the tide the second part of the season after a wobbly start. Still the only player to get the memo of the club logo, our teammate employed his usual “soul of chess” setup, to which his opponent decided to reply with a quick pawn exchange and swapping off the queens on the d-file. Although deprived from his castling rights, Matt found himself easily equalised in the opening, and in the spirit of proper chess the players started developing their armies. White quickly brought his knights towards the centre, but our teammate unflustered deprived them of good squares with timely pawn pushes, taking control of crucial central squares in the process. The players continued with normal development, leaving castling for the faint-hearted, and engaged in a battle for the Q-side early on in the middlegame.

White started an expansion on the Q-side with a3 and b4, Matt hurried his king to c7, and found the best engine move with an immediate challenge of the b-pawn with a5. White pushed the b-pawn, and the players went on to exchange the dark-squared bishops. Our teammate had a slight advantage of -0.5 (based on Stockfish 15, depth = 20, powered by chess.com a.k.a. “the engine”), which in like a Grandmaster he kept throughout and only built on during the middlegame. The players finally completed development, and possibly annoyed by the above comment, White decided to castle Q-side. The players contested the open d-file with their rooks, and then started re-positioning their minor pieces whereby the Melton player played the inaccuracy Nb3. A long tactical sequence followed, Nxb5! from The Dark Destroyer was followed by our teammate winning a pawn, then a white knight got exchanged with the black light-squared bishop, then the black knight got exchanged with the white light-squared bishop, and when the dust settled, Matt found himself severely down on time (surprise, surprise! It paid off in the end though), but a pawn up in a notoriously tricky rook endgame.

In all honesty, the home team player possibly misplayed the endgame slightly, but nevertheless, with less than 4 minutes on the clock, and having Boris to notate for him, The Dark Destroyer proved his nickname again. Great coordination between the black rooks found them taking the most principled approach, whereby one got exchanged, while the other enjoyed a pawn feast on the K-side. White activated his king, bringing it towards the centre, while our teammate’s rook looked too hungry to be stopped, and by move 36 had ensured a three pawn advantage for Matt, as well as passed pawn on the b-file. After consolidating on the K-side, our teammate eliminated any potential Q-side threats by exchanging his b-pawn for the remaining white a-pawn. Our teammate then brought his king to the K-side, and took the last remaining white pawn, finding himself with R+3 vs R, with an active king and engine-based advantage of -9.3. A few checks from White got the black king to an even more active position, and Matt pushed the pawn all the way to glory. In the process he let a rook exchange to occur and lost the pawn, but left with K & 2 vs K, in spite of being down to about 1.30 mins on the clock, our teammate pushed his pawns and faced with the menace of Q&K vs K, the home team player resigned.

Another brilliant performance from The Dark Destroyer who solidifies himself as the…well…The Dark Destroyer.

Borislav The Toaster Lazarov (Anstey) vs Kerry Kidd (MM) 1 – 0

After a mishap in his last game, Boris The Toaster returned to play for the second team against his opponent from the reverse fixture, Kerry Kidd. After executing in your author’s humble opinion the most popular combination of first moves (1.d4 Nf6, and yes, I understand that 1.e4 is played slightly more often than 1.d4, but there are so many replies from Black, I doubt it that any combination of first moves will beat the game opening, apologies for the sidetracking), the players engaged in the Pirc defence, whereby our teammate went for a line he is not quite familiar with, the Austrian attack. Nevertheless, using the memorised lessons from none other than our own Julian Mr. Engine, a connoisseur of many a chess opening, The Toaster gained space early in the game, exchanged a pair of knights, castled K-side, and solidified his centre. The Melton player equalised comfortably, and in spite of his lack of space, developed normally and looked to play on the Q-side.

The middlegame begun with a Qb6 from Black. Looking at the potential perspectives for the black knight on c6, Boris decided to try and cut it off early in the game at the price of a queen exchange and doubled pawns with Qb3. Black snatched the white queen, the ladies head for the box, and the players started improving the rest of their armies. Black placed his rooks on the central c- and d-files, while The Toaster took as much space in the centre as possible with Harry and Garry pushing forward. Our teammate re-routed his knight via e1 and d3 to the brilliant outpost on c5, then attacked one of the black rooks, and offered an exchange of dark-squared bishops. The home team player started spending loads of time, calculating many long forced lines following Nxe5, and after deciding that he does not like it, shuffled his rook to the seventh rank instead. Completely oblivious of his opponent’s seemingly pointless rook shuffles, our teammate exchanged the bishops, and instead of solidifying his knight with b4, decided to push his king to g2, giving his opponent the opportunity to equalise on the spot with Nxe5. The Melton player did not like the take again due to Nxe6+ and went on to protect his e6 pawn which was met by another king push by our teammate. Fortunately for Boris, his opponent mixed his move order and took the e5 pawn with his knight, only to realise that he had not placed his rook on c8 first. Confused, our teammate took some time, but eventually “called the bluff” (admittedly, still oblivious of the tactic Black was preparing initially) and took the said knight.

In the short middlegame that followed, the players exchanged the remaining bishops, then a pair of rooks, and The Toaster solidified his position, a piece for a pawn up, and looking to start munching on Black’s weaknesses. Unfortunate to find himself in this position, the Melton player resigned.

A lucky win for The Toaster which will hopefully bring his confidence back, as he heads to Ashby tonight in support of the third team for his “milestone” 25^th game this leagues season, rendering himself as the record holder for most games within a league season for the Anstey Chess Club.

Christopher Knight (MM) vs Just Mick Sandham (Anstey) 1 – 0

Mick stepped in again to help out the second team, taking joint second place for most games this season with Matt and Noor. Our teammate was scheduled to play the in-form Christopher Knight, who had given many of his opponents severe headaches this season. To his opponent’s 1.e4, Just Mick replied with his usual O-Kelly variation of the Sicilian defence. The players engaged in the Ljubojević Line of the Venice system, and given the unusual nature of the opening, were out of book by move 6. Our teammate equalised early on, and the players prioritised development and fight for the centre. The tension kept growing, with White creating a queen-led battery on the c-file, while Mick’s light-squared bishop was eyeing the long h1-a8 diagonal. White castled K-side, and with our teammate completing development, the middlegame began.

