On Thursday, 28th April, Anstey Chess Club’s first team played their last competitive game for the 2021/22 season in the Leicestershire league. In their ultimate test they faced the table leaders and eventual division winners Syston 2 who arrived with an interesting mixture of variously rated players at different stages of their careers. Our first team consisted of our top-rated and strongest players John “The Torturer” Robinson, “Mr. Engine” Julian, Mick and the person with many nicknames, “The Dark Destroyer” Matt Connor. Although not in a rush to win as there was no chance for the team to win the division, Anstey 1 took the contest as serious as it can get and showcased for ninth time this season amazing play to claim the win at the end.
The evening was also marked by Ben’s willingness to create some excitement for himself and the players by forgetting the match equipment at home.
A respectful handshake and the game is on!
Realising that there are no boards for the league match, “El Presidente” demonstrated sophisticated driving skills and road awareness pertinent to the top taxi drivers in the area and just managed to deliver enough boards for the game. Unfortunately for our chairman, his adventure involved a second lap to grab the pieces for the club night as the casual and second team players found themselves with plenty of boards but only one set of pieces.
“The Dark Destroyer” Matthew Connor (Anstey 1) vs Mick Adams (Syston 2) 1 – 0
“The Dark Destroyer” looking to “seal the deal”
Matt has had an amazing season so far, as he had managed to remain unbeaten with a record 8-1-0 prior to the game which started with the Four Knights game. Faithful to his very entertaining and time-demanding style, our teammate engaged in a tactical sequence straight from the beginning, eventually exchanging a knight for its black counterpart. Unlike his opponent, “The Dark Destroyer” decided to quickly get his king to safety with a short castle and then he went on to attack Black’s position with his pieces. Unaware of the repercussions of ignoring an attack from Anstey Chess Club’s top performing player this season, Matt’s opponent was eager to attack our teammate’s knight with a premature a6 push. Catching a sniff of the win, “The Dark Destroyer” started a sharp sequence which led to complete shattering of the king side (K-side) while cooking a beautiful checkmate with his rook and bishop in the centre which he delivered swiftly.
The game was ninth win in a row for Matt which leaves him unbeaten and got him back on the first place in the Top Player of the season table.
Anthony Robinson (Syston 2) vs Mick Sandham (Anstey 1) 0 – 1
On board 3 Mick was scheduled to play with the Black and in his characteristic style he played his favourite St. George defence which was met by his opponent with the quite passive Colle opening. Following the main line, Mick went on to position his pieces for a sharp attack which apparently took his opponent by surprise as the latter was spending big chunks of time on each move, going quite quickly down on the clock. The ‘Cat and Mouse’ game continued for a few more moves, with both players thinking hard due to the many tactical opportunities available for both sides. Eventually our teammate started a K-side expansion which gave him a clear advantage in combination with the more actively positioned pieces. The position overwhelmed his opponent, and already being down on the clock, his time eventually ran out and Mick claimed the second win for our team on the night.
Mick watching his opponent’s clock running down in a complicated position
Julian Tarwid (Anstey 1) vs Jack Pilley (Syston 2) 0 – 1
Julian looking to blast open the centre and create an attack
One of our top players this season and Anstey Chess Club’s top ECF-rated player Julian faced the young promising player Jack Pilley from Syston. Always playing in the most attacking and attractive manner, Julian opened up with his favourite Jobava London, which was met by a Grunfeld setup from his opponent. Our teammate did his best to take the initiative with an attack on the K-side following long castle, sacrificing pawns in the process in order to maintain the attacking chances and the initiative. Unfortunately for our teammate, his opponent defended well against the strong attack by “Mr. Engine” and further consolidated his position. Uncharacteristic for Julian, eventually he found himself in time trouble which led to him overseeing a checkmate from his opponent and unfortunately conceding a loss.
Graham Sharpe (Syston 2) vs John Robinson (Anstey 1) 0 – 1
The hardest task, at least on paper, fell down to John, who was scheduled to face over 2000 rated player in the face of Graham Sharpe. A former Syston player himself, “The Torturer” was well aware and prepared for his opponent, and delivered a surprise straight from the opening where he engaged in a battle for the centre with his very first move. The players developed quickly, with White placing a beautiful knight on e5, while our teammate castled long with the idea of expansion on the K-side. The players exchanged a pair of knights and went on to reshuffle their pieces in a positional battle which ended in John’s opponent exchanging his beautiful e5-knight for Black’s unimpressive light-squared bishop. The Syston player tried to open up the game further, however, “The Torturer” kept his cool and after the exchange of the remaining minor pieces even sacrificed a pawn to keep the Q-side closed for the hungry white rooks, hovering on the first rank.
