Thursday 26th January 2023. Anstey 1 welcomed Braunstone 2 to the Methodist Church Centre in this first of the reverse fixtures LRCA Division 2 clash. Honours ended up even after a hard fought 2-2 draw.
Not for the first time this season a last-minute call was put out for availability after star player Julian cried off sick. Luckily a few players volunteered, thanks Ben, Bob and Noor. Captain Matt made the decision to go with Noor who is without doubt the form player at the club at the moment (9 wins 2 draws 0 losses in the league so far and a 5/5 performance at the Kenilworth Junior Open Under 18 Group B rapid-play last weekend).
Matt also promoted himself above John to play board 1, John taking the white pieces for only the second time this season. With Braunstone out-rating Anstey on paper 6941 vs 6341, the players shook hands and battle commenced.
It turned out to be a match of 100%s. Noor kept his 100% winning record for the 1st team; Matt and John lost their 100% records with black and white respectively; and Mick 100% got out of jail free!
The first match to finish was Matt on board 1 as black against Mike Salisbury. Matt equalised fairly easily against Mike’s unorthodox opening going for a solid setup. After a bit of shuffling pieces around the queens came off and the draw was agreed. Yawn. Anstey ½ – Braunstone ½.
John faced off against Daniel Wilkinson with white on board 2 in a re-match of the first game of the season and was out to revenge defeat in that game. John had a nice position out of the opening with a slight space advantage until Daniel found an ingenious way to activate his pieces and equalise the position:
Position after 14. … Nf6-g4!!
John took the knight on g4 (after which … exd4 regained the piece) but made a mistake a few moves later moving his queen back to h3 after Daniel played … Ne5 attacking it. Play transferred to the queenside but with white’s pieces a bit uncoordinated Daniel found a nice tactical sequence that won a rook and John graciously resigned. Anstey ½ – Braunstone 1½.
Mick played black on board 3 against Jim Bingham, also a rematch of the reverse fixture. But that first game was board 4 away which meant Mick was once again stuck with the black pieces (Editor: 7 blacks and just 1 white now Mick!). Mick came out of the opening slightly cramped and some clever piece play by Jim meant Mick was in rare full defensive mode. A couple of nice positional tactics won Jim a pawn and just when it looked like he would break through Mick finally rustled up some counterplay with a late kingside attack. It didn’t look like it was getting anywhere though but with Jim running a bit short on time Mick cheekily offered a draw. Which Jim agreed to.
Final position after 35. … Rd8-d5
White is a still a pawn up but the engines rate this as over +5! So a lucky escape for Mick. Anstey 1 – Braunstone 2.
So it all came down to Noor’s game on board 4 as white against Martin Steel. A slight error in the opening by Noor allowed Martin to snatch a pawn. Noor followed up by castling long and launching a kingside attack with h4 and h5 but Martin kept it solid. After various exchanges it came down to rook and two pawns vs knight and bishop with black still better. Until he played 30. … e5 which loosened his position and allowed Noor to threaten mate with Qf5:
Position after 31. Qf2-f5!
Martin was forced to give back the exchange with 31. … Rxd3 and after grabbing the g2 pawn it was 3 pawns for a knight. Unfortunately for Martin, Noor swung his knight over into the attack on black’s king and just as he was beginning to weave a mating net Martin lost on time. As we’ve said many a time it’s not the first mistake that loses a game a chess it’s the last one! But well done Noor. Anstey 2 – Braunstone 2.
Anstey 1 remain 4th in the league just 2 points behind the leaders Ashby 1 though Ashby do have a game in hand:
Anstey captain Matt Connor told BBC News: A massive thanks to Noor for stepping in at the last minute and turning the tide in his game to secure us the draw. I am slightly disappointed though (despite the 600 rating point deficit) not to take the win and the full 2 points, I think that’s a measure of the expectations we have now at Anstey Chess Club, the soul of chess in Charnwood of course.
The first match of the new year begins fittingly with our last opponent of 2022: Leicester University. They don’t have too many players so it was a 4vs4 again, but Anstey bringing a much younger team than before. With the average age of about 12-13, Anstey brought out Aarav Sinha, Noor Datoo, Yuvraj “Silent Destroyer” Sadhra, and John Graham-Brown. The future of the chess club, and with huge potential lets see if they can bring down some university students.
Board 1: David Reid plays white; Aarav Sinha plays black
This board starts off with an italian game, with Aarav playing a6 and h6. Pieces are being developed as normal, and Aarav builds up a battery of his light-squared bishop and queen to aim at the h3 pawn, possibly opening up a sacrifice to open up white’s king. White offers a trade of dark-squared bishops, and Aarav says, “go on then, take it” so white obliges and Aarav has a couple of split pawns in the centre which clamp down his control on the dark-squares in the centre of the board, as well as the queen-side of the board.
White moves his king to f1 to do something, I’m not quite sure why white moved his king. Possibly to re-route his f3 knight as Aarav’s pawns are covering most of the squares where the knight can move to. Suddenly, Aarav sacs his bishop with the queen supporting the brave bishop, but he loses a lone pawn in the process as Aarav moved his knight away from c6, which leaves the pawn hanging. Fearless of black’s plans, white takes the sacrificed bishop right after taking another pawn from Aarav. Aarav’s f pawn is taken by white’s light-squared bishop, which forces Aarav to move his king. The bishop can’t be taken as white’s knight is protecting the bishop from e5.
As white takes on h3, Aarav retakes with his queen and the white king runs to e2. Aarav presses the attack and gives another check on h5, but his queen can now be taken by the same bishop that took Aarav’s f pawn. Aarav gets a bishop for the queen, but the queen is the most powerful piece on the board, meaning it’s very hard for Aarav to come back in this game. A few moves later, Aarav gets check-mated. Not one of Aarav’s best performances, but being young and still learning chess, Aarav has a lot of time to become a much better player.
Anstey 0 – Leicester Uni 1. Lets go to board 2 with Noor Datoo on the board.
Board 2: Noor Datoo plays white; Jake Howard plays black
The game opens into some sort of vienna game, with Noor bringing his knights to c3 and f3, then developing his light bishop to c4. Black brings out his bishops first, developing his dark bishop similarly to a caro-kann set up with bishop to c5 and d6. Black offers a trade of light bishops, but calmly plays d3 and allows his pawn structure to be slightly damaged. However, having great control on the light squares in the centre of the board.
Noor pushes his pawns on the queen side whilst black tries to develop, but with Noor threatening black’s bishop Jake has to keep retreating his bishop. However, Noor makes one developing move and black switches the tempo in his favour by attacking in the centre and forcing Noor to undevelop his only bishop, otherwise losing material from a pawn fork. Noor has to move his c3 knight away from black’s advanced d pawn moving to the 4th rank. Noor blockades the pawn with his queen, and carries on defending his position against black’s small attacks on the white queen-side.
Noor pushes his queenside pawns, burying them deep into black’s side of the board, but black runs from the pawn advances and swaps to a kingside attack threatening checkmate in one. Noor calmly blockades the attack with a knight and coordinates his pieces to keep a secure grip on the kingside. Noor attacks black’s queen with a knight, but this hangs a pawn and white is up material for one brief moment. However, this is a huge blunder as Noor attacks black’s king with a knight and forking the king and queen. Black is now in deep trouble as he has a pawn and knight for a queen.
