W/C 6/1/25 – Week 13 9/1/25On 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…

W/C 30/12/24 – Week 12 2/1/25After 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.…

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. The chess kicked off (almost)…

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…

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…

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…

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,…

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 –…

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…

Anstey put on a dazzling display, bouncing back to winning ways with a spectacular 4½ – ½ victory over Shepshed in the LRCA Division 1 showdown! On Thursday, November 7, 2024, the Anstey Methodist Church Centre buzzed with excitement as Anstey faced off against Shepshed in a highly anticipated clash. With captain Matt Connor juggling…

In a match that was meant to be a Halloween-themed chess showdown, Anstey’s hopes were dashed as Market Harborough snatched the victory in a gripping LRCA Division 1 clash. The Spooky Setup On Thursday 31 October 2024, Anstey hosted their friendly foes Market Harborough at the Anstey Methodist Church Centre, kicking off their first home…

Week 4 – w/c 21/10/24 In what was a relatively quiet week, only 2 matches took place but they were played on the same night at the Methodist Church – the soul of chess in Charnwood. The 2nd team played their first home match, and Boris has written a super report about the proceedings, so…

W/C 14/10/24 – Week 3 of the league season Week 3 saw the debut of the first team on Wednesday 16th, having had their first game rearranged. The 1st team captain Matt, has provided an excellent overview of proceedings in a good win over Loughborough 1:https://ansteychessclub.co.uk/2024/10/17/loughborough-1-2-3-anstey-1/ On the same night, Anstey’s 5th team travelled to…

W/C 30/9/24 – Week 1 of the league season The very first game of the season to kick things off was the third team visiting Market Harborough’s 3rd team. The Anstey team was matched pretty much by the strength of the MH team, with a young protege of their own on board 1. Good to…

Board 1 Jakub plays as black on board 1, and he opted for a sicilian defence against e4, and white opts for an open sicilian. The game seemed to develop quite calmly for the opening phase and both players try to play quite positionally and slowly, which is how most people play a sicilian as…

Board 1 Jakub plays on board one as the black pieces. White plays a queens pawn opening and both c pawns get traded off quite quickly. Both players play quite well throughout the match and appeared to be equal in skill, and this game does go on for some time as you might expect from…

Board 1 Jakub played on board 1 as the white pieces against a slightly higher rated opponent, but Jakub is improving quite quickly and he may even be underrated. The game starts off as a usual indian game, but on move 2 Jakub’s opponent plays e5, which is the Budapest gambit. From here we get…

Anstey plays against another Wigston team, and there is a rating difference between the Anstey team and Wigston team, which is to be expected at this point. The average rating of the Wigston team was around 1400, whereas the average rating of Anstey was around 1200. Board 1 Jakub Miler is on board 1 and…

First time playing against the newly made team 2 of Leicester Uni; it’s always good to see a club grow. It’s 4 vs 4, and Curtis did request to be put on stage for the match (picture below), which he was very chuffed about. Board 1: Curtis Blunt (black) vs. Ben Taylor (white) E4 &…

Anstey struggle against early league leaders Thursday 26/10/2023. Anstey 1 made the trip to the Wigston Liberal Club for their third match in LRCA league division 1. Having just missed out on a win against Thurnby the week before captain Matt tried to boost team morale by saying that all he wanted this time out…

Here we go, the 4th match of the league season in Leicestershire against the 3rd team of the Syston club (the only club in Leicestershire to have a Grandmaster). Playing for Anstey are Oskar Rudczenko, Curtis Blunt, Jakub Miler and Reidan Minhas. Yet again, Anstey are the underdogs when we look at the rating points…

Anstey score their first point of the season Thursday 19/10/2023. Anstey 1 welcomed Thurnby to the Anstey Methodist Church Centre for their first home game in LRCA league division 1. Coming off a hammering by Shepshed the week before Anstey were targeting this match as a must-win with Thurnby likely to be their main challengers…

The third match of the season for Anstey 4 and the Anstey team are the underdogs once more. Anstey 4 go up against their first team with 1500 rated players, near to 1600, in the season. Kirby Muxloe appear to be a mighty team, but frequently being the underdogs the Anstey team may be prepared…

The second match of the league season and we are up against a club, who have gained a second team for the first time (as far as I’m aware). There are other teams who have gained more players to then have more teams, which is great for the growth of chess! Again Anstey 4 are…

Anstey have baptism of fire in league division 1 Thursday 12/10/2023. Anstey 1 travelled to The Black Swan in Shepshed for their inaugural game in the LRCA league division 1 full of hope. Mick was unavailable (sacrilege – Ed) so Noor stood up to the plate making his third appearance for the first team (thanks…