“The Torturer” is confident in his position so gives the cameraman a quick smug glance.
John continued with his plan and started the K-side expansion swiftly while his opponent decided to do the same on the Q-side. The players exchanged the first pair of rooks at which point the engine (Stockfish, depth = 20, powered by chess.com) preferred White, with evaluation of +2.0. The latter player ended being a little bit quicker and even managed to free up the a-file for his remaining rook, but at the decisive moment was a little too hesitant and never played the logical b6, restricting the black king in preparation for a checkmate or just shattering the Q-side. Instead, our teammate received the opportunity for counter play and in his characteristic style, John delivered a great attack which finished with an amazing triangle by the black queen to seal the deal for “The Torturer” and the team.
With this win, Anstey 1 finishes the season with eighth consecutive wins which followed after a shaky start. The team, however, showcased great improvement, to a great extent followed by the addition of strong players in the faces of “Mr. Engine” Julian and Matt “The Dark Destroyer” and found themselves just short of an otherwise deserved first place in the division.
Throughout the night in the opposite corner of the quite spacious hall in the Anstey Methodist Church, a club night was taking place with players of various abilities and ages taking on the great game called chess, even despite the inconvenience caused by Ben’s equipment circuit run. The juniors Marcus and John, the experienced Dave and Mick “Squish”, the new regular Valdes who will also join the second team, and the seasoned players and captains of both teams “El Presidente” Ben and Oskar along with the website maintenance guy Boris “The Toaster” all enjoyed plenty of games while checking regularly on the league game action where the first team players were working hard to get another W for the club.
Ben and Oskar are playing with the juniors John and Marcus while the experienced Dave and Mick took on the aspiring players Valdes and Boris
Anstey Chess Club’s first team continued the club’s winning start to 2022 by beating Ashby’s 2nd team. Ashby brought with them a strong side – a little stronger than previous matches and stronger than the team that beat the first team 3-1 in the reverse fixture. Captain Ben was a little nervous when battle commenced at 7:30 due to the strength of the opponents. El Presidenté’s nerves were not helped by a WhatsApp from Julian saying he was going to be late and to start without him. Whilst the other 3 boards started on time, Julian’s opponent – very graciously it must be said – didn’t start Julian’s clock for around 10 minutes.
And so to the action on board 1. With the black pieces, John Robinson was facing Andrew Wilson. Andrew opened with the London system but with John having played h6, and with Andrew’s Queen on d2 and the London dark squared bishop on f4, John was unable to castle Kingside for a while and John’s pieces seemed to be in a bit of a mess. A bishop was on e6 blocking the e pawn’s advance to challenge the centre and Andrew’s pieces seemed well developed. However, with a plan for white unclear and John’s plan to get his pieces onto better squares, John had time to untangle his position and in the end managed to get a comfortable draw with the team 2-0 up at the time and perhaps a slightly better position. The half point earned by John secured the match. Andrew Wilson wasn’t aware of the match score and shook hands before checking – whoops.
I will not poke any fun at Julian for being late because the game that he played was absolutely outstanding. You will note that the image I have included is not one of deep concentration from one or both of the players but the final position which is, quite simply, a work of art. White has just delivered check on h3 with the Bishop which leads to a beautiful forced mate and the even better bit is that White had just played Ng5 and I don’t think black could stop Bh3 at all.
I am unsure of the opening (the Maddigan Gambit apparently), although it looked incredibly bizarre with castling neglected (Julian had ‘artificially castled’ I think on the image and Paul Gibson wasn’t able to castle at all). All of white’s pieces are pointing towards black’s King and this gambit seemed to invite Julian to attack – playing into Julian’s hands.
On to board 3 next and Mick had the black pieces against Larry Hayden. Against Mick’s reply to 1.e4 – e6 along the French line, Larry played Qe2 – apparently some sort of Anti-French system so Mick continued with his St George defence with a6 and b5. Development of pieces continued but Mick didn’t get time to castle. Larry attacked on the Kingside and Mick had to divert his Queen from the Queenside to the Kingside to help with the defence. The Queens came off and this helped Mick and he tried a pawn push to upset White’s defences but soon after board 1 had agreed a draw, a draw was agreed on this board almost immediately after.