Noor carries on his attack on the queenside, whilst poking and prodding black’s queenside. Eventually, Noor breaks through the queenside and gets a rook trade, as well as moving his queen right into the firing line of black’s only remaining rook. However, Noor’s queen on the 7th rank is protected by a pawn, and if black takes the queen there would be no way of stopping the pasted pawn. Black moves his rook away from Noor’s queen, so Noor moves in with a check and starts to quickly create a mating net. A couple of moves later, black resigns. A very smooth and slick victory for Noor, and an absolutely disgusting idea to sac his queen to get a pasted pawn.
Anstey 1 – Leicester Uni 1. What’s Yuvraj getting up to on board 3?
Board 3: Gnanvardh Pentakota plays white; Yuvraj Sadhra plays black
The game starts off with d4, d5 and a colle system appears on the board with white fianchettoing the dark bishop on b2, and Yuvraj playing e6 after bishop moves to f5. Both players keep developing their fortifications and improving their positions until Yuvraj plays knight to e4, supported by his bishop and d pawn. White calmly castles and Yuvraj plays queen to f6. White puts his knight on e5, supported by the bishop and d pawn. Possibly hoping for black to take with the c6 knight, so white can retake with a pawn, which will fork black’s bishop and queen. Yuvraj instead takes with the bishop, and instead of taking the pawn an pinning his knight to his queen, Yuvraj plays queen to g5 and getting pushed back to g6.
White plays rook f3 and Yuvraj immediately pins the rook to white’s queen and taking the rook immediately after white defends the pin. Both players consolidate and they start trading pieces. First, one knight from each side are traded off, then Yuvraj starts to chip at white’s centre pawns creating a mass of 3 centre pawns for himself. White then hangs a pawn and Yuvraj gets in with a check, and Yuvraj slowly brings his pieces out. White can defend his king, but Yuvraj takes a defended rook which white doesn’t retake. Instead, white gets scarred and hides his queen on g1, so Yuvraj forces a queen trade and is up by two pieces and four pawns.
White tries to make counter play, but black just has too many extra pieces and Yuvraj makes a queen by sacing his rook for white’s last remaining piece, which was defending the promotion square for black’s pawn. White now tries to go for a stalemate, but Yuvraj has more than enough time to herd the white king onto h5 and checkmate with the queen on g6. What an unbelievable game from Yuvraj, the silent destroyer.
Anstey 2 – Leicester Uni 1. The final event of the evening is John on board 4.
Board 4: John Graham-Brown plays white; Steven Cheung plays black
The game starts as an advanced french with John sacing two pawns for piece activity, and by the time both sides have castled John has got all of his pieces developed and black has got a bishop and rook on their home squares. Also, black’s queen and bishop are pressuring a knight that was pinned to the king, but now they’re not being all that useful. John starts to create space for himself and starts to poke around at black’s position and forcing black’s queen to it’s home square.
Although, John’s position is quite precarious as this pawn centre is quite weak, which black takes advantage of by attacking the centre with two knights and John struggles to defend. In a few moves John loses three of his minor pieces, losing two to a knight darting across the board, and another from black’s infiltrating queen. John tries his best to defend this position with a knight and king as black keeps on checking John in an effort to checkmate, but John is a slippery fish and very hard to catch.
Eventually, black is forced to use other pieces, as well as a knight and a queen, but John sacrifices a rook to keep himself afloat. Soon after, a knight drives John’s king forward shouting a monstrous battle cry, “you want me? Here, have me then!” Black, not knowing what to do, snatches a pawn from the a file and only now is he able to take the might John down. In a fancy sequence of moves black finally is able to take John down, but not before John gives one last swing of his sword by sacing his queen for a rook. An unfortunate game for John, but a very honourable and brave stand against an impending loss; I salute you John sir.
Anstey 2 – Leicester Uni 2.
Final Words
Another draw to Leicester University, but a draw is much better than a loss. Plus, it was a good night for some good games. After the match, the students stayed at the church a little longer, talking to the third team captain about the games, before heading off to rest for their maths exam the next morning.
This now puts Anstey 3 in 6th place on the Division 4 leader board with one win, four draws and two losses. Not a bad set of results by any means, and if we start winning we should rocket up the leader board.
Anyway, that’s all I’ve got for today folks. Take care, and have a good one!
Anstey Chess Club kicked off 2023 with a home match against the in-form, top-of-the-table and unbeaten Melton Mowbray 2nd team. Expecting a good hiding and a short night, the second team players wished each other a Happy New Year. As usual, El Presidente and Just Mick set the boards up in good time ready for battle to commence at 7:30(ish). It was good to see Shaun Cope, Shaun is a friend of the club as one of the players who gave up a Thursday evening to play a simul against us at our old venue, the Stadon.
First to finish (and a very rare occurrence!) was actually El Presidente. All 4 boards were incredibly intense and it was quite some way into the evening before the first board finished. El Presidente had the black pieces and was facing Ross Murphy – a name he was familiar with from Nottinghamshire chess but never played or even seen him before. There was also a significant grade difference of 126 FIDE points so it was to be an uphill battle! The game started as a ‘Mieses’ opening (google it!) with slow pawn pushes from white, consisting of d3, c3 and e4 whilst developing Knights to f3 and d2. El Presidente was duly wary of such an opening and such openings are coiled springs with pawn breaks likely and a rapid opening of the position can catch the unwary off guard. El Presidente played cautiously as both developed pieces but took the centre that was on offer.
Both sides played solidly, white aiming at a plan to win the e5 pawn by ganging up on it with the Bishop on g3 and Knights on f3 and c4, missing a chance to win a pawn after black’s bold plan of b5 and a6. El Presidente solidified against the threat on the e5 pawn and used it against his opponent forcing the pieces back and white played odd looking moves.
Soon, El Presidente was able to trade off white’s light squared Bishop and a strong central Knight, leaving white with a dark squared Bishop that was out of the game and a Knight not doing much on f3, whilst his pieces were far more active and pressing on the Queenside.
After white’s 29th move, you can see that black is totally winning but El Presidente’s plan was slightly different to that of Smallfish on his iPhone. El Presidente went for the following line:
29. Qxe2, 30. Rxe2 Bd1 31. Re1 Bxf3 32. gxf3 Nxb2 and white can do little to parry the threat of the a pawn Queening. (If Ra1 Rd1+ wins as none of white’s pieces can stop the a pawn – the dark squared Bishop is poorly placed. The game continued 32. Kg2 Rd1 33. Re3 a3 and white resigned.
1-0 to Anstey
Almost immediately the next to finish was Boris ‘The Toaster’ on board 2. The Toaster had the white pieces against Kerry Kidd – 86 points ‘better’ on paper. Kerry did the same as Just Mick – left the game for a long time but returned because the pull of over the board league chess is too much! The game started with a Queen’s pawn Chigorin variation (source – chess.com’s analysis board) and meandered along whilst both players developed their pieces. Black gained equality with the pawn break first and e5 but the important thing to note is that the Toaster had castled and his opponent hadn’t. The push on e5 forced a trade of pawns and minor pieces but Kerry left a pawn on e4 which was a target after a nice manoeuvre by the Toaster of Ng3 and 16. Qb4 – Qb4 preventing black from castling and also targeting the e pawn. Black tried to deflect the Queen with a5 but in the end, this lost the a pawn after some very accurate play by The Toaster, delivering checks and finally robbing black of his right to castle and picking up the a pawn and a +4.6 advantage.
The Toaster picked up the e pawn after a neat combination in the picture on the right. Black played 26. .. Kg6 here and after 27. Qxc8 Rxc8 28. Rxe4 wins another pawn for the Toaster.