White tried to create more tension with c4, but just when it looked like the c- and d-files are about to explode, the players pushed their Q-side and central pawns to close the centre, release the tension, and begin a very long game of “cat and mouse” behind their locked pawn chains. The players shuffled pieces behind their pawn fronts, and White was first to find a nice outpost for his knight on f5. Just Mick, relieved the knight of its duties by exchanging it for his light-squared bishop, and after some more piece shuffling, exchanged one his knights for its remaining white counterpart. Taking the most principled approach of locking down the central pawns when he was the player with the knight, our teammate pushed f6, only to give a +1.7 engine evaluation advantage to his opponent with Bh5+, whereby the bishop restricted the K-side for Black. Having the piece majority on the Q-side, White started pushing his pawns, and before long created a couple of semi-open files to attack the vulnerable black king from. Just Mick tried to create counter play on the K-side, prioritising activity over defence and exposing his king for a strong attack from White. Unfortunately, our teammate was a few tempi short of succeeding, and White penetrated the Q-side with a deadly attack. In spite of being low on time, the Melton player managed to get the position to mate in one, and unfortunately for our teammate, he had to resign,

A tough blow for Just Mick, who was unfortunate to find himself on the wrong side of a sharp double-edged fight. Nevertheless, it is never boring games from Mick and we are sure that with the summer cups coming, there will be many brilliant performances from him.

The match result means that unless MM2 lose 6-0 or more against Ashby 3, Anstey 2 finishes the season on third place in Division 2 of 2022/23 season. Initially nicknamed the B-team due to the original line-up (Brian, Boris, Ben, Bob), the team showcased tremendous growth since their first game which they lost against Wigston 4. They end up behind the two big favourites in the severely underrated Loughborough 2 (having a 2000+ currently rated player still competing for them) and a team with three players above 1700 rating competing consistently throughout the season. Our second team deserves nothing but praise for their efforts, so the author would like to close this last season 2022/23 league match report with a big Thank you to the regular line-up Brian The Griller, Boris The Toaster, El Presidente Ben, Bob The Lawman, as well as to the people stepping in when in need Matt The Dark Destroyer, Just Mick, Mike, Big Daddy Valdas, Leo The Lion, Noor The Prodigy, and Aarav. Last but not least, here are the closing thoughts of the team captain and Anstey Chess Club chairman, El Presidente Ben:

Had anybody said to me that we’d have finished 3rd in this highly competitive division, I’d have laughed in their face. It is a testament to how far we have come together as a club and as a 2nd team that we have finished so strongly. Well done to everyone concerned for their part in a truly terrific season.

Anstey 1 Drop Point in Penultimate Match Against Syston 2

23rd Apr 2023 / magicmattc / Leave a comment

Thursday 20/04/2023. With Anstey 1’s push for a top 2 finish in the division well and truly over the team was pretty much playing for pride (and to hopefully secure 3^rd place) they welcomed Syston 2 to the Methodist Church Centre in this this LRCA Division 2 clash.

With John Robinson out once again due to ill-health Boris once again stepped up, this time being slotted in on board 3 above Mick on board 4. Syston turned up early but by 19:30 Anstey were still missing Julian and Boris. The pleasantries were over and clocks had just started when the pair arrived and apologetically took their seats. With team ratings 6,933 vs 6,584 Anstey had the on-paper edge.

First to finish was Boris as black against Taz Dhillon on board 3. Taz is a wily old fox and many a half-decent player have come unstuck against him but Boris showed excellent opening knowledge and had equalised easily. As the middlegame progressed Boris swapped his light-squared bishop for white’s knight on f3 (crippling the kingside pawns) but after a swap off of queens and a few other pieces white sorted his pawns out. But black’s position was active and looked to have a slight edge when the blunder came:

Boris played 26. … Nd3 but missed 27. Rd1 pinning the knight to the rook! A piece down Boris played on but lost another pawn then another and eventually resigned when checkmate was inevitable with white’s bishops co-ordinating very well:

Final position after 38. Be6-f5+, it’s mate in 4

So not a great start to the match from the Anstey perspective. Anstey 0 – 1 Syston.

Next to finish was Matt on board 2 playing against Janis Utinans, a rematch from the reverse fixture back in December. But that was board 3 so the colours were the same with Matt as white. Janis played an early … Bb4 instead of the more usual …Nf6 and by move 6 Matt was out of his opening book. He pushed the bishop back to b6 but missed the opportunity to expand on the queenside with a4 and a5 harrying the bishop further instead swapping the bishop off for his knight on d5. This allowed Janis to exchange pawns in the centre and hit back with d5 equalising the position. But it remained double-edged with both kings stuck in the centre. Matt went for a pawn sacrifice with 11. 0-0 and the lure was too much for Janis:

Play continued 11. … dxe4? 12. d5! exf3? 13. dxc6 fxg2 14. Re1+ Be6 15. cxb7+ leading to this weird position:

After 15. … Kf8 16. bxa8=Q Qxa8 white is a rook up and winning easily. Janis resigned a few moves later. Anstey 1 – 1 Syston.

Mick was white on board 4 against Aron English (who you’ll remember resigned a drawn position against Boris in the reverse fixture). Mick was hoping for the same LOL. But it wasn’t required, in an ultra-sharp opening Aron played an early, passive … h6. Mick responded by temporarily sacrificing his d pawn for rapid development and proceeded to a classic “oh no my queen!” move:

Play continued 10. … Be6 11. Nxc6 Qd6 12. Qf3 Nf6 13. Nxd4 after which white is a pawn and has a winning advantage. But Aron could have taken the queen with 10. … Bxd1 as after 11. Nxc6+ Kd7 12. Nxd8 Bh5 there is still all to play for. Mick played on calmly moving his pieces over to the kingside to exert some pressure against the black king when he gave Aron a glimmer of hope:

Despite looking risky 19. … Qxb2 is ok but Aron didn’t go for it instead playing 20 … c5 white time to defend b2. The knights and a pair of rook came off before white’s queen wet on the rampage capturing both black’s a and c pawns. 3 pawns down in a losing position Aron gracefully resigned. Anstey 2 – 1 Syston.

This left Julian on board 1 with black against the lovely Brian Galligan. In a game very similar to Julian’s last game against Ian Clarke, black equalised in the opening and built up a tiny edge before pieces were swapped off and the position came out equal. More pieces were swapped off and it went down to an opposite-coloured bishops ending (notoriously difficult to win – Ed). Brian thought he had a slight edge in the position and grinded on but Julian defended well. Where Brian did have an edge was on the clock, Julian played the last 40(!) or so moves with less than 1 minute on the clock and on at least 3 occasions was down to 1 second! Brian picked up Julian’s h-pawn but still the position was theoretically drawn until the time pressure eventually told:

58. … Kg7! is still drawing but Julian made a mistake with 58. … Kg8? allowing 59. Kg6 with Brian calmly converting the win. Julian battled on for a few more moves before his flag fell. What a shame. Anstey 2 – 2 Syston.

