W/C 6/1/25 – Week 13

9/1/25
On another busy Thursday getting into 2025, Anstey once again had 3 matches on the same night.

Anstey 2 kicked off this summary with a home match against Ashby 1, who boasted a record of 5 wins out of 5 in the league prior to the game. Suffice to say that, despite Anstey picking a strong side, Ashby ran out 4-1 winners, with only draws for Bob and Rob the successes of the evening.
Also at Anstey, the 4th team hosted Loughborough 3. A strong Anstey side managed to pull off a 3-1 win with wins for Mike, Jakub and Amit. The only blot was a loss for Theo in what was otherwise a good night for the 4th team.
Last, but by no means least, was the 6th team away, visiting Kirby Muxloe 2. A young, but strong side travelled, including a debut for Zara Mehta. What followed was a successful night with Oliver and Alfie losing on top boards to ‘experienced’ opposition but Zara on debut, William, and Swetark all managed to win to secure a vital, and deserved 3-2 win for the team. Well done everyone!

W/C 30/12/24 – Week 12

2/1/25
After a week’s break from chess after the Christmas blitz and festivities, Anstey’s 3rd team shook off the mince pies and turkey, and headed over to Wigston to face their 3rd team. In the previous battle, Wigston had brought a strong side to Anstey and left with a 3.5-0.5 victory. Anstey’s team of Ted (newly promoted to board 1 after his outstanding year), ‘Just Mick’, Sophie and Noor ‘Le Prodigé’ took on the challenge. El Presidente was back at base opening up for the club night. Not surprisingly, Wigston had a strong side and out graded Anstey on every board by a minimum of 100 points per board. But, showing the true fighting spirit that we have, Anstey took away a 2.5-1.5 victory, with impressive draws from Ted, Mick, and Sophie, which meant Noor was the one to to bring home the match winning point, which your author hears was completed in style, showing composure and accuracy. Well done Noor! In truth, each individual result was impressive.

This was the only match to take place this week due to how the seasonal break has fallen, so I’ll take this opportunity to wish all of our fans, followers, and our players and their families all the very best for 2025!

Members of Anstey Chess club signed off 2024 in style with our annual Christmas Party. El Presidente decided pretty early on a small blitz tournament having toyed with some of the variants like hand and brain, doubles etc. The proceedings then took us to Passage to India for a curry.

Congratulations to the overall clear winner with 5 out of 5 – Alan Agnew. Second place was Julian Tarwid, with Rob Mitchell finishing in 3rd place.

Afterwards, 12 players adjourned to Passage to India for a delicious curry and some drinks.

Finally, we’d like to wish all of our players, fans, followers and friends of us, and their families, a very Merry Christmas and all the very best, on and off the board, for 2025.

W/C 9/12/24 – Week 11

Only two matches to report on this week, as the chess season winds down for the Seasonal break at Christmas time.

Firstly, the 3rd team made the journey over to Heathcote Arms’ 1st team. In years gone by, the skittle alley in which they play has been a cold place and the first hour is usually spent getting warm. However, the skittle alley is now a very pleasant place to play – warm from the off – and a stronger than usual 3rd team came away with an important win by 2.5-1.5.

To round off the competitive chess for 2024, the 6th team hosted Ashby’s 5th team, with the 6th team in search of their first points of the season. Sincere congratulations to them all, as they managed to pull off a 3.5-2.5 win over 6 boards. Well done to Glynn, William, and Mario for their excellent wins, and I hear that Reidan secured the crucial draw, so well done to him too. What a wonderful – and fitting – way to end the 2024 calendar year.

To round things off for the year, we will be hosting our usual blitz/rapid event followed by a curry at Passage to India – we hope to see as many of you there as possible.

Your author wishes you all a peaceful, restful Christmas season and all the very best for 2025, both on and off the board.

W/C 2/12/2024 – Week 10

Week 10 saw four teams in action in another busy week.

First up was a strong 4th team travelling over to Syston 3 on the Tuesday. El Presidente offered more boards, but that was declined on the grounds that inactivity rules meant that Syston could only field a weak 3rd team – a team that the 4th team was too strong for, coming away with a 3.5-0.5 victory.