After 28. .. c5 from black (a last try to reduce the Rook’s movement) 29. Kf1 b5 30. Ke2 Kf7 31. a4 f5 32. Rf4 – black resigned almost immediately having had enough with a +3.5 advantage in The Toaster’s favour.
Another excellent result for The Toaster and Anstey were 2-0 up with 2 to play – surely they couldn’t do the unthinkable?!
Third to finish was Brian ‘The Griller’ on board 1. The Griller has been good for the 2nd team this season, occupying board 1 and was looking to continue his good (not perfect) form. The Griller had the black pieces and was facing club friend Shaun Cope who was 43 points ahead of The Griller on ECF ratings – the Anstey team were out graded on every board. The game started symmetrically down the book line of the London system until the symmetry was broken with white’s 5th move c4 replied to by The Griller’s c6 to solidify d5. The game was equal but white allowed 9. .. Qa5+ which resulted in a Queen block and the Queens coming off. The light squared Bishops also disappeared for both players after they were subsequently traded on d3. White’s inability to castle wouldn’t appear to be harming him too much. The Griller seemingly gained equality after managing to get e5 in on move 13. The Griller relinquished his own ability to castle with a penned in dark squared Bishop on f8 and played Kf7 to get his pieces into the game.
The parity continued and this game seemed to only be going one way.
In the position on the left after white’s 20th move, recapturing a traded off Rook, as you can see, Smallfish says that it is totally level with a 0.0 assessment of proceedings. The Griller felt he had to be wary of the roaming Knight and felt that b5 was necessary. Slightly inaccurate play from both players (according to the engine) followed but after an uninspiring Bd8 as black’s 26th move, both players agreed to a draw.
Another solid result for the Griller as the second team’s top board.
This secured the match for Anstey with the score 2.5-0.5 with just one board to play.
Last to finish on board 4 was Bob. Bob had the white pieces against Ian Farquharson and again – just like his teammates – Bob was out graded but this time by 68 points. The game started with a Queen’s pawn opening and Ian opted for a Queen’s Indian setup but early on, Ian got his pieces in a bit of a tangle, playing Bd6 when his d-pawn was yet to advance.Bob rightly played e4, threatening the fork of pieces and Ian was forced to move his Bishop twice in the opening. At this point, with central dominance, Bob had a +4.9 advantage with the ability to push his opponent’s pieces back and dominate the centre. Bob started to push but was ever so slightly inaccurate and developed his pieces – as one would. (It should also be noted that Boris the Toaster and El Presidente didn’t make full use of this looking at the game retrospectively too!). A few moves later and the pressure eased with a trade off of pieces in the central e5 square. Bob initiated a plan to get his light squared Bishop to f5 and lift his Rook to eye the f, g and h files via the 3rd rank but this slower plan allowed Ian back into the game and by move 25 the game was level (source: Smallfish on iPhone).
More pieces were traded and Bob’s attack on the Kingside had seemingly lost its bite and Ian was able to push back in the centre. By move 35, Ian had pushed back in the centre and Bob’s plan to plant a Knight on e6 had it’s weakness exposed and to those watching the position on the right looked lost. Smallfish says otherwise and due to spending so much time planning his Kingside attack and being so surprised with his good opening advantage, Bob was low on time. At this point, Bob played Qc2, giving up the seemingly doomed Knight. As Smallfish points out, Nf4 Rg5, followed by Rc3 is a try for equality but that was tough to see over the board.
Bob ran out of time after the Knight was lost and Ian won the game.
2.5-1.5 to Anstey and a good team win.
Captain El Presidente to BT Sport Chess:
Absolutely delighted for the team, a really good win. A best ever result for me OTB in terms of grade that I’ve beaten and really pleased for the Toaster too. It’s just a shame we now have to wait so long for the next game!
Thursday 12/01/2023. Anstey 1 travelled to the Ivanhoe Social Club in Ashby for this LRCA Division 2 top of the table, six-pointer, win at all costs, do not come home with anything other than victory, epic fixture against the league leaders Ashby 1. Except that they came home with a big fat zero and slipped to third place in the league (after Wigston 2 beat Market Harborough 2).
Playing in the back room was much better than playing in the bar (we’ve had enough of playing in bars for this season – Editor), the captains exchanged team sheets. The teams were very evenly matched on paper (6,957 vs 7,031), it was going to be a close contest.
The players shook hands and battle commenced. After just a minute or so there was a bit of a commotion, there was some kind of announcement from the snooker room next door (another famously quiet sport you would think). Matt reached for his ear defenders and in doing so knocked over a bottle of water demolishing half the pieces on the board. Many whisperings of “j’adoube” followed and the position set back up LOL. As an aside, a little-followed etiquette rule of chess, you should never adjust the pieces on the board when it’s not your move. You’re welcome.
John’s game against Andrew Wilson on board 2 was the first to finish. In what can only be described as a bore-draw John, as black, mirrored Andrew’s setup in fact copying white’s moves four to ten exactly! Shortly after the queens came off and in an equal position John offered the draw which Andrew accepted. Ashby ½ – Anstey ½.
Julian played Richard Vann on board 1. Going for his usual castle long and attack on the kingside approach, Julian pushed Gary the g-pawn to g6. Richard countered on the queenside but left his king in the centre of the board which Julian exploited with a brilliant knight sacrifice:
Position after 16. Nc3xd5!!
After 17. exd5+ Qe7 18. Qxc4 Julian had three pawns for the piece, with black’s pieces uncoordinated and his king stuck in the centre. Unfortunately, Julian got over-ambitious and sacrificed his other knight (and a chunk of his advantage) on g5 giving the crazy material deficit of four pawns versus two knights. He still stood better in game but a second mistake a few moves later allowed black to give back a knight for a pawn (it’s now three pawns for a knight, keep up) and a dynamically equal position. But it’s easy to go wrong in these types of positions especially with the clock ticking (Julian was down on time). A couple of further slips and black won another pawn and playing accurately Richard activated his knight then his rook and pushed his passed b-pawn with devastating effect to take the win. What a shame. Ashby 1½ – Anstey ½.
Mick was next to finish with black on board 4 versus Paul Gibson. By his own admission Mick mixed and matched his opening systems missing a key move which would have completely equalised. Instead, white came out of the opening with a slight but nagging advantage. A couple of passive moves by Paul though meant Mick was still in the game and his thoughts turned to attack by means of h6 and g5. Unfortunately, the idea was flawed and white hit back with a great move:
Position after 23. h2-h4!
Mick compounded the problem with 23. … g4. White later opened the f-file and move his doubled-d rooks to the f-file bearing down on the pinned f7 pawn. As pieces were exchanged off and the dust settled white came out 2 pawns up and an overwhelming advantage. A final error meant black’s king was trapped on the h-file and a forced checkmate with rook, bishop and knight meant Mick had to resign. Ashby 2½ – Anstey ½.
Matt’s game against Chris Tipper on board 3 was the last to finish. Chris declined Matt’s opening gambit which unusually led to a more positional type of game for Matt. With a strong pawn centre for white with pawns on c3, d4 and e4, black tried to hit back with … d5 but after exchanging the dark-squared bishops on e7 Matt pushed on with e5 securing what turned out to be and everlasting space advantage. Plenty of piece manoeuvring on both sides followed but it was much easier for white than black with Chris trying to defend everything with awkwardly placed pieces. Eventually white pinched a pawn:
Position after 24. Nc5xa6!