Anstey 1 remain 3^rd in the division but with Braunstone 2 beating Ashby 1 on the same night they are now only 1 point ahead of Braunstone who still have a game in hand, double-yikes:

Anstey’s last game of the season is home against Ashby 1 on the 4^th May (Star Wars Day). Ashby 1 need to beat Wigston 2 and hope Market Harborough 1 slip up against Braunstone 2 for Ashby to still have something to play for in the last game of the season.

Anstey captain Matt Connor told Autocar:
Once again I’m very disappointed, our sixth draw this season. Too many points given away against lower sides. We could easily have won this one though, an uncharacteristic blunder by Boris (we’ve all been there mate) and an epic battle for Julian. One match to go, finishing third is now not in our hands, we could do with Market Harborough beating Braunstone!

Anstey 1 Make Hash of Market Harborough Match

23rd Apr 2023 / magicmattc / Leave a comment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3rd team score impressive victory against Heathcote Arms 2

21st Apr 202321st Apr 2023 / Ben V / Leave a comment

20/4/23 – With El Capitan Oskar unable to captain the team on the night, El Presidente volunteered to captain the 3rd team against our old friends Heathcote Arms (again, hereafter HA’s) 2nd team.

Having been in the midst of the chess grind for a few years now, your author has made some friends and close acquaintances along the way – none more so than the 4 players that turned up to face our third team. Visiting the Anstey Methodist Arena was Ray Beach (aka Raymondov), Bill Roberts (aka Bill, sorry Bill, no nickname yet!), Gordon Milner (aka G-Man) and Dave Ricketts (aka Haka Dave, or if you’re Colin Ross, Hacker Dave). Haka Dave was making a welcome return to the chess plight after a 10 year absence and I must say that it was a delight to see him, albeit I am never quite sure that the feeling is reciprocated or not. In the spirit of seeing Haka Dave I am going to divulge away from the formula of our traditional match reports and write it in the style of Haka Dave – a more relaxed and less formal report and use every opportunity to poke fun at old friends.

First to finish on the evening was Aarav Sinha with the white pieces against Bill Roberts on board 2. Bill had said to me before the game that he’d hoped he wasn’t going to face one of the youngsters as they can be a bit tricky. That words ‘youngster’ and ‘tricky’ basically sum up Aarav and he certainly mixed it up for Bill by employing an Italian fried liver attack, with the thematic sacrificial Knight path of the Two Knights defence. (Somebody has been learning from Just Mick!) The Knight on g1, heads to f3, g5 and takes on f7, uncovering Bill’s King and removing his right to castle. Aarav then mercilessly attacked Bill’s King and after calmly castling Kingside and opening a path for developing pieces, Aarav saw out the game with Bg5, pinning Bill’s Queen with the bishop at which point, on only the 13th move, Bill gracefully resigned. The end was so swift, the game was played along the book line for the first 8 or 9 moves. This won’t be the only Bishop-pinning-Queen motif we will hear about either.

Second to finish was the Silent Destroyer Yuvraj Sadhra with black vs the G-Man on board 3. Having kept an eye on the proceedings, the speed in which pieces were traded off the board was mind-blowing. The G-Man’s plan must have been to trade everything off until it was King vs King and get a draw. By black’s move 12, both the Queens were off, a couple of minor pieces and a couple of pawns had also left the board for the evening. The G-Man’s tongue in cheek plan was working. The only slight issue is that Yuvraj had the Bishop pair and a wide open centre to work with. Further piece trades occurred and Yuvraj did well to develop his pieces with tempo and for a brief while, the G-Man’s Knight was hopping round the board being chased by the Silent Destroyers Rook (all that was missing was some Benny Hill type music). This was until the G-Man made a tactical blunder by defending his Knight with his Rook, effectively pinning the Knight which the Silent Destroyer capitalised on immediately and thereafter, whilst Yuvraj’s notation is far from perfect, the G-Man resigned with little option but to in a lost endgame a piece down.

Third to finish was Mike Griffiths with the black pieces vs Raymondov on board 1. Given the events on the other two boards and their respective finishes within an hour of starting, the proceedings on board 1 were positively serene. Sensible piece development, pieces looking for their best squares and a pawn trade on move 6 was as exciting as it got for the first few moves. Mike had the better of the opening and had an advantage after move 13 from Raymondov. (In case you were wondering – I know you were – Raymondov derives from Ray’s full name with an ‘ov’ on the end to give him a more imposing nickname than ‘Ray’). Anyway, back to the action and Mike got a Knight to c4 in what was the most exciting thing to happen for a while and marked a bit of progress in the game as pieces danced non-commitment style on the board. In a flurry of activity said Knight was traded off and a Bishop pair left the board to get a coffee together, leaving the position solid for both players and practically level. All of a sudden, Raymondov made a brave looking f4 move, staking a claim on the centre and finally igniting the game to life. It certainly had this effect but gave Mike a boat load of activity which he used with gusto, claiming two pawns and by the time Raymondov threw in the towel, it was about to be a free minor piece for Mike. The end of a great game and I was sure that I heard Ray saying ‘don’t push pawns, don’t push pawns’ multiple times to himself on his way out of the door at the end of the evening.

Last to finish was Young John on board 4 with the white pieces against our friend Haka Dave. Now, before we get into the action, I know that you’re wondering where the nickname comes from. No, he isn’t a secret Mauri tribesman on the side during his 10 year absence, or indeed a former New Zealand rugby player. He was once seen to perform a little dance after a favourable result once upon a time. It was jovially referred to as a Haka and it kind of stuck with him. Dave was hoping not to get chopped up quickly by a whizz-kid so when Young John sat opposite him, Haka Dave must have feared the worst. After a comparatively sensible opening, full of piece development that transcended into chaos, John set a trap for Haka Dave with the bizarre looking Nd5 move, seemingly giving up a Knight for nothing. One of those moves where you think – that must be for a reason and you stress at the board trying to find why. It had a devastating effect though, as Dave found out by accepting the poisoned gift with cxd5 followed by Bb5! – pinning the Queen with a Bishop for the second time in the evening. Young John seemed delighted with his new prize and proceeded to confidently ebb away at his own advantage with Haka Dave fighting with every ounce of what he’s got. El Presidente was warning Young John’s Mum that John’s opponent is a real fighter and so it proved. Later on in the game, pieces were traded leaving John a bishop and 3 pawns vs a Rook and 2 pawns and Young John, very maturely it must be said, offered a draw which was accepted. My sources tell me that a Haka DID NOT happen but after looking at the game, I am unsure why. Spare a thought for Young John here, last to finish in the third team, everybody from HA watching his every move, this is competitive chess at its most pressurised and a draw is still a fantastic result for John, despite any disappointment he may feel.