On to board 4 and Matt had the white pieces (hurrah!) and it was surprising that he knew what to do with the white pieces having had black for most of his games. He was playing one of the only other ladies on the Leicestershire chess scene – Liz Gist. The game looked even after black struck back in the centre with c5 but once the Rooks came off, Matt found a good combination to pinch black’s h pawn by making us of the overworked King on g7. In a devastating (what turned out to be the final) blow, Matt played Bxg6+ after Qf8 which forced a resignation two pawns down and a lost endgame. The resignation seemed a bit premature and Liz exited stage right in quick fashion. A good result for Matt.
Deepa plays against young John’s Dad – Matt whilst Boris plays against John. Ben and Oskar are playing in the background.
Posing for pictures at the end demonstrating the club’s unity.
Meanwhile – away from the intensity of the league game – there were some friendlies going on with Boris playing against new member Junior John after Oskar had played against John before. John attended the Junior sessions but was too good and wouldn’t get anything out of the junior sessions. Hopefully both he and his Dad will get something out of the sessions with us and improve – as we are all trying to! There was the inevitable photo shoot after as above.
Last Thursday – 17th March – we were scheduled to travel to bottom of the league Kirby Castlers at Kirby Bowls Club. Having been advised by Julian that he may not be available, we drafted in upcoming star Hal into the side and kept Kirby up to date with our 5 or 6 board status. Approximately 3 hours before battle was to commence and after saying earlier that he wasn’t available, Julian said that he was available and we travelled with 6 boards. If Kirby’s captain hadn’t got the message that we could play 6 after we had said we can play 5 then 6 then 5 then 6 (I was lost with it too!), I was to sit out and we would play 5.
After assisting Kirby to put out the sets, the new weighted sets seem to be all the rage and I must admit that they are very comfortable to play with, home captain Paul Gray advised that he had toothache and I was happy to drop out. In fairness to Paul, a prospective new member had appeared and he had half an eye on accommodating him too, which as a club captain, I can understand. After all the excitement and handshakes, battle commenced.
John Robinson faced off against Ray Townsend – both he and Paul Gray broke away from Wigston and formed their own club – sound familiar? After a cagey opening, John was in a very assertive position and I am becoming rapidly aware of John’s positional capability. One of John’s Knights had manoeuvred itself to e5 on a tremendous outpost and he re-routed the other Knight to f3 to back it up. Furthermore, he also doubled his Rooks on the aforementioned e file and was in a totally dominant position, winning a pawn, followed by a 2nd, followed by a 3rd and a totally won position. John gave a pawn back to trade off material but John being two pawns up was enough for his opponent to resign.
Board 2 saw our very own Julian who confirmed his availability 3 hours before the game via the WhatsApp group. It was Julian himself who suggested the group so we are grateful to him for that as it is a great idea. He was playing against Nigel Wollen – himself carrying an estimated grade of 1650.
On to the game and Julian played his favourite Caro-Kann defence as black against 1. e4. Julian’s opponent chose the exchange variation and Julian’s strategy was to push his Kingside pawns and castle Queenside. Julian had an excellent position with a dark squared Bishop pointing towards his opponent’s casted King, as well as a pawn storm threatening to blow the position open. He positioned the Rooks on the g and h files, also pointing towards white’s King and once Julian forced the breakthrough, a resignation soon followed with a heavy loss of material inevitable.
On board 3 was Mick Sandham – one of our players that has been with the club since the start, facing off against John Walker.
With white, he played 1. e4 and faced the Philidors’ Defence. I was a little unsure what happened after this but during the middle game, Mick had castled Queenside and had some activity. John’s position looked passive but after opening the a file, John had gained some activity back. Pieces were exchanged and Mick looked in an OK position. This soon changed around quickly because after some more material was exchanged, the move order selected by Mick was slightly inaccurate and let to a slightly worse position for him (for a patzer like me looking on). John subsequently employed his apple crunching gambit (popping out an apple to crunch on during a critical period) but then Mick (to his credit) touched his King with a Bishop hanging to a Knight, realised this but moved his King as he had touched the piece. Thereafter the Rooks came off and Mick didn’t take long to resign after. As it turned out, this was the one loss of the night.
Matt on board 4 was facing Jim Kellock, who had previously beaten Rudy in the home match.