The manoeuvring continued but when Chris finally tried to break free (when he was running out of time) with f5 he mortally weakened his central pawns and allowed a nice tactical finish:
Position after 31. f7-f5
The game finished 32. Rxc7 Kxc7 33. gxf5 1-0 as after 33. … Nxf5 34. Bxf5 exf5 35. Nxd5+ wins the queen. Ashby 2½ – Anstey 1½.
The result
Anstey 1 slip to third in the division at the (approximate) halfway point of the season, equal on points with Market Harborough 1 but MH have a game in hand. The division remains very tight with just 3 points separating the top 4 teams:
League table
Anstey’s next game is against Braunstone 2 on the 26th January, a win required to keep them in the mix!
Anstey captain Matt Connor told Snooker Weekly: I’m gutted, a win tonight would have taken us top of the table. We need to work on our away form, we’re averaging 50% compared to 83% at home. Having said that we’ve only played 3 matches at home and 5 away so far, hopefully the crowd can get behind us in the coming home games to really lift the side. The very last game of the season we’re at home against Ashby, if we’re there or thereabouts in the league our fate could still be in our own hands!
One of the youngest teams to play in the Leicestershire League this season claims a narrow 4-3 win against a solid Kirby 2 side.
It has been more than a month since our third team’s last game of 2022 and your author has finally found the time to write the report of this thrilling seven-board match, full of exciting games. One of the youngest teams from any club to play in the league this season was just a member short when the board number was agreed, and chairman Ben stepped up to the occasion, his confidence backed up by great performances this season for all Anstey teams. Unfortunately, in the last hours before the match, the captain Oskar found himself unfit to play and “the usual suspect” Boris filled in on board 1. Kirby Muxloe 2 arrived with a solid, albeit slightly lower rated team and naturally managed to cause all sorts of problems to our players. It was a turmoil of an event, with players winning and losing all over the place, but eventually the Anstey youngsters prevailed to claim the first win for our third team this season and start climbing up the table.
Paul Gray (Kirby 2) vs Borislav “Boris The Toaster” Lazarov (Anstey 3) 1 – 0
Boris “The Toaster” filled in for the team in a very short notice and was playing as Black against a solid player in Paul Gray. On the table with (on paper) the biggest rating difference, “The Toaster” was (again, on paper) the favourite to win this game. The players engaged in the Caro-Kann Exchange variation, and as soon as move 13, our teammate found himself faced with a choice of whether to have some fun or be solid. Surprisingly, Boris decided to go the former route and immediately put pressure on White’s dark-squared bishop with an early g4, followed by an attack on the king with g5. A series of exchanges took place, with the Kirby player throwing away a +2.9 advantage (Stockfish depth=20, powered by chess.com). “The Toaster” tried to build up some pressure on the open g-file, but White managed to exchange queens. The players picked up some pawns, with our teammate having the more active knight and having a -0.9 by move 26, which grew to -2.2 for a move, only to be brought back to equal game in a couple of moves. Boris put pressure on his opponent on the kingside (K-side), only to win a pawn – a move which the engine disliked, giving a +0.1 with material down for White. Although up a pawn, “The Toaster” was not able to do anything with his pawn, and quickly realised that his pieces cannot be improved easily. Our teammate tried to shuffle his rook, only to blunder his knight twice and offered a draw on the second time. His opponent did not miss the somewhat simple tactic on the second occasion and cashed on his material advantage to win the game for Kirby 2 on board 1.
A bitter lesson for Boris who is long due to slow down and start calculating deeper.
“El Presidente” Ben Vaughan (Anstey 3) vs John Walker (1529) 1 – 0
It has been great season so far for our chairman who was scheduled to play with the white pieces against another solid player from Kirby in John Walker. “El Presidente” opened with his old favourite, Ruy Lopez (for any fans of him out there, he switched now to the Catalan) to which his opponent answered with (based on chess.com) the Cozio defence. Ben occupied the centre immediately, and both players developed their pieces as soon as possible. Our second team captain castled K-side, while his opponent’s king was still in the centre in the beginning of the middle game. “El Presidente” decided to exploit the latter fact by striking first on the queenside (Q-side) and immediately after in the centre, winning a pawn in the process. With a strong pawn on d5, Ben put good pressure on Black’s position, making the Kirby player spending tempi on rerouting his pieces. Nevertheless, Ben’s opponent decided to put pressure on the K-side, but a solid defence from our chairman kept the advantage for White. Under significant pressure, Black rushed to exchange queens, only to fall victim to a sophisticated tactic by “El Presidente”, winning him a full piece for a pawn. In a slow and steady manner, Ben started exchanging pieces, first a pair of knights, followed by a pair of rooks, whereby our chairman sacrificed a couple of pawns as well. Our second team captain managed to pick up Black’s c7-pawn, creating a passed pawn of his own which unfortunately did not last long but gave him the opportunity to sweep clean the Q-side on his march to exchange pieces and capitalise on his material advantage. Eventually, “El Presidente” exchanged his remaining bishop for the enemy knight and equalised the pawn count. A full piece down, his opponent decided that enough is enough and resigned.
Another great win for Ben who is deservedly in the competition for best performing player for the club.
Nigel Wollen (Kirby 2) vs Leo “The Lion” Abraham (Anstey 3) 1 – 0
The top regular Anstey 3 player for this match was Leo “The Lion”, scheduled to play as Black against another experienced player in Nigel Wollen. The players engaged in the Ruy Lopez whereby Black opted for the Old Steinitz defence (based on chess.com), allowing for White to exchange on c6 and double the pawns on the c-file. Our teammate decided to fianchetto his dark-squared bishop and both players develop quickly and castled K-side. “The Lion” tried to open the centre with f4, recapturing with his light-squared bishop and thus completing his development. The Kirby player stroke in the centre himself with a somewhat premature d4, but our teammate could not resist the slightly losing possibility of placing a bishop on e4 where he had to push his pawn instead. The players exchanged most of their minor pieces, leaving only a pair of knights on the board which worked in White’s favour, as the weakness on the c-file remained. Eager to capitalise on his advantage, Leo’s opponent rushed to exchange knights and doubled his rooks on the e-file. “The Lion” exchanged one set of rooks and in the process managed to exchange one of the c-pawns for its d-equivalent. Having created a protected passed pawn on the d-file, our teammate tried to push both the c- and d-pawns, but a premature c-pawn push saw Leo losing both pawns for the price of the white b-pawn, leaving White a pawn up, with both players having one pawn each on the Q-side. The rooks picked up the pawns, and not long after, the solid Kirby player exchanged the rooks in a 3 vs 2 endgame. Unfortunately, our teammate missed a few opportunities to draw the game and with the last move Kh7 giving a clear advantage for White, “The Lion” resigned.
Another tough day in the office for Leo, who is under some GCSE pressure, but looking to improve his game further regardless.
Noor “The Prodigy” Datoo (Anstey 3) vs Dan Watson (Kirby 2)1 – 0
Another player in great form, Noor played with the white pieces against a young Dan Watson from Kirby. The players opened with the Italian variation of the Four Knights game, with Noor hurrying to exchange the dark-squared bishops, albeit at the price of doubled e-pawns. Our teammate put pressure in the centre, while his opponent attacked the remaining white bishop and further exchanged it for one of his knights. Finding himself with a slight advantage, the Kirby player decided to tuck his king into safety on the K-side which was welcomed by “The Prodigy” who started a K-side attack with h4 and g4. Both players shuffled their queens, and Noor sacrificed the c-pawn for initiative and attacked with g5. Black did not call the bluff and started shuffling his king, letting White to open the K-side in the process. Our teammate consolidated his Q-side with Nxc3 following Black taking on c3 “en passant”, and started to exert a solid squeeze on the K-side. The Kirby player brought his queen to the K-side party and tried to create a counter attack, sacrificing two pawns in the process, but the mighty white knights kept everything together for “The Prodigy” who capitalised on his accumulated advantage and delivered a beautiful checkmate with his d-pawn.