After all of that excitement and a 3.5-0.5 win, coupled with a 1st team match also going on, it was another full-on night at the Anstey Methodist Arena with some good and bad chess played (and that was just the first team!). Great to see the HA boys again and we will look forward to seeing them, as always, during the Summer and next season.

Stand-in skipper El Presidente spoke to Vogue Magazine:

Firstly, great to see the HA chaps come over and lovely to see an old friend in Dave Ricketts. Obviously a very well deserved victory for the third team and well done to them all with some very sharp games and good performances. A very satisfying evening overall.

2nd team forced to reluctantly accept Heathcote default

20th Apr 2023 / Ben V / Leave a comment

The 2nd team were scheduled to entertain our good friends the Heathcote Arms’s 1st team (hereafter HA) in a home match on Thursday 13th April.

El Presidente received a phone call the night before from HA’s skipper Pete Harrison saying that he wasn’t able to get a team together given the 2nd team of HA had played on the Thursday and their usual 1st team players were not available. Being the accommodating person he is, El Presidente agreed to re-schedule the match to the 11th May which was agreed by all.

Subsequently, El Presidente realised that the 11th May is the first night of the County Championships at our illustrious venue and consequently, El Presidente contacted Pete Harrison to advise that we had no option but to claim the game by default. Pete Harrison – ever the Gentleman – agreed to this and the match was defaulted.

Not in any way how we want to accrue our points this season but as The Toaster eluded to – ‘a win is a win’ despite the circumstances.

Captain El Presidente told Good Housekeeping Magazine:

It is a shame that we couldn’t play the game – obviously the preference is to gain our points through OTB results but this time it wasn’t to be. I am sorry for Heathcote Arms that they could not raise a team – they still remain very good friends of the club. We have a hectic summer, with the County Championships being hosted here (shameless plug!), and the Summer Cups so it simply wasn’t possible to play the game on another date.

Another win for Anstey 2 keeps them in the race for second

9th Apr 2023 / bobideco / Leave a comment

Our second team showcased great grit and determination to get a 3-1 win against Ashby 3

Last Thursday (06/04/2023) marked the penultimate home game for the B-team. Anstey 2 were scheduled to face Ashby 3, with both teams promptly at the venue by 7.20pm, except for Boris “The Toaster” who decided to keep his teammates on their toes until 25 minutes past 7. Our second team consisted of the regulars Bob “The Lawman” and Boris along with super-subs Matt “The Dark Destroyer” (acting captain on the evening) and Mike. Opposite our players there was another changed team compared to the reverse fixture, with only the bottom two boards staying the same. At 7.35pm, after cups of coffee and tea were distributed, and everyone had the opportunity to grab a free Easter egg, credit to “The Lawman”, the players shook hands and the games began.

Les Fancourt (Ashby 3) vs Matthew “The Dark Destroyer” Connor (Anstey 2) 0 – 1

The acting captain in “El Presidente”‘s absence was scheduled to play against the tricky player Les Fancourt (a.k.a. “controversial Les”, more details on Episode 1 from the Anstey Chess Club Podcast) who was the player responsible for the Ashby 2 win against our second side in their last home fixture of 2022. The game opened up with a Pirc style setup which transposed into the Philidor with Nc3 and Nf6 on the board. The away team player immediately charged the centre with f4, and following sound chess principles, Matt exchanged pawns towards the centre, luring the white queen on d4. With a free tempo at his disposal, “The Dark Destroyer” developed his b8-knight and dark-squared bishop. The players prioritised development, placing their pieces on active squares aiming at the enemy camp, and by move 9 they had both castled short, entering a middle game where White had more space, while our teammate had a slight edge in development.

The middle game began with more space taken by the Ashby player, trying to trap Black’s light-squared bishop on the kingside (K-side). The Anstey captain for the match decided to trade it for one of the white knights, which was answered by a mistake from White who was looking to lift his rook on the third rank, aiming at future K-side attack. After taking a few minutes to calculate, which by his standards is “bullet” thinking, Matt forked the said white rook and White’s light-squared bishop, in a position where the options for the Ashby player were either bishop for a pawn, or rook for a knight. The away team player decided to proceed with taking the f7-pawn with his bishop which on the very next move left the board. The awkward white rook stepped on the g3-square, now aiming directly at the black king, but unmoved our teammate placed his queen on the active c6-square. The players shuffled their pieces for a couple of moves, with “The Dark Destroyer” setting up a cute little tactic to win the exchange, taking advantage of a pin against the white rook with his dark-squared bishop. His opponent completely missed the threat and rushed to place a knight on d5, and before long had to part ways with his rook, taking the g7-pawn and the black light-squared bishop in the process. Up four points of material, Matt turned his attention towards the white king with Qxc2, when his opponent played the final blunder g3 to give our teammate the opportunity for a mate in 3, which the acting captain obliged to deliver.

Another brilliant performance with the black pieces from “The Dark Destroyer” who delivers again for the second team.

Borislav “The Toaster” Lazarov (Anstey 2) vs Tom Gerrard (Ashby 3) 1 – 0

In a rather grim evening for the white pieces, Boris was scheduled to play against the rapidly improving Tom Gerrard. Our teammate started with his typical opening setup with White, whereby Black replied with 3…g6, looking to fianchetto the dark-squared bishop and occupy the long diagonal. Our teammate replied with an early Nb5, putting pressure on the c7-pawn, and creating space for a c3 push to create a wall against the famous King’s Indian bishop. Pieces and pawns got shuffled on the queenside (Q-side), after which “The Toaster” decided to play the thematic h4-push. Black castled and continued to develop his pieces in a rather peculiar way, as the black knights sat awkwardly in front of the e- and f-pawns. Looking to enter the middle game by move 11, Boris decided to ignore both castling and development, and instead played f3 to take out all possible attacking squares from the black knights and keep firm grip in the centre.