On the Wednesday, the 2nd team travelled over to Melton Mowbray’s first team. Team captain Boris The Toaster has written an inspiring report (birthing two new nicknames) and I won’t steal his thunder:
https://ansteychessclub.co.uk/2024/12/06/anstey-2-storm-past-melton-mowbray-1-to-end-2024-in-promotion-territory/

Thursday saw no home games for the first time in a long time, so a fabulous club night ensued. Most importantly, Asif (Noor’s Dad) bought in some mince pies that were fully enjoyed by the players (thanks Asif and Noor). There was also some chess played, with some of the youngsters refining their already excellent techniques. Noor brought in his game from the Tuesday against Syston, and ‘Le prodige’ and El Presidente had lots of fun looking at the complicated game.

There were also two away matches being played – the 1st team ventured over to Wigston 2 this time, having played their first team last week and narrowly lost. This time they secured themselves a creditable 2.5-2.5 draw whilst missing board 1 Sooraj on this occasion. Captain Matt has identified trying to finish 3rd this season – Wigston 2 may be the rivals for that place.
The 5th team pottered over to Kirby Castlers’ 2nd team. Unfortunately, they succumbed to a 3.5-1.5 defeat as Oskar and Rudy have been encouraged to mix up their 5th and 6th teams this year, as it looks like Latimer and Heathcote Arms 2 are going to run away with the league anyway. This should provide lower rated opponents for lower rated players, and we’ll try and match opponents standards where possible, for closer and competitive games. Well done to Jakub for his impressive victory on board 1.

W/C 25/11/24 – Week 9

Week 9 saw 4 Anstey teams in action.

First up were the 6th team on the Wednesday, travelling to the proverbial igloo that is Melton’s Royal British Legion venue. Wrapped up in layers (but not enough of them as they were still cold!), the 6th team started against what must be said was a very strong team for division 5 – two 1700+ players, alongside two 1500+ players meant a strong average grade over 6 boards of 1492 for division 5, comparing to Anstey’s average was a shade over 1200. In Melton’s defence, they haven’t got a huge squad to select from. Anyway, averages don’t play the match, but it wasn’t surprising to hear that a 5.5-0.5 defeat ensued. Well done to Alfie for securing the only half point for the team.

Three teams were in action on the Thursday, with Anstey’s first team making the daunting trip over to Champions elect Wigston 1 (it will either be these guys, or Syston 1). A couple of strong lineups were selected by both sides, as Wigston’s total grade over the 5 boards was the highest aggregate grade they’ve selected this year – a notable mark of respect. A closely fought battle took place, with Anstey just losing out by a 3-2 scoreline, the closest it can be. Unlucky guys.

Anstey’s 3rd team welcomed Kirby’s 1st team to the Methodist Church arena (C). The third team welcomed 2nd team captain Boris The Toaster into it’s ranks for this game, as a match up for board 1 (and more specifically to give him games), with Sophie, Mick and Dami making up the team. Well done to Sophie and Mick for their wins in the 2-2 match draw that followed – Sophie getting her first win since her move from Braunstone.

Finally, but by no means least, Anstey’s 5th team welcomed Ashby’s 5th team to the Methodist Church arena (C). A strong Anstey side was selected, but a little bit by accident, as Neil Roberts (the absent captain of Ashby’s 5th team), had contacted Rudy (Anstey’s 6th team captain) and agreed to play 6 boards, not realising that they were playing the 5th team. A few WhatsApps later and a team was cobbled together and whilst all of the games were close (some more than others), Anstey ran out 5-1 winners.

W/C 18/11/24 – Week 8

Only two fixtures for Anstey this week, and first up was an away trip for the 4th team to visit Braunstone’s 2nd team. In a closely fought contest over 6 boards, there were 6 decisive results (no draws). Winners on the night were Mike and Ken with losses for Noor, Ted, Jakub and Oskar, leading to a 4-2 defeat on the night. Truthfully, the games could have gone either way, with some very close contests. Many thanks to Oskar for filling in at the last minute on the bottom board.