Another great win for Noor who is looking to steal the “Best Performing Anstey Player” from “El Presidente” this season and is definitely on his road to the second team.
Charlie Clynick (Kirby 2) vs Aarav Sinha (Anstey 3) 1 – 0
Aarav was back in action for the third team and found himself playing against another young Kirby player in Charlie Clynick, Unfortunately, little information was received about the game and the report on this will be shorter, based only on the unreliable memory of the author. Nevertheless, both players opened up normally, with them developing their pieces swiftly and unfortunately, Aarav was down a piece early in the game. Our teammate manged to get back in the game and even had an advantage the next time the author had a glance at the game. Unfortunately, the next time Aarav was seen he admitted that he lost the game.
An unfortunate evening for Aarav, however, he is not far away from capitalising on those games and his advantage.
Yuvraj Sadhra (Anstey 3) vs Nigel Smith (Kirby 2) 1 – 0
Another returning junior was Yuvraj who played as White against Nigel Smith from Kirby. The young Anstey player was a tad late, and found his board with his clock already ticking when he arrived. Our teammate opened with the Ruy Lopez, which was met (probably not to the awareness of either player) by the Lutikov variation of the Exchange Morphy defence (based on chess.com, although the author admits that the name sounds dubious at best). Yuvraj hurried to exchange on c6 and double his opponent’s pawns. Both players started their development and while the Kirby player opted for a double fianchetto and a King’s Indian setup, our teammate opted for a c1-h6 bishop led battery and a Q-side castling, with the c3-knight protecting the king. Black pushed his a-pawn while the young Anstey player attacked with “Harry” and “Garry”, exchanged his dark-squared bishop for the remaining black knight and broke the K-side pawn structure of his opponent. The advantage of our teammate was so prominent by move 17, he could afford to part ways with his knight for free, but he decided to keep it just in case. Black tried to counter attack with his a-pawn, but it was too little too late, as Yuvraj forced an exchange of the black dark-squared bishop for one of his knights and followed with infiltration of the queen on the K-side, delivering checkmate shortly after.
Another great game from Yuvraj who is looking to challenge the top boards’ players for their spots very soon.
Edda Walker (Kirby 2) vs “Young” John Graham-Brown (Anstey 3) 0 – 1
It has not been the best of seasons for John who is regularly outrated by hundreds of points. Which explains his excitement prior to his match with the black pieces against experienced Edda Walker who is in the same rating range as our youngest competitor. The game proved to be an absolute mayhem, worthy of a place in our teammate’s future memoirs. The players used an unusual move order to reach the four knights variation of the Italian game. “Young John” decided to prematurely attack with his knights, only to exchange one of them for the white counterpart and part ways with the other after a decent tactic from his opponent and an unfortunate blunder from John. Our teammate had to further exchange a pair of bishops and tried to activate his remaining minor piece, supported by the mighty queen. However, the youngest Anstey player fell victim to a fork in the process which costed him his queen, and even worse upon recapture of the enemy knight, our teammate lost his bishop as well. Down 12 points of material, the game look bleak for “Young John” who never stopped fighting and activated his rooks, bringing one of them on h5. His opponent missed her opportunity to finish off the game and instead attacked John’s Q-side pawns, only to lose her queen for no compensation. “Only” a minor piece and a pawn down, John started pushing his Q-side pawns and soon created a hole on the b-file. John managed to stop the march of the white e-pawn at the price of a rook exchange and continued his march on the Q-side. With White being careless in the early endgame, our teammate managed to push his b-pawn the whole way and promoted a queen which soon wreaked havoc on White’s position. Seeing that our teammate is in control of the game, the Kirby player decided to call it a day and shook John’s hand.
Congratulations on a great first win for “Young John” and we wish him many more to come.
With this first win of the season, Anstey 3 went up to sixth place at the time and after several games were played in the division, our third team is still holding the position after six games. Entering into the second part of the season, we are sure that the young Anstey players will further rise to the occasion and make their captain Oskar happy by delivering more defeats to their opponents.
During the night, club night took place with our teenage band, led by regular member Sev, back in the house to play some casual games with dad Damien and son Aristotle.
Anstey 1 Return to Winning Ways by Smashing Syston 2
Wednesday 14/12/2022. Anstey 1 travelled to the Syston & District Social Club in, err, Syston for this LRCA Division 2 fixture. Well, most of the team did, for some reason Leo ended up at the Methodist church temporarily worrying captain Matt that he’d gone to the home venue in Anstey! Luckily the Syston Methodist church was just a few doors up the road from the social club, phew.
What was Leo doing playing for the first team I hear you ask. Is it panto season yet? Oh yes it is! A few days before the match Syston captain Brian Galligan had enquired as to whether we could play more than the normal four boards. Not thinking it was a trap (like some had mooted) three additional players in Boris, Leo and Noor were rustled up, with both Leo and Noor making their first team debuts. A big shout out to all three of them for stepping up to the plate. It turned out that Syston had some new players they wanted to give some match experience to.
Leo’s directions weren’t the only pre-match drama. The social club’s function room had been booked out (some kind of band practice we think) and the chess club had been relegated to the (very noisy) bar, the social club thinking it was just a club not a match night. In fairness to the social club and to Brian they did their best, re-arranging the match across the road at the Conservative Club. In the bar. The noisy bar. With lots of people. Drinking. With the World Cup on the TV. So not great match conditions…
Whilst we were waiting for the chess sets, boards and clocks, Julian led the pre-match warm up. Which lasted all of two seconds. Julian however continued exercising his right arm with a pint from the bar after borrowing a tenner. Eventually the boards were all set up, team sheets exchanged and battle commenced.
In what seemed like only a few minutes, Noor and his opponent Conor O’Boye started resetting the pieces on board 7. Noor, playing white, had demolished Conor, his un-castled king (having been weakened by f6 and g5 pawn moves) was harassed mercilessly by white’s and queen and bishops. Black’s king accounted for over a third of the 17 moves and was eventually mated on d8:
Position after 18. Qf7-e8#
So a fantastic debut for Noor and taking the honour of the first Anstey player ever to win for the first, second and third teams, well done Noor. Syston 0 – Anstey 1.
Next to finish was Boris with white against Aron English on board 5. In an uncharacteristically positional game (instead of a raging kingside attack) against a passive small centre opening, Boris built up some pressure on the e-file and after the last of the minor pieces were exchanged won a pawn but in doing so had to exchange off a rook and the queen leaving a tricky rook and pawn (aka Nemesis…) ending. Aron didn’t make any mistakes in the next few moves, a few pawns were exchanged and it came down to the final position:
Position after 41. Kh4-g3
Boris must have had his “serious” face on because at this point Aron resigned! As long as the black rook move sideways (and not to b4) the position is dead level. Of course, over the board it’s easy to make a mistake and maybe Aron had had enough of looking at Boris’s face… Still, a bonus ½ point for Anstey. Syston 0 – Anstey 2.
