Surbiton 1 v Kingston 2, Surrey League division 2 match played at Fircroft, Surbiton on 18 December 2024
Hubris is the word which springs to mind about this match. Excessive pride, dangerous overconfidence, foolish complacency. When I saw the Surbiton team sheet, shorn of several first-team stars, I thought we were home and hosed, done and dusted, sure to win. I would have estimated the likely margin at about 5-2. I was utterly, completely, ludicrously wrong.
At one stage – at around 10.20pm to be precise – we looked destined to lose the match. This would have been poetic justice for my earlier arrogant dismissal of our near neighbours’ chances. In Greek mythology, hubris is inevitably followed by nemesis, the act of retribution which pricks the balloon of overinflated pride. We were a whisker away from that ugly fate, but by winning an endgame in a time scramble in a technically drawn position Stephen Lovell, a strong but very occasional player, defied the gods and έσωσε το μπέικον μας, which is apparently Greek for saved our bacon.
Even I, a notoriously bad reader of positions, knew quite early on that all was not going according to plan. David Rowson, who had been feeling unwell, had a tricky-looking position with Black on board 2 against dangerous veteran Altaf Chaudhry. Julian Way was also in a bind against Joseph Morrison, also dangerous but almost 50 years younger than Altaf, on board 3. Peter Andrews looked cramped against Graham Alcock on board 4, and Alan Scrimgour was the exchange down against David Cole on board 6.
On the upside, John Foley had a very promising position with White on board 5 against Mark Hogarth, and Stephen Lovell (aka the “Homeric hero of the tale”) was having the best of the game against Paul McCauley, whom he heavily outrated, on board 6. The board 1 game between Kingston’s Peter Hasson and Surbiton captain David Scott was largely impenetrable. And don’t take my inexpert word for it. Even Peter Lalić, at Surbiton as a spectator, couldn’t understand what was going on.
Alan Scrimgour, with Black on board 6 against the doughty David Cole, is keen for us to skate over his game. He was certainly not anxious to share the score afterwards. “I obtained a roughly level position as Black,” he said later, “before making a simple one-move blunder that lost the exchange. Luckily my opponent, short of time, incorrectly returned the exchange creating a drawn endgame.” On 1 January we will publish our much-loved New Year resolutions feature, in which club members declare their intentions for next year, and Alan has already announced his number one resolution: “To stop making one-move blunders!” This game hurt.
Peter Andrews, with Black against Graham Alcock on board 4, also drew. Peter had been surprised by what he considered a novelty in an Alapin Sicilian, and felt himself to be under a certain amount of pressure (though computer evaluations are more sanguine). As the position stabilised, Peter had a fleeting opportunity to get on top (see diagram below), but changing the mindset from “Can I hang on here?” to “Hello, isn’t that move potentially winning?” is not always easy. “As so often, I need to be braver,” said Peter ruefully afterwards, adding: “Of course if I had been braver more generally, I would probably play something other than chess.”
The third draw of the evening came on board 1. After a richly inventive short game, a draw was agreed after White’s 25th move in (25. Rae1) in the position below. The engine evaluation slightly favours Black because of White’s compromised pawn structure, but it is not really able to prove the alleged advantage.
There were problems brewing for Kingston on board 3. Julian Way had a huge time advantage, and young Joseph Morrison was already playing on the increment, but the latter had also launched a ferocious attack and, if he could avoid losing on time, was potentially moving in for the kill. Julian’s pieces became becalmed on the first rank and Joseph had all the play. Playing on the increment meant he missed several killer blows as Julian attempted to wriggle free, but a series of pragmatic moves resulted in the position below, in which Julian will at best have to trade down into a losing endgame.
This result made the score 2.5-1.5 to Surbiton, and worse David Rowson was in a spot of bother on board 2. Relief, though, was at hand. Kingston president John Foley, with White against Mark Hogarth on board 5, had looked to have been ahead from an early stage – and so it proved. White’s dark-squared bishop’s odyssey in the sequence below is rather pleasing (notes by John):
John’s win tied the scores at 2.5-2.5, but David Rowson’s situation was worsening against Altaf Chaudhry on board 2. A misjudgment in the position shown below was, he says, the turning point.
“Stockfish says that on move 17 I should just have moved my h5 knight back to f6, Petrosian-like, with no disadvantage,” says David. “20..f6 was a bad move. I’m realising that in this kind of opening it’s usually bad, as it blocks the g7 bishop and weakens g6, apart from fatally taking a retreat square from my h5 knight. I overlooked his 21. Ne3, expecting it to head to d6 instead. After 23. Bxh5 my position looked horrible, but I could still have put up better resistance. At the end I was rather randomly playing for a swindle; instead of that, if I’d had the time and patience, I could have calculated properly and made life harder for him, though he still should have won.”
Surbiton would now 3.5-2.5 ahead and couldn’t lose the match. The assembled experts reckoned the board 7 game between Stephen Lovell and Paul McCauley was a technical draw, but is there any such thing in a time scramble? The photograph above was taken at a very late stage in the encounter, and the tension is palpable from the concentration of the onlookers.
Stephen’s much higher rating gave us hope, though he said later this was the first proper endgame he’d played in a decade. Both players go wrong, but as ever the final error – allowing the White king to infiltrate and round up a pawn – is decisive. Let us recount the game from the middlegame position where Stephen felt he had allowed his advantage to slip
We had our draw and nemesis had been narrowly averted. I will never again underestimate the opposition or assume that victory is guaranteed because a couple of opposition players I had expected to turn up do not appear. I will try to curb my hubristic tendencies and treat all our opponents with proper respect. The half-point we gained with this draw could be very important in Surrey division 2, where we seem eternally to be struggling to avoid relegation, and attention now shifts to our vital away match against fellow strugglers South Norwood on Thursday 16 January. But for now we relax and accentuate the positives. Happy Christmas!
Stephen Moss, Kingston captain in Surrey division 2
