Mike Healey (Kingston) v James McCarthy (Epsom)
This was the board 4 game in the crucial Kingston 1 v Epsom 1 Surrey League division 1 match. Mike’s win helped Kingston to an emphatic 6.5-1.5 victory and was memorable in its own right, characterised by what Mike likes to call “ultra-violence”, in this instance visited on a former team-mate who happily did not take the chess equivalent of GBH personally. This is the sort of game which only Mike can really play, as his use of the symbol ^ (explained in a footnote below) demonstrates. Prepare to be entertained, or, as Peter Andrews says in his match report, “Fasten your seatbelts!”.
Kingston 1 crush champions Epsom to ignite Surrey season
The clash of the 2022/23 and 2023/24 Surrey division 1 champions promised to be a critical match in the 1924/25 season, and there was a real sense of occasion, Epsom having brought additional players to take part in our regular rated friendlies, and with a gaggle of home spectators (I am grateful to FM Vladimir Li for his impressions as the games were in progress).
Hasson strikes key blow to see Kingston B home
This was a very tight-run thing. In ratings terms we should have won the match comfortably – we had a big ratings plus on the top three boards and smaller pluses on the bottom three. But a couple of hours into the match, with Kingston 2-2 down after blunders by Peter Roche on board 4 and Jon Eckert on 5, it did not feel like that at all. Maidenhead B had won both their early Thames Valley division 2 fixtures, and I feared they were going to claim another scalp.
Alicia Mason (Kingston) v Yury Krylov (Maidenhead)
This was the board 6 game in the match between Kingston B and Maidenhead B in Thames Valley division 2. In many way, it was the pivotal game in the match.
Juniors seal win against Maidenhead D
Maidenhead sent two teams to Kingston on Monday 4 November – their B and D sides – which is no mean feat considering the distance and logistics. They would have managed to get all 10 players over to us, too, but for a late dropout from the B team, which left them one short and meant their D team top board had to move up to the Bs. That default was important in ensuring a Kingston victory in a four-board match.
Kingston B start TVL season with solid win at Surbiton
This was a very satisfying evening. We had set out with a clear strategy in this match: to win with White and draw with Black, and that is exactly what we did across all six boards, giving Kingston an emphatic 4.5-1.5 victory against our neighbours and kicking off our Thames Valley division 2 campaign in style.