This was the debut for the 4th Anstey team and it is exciting to have so many new players who have joined the club over the last few months! In this match, there were 6 players from both sides ready to play some competitive chess. On the Anstey team, we had Amit & Aarav Sinha,…

Authored by Aarav Sinha Oskar as captain selected a strong initial team for the second team with himself on board 1, Aarav Sinha on 2, Jakub Miler on 3 and Hayden Padgett on board 4. Leo was selected late as captain and managed a team of young but strong players consisting of himself on board…

Thursday 06/07/2023. Anstey welcomed Wigston to the Methodist Church in Anstey for this LRCA 2023 Chapman Cup semi-final fixture. After squeezing past Shepshed in round 1 Anstey were full of confidence though made two changes to that team with John and Mick coming in for Boris and Ben respectively. The Chapman Cup has a handicap…

The second round of the Harrod Cup was an interesting match for Anstey 2, as every player on Anstey side was out graded. On the top board (Oskar Rudczenko from Anstey vs Paul Gibson from Ashby) Oskar was outgraded only by 70 points, which isn’t that much in over the board chess (or face to…

Thursday 25/05/2023. Anstey’s Chapman Cup team made the trip to the Black Swan Inn in Shepshed for this LRCA 2023 Chapman Cup round 1 fixture against Shepshed. After last year’s Swiss-style event (which you may recall Anstey won in some style…) the Chapman Cup this year reverts to a FA Cup style knock out tournament.…

(18/5/23) Anstey’s 1st team made their 2023 debut in the Harrod Cup. El Presidente as captain selected a strong initial team with El Presidente himself on board 1, Mike Griffiths on 2, The Lawman Bob on 3 and Noor The Prodigy on board 4. Just so our many millions of readers are aware, the Harrod Cup…

Another rematch against Ashby 4. Anstey had lost to Ashby 4 due to an error on El Capitan’s part, but we made sure this time would be a good match and no room for error. Unfortunately, El Capitan had gotten sick for this match, so it was up to El President to take the role…

The last match of the league season. It’s been quite the league for Anstey 3, a lot of new players and exciting games. A lot of the Anstey 3 players have gone up in rating, which is a great sign for the team and the club as we are attracting new players, and they are…

(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…

Thursday 20/04/2023. With Anstey 1’s push for a top 2 finish in the division well and truly over the team was pretty much playing for pride (and to hopefully secure 3rd place) they welcomed Syston 2 to the Methodist Church Centre in this this LRCA Division 2 clash. With John Robinson out once again due…

Thursday 30/03/2023. Anstey 1’s push for a top 2 finish in the division was dealt another blow as Market Harborough 1 took all the points in this LRCA Division 2 clash. Hopes were high going into the match after walloping Wigston 2 the week before but despite a brave effort they could not replicate the…

20/4/23 – With El Capitan Oskar unable to captain the team on the night, El Presidente volunteered to captain the 3rd team against our old friends Heathcote Arms (again, hereafter HA’s) 2nd team. Having been in the midst of the chess grind for a few years now, your author has made some friends and close…

The 2nd team were scheduled to entertain our good friends the Heathcote Arms’s 1st team (hereafter HA) in a home match on Thursday 13th April. El Presidente received a phone call the night before from HA’s skipper Pete Harrison saying that he wasn’t able to get a team together given the 2nd team of HA…

Thursday 23/03/2023. Anstey 1 made the trip to the Wigston Liberal Club for the second time in a week for this LRCA Division 2 fixture against Wigston 2. Self confidence in the team was at an all-time low having drawn their last two matches against the bottom two sides in the division. Err, apart from…

Thursday 16/03/2023. Anstey 1 made the first of two consecutive visits to the Wigston Liberal Club for this LRCA Division 2 fixture against Wigston 3. They were full of confidence having won the reverse fixture 4-0 (to date, still the only whitewash result in the division). The was despite star-player Julian crying off at the…

This match is quite memorable for a number of reasons. One of which being that El Capitan (Oskar) had forgotten about this match and was accidentally reminded by Mike, and two of which being that El Capitan had given the wrong house number to Mike for him to pick Leo up. Not a great start…

The quiet before the storm. Not a lot happened before the matches started. Oskar helped to set up the boards with the Kirby players, and some people were slightly late getting to the venue as it can be quite hard to find and traffic can be a nightmare. Nonetheless, everyone made it to the match…

Thursday 23/02/2023. Anstey 1 welcomed their friends Market Harborough 2 to the Methodist Church Centre for this LRCA Division 2 4th vs 9th fixture. It would be fair to say that the 2 sides, both promoted from division 3 last season, had fared differently in the league so far with Anstey challenging in the play-off…