Having a slight edge in the opening, Black decided to strike first with c5, to which our teammate replied with g4, a move which based on the engine (Stockfish 15 at depth = 20, powered by chess.com) evaluation leads to -1.0 in Black’s favour with equal material. Nevertheless, the players exchanged pawns on d4, with “The Toaster” keeping the firm grip on the centre. Lacking space for his pieces, Black decided to attack on the Q-side, first bringing his queen, followed by lining up his rook on the semi-open c-file and eventually pushing b5, but our teammate held everything together by placing his queen on a good defensive square and bringing back his sad knight from the rim. With the Q-side plan failed, the Ashby player who was now running steadily behind on time as well switched sides and brought his knight back to e8, and after bishops were exchanged on b7, Black completely ignored the hanging d5-pawn and stroke on the K-side with f4. What followed was a seven-move tactical sequence whereby Boris surprisingly managed to find a mix of excellent and best moves, and although the Ashby player emerged a piece for two pawns up in material, “The Toaster” had a +5.3 advantage based on the engine evaluation due to his advanced e6-pawn, significantly safer king, and more active pieces. Our teammate played energetically and brought his remaining pieces into play to support an e7-push which proved devastating to Black’s position, significantly deteriorated after the white bishop exchanged itself for the remaining black rook. A couple of checks later, the pressure took the best out of the away team player and he blundered a mater in one which Boris promptly delivered.

Another solid performance from “The Toaster” who finally showcased some tactical awareness and calculation.

Nick Wyld (Ashby 3) vs Bob “The Lawman” Grindrod (Anstey 2) 0 – 1

Finding himself again on board 3, Bob was facing his opponent from the reversed fixture, the away team captain and solid player Nick Wyld. The players engaged in the Schlechter variation of the French defence. White decided to bring his queen towards the centre of the board early on in the opening, as well as to give up his bishop pair by move 7. Our teammate missed on the very next move an opportunity to attack the Q-side pawns in the white camp and continued with development, bringing his knight on f6 in a couple of moves, and castling on the K-side. A couple more developing moves, and the players found themselves entering the middle game.

Having the castled king in an “about to open” position, “The Lawman” wasted no time and immediately stroke with e5, looking to attack the white king. White realised quickly the safety issues with his king’s position, and castled K-side. Bob created a battery on the e-file and before long opened the said file by exchanging the central pawns. White retook with one of his knights, at which point the game was equalised. Rooks were brought in the centre, the Ashby player was challenging the e-file, while our teammate was putting pressure on both white knights. A rook lift followed from Bob’s opponent, which was probably going to be doubled on the e-file, but “The Lawman” seized the opportunity to put pressure first on the d5-knight, and then on the white queen, placing his bishop on a more active square in the process. The queens were exchanged on g3 and upon retaking with his freshly lifted rook, White found himself with passive and completely uncoordinated pieces on move 22, in a position evaluated by the engine as -1.7 with equal material. With one of his knights threatened, the Ashby player tried to put pressure on Q-side, but perfect coordination of our teammate’s pieces left the said knight buried and looking to spend a couple of tempi to reroute itself. The other white knight went on to exchange itself for its black counterpart, leading to a bishop vs knight endgame in an open position, evaluated at -3.7 by the engine with equal material.

Having a clear advantage, Bob immediately placed a rook on the seventh rank, eyeing the b2-pawn in the white camp. The pawn was defended by one of the white rooks, but the bishop arrived to the party, putting pressure on the said rook. The white king activated itself by attacking the rook on c1, but brilliant tactical vision by “The Lawman” saw him winning the exchange and finally converting his dynamic advantage into material one. With a rook and a pawn versus a knight, Bob put pressure on the white Q-side pawns. His opponent brought his king to attack the somewhat stuck black rook, while our teammate tried to activate his king. A bit of harassment from the white rook and white king on their black counterparts followed, only to leave breathing space for the harassed black rook. The away team player tried to continue the harassment on the black king, but a timely f5 stopped the attack in its origin, and returned the initiative to “The Lawman” who started harassing the white pieces and pawns, eventually picking up White’s pawns on the K-side. Seeing a clear path to promotion, Harry the H-pawn started sprinting (more like jogging to be honest, pawns only progress one square at a time) towards h1. White tried to be active, but eventually realised that the pawn promotes, supported by a rook battery on the e-file which blocked the white rook, and met with the perspective of playing with a knight against a queen and a rook, the Ashby player resigned.

A well-deserved win for “The Lawman” who showcased great maturity and game management to bring another point for the B-team.

Mike Griffiths (Anstey 2) vs John Howlett (Ashby 3) 0 – 1

On board 4, Mike stepped in to play against the solid John Howlett after Ashby 3 decided to switch their bottom two boards for this fixture. The players engaged in the symmetrical English, and while our teammate was focused on developing his pieces, the away team player stroke in the centre with d5 as soon as move 4. Mike obliged to take the pawn, and immediately made space for his knight with the “engine-like” a3. His opponent obliged in pushing d4, taking more space, and our teammate had to place his knight on the rim, giving the advantage to Black. The players developed swiftly, with the Ashby player centralising his pieces, while Mike fianchetto-ed his bishop on g2, looking to take advantage of the overextended black central pawns. Both players decided to castle K-side and before long, a fierce middle game battle began.

The away team player brought his rook to c8 eyeing the semi-open file, while Mike pinned the f6-knight and after being challenged, exchanged itself for the horse-resembling piece. Out teammate brought his own knight back to the centre, and pushed his Q-side pawns in an attempt to execute a minority attack on the wing. His opponent accepted an isolated pawn on d4, which he rushed to support with minor pieces. Mike tried to stay active on the Q-side and following an exchange of the dark-squared black bishop for one of the white knights, our teammate lifted a rook on the sixth file. Unfortunately, from move 21 on there were several discrepancies in the notation provided to the author, so we were not able to follow on what went wrong in Mike’s game, but unfortunately our teammate was not able to hold on the black attack, most likely due to the immense pressure on the Q-side.

Another tough day in the office for Mike, but we are sure that he is going to come back stronger in the next fixture.

The procedures concluded with a 3-1 win for our B-team who are now mathematically one draw away from securing a third spot. They also find themselves one point away from Melton 2, although the team from the town famous for their pork pies has a game in hand. Nevertheless, a slip up from the team currently occupying the second place in the division will give Anstey 2 the opportunity to attack the second place in the last fixture away at Melton Mowbray. Before we get carried away, first things first, our second team will be playing again next week in their last home fixture against the solid Heathcote Arms 1 side which in its full strength looks like a team to be taken very seriously.

Anstey 1 Return to Winning Ways at Wigston 2

5th Apr 20235th Apr 2023 / magicmattc / Leave a comment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Anstey 1 Woeful Against Wigston 3

4th Apr 2023 / magicmattc / Leave a comment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

League Match: Heathcote Arms 2 vs. Anstey 3 (28th March 2023)

1st Apr 2023 / oskarrud / Leave a comment

This match is quite memorable for a number of reasons. One of which being that El Capitan (Oskar) had forgotten about this match and was accidentally reminded by Mike, and two of which being that El Capitan had given the wrong house number to Mike for him to pick Leo up. Not a great start to this match, but it was quite a fun night in my humble opinion.