Matt, in his usual style, took a longish time to think and assess the position whilst carefully gaining space on the Queenside. Jim played fairly passively it seemed and let Matt do what he wanted, which in true ‘filler’ style, he capitalised on. Matt launched a Kingside attack with a Knight, Rook and Queen on an open g file and Jim’s game collapsed into an inevitable material loss and subsequent resignation.
Finally, (only because he is on board 5) we come to Hal. Hal was facing Edda Walker (Mick’s opponent’s wife) who is trying to improve her trade having played for a few years.
Hal enjoyed an excellent game with a lead in material, in development and won a Queen for a Rook, a couple of pawns and Edda threw in the towel after a nice combination from Hal, using the pin of a Queen to fork a King check and a Rook, winning more material.
Hal felt bad after the game having won within 45-50 minutes and I empathise with that but you are there to win a board for the team Hal and you did it – that’s all we can ask.
Overall an excellent 4-1 win and dare we say that ‘Our promotion charge continues……….’
JJ hard at work. JJ = John Robinson (background) and Julian Tarwid (foreground) Both secured excellent individual results
Anstey’s first team maintained their 100% record in 2022 with a superb 3-1 win over table-topping Market Harborough’s (hereafter MH2 because I’m not typing Market Harborough every time!) second team.
Having been made aware beforehand of the fact that MH2 could only field 4 players, (having previously agreed 5) Captain/Chairman/Founder/Dogsbody/Taxi Ben Vaughan selected only his finest 4 players to take on the mighty table-toppers who are all but guaranteed promotion – John, Julian, Mick and Matt.
With the transport to make the long journey already in place, and thinking that Matt would be in the hairdressers car Porsche, Taxi for the evening Ben decided to not upset the status quo and chauffeur JJ to the venue. (For an explanation of JJ, please look to the right). Upon arrival, Ben observed that Matt had bought the not such a hairdressers car 4×4 (couldn’t tell the make as it was dark). Conceivably, Matt could have played chauffeur.
With the words from the captain that it is only a game and not to be too fired up still ringing in their ears, the squad of 5 and team of 4 made their way into the venue. We were greeted almost instantaneously my MH2’s friendly captain Mike Garland who proceeded to welcome us and escort us to the nice and cosy playing room and battle commenced at 7:30 sharp.
On board 1, John Robinson was facing off against the experienced Romilly Ilersic, carrying with him a FIDE rating of 1908. John was disappointed not to be facing Mark Waterfield who had previously beaten John in the home fixture and John fancied a rematch with the white pieces. Anyway, a stodgy game emerged with pieces developed slowly and a semi-locked up centre with a half open c file. After shuffling pieces around, John offered a draw which Romilly declined, citing the match situation and he wanted to play on. Space on the board was at a premium and once both players got to around 8 minutes each left on the clock, both players agreed a draw. As Romilly said after the game ‘It would have taken one of us to blunder which would have been unfair and very possible given the time’. Romilly strikes me as the type of chap that when he talks, you listen.
On to board 2 and Julian faced the conqueror of Mick in the home game – Jon Redding. AKA ‘Bigfluffything’ on chess.com – can’t let him get away with that username! Jon has recently played well and received a boost in his estimated FIDE rating, placing him on board 2 and sitting opposite Julian, with Julian having the black pieces. In an accelerated London system, Jon played a gambit line, gambitting the e pawn for either for quick development or just because. Julian managed to hold onto the e pawn, defending it with a Knight, Bishop and pawn. After the game Julian remarked ‘If he is going to let me have it, I am going to try and defend it whilst creating other threats and trying to pick up another pawn or whatever material.’ In this case, it was a big ‘whatever material’ as Jon captured a Knight with his Queen and almost immediately realised that Julian could play a discovered attack, winning said Queen. It was one of those ‘OMG’ moments and I think I heard Julian apologise once he captured the Queen for Knight. Thereafter, it was a case of converting the win by trading off pieces. There was a passed a pawn to be careful of but once Julian had amassed enough material to win that pawn, Jon resigned.
‘MM’ on boards 3 and 4. Mick Sandham on board 3 (foreground) and Matt Connor on board 4 (Background).