The 2nd team hosted Ashby’s 2nd team on the Thursday, and I won’t steal captain Boris’s thunder as he has written a brilliant match report, as below:
https://ansteychessclub.co.uk/2024/11/22/asntey-2-edges-ashby-2-in-a-thriller-to-stay-in-the-hunt-in-division-2/

W/C 11/11/24 – Week 7

4 teams were in action during week 7, with a couple of away games and a couple of home games.

On the Tuesday, the 1st team visited title favourites Syston 1. Full of hope and promise, the Anstey team arrived to find that Syston had selected a strong side – presumably aware that we have the potential to be a banana skin for the top sides. Unfortunately, whilst the result doesn’t tell the whole story the 1st team succumbed to a 4-1 defeat with only captain Matt Connor getting the win.

Wednesday arrived and the 5th team made the journey up the A607 (other routes are available) to play Melton at the Royal British Legion in the town. Your author has never played there, but much of the pre-match build up was discussion about what to wear and how to keep warm. Apparently great strides have been made as the building is now much warmer. I’ll reserve judgement on that myself until I play there. Anyway, a strong 5th team came away with a warming 2.5-1.5 victory. The narrative was that Jakub had agreed a draw to win the match with the team 2-0 up, but post match it was revealed that there was still an undecided match that could have gone either way. This final match went in Anstey’s favour as it was later deciphered that the match was winning anyway.

Thursday saw the 3rd team and the 6th team at home. The 3rd team took on Ashby’s 3rd team and despite outgrading them on paper, Anstey suffered a 0.5-3.5 loss, with Mick gaining the only half point when the team were already 3-0 down in a level position.
The 6th team hosted Heathcote Arms’ second team, who are flying high this year after a good summer of recruitment. The only positive results were a draw for Curtis on board 1 against Josh Graves – both improving significantly, and young Swetark with an outstanding draw against the veteran Ray Beach. There were narrow defeats for Reidan, Alfie, and Seth in the 5 board match.

W/C 4/11/24 – Week 6

In another busy week for the club (and the captains!), 3 teams were in action – the 2nd team, the 6th team (both at Market Harborough!), and the 4th team.

The second team paid a visit to Market Harborough’s second team, and non-playing captain on the night Boris has written an excellent report:
https://ansteychessclub.co.uk/2024/11/06/anstey-2-prevails-in-decisive-4-1-victory-over-market-harborough-2/

The next night, the 6th team visited Market Harborough’s 4th team in division 5. Anstey fielded a young, but very capable team but ultimately narrowly lost 2.5-1.5. Some good results were achieved, notably a good win for Swetark on board 4, and an excellent draw achieved by William on board 3. Captain Rudy lost to Rene Butler, and Alfie lost to the evergreen and ever-nice-bloke Robert Mills.

Finally, the 4th team rounded off the week with a home match at Wigston 6. Having stood aside for others to play the week before, El Presidente was looking forward to playing a game. His hopes were dashed when the visiting captain revealed that they were a player short, and, unselfishly, allowed the others to play. Already one up, Theo won quickly against his opponent who seemed new to OTB chess, and couldn’t notate. In a good game, Theo executed a couple of plans winning material then checkmated his opponent’s King in the middle of the board. 2-0 up and 2 to play, Mike had an interesting game against his opponent – the young Wigston 6th team captain. Mike seemingly had an advantage all the way through, but it was very double-edged. Mike, acknowledging the team score and knowing that half a point would secure a win, went for the forced sacrificial drawing line where all that would be left on the board would be his opponent’s minor piece. Good work by Mike securing the win. Another Wigston new recruit was Amandeep Singh, who jointly won the Atkins’ U1300 Improvers event with Theo (would have been interesting for those two to play again). Ted played an excellent game, calmly developing, slow advantages accruing until the win of a piece, and then pinning a Rook to his opponents King with a Bishop forced a resignation. An excellent 3.5-0.5 win for Anstey.