Heathcote is quite a small and very friendly club, and it’s always a pleasure to play against pleasant people. As the league table stands, Heathcote Arms are 8th on the board and Anstey were 5th placed, so we are hoping to win against Heathcote as this would help to solidify our place in the middle of the league board.

Board 1: Borislav “The Toaster” Lazarov plays white; Ray Beach plays black

So, Boris plays his usual Jobava London, and both players develop normally without tension between pieces until Boris castles and black attacks white’s dark squared bishop. Boris ignores the attack and retreats his c3 knight to play c3 and black trades his knight for the dark squared bishop, which Boris takes back with a pawn. Black castles and Boris simply develops his pieces, whilst also putting pressure on black’s king and bringing his rooks to the d and e files. Boris also plants a Pillsbury knight on e5, which black puts more pressure on.

At this point, black starts to make some pawn advances on the queenside and Boris does start to do the same, but instead he reinforces the e5 knight by planting his other knight on f3 and makes other improving moves, such as king to h1. Black now has his b, c and d pawns advanced to the 5th rank, and Boris makes some more improving moves by moving his queen and one rook to assist with the pawn advances. Black plays b4 and at this point Boris starts to trade a lot of pieces off the board. First, Boris trades his e5 knight, then his d pawn for black’s b pawn. Boris also takes a free pawn on a6 with his light squared bishop and black trades the bishops and Boris lands his queen on a6.

Now, black slides his rook onto c2, which Boris challenges with his own rook and black doubles rooks on the c file, and Boris trades a rook for a rook. The resulting position is Boris has 3 past pawns on the a and b files and white has two past doubled pawns on the d file. Both players have a rook and a queen, but black has a dark squared bishop for Boris’ knight. Boris starts pushing one of his doubled b pawns, which black does win but Boris trades queens. Boris also lands his knight on e5, which black promptly takes with his bishop and Boris retakes with one of his doubled f pawns.

Black now starts to push his d pawns, but Boris simply blocks them with his rook and moves his king out to take the pawns. Then Boris initiates another series of trades, which results in both players having 3 pawns each and they have a past pawn each. However, black trades rooks after Boris takes his past d pawn, which doesn’t end well as Boris can move his king to take the remaining black pawns, whilst black has to use his king to take white’s past b pawn. Black resigns.

Board 2: Richard Maconnachie plays white; Mike Griffiths plays black

The game starts with e4 and c5, which transitions into the Staunton-Cochrane version of the Sicilian. Both players develop normally with little tension, Mike fianchettoes his dark squared bishop and castles king side. White challenges Mike’s f6 knight and a few moves later trades the bishop for the knight. Both players make small improving moves, and Mike prepares to advance his b pawn to tackle white’s c4 pawn. Mike moves his knight to d4 which white trades off with his own knight. Mike reinforces his attack on the queenside by doubling his rooks. White offers a light squared bishop trade, which Mike takes, and after white retakes with a knight Mike attacks the knight with h5 and pins the knight to white’s king.

Mike now trades bishop for knight and white has to retake with a pawn, which doubles his pawns on the e file. As a side note, Mike also is the only one with two sets of triple connected pawns. One set is on the light squares and the other is on the dark squares, and together they form a bowl shape. Now, Mike finishes his cereal and opens up the queenside by trading b and c pawns, which allows Mike to win a pawn and white trades one rook for one of Mike’s rooks. After the dust settles, Mike doesn’t have the bowl shape anymore, but it doesn’t matter because Mike is the only one with a past pawn and this past pawn is quite strong as it’s on the a file.

White’s king attacks Mike’s rook and Mike drops it back. White now centralises his king and starts to chip away at Mike’s centre pawns. Mike allows white to do this, but Mike starts to push his a pawn and white allows Mike to push it all the way to a7 with very little resistance. White also pushed his c pawn all the way to the 7th rank, which Mike has to counter by offering a draw via repetition of moves. However, Mike tries to advance his king which is a blunder according to the computer. White queens the pawn and Mike has to check the king and trade the rook for the new queen. Mike resigns a few moves later, as he can’t win without a rook to counteract white’s rook.

Board 3: Leo Abraham plays white; Bill Roberts plays black

This game started off as an Italian four knights opening with black pinning Leo’s c3 knight and playing d4, which Leo responds with bishop to b5 to pin the c6 knight. Black plays d3 trying to win the knight but Leo finds the clutch move a3 to trade the knight for the bishop and only lose a pawn, for now. Leo takes the undefended e5 pawn, which puts more pressure on black’s pinned knight. Black moves the bishop to block the pin, and Leo trades the knight for knight and bishop for bishop. The resulting position means that black has doubled c pawns and an isolated a pawn.

Leo pins the f6 knight to black’s queen. Black moves the queen out of the way to stop the pin and both players castle. Leo moves his dark squared bishop to attack black’s queen. Black moves his queen and Leo takes more space with f4 and lifts his rook to f3 and attacks black’s over extended pawn on c3. Black moves his knight to attack Leo’s bishop and Leo moves his bishop out the way to attack the c3 pawn and takes the c3 pawn with the queen. Leo now has a queen and bishop battery against black’s king, which makes black play f6, which does trap his own knight on g4, Leo doesn’t see this but he does spot a skewer of the black queen and rook.

After the skewer, Leo offers a queen trade which black accepts and Leo takes one of the only two open files in the position on the b file. In this position, Leo has the b file, doubled c pawns and a rook for a knight, as well as an isolated a pawn. Black defends Leo’s rook infiltration with his only rook, and Leo digs for gold and goes after black’s a pawn. Black takes the open d file and Leo attacks black’s trapped knight on g4, which black counters with rook to d1 check and Leo has to block the check otherwise it’s checkmate for black. Black trades rooks and manages to nab one of Leo’s c pawns. Leo takes black’s a pawn and starts pushing his own a pawn with little resistance. The black knight manages to catch up to the pawn and forks Leo’s rook and the promotion square, but Leo doesn’t care and promotes anyway forcing black to take the newly promoted queen, and Leo has a rook and some more pawns whilst black only has pawns. Black resigns.

