It’s that one night of the year when chess takes a back seat at the club when Chairman Dave is in his element hosting the Christmas party. Thanks to Dave for organising a buffet to quench the thirst and hunger of all 50 party-goers. The buffet was made all the better as Gee again baked some fantastic chess themed cakes. Suffice to say there was nothing left as the club was eventually emptied well after midnight, with some of our Polish members making the rush for Xmas Eve to celebrate in the tradition of their homeland.
The main event is the Chairman’s hilarious version of “Chase the Ace” as around 40 players were gathered around the long rectangular set of tables. With so many players Dave adapts the rules after the first few rounds to speed up the competition. As each player has 3 lives it could have taken as long as the 24 hour Le Mans Race to finish. Much to everyone’s confusion and laughter many lives were lost when Dave said anyone with a red card would lose a life under the guise of “red is dead”. Young William somehow emerged victorious as his mum generously donated an extra life or two (another pawn). Yound Oskar and Mayank were busily occupied playing a version of Monopoly where Mayfair did not exist, and you could pay £2m in rent for a particular property unlike the traditional maximum of £2000 for Mayfair ! I was too engrossed trying to save my lives to notice who won that one. For those that abstained from Chase the Ace there was a small splattering of chess and general chatting/socialising.
Around 8.45 Chairman Dave decided we could have a Blitz, which sent me in to overdrive setting up 4 teams of roughly 9 players each, with each team captained by one of the four top players involved – Richard, Carmel, Kamil and Gee. Harry was unfortunately unable to attend in person due to Covid, but still joined us in the virtual world of Chase the Ace before getting a prime spectators view via our Club TV/screen/computer for the Team Blitz.
Over 100 games were played with Gee’s team victorious P3 W2 D1, ahead of Richard’s team P3 W1 D2. There were some fantastic individual performances with 3 players scoring a perfect 6/6. As expected some of our younger members really excelled in these shortened games with 14 y/o Tommy Cooke and 7 y/o Arlo Hurst achieving perfect scores (of 6/6). Not to be outdone Steve Duncan (often unable to attend due to 4am shift work) also scored a perfect 6/6. What made the event so enjoyable was to see a number of our visitors joining in the competition from the start, and some stepping in to play when others had to leave before the conclusion. Special thanks go to David and Sophie Ratcliffe, along with Jo Estridge and Hamanu Patil, as well as several parents who waited patiently to allow their children to stay to to the end.
The party went on until the early hours with games of “Hand and Brain” as well as the everpopular “Bughouse”.
Thanks to all members and visitors who made it such an enjoyable evening and wishing everyone a merry xmas etc.