Next in this wholly uninteresting read (can’t you tell that Boris is due to go on holiday soon!?) to Mick on board 3. Mick was playing David Curran, who had beaten Julian on Julian’s debut in the reverse fixture. Seemingly the most uninteresting game after John’s game on board 1, my assumption that this game was uninteresting was actually incorrect. With Bishops on b2 and c1 ominously pointing at his opponent’s King, Mick had a lot of play, whilst trying to manage David’s Knights leaping around the board, occupying good squares. After a little bit of jockeying (that’s the last horse-led reference I’m afraid), Mick completed a menacing looking Rook-lift over to join in with the attack on the Kingside. With a good-looking Kingside attack and being the last to finish, the match was already won in our favour at 2.5-0.5 so Mick (very sportingly) offered a draw saying that the result was done, which was accepted. Post-game analysis (with David instantly whipping his phone out to analyse) indicated that Mick had a very strong attack three moves before the draw was agreed. Aside from that it was very even. Once everybody had tediously offered their critique on the 3rd board, it was time to go home after deciding that we all like to blunder other people’s pieces.
Finally and last but not least, to Matt on Board 4. Matt was playing the aforementioned Mike Garland Jnr on the last board. Captain Ben and Mike had a notquiteaGM draw in the home leg. Matt is affectionately known as ‘the Killer’ in the second team, a nickname that seems to be growing amongst the club, he is also known as, erm, ‘the Killer’ by his first team captain. Matt has a habit of running low on time and even made the effort to make himself an approximate guide in relation to move count and time elapsed on his scoresheet but I can assure you as his captain, he will kill me off one day! The approximate guide to his time was basically saying by move 10 (for example) he should have used 10 minutes and so on. That was well and truly out of the slightly open window. The game itself was actually pretty even although about half way through, Mike had connected Rooks, an active army of pieces versus Matt’s not-quite-artificially-castled King and seemingly defensive pieces. The next time I looked, Mike had a pawn on the 7th rank with Matt’s Rook blockading it. Mike’s Bishop was directly protecting said 7th rank pawn and Matt’s position was looking fairly lost, given the inevitable time trouble Matt was in by now. The next time I looked again, Mike had resigned and when I looked at Matt, he shrugged his shoulders. That was all the explanation I needed.
All in all, congratulations to MH as a club; A) For a fantastic website (better than ours but we are getting there), B) For the fab venue – I really liked it and C) For being good sports and being such a friendly club. Whilst the 4 boards were getting down to business, I had quick sanity breaks chatting with Rene, Amrik, Robert Mills and new Doncaster Minor Champion Alistair Geear. Thankfully, we won’t have to drive for such a long way any time soon, apart from the second team that travel there tonight!
Our first team won their third game in a row and remain undefeated in 2022 after a crushing 4-0 against Heathcote Arms 1. Having been narrowly defeated in the reverse fixture, our team entered the bout hungry to prove that they can do better than last time. With slightly different team after ‘El presidente’ Ben decided to step down for this match and give ‘The Killer’ Matt Connor a chance to add more points to his already high rating, Anstey Chess club’s top players showcased amazing positional and tactical understanding along with surprisingly good time management.
The match was accompanied by a quiet club night in which five of our regular players engaged in long chess battles and some rapid games in preparation for the upcoming Nottingham Rapid tournament. Two of our prospect players – Julian and Hal are taking part in the tournament this Saturday.
Boards are ready for the game!
As usual, only Matt gets the memo…
The team preparing for battle.
Everyone is focused seconds before the game (apart from Julian who is watching the empty space in front of him)…
Respectful handshake…
…and the battle begins under Ben’s watchful eye!
Various openings on all boards.
Players are extremely focused, while Boris is taking notes on how to play proper chess in the background.
Matt is figuring out how to break through.
John is casually chilling, familiar with the orthodox King’s Indian defence
Mick is mentally preparing himself for a pawn sacrifice in an attempt to open the Kingside
Julian with his signature noise cancelling ear muffs is playing the best moves to equalise the position
Running low on time and preparing for another dramatic finish, Matt is still trying to break trough…
John is thinking on a plan against the e5 pawn break.
Julian is trying to survive another attack from his opponent.
A hint of a smile on John’s face in a clearly winning position.
Better late than never, Matt has finally broken through!
Mick is 20 minutes up on the clock and placing his opponent under all sorts of pressure.
Julian is about to engage in a winning sequence.
On final fork from ‘The Killer’ to seal the game.
Mick is casually chilling, four minutes up on the clock and in a winning endgame.
The final position from Julian’s winning sequence, with the ‘Rambo’ g-pawn supporting the rook.
A clear checkmate from Mick finishing a great evening for the first team!
The happy heroes of the night, the captain Ben decided he is not worthy to be in the photo.