Board 4: Gordon Milner plays white; Oskar “El Capitan” Rudczenko plays black

The game starts with the modern variation of the Scandinavian defence. Oskar takes the pawn on d5 with his f3 knight and white trades knights, which Oskar retakes with the queen. Both players develop their remaining knights and white attacks Oskar’s queen with c4 and Oskar drops his queen back to d8. Oskar establishes a small pawn centre with e5 and reinforcing it with bishop to d3. White castles and plays d4, which Oskar ignores and castles as well. Black pushes his c and d pawns to try and force Oskar to retreat his pieces, but Oskar counters with knight to b4 attacking the now over extended d pawn. White takes Oskar’s e5 pawn and Oskar takes white’s d pawn.

White now continues developing, but Oskar wants to keep trading so he takes white’s dark squared bishop and white trades queens. White can retake the knight on e3, but he doesn’t and instead places his f1 rook on e1, which allows Oskar to fork whites rooks. White tries to attack, but Oskar wants to continue trading and blocks the attack with one of his bishops whilst offering a bishop trade. White refuses and Oskar takes the hanging c5 pawn. Oskar also infiltrates on d2 with his rook and doubles rooks on the d file. White tries to attack Oskar’s dark squared bishop with b4, but this allows Oskar to fork white’s rook and knight and Oskar takes white’s knight freely.

Now, the current position is that Oskar as the d file, and he has two bishops and two rooks whilst white has a light squared bishop and a rook. It is very difficult for white to move, because if white moves either his bishop or rook away from the d1 square it will be checkmate as Oskar has doubled rooks and white’s king has no luft on the 7th rank. White tries to make some luft with g3, but Oskar seals it up with his light squared bishop placing it on h3. At this point, white has to shuffle his pieces a little bit to try and move, but white takes Oskar’s c7 pawn with his rook, which allows Oskar to start a forced mate in 2. White resigns.

Final Words

So, Anstey 3 wins! A marvellous victory for the team as this now solidifies our 5th place position on the board. Ashby 5 might be able to catch up to us, but it’s likely that we’ll have the same points as they do. We’ll hopefully end the season with 17 points at least, which will certainly mean we are 5th in the league, and if we win our last match then we’ll end in 4th place for the season.

For now though, we’ll concentrate on the next match we’ve got, which will be against Heathcote again in about 2 weeks time on the 13th of April. Thanks for reading again everyone, and I hope to see all of you on the 13th :), peace.

First defeat for Anstey 2 in 2023 as they could not hold on a strong Loughborough 2 team.

27th Mar 2023 / bobideco / Leave a comment

Greatly underrated juniors make the difference for the away team, as our B-team loses practical chances to attack the top spot in Division 2

The toughest challenge so far for our second team was on the horizon, as they welcomed the division leaders Loughborough 2 in the beginning of March. Our team found themselves with a depleted squat, as Ben and Bob were not available for the game. Fortunately, our great club is a home of plenty of members eager to compete under its banner, and two of our top players – Noor The Prodigy and Matt The Dark Destroyer, joined Brian The Griller and Boris The Toaster for the match. The Loughborough side outrated our second team on every board, with a total difference of more than 570 points based on the September 2022 ratings. Admittedly, the away team had a couple of promising juniors, Kajus Mikalajunas and Lyndsay Pyun, who had their actual ratings higher than their own top board at 2000+ and 1800+ respectively, and unsurprisingly, they made the difference on the night. Nevertheless, a valiant performance from our second team who were unlucky to lose the match.

Stephen Morris ( Loughborough 2) vs Brian The Griller Foreman (Anstey 2) 0.5 – 0.5

The Griller returned for the second team and was scheduled to play on top board against the opposition captain Stephen Morris. In a private conversation with your author prior to the game, our teammate admitted his concerns regarding facing his opponent, but the game showcased twists and turns, and Brian proved again to be a tough nut to crack. The game opened with the Queen’s Gambit (have you watched it on Netflix already?!) which was met by the solid Slav defence from our always bor…. solid top board for the second team. The players engaged in the notoriously bor…. drawish variation of the Exchange Slav and proceeded with typical development for the position. The Griller rushed to take his light-squared bishop out of the pawn chain before placing a rook on the open c-file and closing the chain with e6. The Loughborough captain developed his bishops on the second file and also placed a rook on the c-file, and with all minor pieces developed, one of the white knights attacked the light-squared black bishop and eventually the exchange happened on g6 after which our teammate swiftly castled.

With the middlegame on the run, the away team player decided that he is going to pursue a kingside (K-side) attack against the black king, to which Brian responded with the most adequate counterlpay, namely the central pawn break on e5. After pawns were exchanged on the said square, The Griller found himself with a slight advantage (-0.9, based on Stockfish 15, depth = 20, powered by chess.com and called “the engine” from now on) in spite of his isolated pawn on d5 in a position famously known as IQP (isolated Queen’s pawn, our chairman gets very excited when he sees it OTB). The players engaged in a queenside (Q-side) battle, whereby our teammate placed an amazing knight on c4, eyeing the white Q-side.With the more active pieces and massive space advantage, Brian accumulated solid advantage, evaluated at -2.6 with an extra pawn by move 20. Unfortunately, after expending quite a lot of time to get to this superior position, already under some time pressure The Griller did not find the best plan and tried to solidify on the Q-side, losing his advantage in the process, and giving fighting chances as well as a pawn back for White by move 24. The away team player not only managed to consolidate on the Q-side, but even got rid of Black’s passed b-pawn, while maintaining a “passer” on the a-file himself.

Heading into the endgame, our teammate managed to capture the white a-pawn and the players exchanged their last minor pieces to remain with a pair of rooks each, a notoriously complicated play which both players held quite well. White hurried to get rid of the IQP on d5, and a pair of rooks head to the box in the process. The Loughborough player started pushing his K-side pawns, but with an active, ever threatening rook, and a solidly positioned king, Brian held his ground and did not let his opponent to create any majority. Throughout the process, our teammate offered his opponent a draw, but the response from the away team captain was that considering the difference in time (more than 20 minutes against less than 30 seconds), he would like to play. Nevertheless, The Griller showcased great resilience to eventually sealed a draw on top board.

Another excellent performance for The Griller who has lost only one game this season, mainly due to his outstanding ability to grind out a result.

Matthew The Dark Destroyer Connor (Anstey 2) vs Kajus Mikalajunas (Loughborough 2) 0 – 1

Stepping up for El Presidente Ben, the first team captain had arguably the hardest task, facing the young star on the Leicestershire chess scene, Kajus Mikalajunas from Loughborough, who is flying high this season and already rated 2000+. The players engaged in the Scandinavian defence and before long knights and bishops were already pointing at kings and queens. Our teammate decided to make a second move with his light-squared bishop to offer exchange to its black counterpart and both pieces headed for the chess pieces’ bar. Matt quickly claimed the centre and the players finished their development, with White having the more active pieces and holding a slight +0.7 advantage.