John played black against Syston’s rising star Jack Pilley on board 2. Jack has been in great form of late and this was always going to be a tough game. John did ok in the opening and was roughly equal if a little passive going into the middlegame. In trying to get active he pushed e5 and then e4 but this was a square too far. White traded off the key defender, black’s knight on f6 then white’s knight gobbled up the e4 pawn before jumping to g5 and taking an outpost on e6:
Position after 21. Ng5-e6
John played on manfully in a pretty horrible position but Jack played the next dozen or so moves flawlessly, squeezing the black position. John ran out of space and also time, eventually losing on the clock. Syston 1 – Anstey 2.
Matt played another new Syston player on board 3, Janis Utatis. In an unusual start to the game Matt was out of his opening book on move 3 so reverted to basic principles ending up with an ok position going into the middlegame with black’s king stuck in the middle of the board. Just when he thought he was going to win black’s knight Janis sacrificed it on f2 to uncover an attack on white’s undefended rook on b1. Unfortunately for black this took the queen away from the defence of the king and after a desperate attempt to get back to defend on a6 white smashed through in the centre:
Position after 20. Bf3xc6+
Black is defenceless but luckily for Matt (as he was bit short on time (Really? – Editor)) Janis made it easy for him with 20. … Kxc6 21. Nxe7+ Kb7 22. Qe4+ Kb8 23. Bf4#. Syston 1 – Anstey 3
The most anticipated match up of the night was Julian (with white) against Brian on board 1 (1894 vs 2077). It was a rollercoaster of a game with opposite sides castling, white attacking on the kingside and black on the queenside. Brian had pretty much equalised out of the opening before a misstep in the centre allowed Julian to consolidate a space advantage. Brian kept battling and after a couple of inaccuracies by white black was back in the game and on top. Julian responded by throwing everything into the attack and crashed through with the brilliant 32. Nxf7:
Position after 32. Nd6xf7!!
It’s now mate in 15, amazing calculation by Julian. Brian continued for the next few moves before realising he was doomed, the win securing match victory. Syston 1 – Anstey 4.
Leo faced off against Dave Bedder as black on board 6. In a wild tactical game both sides had chances to win but the winning tactic came down to a nice knight fork:
Position after 31. … Nd6-c4+
After winning the bishop, the knight and bishop and a pair of rooks were exchanged leaving Leo with rook, knight and 2 pawns vs rook and 2 pawns, each side having a passed pawn. In these situations Leo just excels, he’s so cool, plays so calmly and of course makes no mistakes. The only black win of the night. Syston 1 – Anstey 5.
This left Mick on board 4 playing Tarsem Dhillon as black. Tarsem built up a space advantage out of the opening but then made a mistake underestimating the pin on his e-pawn:
Position after 11. Bf1-d3
Unfortunately, Mick missed it as well blundering with 11. … c5 instead of winning a pawn with 11. …Bxd5 when the position is roughly equal. Tarsem consolidated with 12. Qe3 and after that kept the hammer down, castling kingside, opening the f-file, doubling rooks and breaking through to black’s king. Syston 2 – Anstey 5.
At the Christmas break (not quite halfway through the season) division 2 remains extremely tight with just 3 points separating the top 5 teams:
Anstey’s next match is away to Ashby in January, another 6-pointer and a win would see them go top of the table!
Anstey captain Matt Connor told BBC Sport: A huge win for us tonight, it’s vital that we take points off the other top teams to challenge for first place and a nice +3 for the goal difference too (which will almost certainly be worth ½ a point in the final reckoning). Thanks to Boris and debutants Leo and Noor for stepping in and wow, what an impact they had on the match! We now have a few weeks off, take it easy on the turkey and mince pies lads, we need to be fighting fit for the Ashby game in the new year!
In what turned out to be the sternest test of the season so far, Anstey’s 2nd team played against Ashby’s 2nd team with Ashby’s selection fielding the strongest team that they had played so far in the league. Anstey were again without Bob, Mike and Daddio Valdas giving the chance Leo to make his mark in the 2nd team.
Battle commenced just after 7:30pm with Brian ‘The Griller’ showing up slightly late due to the Leicestershire public transport system. It was actually unlcear who finished first out of ‘The Griller’ on board 1 and Boris ‘The Toaster’ on board 2 because as your report writer made himself his second cup of tea for the evening, both players were finished on their respective boards. For the purposes of the report, I shall assume (rightly or wrongly) that board order was the order of the players finishing.
On board 1, ‘The Griller’ faced off with the black pieces against Chris Tipper who seemed to have returned from a foray away of some kind considering he was asked if he’d had a good break by his team-mates. The game started with a Bird’s opening and 1. f4 – something that your author has never seen before OTB so looking at this game is a novelty for me. The Griller took a chance to play an early Bg4 and trade off a Knight for a Bishop and also managed to get e5 in and equalised as early as move 6.
Both players contested the central squares and the game was out of the Lasker variation of the Bird’s opening until move 9 for white.
Both players castled Kingside and a backward pawn on e3 for white was advanced on e4 and after a mass trade of pieces on e4, a draw was agreed by both players in the position to the left.
A 16-move Grandmaster draw for ‘The Griller’ and the point was shared on board 1.
On board 2 Boris ‘The Toaster’ faced off with the white pieces against Paul Gibson – a good, solid player. The game took on a frantic nature and was contested fiercely but fairly and was good for your author to keep an eye on. The game took on a Chigorin variation of a Queen’s pawn opening (source: Chess.com analysis provided by The Toaster himself). The Toaster earned himself a good position by an opening system of development that he has become very accustomed to and looked very comfortable playing his moves, with the only slight anomaly from a classical point of view is that the Toaster hadn’t castled until move 19. After winning a pawn comfortably (and precisely), The Toaster managed to get the minor pieces traded off the board at the cost of the pawn back that was gained.
This resulted in a Queen and two Rook middle game where it looked like The Toaster had the better position from a viewing-patzer-on-an-adjacent-board-standpoint but it was far from clear. The only real standpoint for the Toaster was a pawn on d6 with a nosebleed that was undependable once the King got to it and Paul activated his remaining Rook once the Queens and a pair of Rooks were traded.
The crucial position is on the right where the exchange described above took place. The Toaster played the logical Qxd1 and offered the exchange of Queens in white’s territory but more accurate according to Small fish is Rxd1, yielding a +2.8 advantage.
Once the exchange took place and both players had a Rook and 3 pawns each, a draw was agreed with little activity in the position for either player and only a major blunder would have costed the point.
Again the point was shared and the match score was 1-1.
Next to finish was Leo ‘The Lion’ on board 4 with the white pieces against Les Fancourt. I am not quite sure if Leo’s nickname is The Lion officially but I guess I just made it so. The game itself was fab to watch and your author and his opponent spent most of their game time looking at both boards 2 and 4 next to them (more on how dull their game was later). The game started off as a Petroff Defence, something that is odd if you’ve never faced it before and it has to be played accurately by both sides. The Lion’s opponent took the chance to play an early Bb4 trying to reduce white’s control of the d5 square, a move which subsequently happened after the Lion challenged the Bishop with a3, after choosing to attempt to fianchetto his light squared Bishop with g3. After the Lion’s 6th move a3, the engine slides down to -3.1, despite only losing a pawn but that soon became two pawns after Leo dropped another central pawn with almost a -5 evaluation. Les had castled, the Lion hadn’t, Les was one move away from connecting Rooks and Leo was heavily underdeveloped.
The only position to end on really is the neat tactic that Les found. Leo had played the attractive looking Re1, attacking Black’s Queen and seemingly eyeing black’s Rook on d3.
Les found the move the Smallfish suggests, which is a bit of a no-brainer but a good move to spot nevertheless – 22. .. Ng4!