Oskar and Mike in an opening battle in the opposite corner.
While the battle between our second team captain and top second team player gets more tactical, Ben is quietly texting with a friend.
Ben teaching Boris some proper chess while Oskar and Mike are going through their second game.
A precious cold pint after a hard game of chess…
Matt Connor (Anstey 1) vs Ray Beach (Heathcote Arms 1) 1-0
Another brilliant game by Matt who is gradually establishing himself as the new/old star player in the club. The game started with an unusual opening after 1. e4 by our teammate was met by 1…e6 and just when Matt started thinking to himself: ‘I love a good French defence game’, the response to his natural 2. d4 was 2…d6 which led to a position known on chess.com as the ‘Small Centre Defence’. Not impressed by his opponent’s defensive style, Matt began proper development just to see on the board Black creating a Constantinople-style blockade on the 6th, 7th and 8th rank within the first ten moves despite Stockfish (depth=20) evaluation of +1.4 with equal material.
Having prepared his army for an attack on the Kingside in his usual style – without rushing and significantly down on the clock, Matt decided to strike with the e5 pawn break, exchange the dark-squared bishops and unleash his killer attack with the old brilliant (even by engine standards, as shown below) bishop sacrifice known as the ‘Greek gift’ 15. Bxh7!!.
The sacrifice was accepted and the move was followed by a sharp attack from White’s knight and queen which was met by Black bringing his queen to defend the Kingside and running his king in the centre of the board. With his solid play (and plenty of time), Black managed to equalise the position, but Matt’s dramatic performance (induced by both blunders and amazing moves along with 20 minutes time deficit) continued with another brilliant move (again, by engine standards) 21. Nxe6!!.
The position leads to an exchange of queens and after White’s knight is chased away and pieces are reshuffled, both players decide to exchange knights and pawns after d5 advance. At the end of the tactical sequence, ‘The Killer’ finds himself in a worse position after 29. Nxd5??, with Stockfish’ evaluation being -1.0 and his opponent having the chance to capitalise on the position with bishop against three pawns. Fortunately for our teammate, under the immense pressure applied by Matt’s knight and rook, Black blunders his bishop and returns the initiative back to White after 29….Be6??
Inspired by his opponent’s blunder, ‘The Killer’ unleashed a ‘forking hell’ on Black’s pieces with White’s knight jumping around and picking up pieces like Pac-Man picking up Pac-Dots (for the younger readers, Pac-Man was a very popular game in the past, look it up in Wikipedia here). Then the rook joins the attack, forking the king and knight to pick up another piece. The final blow was dealt again by the knight with the ‘Killer’ finish 43. Ne5+ after which Black resigned. 1-0
Michael Cowley (Heathcote Arms 1)vs. Mick Sandham (Anstey 1)0-1
Mick had to play with Black and he went with his favourite 1…e6 2…a6 denying his experienced opponent any opportunity to delve into the book. After a couple of natural moves for Mick’s opponent, Black did not lose any time and stroke with 4…c5 challenging White’s centre.
After a St. George style development, Mick managed to hold on the jumpy White queen by undevelopping his bishop twice. With the ongoing expansion on the Queenside, Mick decided that King safety is overrated and started an attack on the Kingside which included a pawn gambit. Threatened by Black’s battery on the g-file, Mick’s opponent rushed to exchange queens, thus returning the one-point material after 25…Nxe5. With better positioned pieces and a strong bishop eyeing White’s king, Stockfish absolutely loves Mick’s position, evaluating it at -3.1 with equal material.
At this point, the g5-knight became a target protected by the d2-bishop. Unfortunately, Mick went against the engine’s recommendation and attacked the knight, providing his opponent the opportunity for an equal knight exchange and avoiding the issues on the g-file after the rook recapture. White managed to further exchange Mick’s monster bishop on b7 and to protect the passer on the h-file before blundering the b2-pawn. At this point Mick decided that he is too far ahead and the h3-rook would not dare touch his hanging knight after he played 35…Nd3 with the hope of forking White’s rook and bishop.
Unfortunately for our teammate, after capturing the knight and subsequently the e6-pawn with a check, White found himself in a very good position with a +4.9 advantage based on Stockfish evaluation. As usual, Mick proved a tough nut to crack, which is most likely rooted in his rugby career as an adolescent, and managed to equalise within a couple of moves with the great move (based on engine evaluation) 39…Bxg5.
