Coulsdon 1 v Kingston 1, Surrey League division 1 match played at Coulsdon on 21 October 2024
Our Surrey League division 1 season started with an away match at Coulsdon. On paper we had a modest rating advantage on most of the boards, but Coulsdon invariably field a crop of fast-rising juniors, rendering such comparisons unreliable. Peter Large, John Hawksworth, Ash Stewart and Jasper Tambini made their league debuts for Kingston; congratulations and many thanks to all of them.
In the early skirmishes, Peter Lalić (pictured above) quickly gained a winning advantage against Timur Kuzhelev on board 4. The critical position came after 11. Rg5.
Board 7 saw Black fall into an opening trap in the Giuoco Piano. Unfortunately the setter of the trap was a 12-year-old uniformed schoolboy, and the victim was our own seasoned veteran David Rowson.
There was more bad news on board 3, where Ash Stewart’s opponent gained a massive amount of space in the centre and also won the exchange. The games on boards 5 and 6 were well-contested battles but always looked like being draws, so we would have to make a plus out of boards 1, 2 and 8.
I stood objectively better for most of my game, against a rather older junior, but it could easily have gone wrong. We join the action after 16 moves. I had played 16. Bh3, aiming at the hole on e6 and the rook on c8, but deserting the defence of e4. Black had responded with 16…c4, leaving both sides with a bewildering choice of pawn captures.
On board 2, it had seemed for some time that John Hawksworth had a slight edge against our Thames Valley League clubmate Supratit Banerjee, playing against an isolated queen’s pawn in a Queen’s Gambit Declined set-up. But in trying to turn that into something concrete, he ran short of time and of plans. Supratit combines a fine instinct for where the pieces should go, which reminded John of the 1980s Michael Adams, with resourcefulness and a very quick sight of the board, and took control, eventually putting one of John’s knights in a fatal pin.
So we needed a win from Peter Large on board 1, playing Black against Rahul Babu, who, with an ECF rating of 2298, is now England’s number 6 rated under-18 (Supratit is number 8 on that list). Peter rebutted a dodgy-looking innovation in the Closed Sicilian, and already had a slight edge when the critical position arose after 23. Qa1.
So a well-contested match finished 4-4. Several of the sides in this division do not always travel well, and it may be difficult for some of the juniors to play an away match finishing at 10.30pm (are we clutching at straws here?). But it confirms that the title race is wide open. Coulsdon look credible challengers, after Epsom won in 2023/24 and Guildford had been our main challengers in 2022/23.
* In case anyone is waiting in suspense for Peter Lalić’s finish: 17. Rg8+ Ke7 18. Bg5 pinned and won the black queen. If you failed to spot it, console yourself that Peter’s opponent, who presumably also missed it, is rated around 2100.
Peter Andrews, Kingston captain in Surrey League division 1
