8/6/23 – In the first event of its kind for a while, certainly locally and since I can remember, having been involved in club chess for 10+ years, Anstey Chess Club invited 2 other clubs over to Anstey to play in a 3 way ‘Jamboree’ event.

El Presidente (Ben) formulated the idea during discussion with the LRCA (Leicestershire and Rutland Chess Association, to which we are affiliated) and the discussion was around shaking up the Summer Cups in the County. He has previously played for Radcliffe and Bingham in Nottinghamshire and Nuneaton in Warwickshire and, knowing a couple of contacts within the respective clubs, suggested the idea in February of this year. The idea was well received and after lengthy discussions about playing personnel, time controls, board order, and when/where it would happen, the format was decided.

Hosts: Anstey
Visitors: Radcliffe and Bingham; Nuneaton
Time Controls: 20 minutes + 10 second increments
Jamboree style board order: Teams drew lots to be designated as team A, team B and team C and A1 played B1, A2 played C1 etc.

Nuneaton were team A, Radcliffe and Bingham were team B and Anstey were team C.

In what was almost certainly a blessing on the night, El Presidente couldn’t talk, due to an operation in his throat (to cut a long story short) and Matt Connor was forced in to kindly agreed to be the MC on the night – nothing to do with his initials, although that may not be how it looks.

All players arrived in good time for round 1 and some very good chess was played by all teams, in both rounds. The abilities seemed to be very well matched but Nuneaton surged ahead with 5 points out of 6 boards after the 1st round – almost a perfect score. Anstey and Radcliffe had 1.5 and 1 respectively.

Round 2 commenced and, with nothing to lose, Anstey fought hard and scored a whopping 5.5 points in round 2 with Nuneaton only scoring 1 point, meaning that Anstey snatched victory from the jaws of defeat on the night. This was very eloquently put as ‘Sneaking up on the rails on the inside’ by Nuneaton’s captain. Radcliffe also managed to accrue some points in the final round with the totals for the evening being as follows:
Anstey – 7 points
Nuneaton – 6.5 points
Radcliffe and Bingham – 4.5 points

Post match discussions with playing personnel indicated that the night was a huge success and all of the players indicated that they would like to do the same next year, and we will be doing this again, for sure. Anstey will soon be visiting Nuneaton themselves and doing a similar thing with Anstey, Nuneaton and Kenilworth, albeit these discussions are in their infancy.

Well done to all involved for a very special evening, thanks especially to Nick London of Radcliffe and Bingham chess club, Colin Green of Nuneaton chess club and of course to all of the players for travelling and taking part in what was a fabulous night of chess.