(4/5/23) Anstey’s newly formed Junior team made their competitive debut in the Harrod Cup. Thankfully the draw Gods had been kind and they started with a home game against Wigston – many people’s favourites to lift the Harrod Cup (that doesn’t actually exist at the moment as Ashby have lost it!)

El Presidente as captain selected a strong initial team with Noor, Yuvraj, Curtis and Young John.

Just so our many millions of readers are aware, the Harrod Cup is a rapid play tournament in Leicestershire and isn’t mandatory for all clubs. Some clubs choose to take a summer break – but not Anstey. The players play the same opponent twice in the quicker format, once with the white pieces and once with the black pieces with a 20 minute time control with 10 second increments. Because of the nature of the games being rapid play, notating is not required and with 8 games to look over, it is hard to recall what happened in each one, so the rapid play reports will be shorter than usual and comprise a summary of the games.

After exchanging pleasantries with opposing captain Paul Mottram (LRCA league secretary) battle commenced with Anstey electing to play black first (saving the tossing of a coin).

Board 1 – Noor vs Leon Charikar – result 1-1

Noor was outgraded but certainly not outfought against his opponent graded 134 points higher. Noor demonstrated his fight and undoubted quality in two very well played games by both players. So much so that both El Presidente and Paul Mottram applauded both players after each game.
The first game was very close with both sides threatening to Queen pawns but the end arrived in checkmate for Leon as he mated Noor with his newly formed Queen after Noor was a move or two away from doing so himself.
With the white pieces, Noor developed nicely and won a piece after a neat tactic and never looked back, converting very nicely with some huge pressure and forcing Leon’s time to run out.

Board 2 – Yuvraj vs Laurence Norton – result 1-1

The future of Leicestershire chess is looking good as Yuvraj faced off against another Junior Laurence Norton. Yuvraj was again out graded by just under 300 points and, just like Noor, was certainly not outfought.
The first game was one of the many games on the evening that went very quickly and unfortunately, Yuvraj was checkmated with his lonely King against a Queen, King, Bishop and a couple of pawns threatening to queen themselves.
With white, Yuvraj showed his fight and won this one quite comfortably but in not quite so emphatic fashion as his loss. Your author didn’t see the final position, just Yuvraj saying that he had won whilst they were resetting the pieces almost as quickly as they had finished the game!

Board 3 – Curtis vs Sathsara Dissanayake – result 0-2

In another boost to Leicestershire chess, Curtis (playing only his second competitive game for the club) was playing against Sathsara Dissanayake – a name that has been around the County scene for quite a while now. Although young in age, SD has been playing in the league for a while and is more experienced than Curtis.
Your author never saw much of the games – again because they were played so quickly – but Curtis fell in to a trap, namely playing quickly when your opponent is playing quickly which quite often can be detrimental to one’s game (been there, done that). Again I think the players may have ended up with more time than they started with, giving a demonstration of the quick nature of the games.
Although it was two losses for Curtis, it will serve as a learning curve (all losses are learning points) and to slow down when playing.

Board 4 – Young John vs Madhav Eradi – result 1-1

Whilst the phrase is tiresome, the boost to Leicestershire chess was evident as once again two Juniors faced off on board 4 with Young John playing against Madhav Eradi – another Junior that has a couple of years over the board chess under his belt.
At an absolutely frantic pace, both players were playing very quickly and it was very easy for your author to miss large sections of both games. Young John won the first game quite nicely with a spectacular ‘ladder’ mate/lawn mower mate with a Queen and Rook working together to mate white’s King.
Unfortunately in the second game playing quickly went against John and he finished second in the rematch with the white pieces.

Overall, although it was a loss, it was a pleasing result as the Anstey juniors side showed their fight, grit and determination and whilst some of the individual results didn’t go our way, quite literally some of the games could have gone either way and no player should be unhappy with their performance.