Completely caught off-guard by Mick’s resilience, after a few moves White unexpectedly blundered an exchange leaving himself with bishop vs rook and pawn. Nevertheless, Mick’s opponent impressed with his determination to go to the very end, but our teammate showcased his ability to grind opponents down when ahead and converted his advantage, finishing with a little bit of showboating before delivering checkmate. 0-1
Julian Tarwid (Anstey 1) vs John Manger (Heathcote Arms 1) 1-0
Our second top rated player Julian went on to play White against a very experienced opponent. A big fan of Jobava London, Julian immediately went with his d4 and Bf4 setup with Nc3 and f3 played within the first four moves which were met by …d5 and …Nf6 from Black in a position that on move 3 transposes into the Chigorin variation of the Queen’s pawn opening. With Black’s light-squared bishop placed on f5, Julian decided to start a Kingside expansion with a gain of tempo on each pawn advance, as the bishop found itself running away on all possible squares and even asking the h-pawn to make some room. After the thematical 8. Bd3 Julian’s opponent gladly exchanged the bishop and just when we thought that the queen has developed and Queenside castling is imminent for White, our teammate decided that castling is a nonsense and opened the c-file, while doubling his pawns.
Although Stockfish does not completely disapprove of this move, at this point it evaluates the position as equal. After finishing his development, Julian decided to start marching his whole army, including his king towards the eighth rank and got so carried away that he completely missed a tactic from Black to win a pawn. Frustrated with the pawn loss, our teammate decided that it is time to strike at his opponent’s Kingside, with his g-pawn marching like Rambo towards its counterpart on g7. Although the advancement of the g- pawn appeared enthusiastic, the engine evaluated it as an amalgam of mistakes and inaccuracies, leading to an evaluation of -3.5 at 15.g6. However, humans are not computers and Julian’s opponent, probably a little wary of the ‘Rambo’ pawn decided to respond with 15…f6 unaware of the engine’s recommendation of short castling leading to a position evaluated at -4.97.
Although pretty much back in the game at this point (according to Stockfish; based on our own biased opinion Julian was winning the whole time), Julian managed to get to engine evaluation of -3.9 in a couple of moves. However, his opponent decided to play some inaccuracies with the whole sequence of checks, knight moves and pawn advances and exchanges leading to 19…Qxd4+ which Stockfish evaluated as a clean blunder.
Julian happily exchanged queens and put pressure on his opponent’s knight, while keeping an eye on the open d-file. His h5-knight decided to have a quick snack with the pawn on g7, opening the file for the notorious ‘Rambo’ g-pawn, still eager to transform itself from a brave one-move soldier to the all-encompassing chess queen. Julian’s opponent, however, got back on the ‘best move’ track and quickly put pressure on our teammate’s position, connecting his knights and threatening both a fork and picking up the ‘Rambo’ passer. Out of the two threats, Julian decided that the g-pawn will magically survive and gave one last attempt at trying to prevent the fork with 28. Nd4. In the following moves the engine went all red, after Black responded with 28…c5, threatening the knight protecting the fork. Julian then decided to lose an exchange for no compensation by taking the knight on g4, but his opponent had other plans, despite engine evaluation of -5.0 following 29…hxg4, and took the d4-knight.
Finally sensing a decent chance in winning the game (although we all thought that he is clearly winning the whole time), our teammate played several best moves answered by mistakes and pure blunders from his opponent. After a rook exchange and with all sorts of pressure while munching on isolated and plainly unprotected pawns, Julian found himself in a position evaluated as +3.9 by the engine on move 36, only seven moves after he was in trouble. Inspired by this change, our teammate’s rook started attacking from all sides, while its black counterpart was trying to create some counter-attacking chances, but ‘too little, too late’ as the saying goes. Both players managed to pick up a knight and a pawn from their opponents, before Julian delivered the final blow with his rook supported by no one else but the notorious ‘Rambo’ pawn! 44. Rh8! 1-0
Peter Harrison (Heathcote Arms 1)vs. John Robinson (Anstey 1)0-1
On board 1 John took on his well-known opponent – the top player and captain of Heathcote Arms 1 Peter Harrison. The game started with the orthodox variation of the King’s Indian Defence, John’s long time favourite to play with and against (follow this link for a very instructive game where John defeated the King’s Indian defence of our own Leicester-born GM Glenn Flear).
