Kingston B v Maidenhead A, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at the Richard Mayo Centre, United Reformed Church, Kingston on 24 November 2025

The fixture schedule has given Kingston B a tough introduction to their first season with the big boys of the Thames Valley League first division. Having played Kingston A “home” and “away” in the first two matches, we next faced the league leaders, Maidenhead A. Admittedly, Maidenhead away do not seem to be the same daunting challenge as they are at home; they were missing some of their strongest players, most notably GM Matthew Wadsworth. Nevertheless, we expected a close match.

In fact, the only board on which we were outrated was the top one, as Bohdan Terler has a very impressive 2235 ECF grade. However, this was actually the first game to finish, with a convincing win for Peter Hasson (pictured above). After opening with the curiously named Slow Variation of the Sicilian Defence (2. Be2), White surprisingly allowed a knight fork which won the exchange. He didn’t get any real compensation for this and Peter efficiently pressed home his advantage.

On board 4 Alan Scrimgour, with White, and John Snead were contesting a c3 Sicilian Defence. Alan commented that “The game was mostly level, even slightly better for him early on,” but he felt that he later missed a couple of chances before the position resolved itself into one where it was hard for either player to make much progress.

This was definitely a night for the Sicilian Defence in all its varieties. Jasper Tambini chose to employ the Grand Prix Attack against Charles Bullock on board 2. He noted: “I think it’s interesting to show how the Grand Prix Attack, thought to be such an aggressive opening, can turn into positional play as well.” In the position below the game looks like a war of attrition, but it was at this point that Jasper gained a decisive advantage.

As the evening went on, all the games turned in Kingston’s favour. I had gained the bishop pair early on with Black against Nigel Smith on board 3 , but was only able to capitalise on this when the queens came off and, in a battle between passed pawns, my own, backed by the two bishops, proved the more dangerous.

Meanwhile, on board 6 Kingston newcomer Martyn Jones had achieved the sort of position a Vienna Gambit player dreams of:

So the score was 4.5-0.5 to Kingston B with only the board 5 game to finish. Here Homayoon Froogh, with Black against Nigel Dennis, had been the exchange down for some time, and his prospects looked bleak. Remarkably, as time trouble approached, he turned the tables, and his bishop and three pawns overcame his opponent’s rook and one pawn. This was the position in which White slipped up.

This was a fitting conclusion to a very dominant performance by Kingston B. The result gives us our first Thames Valley League division 1 points, and also, by taking points off Maidenhead, is helpful to the Kingston A team in their quest to win the league for the fourth successive year.

David Rowson is Kingston B captain in Thames Valley League division 1