If Rxe3, Nxe3+, forking the King and Queen and with the -9.3 assessment in black’s favour, the game was lost for Leo the Lion.
This was a tough lesson for Leo and as he gets better on his chess path, he’ll need to get used to being on the wrong end of games like this, but there will be times when roles are reversed and he is on the right side if games like this. The Lion left with the action to look at his openings with plenty of support from members of the club.
2-1 to Ashby.
This left El Presidente on board 3 with the black pieces against Larry Hayden, needing to secure a win to achieve a draw for the team. Early proceedings were odd for the French playing El Presidente as Larry responded to 1. .. e6 with Qe2 – a novelty again and a move that hadn’t been seen before by your author. Play continued into the middle game and after a few pieces were traded off in a very mundane fashion, it appeared that neither player was really going for a win, albeit in the position that was derived it was very difficult to squeeze blood out of the metaphorical stone. El Presidente took the chance to equalise with e5, closing up Larry’s light squared fianchettoed Bishop on g2. El Presidente offered a draw on move 18 when it looked like anything could happen in all of the games.
This was declined after thought and time had elapsed and play continued with a trade off of both pairs of Rooks and a tiny bit of Queen activity was sought by Larry, which was easily defended but at this point, the two games on boards 1 and 2 had finished and Leo was looking under the gun on the 4th board.
Larry offered a draw this time with Kg2 after Leo had thrown the towel in on the 4th board, Larry looking to secure a win for the team. El Presidente declined this time stating that he had to try and force something for the team.
A few passive/boring/unattractive moves later, Larry offered another draw and with a heavy heart and hand, this was accepted in the position on the right – as you can see a 0.0 on the Smallfish scale, albeit with a cheapo of Qe8 mate in the air to the unassuming player looking for a win (yes, I had spotted it).
A 2.5-1.5 defeat for the second team.
El Presidente speaking to the BBC Sport website:
A little bit gutted to be honest, we put up a brave fight, especially on the 4th board with Leo the Lion but Ashby got what they came for and the two points, so fair play to them to be honest. On to the next game!
Thursday 08/12/2022. Anstey 1 welcomed Wigston 2 to the Methodist Church Centre in this LRCA Division 2 clash where honours ended up even after a 2-2 draw.
For the second match in a row Anstey were out-rated on every board (6,868 vs 7,370 in total) and once again had to make a last-minute change after John pulled out in the pre-match warm-up (get well soon John). Club president Ben stepped in after a brief discussion with Boris on who should be super-sub this time. With Iain Dodds running late for Wigston the start of the match was amicably delayed and cups of tea all round were offered. The clocks were started after 15 minutes with Iain eventually turning up after a few more minutes. Opponent Mick then very graciously paused Iain’s clock whilst he settled in.
Not that time on the clocks matted much on board 3, as Iain and Mick fairly quickly agreed a “grandmaster” draw. Iain as white had a tiny edge with Mick’s queenside a little undeveloped but he had no real threats. A dull start although Mick did check on the other boards and though the match was going ok before agreeing to the draw. Anstey ½ – Wigston ½.
Next to finish was Ben (making his first team debut this season) with white on board 4 against Andrew Pike. In an interesting game black had a tiny edge coming out of the opening before white expanded on the kingside. Andrew mistakenly blocked the centre with … e5 which game him a permanently backward pawn on d6. Ben tripled his major pieces on the d-file, Andrew holding onto d6 with doubled rooks and queen. When Ben switched to advancing his queenside pawns Andrew activated his queen with 26. … Qg5 and managed to get in behind white’s e4 & f5 pawns. Ben brought his king forward to stop the check on e3 but now he was exposed and with check black picked up the e4 and b4 pawns. In return Ben finally took the black pawn on d6 and with the threat of a back rank mate Andrew took perpetual check:
Position after 36. … Qe3+
Anstey 1 – Wigston 1.
Julian faced off against Lewis Turner with black on board 1, his 3rd 2000+ rated opponent of the season so far. He equalised quickly in the opening and had a promising position with his pieces starting to gang up on the white’s king:
Position after 11. Nb3
Instead of exfiltrating the queen the other side of the board with 11. … Qa4 he went for 11. … Be4 and after Nxc5, Ne1 and f3 the bishop was trapped in the centre of the board. Julian came out with three pawns for the piece but couldn’t get them rolling to provide any meaningful threat, Lewis activated his pieces before exposing black’s dark squared weakness around the king.
Final position after 31. Qe7
So unfortunately Julian’s first loss of the season but still a cracking 4/6 records against some quality players. Anstey 1 – Wigston 2.
Not for the first time this season, Matt’s game was the last to finish as he played white against Rob White on board 2. After losing on time in the last match he played the opening and early middlegame more quickly and after giving up a pawn had good compensation in terms of space. Rob was solid if a bit passive but when Matt started his delayed kingside attack Rob classically struck back in the centre. With time getting tight for both sides Matt made a couple of mistakes and Rob crashed though getting a rook on the back rank and forcing the white king forward. But then Rob missed a couple of chances to finish off the game letting white’s own rook infiltrate on the 7th rank before finally blundering the defence with 36. … Ne6:
Position after 36. … Nf8-e6
Matt didn’t waste the opportunity, sacrificing the rook with 37. Rg7+! Nxg7 38. h7+ and after 38. … Kh8 to stop the pawn queening it’s mate in 4: 39. Nf7+ Kxh7 40. Qxg6+ Kg8 41. Nh6+ Kh8 42. Qh7#. A nice tactical finish but really (another) lucky win for Matt to secure the draw for the team. Anstey 2 – Wigston 2.
Division 2 remains extremely tight with 3 teams on 8 points behind Ashby on 11 with Anstey 4th on “goal” difference:
Anstey captain Matt Connor told Sky Sports: A big thanks to Ben for stepping in at a moment’s notice and a very good result for him against Andrew. It was a match that could easily have gone Wigston’s way, I was relieved to get a get out of jail free card in my game. Our next two games are huge “6-pointers” against Syston and Ashby, two wins could see us topping the table at the half way point of the season which would be phenomenal.
Wednesday 23/11/2022. Anstey 1 once again travelled south to Market Harborough, this time for the away LRCA Division 2 match vs the MH first rather than second team. But this time Anstey were sent home with their tail between their legs after a comprehensive defeat.
Although outrated on paper by 7,768 to 7,031 Anstey came into the match in a buoyant mood after thrashing Wigston 3 4-0 last time out. The captains exchanged team sheets and battle commenced.
John played black against Ian Clarke on board 2 and was the first to finish. In a quiet game John had equalised fairly easily before white started harassing black’s queen then picking off the a6 pawn with his remaining knight. John rustled up some counterplay on the c-file creating a passed pawn on c4:
Position after 22. … dxc4
White didn’t fall for 23. Qxc4 when 23. … b5 wins the knight on a6 instead playing 23. b5! after which John blundered 23. … Qd5? allowing 24. Nxc7, game over. Market Harborough 1 – Anstey 0.
Not much is known about Mick’s game on board 4 with black against Romilly Ilersic (Editor: Poor reporting this…) but we think his trademark attacking play came to nowt against Romilly’s extremely solid play, Romilly hitting back in the centre and eventually taking victory. (Mick, please advise!). Market Harborough 2 – Anstey 0.
Even less is know about Julian’s game on board 1 versus Simon Gay (Editor: WTF?) apart from it was a close game and ended in a draw thus securing victory for MH. (Julian, please advise). Market Harborough 2½ – Anstey ½.
