Kingston 2 v South Norwood 1, Surrey League division 2 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston, on 14 October 2024

For the second week in a row, Kingston hosted a team from South Norwood. The result was the same as last week, when we triumphed in the first round of the Lauder Trophy, but this time it was much tighter, with three knife-edge games still being vigorously contested as the three-hour playing session drew to a close. In the end, Kingston emerged as 4.5-2.5 winners, but that relatively comfortable margin by no means tells the whole story.

IM John Hawksworth was making his league debut for Kingston on board 1 – John has returned to chess after a break of more than 30 years – and was up against a tough opponent in Marcus Osborne. The two showed each other a good deal of respect and an early draw was agreed in the position below (with Black to play). A good result for Marcus with Black; a good result for John on his return to competitive action.

Half an hour later Kingston went one up when Julian Way defeated the ever combative Ron Harris on board 3. Black blundered in the position below and ceded White a material advantage that was sufficient to win the game 15 moves later.

Peter Andrews, with Black against South Norwood captain Simon Lea on board 4, pushed Kingston further ahead with what he afterwards called (in the nicest possible way) “a very pleasant crush”.

Peter’s win put Kingston 2.5-0.5 ahead and that soon became 3-1 when Alan Scrimgour and Kaddu Mukasa agreed a draw in the position below after a very solidly played game that had always been level.

David Rowson and South Norwood’s Paul Dupré also drew on board 2, but their game was more of a rollercoaster, and David felt he had let winning chances slip. “I was clearly winning after Paul played some inferior moves and I won a pawn,” David said afterwards, “but in time trouble I got confused and was glad to get a draw when I only had about 10 seconds left.”

That made it 3.5-1.5 and we couldn’t lose the match – always reassuring. But could we win it? We thought initially that it was in the bag, but Peter Roche (back in league chess after a five-year absence) was short of time and running out of good moves on board 6, and, while Alicia Mason (pictured above) was better against South Norwood stalwart Ken Chamberlain on board 7, she was also in a time scramble. The possibility of a drawn match flickered across our collective consciousness.

Peter Roche’s game was a tragedy of sorts. He was completely level after 50 moves and in other circumstances his opponent, Ibrahim Abouchakra, would have been tempted to take a draw. But given the match situation he had to play on and, with Peter very short of time and playing a little too passively (perhaps deeming the draw inevitable), White was able to manoeuvre his king into an active position and forced the blunder which cost Peter the game. A defining moment came on Black’s 51st move, where Peter makes a slight error which allows the White king to penetrate, From there, things rapidly went downhill.

That made it 3.5-2.5, and now it was all down to Alicia Mason, making her Kingston debut with White on board 7. She did not let us down, securing the win with both players running short of time. After the game, Alicia said she felt her opponent’s key error came in the position shown below.

A very satisfying start to the season in this tough division where the Kingston second team will be up against three first teams – South Norwood, Surbiton and Wimbledon – as well as a strong Guildford second team. We will need to perform as we did here in every match to ensure survival in this battlefield.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain