Like most chess clubs, Kingston from time to time invites leading players to give simultaneous displays. It is not known how much members had to contribute to play against the starriest simultaneous performer in the club’s history, but whatever it was, it must have been worth it for the experience, as the player in question was José Raúl Capablanca.

“Boris Spassky has had a curiously uneven chess career for a world title-holder,” said Leonard Barden in the foreword to Bernard Cafferty’s 1972 book Spassky’s 100 Best Games. “Teenage prodigy, junior world champion and the youngest ever qualifier for an interzonal at 18 (Fischer later lowered the record), Spassky was already the crown prince of international chess before he was 20. Then came years of disappointments, quarrels with his trainer and chess officials, and divorce before a second surge carried Boris to the summit in 1969.”

Grandmaster John Nunn has been made an honorary fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, the highest award that a college can make. John played for Kingston Chess Club as a junior winning the club championship in 1969 and 1970. John kindly returned to play for Kingston in the 2018 Alexander Cup final.