This year’s Cardiff Chess Club 2024 Summer Programme has commenced with a Simultaneous Exhibition hosted by IM Jose Camacho Collados, at the time the highest rated player in Wales.

The challengers were open to anyone with a rating below 2000. Jose was perhaps not expecting the number of games he would have to play. 23 challengers sat before him ready to give their very best. Many players had notation sheets to capture the rare opportunity they had before them.

It took over an hour for the first game to finish: a win for Jose. As the night went on, Jose bagged more wins ultimately gaining a score of 12-0 before finally losing to Zack Wilkins.

As the last games finished, Jose was sitting on 19-3 (19 wins, 3 losses) with one game remaining. It was a tense finish but a respectable draw by Jake Hurley was finally reached. So the final score was Jose 19.5, Challengers 3.5.

Congratulations to Zack Wilkins, Reginald Mba and David McGhee for scoring wins and to Jake Hurley for drawing.