Black began his middlegame with a typical pawn break on c5. At this point, our teammate spent what seemed to be an eternity, calculating all sorts of tactical shots around the board, and eventually going for the Nb5 move in preparation of Nc7, forking both black rooks and what looked like winning the exchange. His young opponent not only called the bluff, but managed to emerge out of a five-move forcing sequence with a knight and bishop for one of his rooks and the d-pawn, and most importantly with well coordinated pieces and -1.4 advantage. The Dark Destroyer found himself under immense pressure, and before long the queens were exchanged with himself left with doubled isolated pawns on the f-file, overextended c-pawn and inactive rooks.

Unfortunately for our teammate, he did not manage to find the best plan under serious time pressure, and tried to hold onto his last hope of creating a passed pawn, while the engine prefers taking hold of the open d-file where the strengths of the rooks lie. The black knight quickly hopped around the board to pick up two pawns from the white camp. Matt activated his rooks and infiltrated the eighth rank with one of his major pieces, harassing the black monarch from both ends of the board. Black tucked his king into safety and before long placed his own rook on the second rank, looking to clean the rest of the white pawns on the Q-side, and then to exchange itself for one of the white rooks. Under severe time pressure, our teammate was unfortunate to blunder his rook on the next move and swiftly resigned.

A tough day in the office for The Dark Destroyer who cannot take any blame after a game against a very high level opposition.

Glyn Ward (Loughborough 2) vs Borislav The Toaster Lazarov (Anstey 2) 0 – 1

In what can be described as a terrible evening for the white pieces, Boris The Toaster was scheduled to play with the black pieces against the solid Glyn Ward from the away team. The players engaged in the Caro-Kann, von Hennig Gambit variation, whereby our teammate felt lost straight from the beginning but still managed to find the best engine and (apparently) book moves in the opening to gain a solid -1.0 advantage and a pawn up by move 9. The players developed swiftly, with White having the more active pieces and Black having the extra pawn but left behind in development. Both sides castled promptly and before long the battle for the centre began.

Early into the middlegame, The Toaster decided to place a knight on d5 and the players engaged into a three move sequence, exchanging a pair of knights and a pair of bishops in the process. Notably, the away team player spent a substantial amount of his time on calculating variations in the combination and before long found himself behind on time. Still behind in development, our teammate brought his queen to d6, giving his opponent a significant advantage and opportunity to exchange pieces in a very favourable way and to pick up a couple of pawns on the K-side. Luckily for Boris, the Loughborough player did not see that far into the combination and instead played a passive c3, giving our teammate the opportunity to finally bring his remaining knight to the party and keep his material advantage. The players exchanged the light-squared bishops in favour of White, and before long, a rook lift occurred and The Toaster found himself under fire on the K-side. Another spell of inaccurate play from White returned the advantage to our teammate, who happily exchanged the remaining minor pieces and solidified his passive, but still advantageous position. With the extra pawn in hand, our teammate exchanged the majority of the major pieces, returning the extra pawn in the process and looking to challenge the isolated white e-pawn.

There is a saying in chess that all rook endgames are drawn, and this particular game did not seem to make any exception. Nevertheless, our teammate found himself with a significant, almost 30-minute time advantage at the beginning of the endgame, and was not looking to offer any draws just yet. The kings came to the party in the centre of the board, and our teammate started the move for the white e-pawn, while advancing his K-side majority. In a somewhat blocked position, and seeing that he loses the e-pawn, White decided to advance it, when our teammate missed a simple check to win the white rook and instead opted for taking the pawn and exchanging the rooks. The time pressure proved crucial in this king and pawn endgame, and before long White gave our teammate the opportunity to create a passed pawn on the K-side getting the famous Silman’s Fox in the Chicken Coup position, whereby the black king was looking to munch on the white Q-side pawns. In spite of Boris pressing his opponent’s clock to keep him in the game, the away team player decided that he does not want to check our teammate’s understanding of simple king and pawn endgames, and threw the towel.

Another solid performance from The Toaster, who continues to grind down his opponents with fast and solid endgame play.

Noor Datoo (Anstey 2) vs Lindsay Pyun (Loughborough 2) 0 – 1

With Bob The Lawman not available, Noor The Prodigy stepped up to the occasion and ended up being the most outrated player with at least about 400 points difference between him and his opponent, Lindsy Pyun, regardless of which rating you are looking (ECF actual rating or the September 2022 ratings which LRCA are still using for the league). The players engaged in the main line of the Italian game, and the Loughborough player snatched early the white e-pawn, putting pressure on White’s position. The players exchanged the dark-squared bishops, and The Prodigy was unfortunate to miss a nice tactic to win back the pawn by sacrificing his bishop on f7. Nevertheless, our teammate played actively and with energy in an attempt to put pressure on Black’s position, but his opponent found the best moves to repel any attacks and solidify the position.

With most of the pieces developed, the very short middlegame proved as expected to be fireworks, as two pairs of minor pieces and the queens decided to make their way to the changing rooms for the rest of the game, leaving the Loughborough player with an extra pawn, the bishop on an open board, and the better pawn structure, all equating to a -1.9 advantage for Black.

The endgame began with a few unfortunate inaccuracies from The Prodigy who had to part ways with his isolated weak d-pawn. Although down two pawns and on time, our teammate continued to fight and tried to advance his Q-side minority. His opponent, a notoriously capable endgame player and a nemesis for a few Anstey players already, brought her rooks to the second rank, forcing our teammate to exchange one of them. Unfortunately, this exchange led to the loss of the white knight, and after a couple of moves harassing the white king, the rooks also got exchanged. Credit to Noor, he tried to continue the play for a few more moves, but given the quality of play he was facing, our teammate did the honourable thing and resigned.

A hard day in the office for The Prodigy, who tried to overcome too high of an obstacle but nevertheless showcased again great play and surely is only going to get more wins for the rest of the season.

In conclusion, a difficult evening for our team, who nevertheless fought bravely and only narrowly missed on getting something out of the match, mainly due to the severely underrated outstanding juniors in the opposite side. Fortunately, the loss did not affect the team, as they went on to win 4-0 against Latimer in the following week (admittedly, Boris was the only player to have participated in both matches). With only three matches left to play, our B-team is looking to challenge Melton 2 for the second spot in Division 3. Their next game will be against Ashby 3 at home in the beginning of April.

Anstey Chess Club

The soul of chess in Charnwood

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