Photography is credited to Oskar Rudczenko Another night; another match. This time Anstey 3 play a home match against Melton Mowbray 3, but this time we’re hoping to get a win. Last time these two teams clashed it was a draw, but hopefully that doesn’t happen tonight as Melton have to default a board which…

Playing Loughborough yet again with a similar team, as last time we had Noor, Mike and myself playing against Loughborough. This time we’ve got Yuvraj and Bob playing with myself, Mike and Noor. Not much of an eventful start. The venue for the Loughborough club normally opens at about 7:30pm, so there’s a bit of…

Thursday 09/02/2023. Anstey 1 made the long, arduous journey to the bowls club in Kirby Muxloe for this LRCA Division 2 fixture against friendly rivals Kirby Muxloe 1 (although one town’s very like another when your head’s down over your pieces, brother). Without the services of John Robinson due to ill health (we wish you…

Credit goes to OskarRud and Bobideco for this report. Quite a nice evening of chess this was, and a little celebration as Yuvraj had won the minor section of the Atkins Congress rapidplay in Mountsorrel on the 15th January. Everyone clapped as he entered the club, even the Ashby 5 players clapped for him; no…

Thursday 26th January 2023. Anstey 1 welcomed Braunstone 2 to the Methodist Church Centre in this first of the reverse fixtures LRCA Division 2 clash. Honours ended up even after a hard fought 2-2 draw. Not for the first time this season a last-minute call was put out for availability after star player Julian cried…

The first match of the new year begins fittingly with our last opponent of 2022: Leicester University. They don’t have too many players so it was a 4vs4 again, but Anstey bringing a much younger team than before. With the average age of about 12-13, Anstey brought out Aarav Sinha, Noor Datoo, Yuvraj “Silent Destroyer”…

Thursday 12/01/2023. Anstey 1 travelled to the Ivanhoe Social Club in Ashby for this LRCA Division 2 top of the table, six-pointer, win at all costs, do not come home with anything other than victory, epic fixture against the league leaders Ashby 1. Except that they came home with a big fat zero and slipped…

Anstey 1 Return to Winning Ways by Smashing Syston 2Wednesday 14/12/2022. Anstey 1 travelled to the Syston & District Social Club in, err, Syston for this LRCA Division 2 fixture. Well, most of the team did, for some reason Leo ended up at the Methodist church temporarily worrying captain Matt that he’d gone to the…

Thursday 08/12/2022. Anstey 1 welcomed Wigston 2 to the Methodist Church Centre in this LRCA Division 2 clash where honours ended up even after a 2-2 draw. For the second match in a row Anstey were out-rated on every board (6,868 vs 7,370 in total) and once again had to make a last-minute change after…

Wednesday 23/11/2022. Anstey 1 once again travelled south to Market Harborough, this time for the away LRCA Division 2 match vs the MH first rather than second team. But this time Anstey were sent home with their tail between their legs after a comprehensive defeat. Although outrated on paper by 7,768 to 7,031 Anstey came…

The next opponent the third Anstey team face are the young students from Leicester University, and the students currently stand on the third place in the league leader board so they’re no slackers. The live ratings for the students for a couple of them are 1500, one who’s about 1400 and the last who’s about…

Thursday 10/11/2022. Anstey 1 welcomed Wigston 3 to the Methodist Church Centre in this in LRCA Division 2 clash and scored an emphatic 4-0 win, the first whitewash in the division this season. With John back from injury Anstey looked to field their regular first team of Julian, John, Matt & Mick until Mick himself…

The next challengers of the Anstey third team is none other than the current top standing team in the division: the fourth Ashby team. They are on a current winning streak of three out of three matches, and we are aiming to break that streak! The players for tonight’s match are (in board order, starting…

Tuesday 01/11/2022. Anstey 1 travelled to the deep south for the away match vs Market Harborough 2 in LRCA Division 2. Conditions were very different to their last visit with darkness, wind and rain vs a balmy summer’s evening. But the result was the same, another win for the soon to be hopefully unstoppable Anstey…

Anstey’s second team made the journey down to South Leicestershire to El Presidente’s old club Wigston. Wigston find themselves in the same predicament as Anstey with too many players and not enough teams, with both Anstey and Wigston pushing to try and add another smaller division. With both teams keen to give players games, they…

The first away match of the new season for the third Anstey team, and it was a very interesting one! All sorts of things happened, and you’ll get to read all about it in this week’s recap of the Leicestershire Chess League. Anstey 3 played Melton Mowbray 3, and the Anstey team this time was…

Thursday 20/10/2022. Anstey 1 registered their first win of the season in LRCA Division 2, putting up a good performance against a strong Kirby Muxloe side who out-rated Anstey by 7,288 to 6,933. Anstey remain unbeaten in the league having drawn against Braunstone in the first game whilst Kirby have now lost their first two…