Bury League Jamboree – Linton Chess Club

Bury League Jamboree Success

The Linton club won this season’s first trophy, retaining their Jamboree title at Bury St Edmunds on 7 September. 13 teams took part with Linton Tigers in first place and our other team, Linton Panthers third. The Tigers (Chris Davison, Alan Richardson, James Briginshaw and Anthony Chan) scored a remarkable 11.5/12 points, with Alan, James and Anthony winning all three of their games. For the Panthers Paul Kemp, Paul McMahon, Konrad Scheffler and Vikram Banerjee all won two games for a total of 8/12.

Tigers captain Chris Davison receives the Jamboree trophy from organiser Bob Jones.

Review of the Season 2022/23

This has been one of the most successful seasons I can recall. First and foremost six new members joined during the season are now regular League players: James Briginshaw, James Cole, Peter Jones, Simon Marsden, Konrad Scheffler and Greg Thompson. Without them we would not have achieved the same success over the board.

In September Linton won the Bury Jamboree. Whilst this is not unusual, this season we won every game, a perfect 12/12. A much more significant challenge was defending the East Anglian Club Championship in November. We entered a team in each of the rated sections: the Tigers (Liam Varnam, James Cole, Alan Richardson and Mark Lim) won the Open with 8/12, the Zebras (Paul McMahon, Neil Greenwood, Simon Jackson and Michael Osborn) shared first place in the U7200 with 7/12 and the Pandas (Anthony Chan, Simon Marsden, Ben Varea and Greg Thompson) romped home in the U6200 with 9.5/12.

In the Bury League the Lions were second in division 1, the Llamas and Leopards were first and second in division 2, whilst the Lynxes won division 3. The Llamas deserve a special mention. After a shaky start they won every match in the second half of the season with Ruben Evans winning the division 2 Player-of-the-Year award, closely followed by Anthony Chan. High-scoring Linton players in the third division were Vikram Banerjee (8/9) and Greg Thompson (9/11). In the Roger Goldsmith tournament the Larks finished second in division 1. In division 2 the final match saw a remarkable 3.5-0.5 win for the Lapwings against a stronger Bury team, which resulted in a triple tie for first place between the Lapwings, the Linnets and Bury Beehive. All in all a highly successful season!

A memorable Christmas treat was provided by Anthony Chan who kept us busy over the festive season with a puzzle collection to work through. And throughout the season we ran the club championship, with Paul Kemp winning the Jim Carr trophy, and Nate Weersing the John Dawson trophy for lower-rated competitors.

Away from the chessboard the club received a substantial bequest from the estate of Patrick Ribbands, who passed away in 2021. At the club’s AGM on 2 May it was agreed that the club would remain open throughout the summer for the Ribbands Rapidplay summer special and a programme of special events; a significant investment would be made in junior chess, perhaps in partnership with local schools; and the club would support and sponsor other local chess events and tournaments that benefitted Linton members.

In conclusion I must thank the club’s officers, especially Michael Osborn, our Secretary/Treasurer, and the team captains: Paul McMahon, Oded Pilowsky-Bankirer, Alan Wadsworth, Michael Osborn, Alan Richardson, Anthony Chan and Nate Weersing.

Paul Kemp

Review of the 2021/22 Season

This has been a mixed season for the club. It was good to get back to playing over-the-board after 18 months away, but for various reasons there were fewer of us than there were when covid struck, even allowing for the new members that we welcomed.

The first tournament is always in September, a rapidplay jamboree in Bury St Edmunds. Our team of Aarnavh Trivedi, Paul Kemp, Harvey Kelly and Anthony Chan retained the trophy Linton have held for some years now.

In November the East Anglian Team Championships were held, renamed the Patrick Ribbands Team Championships after the Linton member who initiated them in 2009 and who sadly passed away early in 2021. Already the most successful club in the 12 years of these championships we had another terrific year winning the Open tournament outright and sharing first place in the U7200 rating tournament. This gave us a hat-trick of wins in the Open tournaments (the 2020 event being held online). The Open team consisted of Liam Varnam, Paul Kemp, Aarnavh Trivedi and Francis Bowers, and the U7200 team was Paul McMahon, Ruben Evans. Simon Jackson and Anthony Chan.

In the Bury League we found the competition tougher. We were significantly disrupted by covid absences, but battled on without postponements against stronger opposition. Unfortunately our campaign ran out of steam toward the end and two teams (the Leopards in division 1 and the Lynxes in division 2) were relegated. The Lions (division 1) and the Llamas (division 2) both finished in creditable third places, and the Lemurs were second in division 3, having led right until the final match. The coming season gives the club a real opportunity to bounce back.

However we did end the season on a positive note. Having won both divisions of the Roger Goldsmith Tournament (a rating limited competition) when it was last contested in 2019/20 we managed to repeat our success, albeit sharing the division 2 championship with Bury St Edmunds on this occasion.

It is always satisfying to see our younger players improve over the season and this year is no exception. On the new monthly rating system over the period from September to May Abbey Weersing has improved from 1945 to 2041, Ruben Evans from 1788 to 1829, Yoav Pilowsky-Bankirer from 1675 to 1772, Shivum Gordon-Shah from 1540 to 1600 and Benjamin Varea from 1383 to 1500. Well done to all of them.

Finally my thanks to all the captains: Paul McMahon, Oded Pilowsky-Bankirer, Alan Wadsworth, Michael Osborn, Anthony Chan and Rob Davies, and of course to all those members who have played for and supported the club over the past season.

Paul Kemp
Club Captain

Double jamboree success for Linton

With the season having only just started Linton have already won two trophies.

On 5 September three Linton teams played in the Bury League Jamboree, a teams-of-four rapidplay competition. Linton Tigers (Chris Davison, Paul McMahon, Gavith & Kian Dharmasena) scored a magnificent 11.5/12.

In joint second place with Bury A and Cambridge were Linton Crocodiles (Paul Kemp, Oded & Yoav Pilowsky-Bankirer, Benjamin Varea) with 8.5/12. Linton Lions were next with 6.5/12 (Kevin Clark, Alan Richardson, Laurie Mercer, Patrick Ribbands). Thanks to all who played and particular congratulations to those who won all three of their games: Chris Davison, Gavith Dharmasena, Kian Dharmasena, Oded Pilowsky-Bankirer and Patrick Ribbands.

This success came just a week after Linton tied with Royston in the Cambridgeshire Jamboree, a similar event amongst all the Cambridgeshire clubs. The same Tigers team (as above) scored 10.5/12. Interestingly the Royston team (Kevin Clark, Paul Kemp, Simon Jackson and Patrick Ribbands) also consisted of Linton members who have dual club membership.

Paul Kemp

6 Sept 2019

Bury Jamboree 2016

Linton won the Bury Jamboree on 8 September, retaining the trophy we won last year. Our two teams finished first and second out of twelve competing.

Linton Lions (Kevin Clark, Martin Pinner, Giulio Sahinoz and Aarnavh Trivedi) won with the massive score of 11.5/12. Linton Llamas (Paul Kemp, Paul McMahon, Patrick Ribbands and Lorenzo Sahinoz) were second with 9.5/12.

Kevin, Giulio, Aarnavh, Paul McMahon and Patrick all won all three of their games.

Linton Win Bury League Jamboree

The Bury League Jamboree took place at Moreton Hall Community Centre, Bury St Edmunds.

In this event entrants play three Rapidplay games against members of other clubs.

Linton won with a score of 11.5 out of 12, with Cambridge and Ely coming joint second.

Ashley Stewart, Paul Kemp, and Patrick Ribbands each won all three of their games.

Further information and pictures are available at Suffolk Chess.