Date: Thursday 23rd May 2024
Venue: Anstey Chess Club
Event: Anstey Chess Club Jamboree
On a Thursday evening in May (yes, it has taken me this long to write this report – sorry), the Anstey Chess club Jamboree took place. In the same way as last year, Anstey invited their friends from other counties to play a jamboree style friendly event amongst their players.
Warmly invited once again were our friends at Radcliffe and Bingham and Nuneaton, but this time Nuneaton contacted one of their local friends at Rugby chess club, and they were very happy to take part. As the hosts, Anstey opted to play 2 teams
El Presidente, Nick London of Radcliffe, Colin Green of Nuneaton, and Malcolm Harding of Rugby, all agreed to play 3 rounds of 15 | 10 chess, mixing up the players over the three rounds.
After El Presidente had welcomed the players, announced the time controls, made an ad-hoc result sheet on a piece of paper, and frantically selected two teams, battle commenced.
Many thanks to Dave Bray and Alan Agnew for stepping in and agreeing to play for the Anstey side, otherwise, Anstey were a little light in numbers. This was surprising, considering the amount of notice that players had been given.
Battle commenced, and some superb games were played in a very friendly but competitive manner, and it was wonderful to meet some new friends, and see some old friends on a night of some good and bad chess!
After the first round of games, Nuneaton had their noses well in front, with Anstey two only scoring a point or so. This remained the same for the second round, but Anstey one had reduced the gap.
Into the final round, and the tension could be felt in Passage to India, the Indian restaurant next door.
Nuneaton were level on points with Anstey 1, and only needed a half a point to secure the victory. Nuneaton’s hardest working player on the night, having been last to finish in each round, was trying to win what to an amateur like me was a drawn position.
Finally, a draw was agreed and Nuneaton took a well deserved win. Congratulations to Nuneaton.
Many, many thanks to our friends at Radcliffe and Bingham, Nuneaton, and Rugby for giving up an evening to play chess with us. We trust and hope that a good night was had by all, enough so that we will see you all next year!
A final thank you to Aoise – a friend of Colin’s who, amazingly, generated the pairings for each round by hand as a mathematician – rather her than me!
Ben Vaughan
‘El Presidente’
Anstey Chess Club 