John decided to exchange his light-squared bishop for a knight after 7…Bg4, obviously ignoring such nonsense as keeping the bishop pair, and after natural development the players decided to leave the book with the moves 10…a5 11. Qd2. After further reshuffling of the pieces, White decided on a plan to attack the Black’s Kingside, starting with 17. f4. Unmoved by this aggressive approach and unaware of his opponent’s +2.2 advantage as evaluated by Stockfish, John brought his knights to the defence, calmly waiting for White’s next mistake which happened not long after. John’s opponent decided to play the e5 pawn break, which did not impress much our teammate, who decided to slide his rook one square where the latter was eyeing hungry White’s queen on the d-file. Overestimating the threat, John’s opponent moved his queen aside, giving John the opportunity to equalise with 19. dxe5.
After the recapture with the f-pawn, John decided to stop the e-pawn march with his f8-knight who appeared to be drinking coffee with the king on the 8th rank and ignoring the action a couple of ranks in front of them. Then the players decided to reshuffle pieces again in the centre, completely ignorant of the engine shouting: ‘c5!’ to both of them during a four-move sequence which ended with a beautiful, yet hated by Stockfish knight sacrifice from John 22…Nxe5.
Counting on the fact that he is playing a man and not a computer, John began to create pressure on the Kingside and equalised the position in a couple of moves. Our teammate attacked his opponent’s light-squared bishop and after White retreated the latter, John stroke with a long waited pawn break of his own. After a quick exchange, John decided to get into a really complicated position with discovered attacks, pins and exchange offers threatened from all sides. His opponent, probably overwhelmed from the complexity of the position, decided to take on the most obscure response with 27. Nf7+, evaluated as a missed win by the engine with the best move being the quiet 27. Rce1.
Having a clear advantage, with a serene expression on his face John picked up the knight with his rook and comfortably relaxed on his seat, confident in his win regardless of him being in a bit of a time trouble. Our teammate further exploited his opponent’s reluctance to exchange queens and completely shattered White’s Kingside with his queen. After exchanging both rooks and loading up a battery on the h2-b8 diagonal, John exerted so much pressure on his opponent that the next blunder was inevitable and after 35…Qh3+, White resigned. 0-1
After the amazing success last night, our first team find themselves in third place with their next game against Market Harborough 2 being decisive for the table. Nevertheless, another team performance which makes us all proud to be part of Anstey Chess club and we wish ourselves plenty more to come!
Club Night
While out top players were sweating over the clocks and match boards, in the opposite corner a quiet club night was taking place. Oskar and Mike decided to engage in several chess battles while Boris and Ben played a long game intended to help Boris leave his ‘bullet’ way of playing and adopt a style of playing which will not lead to a -5.0 disadvantage with 56 minutes on the clock.
Shortly after 8pm, the rising second team star Hal also joined the party, regretting on his decision to arrive so early and wait for Boris and Ben to finish. After they did, Hal took on a few 20 minutes rapid games against both Ben and Boris in preparation for the Nottingham Rapid tournament where both him and Julian will play. We wish them both good luck!
After the relatively early conclusion of the evening, a few of our team members decided to celebrate the success in the nearby pub. If you want to experience the thrill and fun of both match and club nights, come and join us every Thursday from 7pm in the Anstey Methodist church! All abilities welcome!
On 4th January our first team went to Syston to play the local second team in a four-board match. The match proved to be a test for our top players, who rose to the challenge with a spectacular 3-1 win.
John had the hardest challenge in front of him as he had to clash with an experienced over 2000 rated player. Although John showed the usual solidity and positional understanding which we praise him for, the task at hand proved to be too difficult after John missed a better move than what he played, which would have caused his opponent some difficulty. Subsequently John conceded the game after putting up a brave fight.
On the other side was our captain Ben who found himself playing against a dangerous opponent. Ben overran his opponent in the middle game and his opponent actually picked up a Knight when his Queen was under attack and conceded the game a couple of moves later. It was good sportsmanship for his opponent to admit this.
On board 3 Mick took on a hard challenge himself but was able to outmaneuvre his opponent at crucial times and hence securing the advantage of our team. A sharp tactical player, Mick showed again thorough understanding of the position in front of him and ability to take advantage of it, whilst his opponent’s clock ran low and Mick eventually won on time, in a better position.
Our second top-rated player Julian was scheduled to participate in the clash of 1600’s. Julian showcased amazing growth in classical chess understanding and play and secured the win very early.
Happy New Year to all our players and we wish them this victory to be one of many this year!
Anstey Chess Club 