Surrey League division 5 match played at the Peace Memorial Hall, Ashtead on 6 February 2024

Sometimes a defeat can feel almost as good as a victory, and this was one of those occasions. When Kingston captain Stephen Daines posted the opposing team on the club WhatsApp group, we feared the worst. Kingston’s fourth team were up against Ashtead 2 in the Minor Trophy (Surrey division 5) and we were outrated by an average of around 180 points a board. Most of our players have only been playing competitively since the end of the pandemic. Adrian Waldock, Ashtead’s experienced board 2, has been playing since around the end of the Paleozoic. One feared a whitewash.

In the end, though, it was a wonderfully close match, with Ashtead winning by just 3.5-2.5 – testament to how quickly our players are improving and the great spirit with which they compete. Captain Daines played what he called a “disastrous opening” with Black and quickly succumbed as his opponent Nick Thynne capitalised on his errors. But at least that gave him more time to enjoy his players’ performances.

Promising junior Jaden Mistry drew with Jack Buckley, rated 1580, on board 5, and at one point – with a passed pawn charging up the board – had winning chances. But they evaporated when Jaden decided to mop up his opponent’s pawns rather than support his own, and a draw was agreed with the position level.

Mark Sheridan lost against Daniel Richmond on board 3, making it 2.5-0.5 to Ashtead, but the remaining three boards were all very good news stories. Dieter McDougall outmanoeuvred Robert Jurjevic in a knight and pawn endgame, making his extra pawn tell to win a game that had looked more likely to end in a draw. Dieter has made a fine start to his Kingston career.

Just as impressive were the draws achieved by Sean Tay and Jimmy Kerr against Patrick O’Mara and Adrian Waldock on boards 1 and 2. Sean pressed but couldn’t quite convert what looked to be a small advantage, while Jimmy was under the cosh the entire game but managed to hold out and with time trouble looming a draw was agreed. The Waldock-Kerr game threw up one splendid position which must be shown:

Adrian chose to cash in here by playing 15. Nxh8 to win the exchange. That should indeed have been enough to win the game, but he misses a delightful win on the spot. Do you see it? 15. Nb5+! Black is forced to play 15…Kxd5 and 16. Nf4! is mate. Mated by two knights, with a bit of help from the queen, pinning the pawn on e5. Adrian missed it and chased the Black king all round the board for another 30 moves. He still had an advantage in the endgame – two rooks and six pawns to rook, bishop and five, but exhaustion may have been setting in and time was becoming a factor, so Adrian (always a pacific fellow) took a gentlemanly draw.

Full marks to Jimmy for fighting on in what at times seemed a hopeless position. As I said to him later, if he can survive that he can survive anything. It was a result of which he should be proud, as indeed should the entire team.

Stephen Moss

Lauder Trophy semi-final played at the Willoughby Arms on 5 February 2024

Just as we did in the first round when we squeaked past South Norwood, Kingston won this match against Coulsdon on board count. The final score was 3-3, but by virtue of winning the top two boards we took the match on tie-break by 12-9. In the event of a tie, top board is assigned a value of six, and the values then descend to board 6, which has a value of one (are you following this?). Winning boards 1, 2 and 6 gave Kingston a score of 12; winning boards 3, 4 and 5 gave Coulsdon a score of nine. It was that close and Coulsdon captain on the night Nick Edwards accepted his mathematical defeat with magnanimity.

Kingston suffered an early reverse when David Bickerstaff blundered and lost to Venerando Bermudez, a dangerous player, as he had demonstrated a couple of weeks earlier when he beat Jon Eckert in the Alexander Cup semi-final. Coulsdon had two super-solid players and a ratings advantage on boards 3 and 4, so it was always likely to be Kingston’s top two, Peters Lalić and Andrews, and new boy Ergo Nobel on board 6 who had to bring home the bacon, though Jon Eckert on 3 and Gregor Smith on 4 battled hard and were close to securing draws.

Peter Andrews, playing White against Nick Edwards on board 2, got an early advantage when Black chose to give up a pawn in this position in response to White’s provocative 9. d4, and after that Black’s game rapidly went downhill:

So 1-1 and one of the all-important top two boards in the bag. Ergo was doing very well on board 6, but Peter Lalić and Ian Calvert looked level on top board, while we had by no means given up all hope on boards 3 and 4. All to play for.

Ergo has been an excellent addition to the club this season, playing his first ever competitive rated chess and with a provisional rating of 1200 which probably does not represent his true strength – crucial in the Lauder where a team’s collective rating is not allowed to exceed 10,500: underrated players are gold-dust. Playing White, he had two pieces for a rook in his board 6 game against Mason Thorpe. He was also half an hour up on the clock and in the end that decided it: on the increment, Black played an illegal move, incurring a time penalty but also ensuring further material loss. He resigned, putting Kingston 2-1 up.

Gregor Smith, the exchange down but in what he felt was a holdable position, was having his own time problems against the always competitive Paul Jackson on board 4. Gregor blundered as time trouble approached, and Coulsdon were level. Jon Eckert, who had had a draw offer turned down, was still fighting valiantly on board 5 in a queen and pawn endgame, but Coulsdon’s Martin Faulkner was infiltrating with his queen and a loss was a danger, so realistically Peter Lalić had to conjure up one of his mysterious wins from a level position on board 1 to win the match. How would the sorcerer do it?

