As the calendar year is drawing to an end, our members are looking forward to a busy and promising 2023

With Christmas songs being heard more and more often on the radio and the streets, the great Anstey community, including our amazing Anstey Chess Club, are all looking forward to the festivities at the end of the year. Fortunately, in a slightly odd development of the circumstances there are no scheduled competitive league games in the last week prior to Christmas. Surprisingly, our members will be able to enjoy a full club night whereby our great chairman ‘El Presidente’ Ben has prepared a great program for the final club gathering for the year.

As usual, the plan is to start promptly at 7.30pm in our usual venue, the Anstey Methodist Church, with a club tournament in blitz format. Regardless of whether the players are competing in the league, or are just playing socially, everyone will be welcome to take part and compete against their teammates. After the champion on the night is crowned, everyone who fancies tasty food and a great banter with teammates would be able to enjoy an amazing and delicious end of the evening in our neighbouring restaurant ‘Passage to India’. A wonderful end to a wonderful year!

In 2022, our club managed to accomplish some great results OTB, as the first team was competing for the top spot in division 3 at the end of the 2021/22 season. Both Anstey teams at the time performed amazingly and finished their seasons without a loss in 2022. In the summer cups, in total of four Anstey teams competed across all competitions, and 50% of them ended up ‘lifting’ (we could not see the actual cups, as they were not present at the award ceremony) the trophy in their competition, with Anstey being the undisputed Chapman Cup winner and Anstey 1 sharing the Harrod cup with Ashby 2. The new season posed some challenges to our ever-growing club, with three teams competing in three different divisions in the 2022/23 season. All three teams are doing great over the board, with our first team challenging the leaders in division 2!

The results are amazing but they are just the cherry on the top. Since December last year, Anstey Chess Club has expanded significantly, with strong players like Julian, Matt, Brian, Bob, and Big Daddy Valdas, and the promising juniors Noor, Aarav, Yuvraj, and Young John joining/returning to the club from the end of 2021 onwards. We also welcomed plenty of new social members, including young Marcus, dad Damien and son Aristotle, young Sev and the teen gang, among others. We got to have our own stall at the amazing Anstey Gala which proved to be a great experience and connected us to the local community and most importantly, some of our great members. We continued our presence in the community by introducing the Monthly Knockabout as we played some great casual games in Bradgate Park, The Nook Corner Café, and Peppercorns Café. Last but not least, we became a local online go-to place for chess, having launched our website, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit and the Anstey Chess Club Podcast.

If you want to join one of the fastest developing chess communities in Leicestershire, or you feel like playing some blitz games in a more formal format, come and join us for some chess and curry next Thursday, 22/12/2022. The session starts 7.30pm in the Anstey Methodist Church. It does not matter how good or who you are, all you need is love for the great game of chess!