Matt faced off against Dave Walker on board 3 in a re-match from the Chapman Cup game earlier in the year. Dave played a slightly different line than before in the offbeat opening which allowed Matt to play a series of accurate moves to gain a slight but solid advantage. Unfortunately, in getting there Matt used up too much time on the clock so when it got to the business end of the game where things got complicated he blundered in time trouble before (yes, unforgivably) losing on time. It was a good job Ben wasn’t captain… Market Harborough 3½ – Anstey ½.
Anstey captain Matt Connor told BBC Radio Market Harborough: No comment.
Anstey’s 2nd team travelled over to Heathcote Arms’ 1st team on a cold wintry night. Many of the Heathcote players are old friends of El Presidente and your author was very pleased with the warm reception received by the Heathcote fellows. It was also noticeable that the skittle alley had been refurbed and was warmer than usual with the radiators on. Peter Harrison engaged in a chat (or a Grilling) from The Griller and whilst The Griller and El Presidente waited for The Toaster and Noor to arrive, The Griller reported that neither of Heathcote’s top boards were available. The Heathcote boys were without Pete Harrison, ‘The Grinder’ John Manger and their new recruit from the former Red Admiral club, Andy Johnson. This meant that a few 2nd team players were required to step up and play for Heathcote’s 1st team.
First to finish was Noor with the black pieces on board 4. Noor faced off against the 2nd team captain and friend of El Presidente, Gordon Milner who was stepping up from the 2nd team. Noor himself was a substitute due to absences in Anstey’s second team with both Bob and Mike sunning themselves in warmer climates and Daddy Valdas being a Daddy and having a break from chess for a while. Such is the depth with our wonderful squad, we have a player with the quality of Noor stepping up. Without trying to sugar coat it, Noor had won in under an hour, leaving to get home at around 8:20pm and El Presidente wondered if he’d spent more time travelling than actually sat at the board. The game developed as a four Knights game with aggressive looking Bishops placed on c4 and c5.
Unfortunately, during the game neither player castled and Gordon played slightly passively allowing Noor some tricks and discovered attacks on the uncastled King of Gordon. The position to show you on the left is where Noor found the excellent Ng1!
A hard move to spot but a devastating one nonetheless and one that El Presidente saw Noor play when looking around the games. Ng1 was met with a raised eyebrow in an incredibly impressed way.
The moves that followed are … Ng1, Kf1 Nxf3, Kg2 Nh4+!, Rxh4 Bxd1, Resigns
An excellent result for Noor and Gordon said to me after the game at how impressed he was with Noor and how he shouldn’t have made the game tactical.
1-0 to Anstey
Second to finish was Boris The Toaster with the black pieces on board 2. Boris was facing another old friend of El Presidente Ray Beach. Ray usually plays board 4 so was stepping up to board 2 this time. The game opened with the Caro-Kann in response to Ray’s 1. e4. Instead of the ‘book’ 2. d4, Ray elected to develop his Queen’s Knight to c3 and defend his e pawn with d3 next turn. Both players quickly developed their pieces and both players got to the point where they could castle either side with Ray choosing to fianchetto his King’s Bishop on the light squares, facing off against The Toaster’s counterpart on b7. The exchange of a pair of dark squared Bishops created a doubled isolated pawn for Ray on f4 and both players spent time shuffling pieces to attack/defend. In the meantime both players castled Queenside. The game remained fairly even but The Toaster had a superb Knight on e4, reinforced with another one on f6.
Eventually, The Toaster was able to improve his position by grabbing Ray’s d pawn and f2 pawn, leaving the h pawn and Ray’s a, b and c pawns against The Toaster’s connected e and f pawns and a and b pawns.
Ray was on the back foot after this point as he was forced to give up an exchange and with the more powerful and active Rook, The Toaster picked up pawn after pawn and he didn’t miss the opportunity ending up with the powerful Rook and 3 pawns vs a Knight and a won endgame.
Well played to The Toaster who had been made to work very hard by the tough nut to crack Ray with a very even contest most of the way through.
2-0 to Anstey
Third to finish was El Presidente himself with the white pieces, facing off against Bill Roberts on board 3. Bill hasn’t been around chess for a while but was seemingly coerced into playing to help the team out. After the game, Bill revealed he hadn’t been in great health and we at the club wish him well.
The game opened with El Presidente’s favoured Ruy Lopez and Bill went down the line of the Steinitz defence with d6 and Bd7. Crucially, Bill didn’t take the bait of the e4 pawn after white castles. Both players developed with Bill trying an early b4 pawn push, allowing white to play d5 after his own d4 push. The Knight on c6 hopped from a5 to c4 and back to b6 at the cost of 3 tempi and his b pawn after cxb4 by white and an early +3.0 advantage. Bill shuffled his pieces around allowing El Presidente to increase his advantage as play entered the middle game where the advantage accrued by El Presidente gradually slipped away. Unfortunately by playing what looked like slow and steady moves were too slow and this led to an even game with an open c file and doubled Rooks opposed by Bill’s solid position and no way in for the Rooks.
The position to the left is after black recaptured the a pawn on move 28 and as you can see it’s very even with +0.7 as the evaluation.
Having jovially offered a draw before the game, El Presidente considered offering one but ploughed on and eventually reaped the rewards after a 58 move grindfest, picking up the vulnerable black b pawn and subsequently the backward d pawn and an inevitable queening of a pawn or two forcing a resignation.
Play was far from flawless from El Presidente but Bill has been a solid player for years and this serves as a reminder to evaluate the whole board when in a good looking position. Advantages take many forms – space, tempi and of course material. The accumulation of smaller advantages can be of bigger benefit than trying to force through a material advantage for little or no gain.
In any case, after El Presidente secured the win, it was 3-0 to Anstey.
Last to finish was Brian The Griller on board 1 with the white pieces. The Griller was playing against an old friend in the shape of Mike Cowley who usually plays on board 3. The game went down the Queens Gambit Accepted line where black tries to hold on to the c pawn that had taken the gambited pawn on c4 with b5, having already played a6. The Griller tried to chip away at this pawn structure with a4 and b3 and that’s what white will usually do. With white’s a, b and c pawns gone and black’s a, b and d pawns gone, white had some active pieces vs blacks slightly underdeveloped and un co-ordinated pieces.
In the position on the right, the game is only 18 moves old and Brian is about to play 19. Rxa8, winning the piece on a8. Notwithstanding that 19. Ra7 is slightly better according to the engine evaluation, the piece win is the move that all or most of us would play leading to a big advantage.
The Griller proceeded to improve the positions of his pieces – often with the gift of a tempo. Eventually, the pieces were traded off on b8, leaving The Griller a piece up and the massive advantage of a soft Kingside for Mike and after The Griller’s Queen swooped in delivering a host of checks whilst picking up two pawns, the only task left for the Griller was to warm his hand up and wait for a resignation. As both player’s clocks ebbed away and a host of moves were played, The Griller eventually managed to force a resignation by forcing a trade of Queens.
4-0 to Anstey and a clean sweep completing a superb result for the team.
El Presidente told the post match press conference:
We’re obviously delighted with the win and the 2 points for the team. We’ll look forward to seeing them all later in the return fixture as well as Heathcote’s 2nd team visiting the Anstey in the 4th division against our 3rd team. Well done to the whole team for pulling through in their games and the our quality told in the end as we out graded them on every board.
Hopefully I’ll be able to get a game of golf with Ray and Gordon in the future!
Anstey Chess Club 