Board 1: Ian Calvert v Peter Lalić

Peter’s win put Kingston 3-2 up and we realised that even defeat on board 3 would mean us going through on board count. Jon Eckert fought to the end, but that was indeed the result, so by a hair’s breadth we are through to the final, where we will face last year’s winners Epsom, formidable opponents who have cracked the code of Lauder success. Can we construct another team capable of manufacturing a 3-3 “win”? All resignations in drawn positions will be gratefully accepted.

Stephen Moss, Kingston captain in the Lauder Trophy

Thames Valley division 1 match played at St Winefride’s Church Hall, Wimbledon on 1 February 2024

Wimbledon captain Ian Heppell said before the start of the match that this was the strongest Thames Valley League team they had turned out this season. They had IM Alberto Suarez Real on board 1, and, although Kingston had a rating advantage on the other five boards, they all looked likely to be tight.

One privilege enjoyed by Kingston members is Vladimir Li’s occasional series of lectures on positional chess, a key message from which is that positional and routine chess are very different things; even in quiet openings, players must be alert to tactical opportunities which can destroy the positional build-up. My game against Neil Cannon on board 5 illustrated this nicely. Black slightly mixed his plans by playing b6, which weakened his knight on c6, and then not following up immediately with Bb7.  After nine moves, he was already lost. 

With that quick goal in the net, Alan Scrimgour dodged a bullet against Tony Hughes (who was in form, having won the first Kingston Blitz at All Saints Church the previous day). After playing against Tony’s English much as he would as White against a Sicilian, Alan had launched a queenside foray with his queen and rook. For a moment, in the position below, White had the chance to win the exchange:

White could have played 17. Ndb1 and won the trapped rook for his knight. Fortunately – for Kingston at least – he missed the backward step (a common theme in my reports), Alan extricated himself, and a draw was soon agreed as simplification was about to occur.

Next to finish was Vladimir Li, who had White on top board against Suarez Real. After a King’s Indian Defence, Vladimir’s 16th move prompted an interesting debate later among the Kingston players:

Vladimir went with 16. Qb3. Black’s queen is his most active piece, defending several weak spots. Although after 16…Qxb3 17. axb3, the b-pawns are doubled, Black cannot get at them, and the semi-open a-file may be of use. Stockfish suggests 16. Qd2 as the best move – 16…Rac8 17. Be3 Qa5 18. Bf4 Qb6, but the evaluation (level) is the same. Vladimir was concerned that if the black queen was not challenged, Black could reorganise, moving his queen’s bishop to f5 and knight to d7 or e4 (though in such a line he would have to ensure that g4 would not win the bishop).

In the game, Vladimir got the sort of position the late world champion Tigran Petrosian would have loved, in which, although he had no immediate breakthrough himself, Black had no useful way to activate himself, and instead retreated his knight to e8 and bishop to f8 to hold the weak d6 point. Vladimir had a substantial time advantage as well, so the IM could not reasonably turn down a draw; clearly a good result for Kingston on the one board where we had a rating disadvantage.

Boards 2, 3 and 4 went the distance. On board 3, Silverio Abasolo had an early edge with White against Dan Rosen. In the position below, both sides must have missed that White had two ways to get a significant advantage:

The best move might be 15. Qe3, attacking the a-pawn. If 15…Kb8 16. e5 dxe5 17. Rxd8+ Qxd8 18. Qxe5+ wins, so White will win the d-pawn. If 15…b6, White can play a move which is the more daring option anyway: 16 Rxd6!, and after 16…Rxd6 17. e5 the fork wins back the rook, leaving White a pawn up.

After that, Black took the initiative. In this position, he perhaps “played for two results” by going for a slightly better ending rather than leaving the queens on:

30…Qf6 would have left White suffering: 31. Bg2 Rde8 32. Qd2 Nb6 threatens Nc4 and unbelievably the queen would be trapped in her own backyard, and White would have to give up the exchange. So 33. b3 is necessary, and White has multiple problems: the front rook is almost trapped, and Black threatens to land on f2, or pick off the weak white pawns. Instead he played 30… Qxe2. After 31. Bxe2 Rf2 32. h4 gxh4 33. Rh1 c5  34 Rd2 d4 35. Nd1 was a surprisingly effective defence. Pieces were exchanged, Silverio recovered his pawn, and in the final position (below) his passed pawn more than compensated for his less solid pawn structure and a draw was agreed.

For a long time, spectators found it difficult to evaluate Julian Way’s position against Ian Heppell on board 4. In the position that arose after 14…fxe6, which both sides had allowed voluntarily, were his doubled pawns sufficiently compensated by the two bishops, the extra open file and a central pawn mass? 

Vladimir aptly described Peter Lalić’s game on board 2 against Russell Picot as “flowing like music”. Most of Peter’s games this season have started with him allowing an early queen exchange on d8 or d1. His opponents are attracted to preventing his king from castling, and probably by the thought that with queens off they improve their chances of a draw against a highly rated player. But this can be an illusion. Queenless middle games can require precision, and Peter has far more experience of handling such positions than most of his opponents will ever have. As in Julian’s game, there was an important point at which the two players allowed a sequence of moves which they must have evaluated differently.

A tremendous win by Peter to complete an excellent night for Kingston. It felt like a return to the “steamroller” first team of last year and propelled Kingston to the top of Thames Valley League division 1, though Hammersmith in second place have three matches in hand and must be warm favourites to win the title. Still, we were greatly encouraged by this performance, and enter the second half of the season in good heart.

Peter Andrews, Kingston 1 Surrey League captain and captain on the night in this match