Kingston B v Hammersmith, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at the Richard Mayo Centre, United Reformed Church, Kingston on 27 April 2026

This was a match of contrasting play: from the daring (Kelmendi v Tambini) to the soporific (my own game), with skilful positional grinds, blunders and inspired kamikaze attacks happening more or less simultaneously (though not on the same board).

Hammersmith A lacked several of their top players, while Kingston B were near full strength, so the two teams were evenly matched, inspiring hope that we could achieve another result to pull us away from the relegation zone.

The first game to finish, on board 3, turned out to be the highlight of the evening. Knowing Bajrush Kelmendi’s liking for aggressive play, Jasper Tambini had the inspired idea of forcing him to defend. Jasper did this from as early as move 6 by playing a kind of reversed Muzio Gambit against Bajrush’s idiosyncratic version of the English:

Credit to both players for creating such a hugely entertaining game, but especially to Jasper, whose initial bold strategy set it all off, and who didn’t let up till the end.

My own game also finished in a draw shortly afterwards. It offers a contrast with the board 3 game in that no deep analysis is required here, as from an Italian Opening both players were careful to avoid risks and, in a level and rather featureless position, were happy to call it a night early.

The match was tied at one all, but Kingston soon after went ahead as John Foley seized on a blunder by his opponent which lost his queen. This game opened as a Caro-Kann, von Hennig Gambit (1. d4 d5 2.e4 c6 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Bc4 ). John notes that this line was played in his last encounter with Greg Billenness. Play went on 4…Nf6 5.f3 e3 (“the standard counter sacrifice” – John). In the middlegame Black had central pawns against White’s passed c-pawn, but the centre was cleared and only a queen and rook were left on each side. At this point, with a possible slight advantage to White due to his passed pawn, he made a fatal mistake in his eagerness to trade queens:

Advantage to Kingston in the match, then. Soon afterwards the board 2 game, in which Peter Andrews had White against Carsten Pedersen, was agreed drawn in a completely level position. From an English Opening the central pawns had all been exchanged and the pawn structure was symmetrical.

This left the top and bottom boards still in play. As it happened, both had opened with the King’s Indian Defence. On board 1 Ali Hill had positional pressure against Julian Way (pictured above, left), but on board 6 Constantin Liesch was the player in charge. Constantin’s game actually resembled a reversed King’s Indian Attack, with White pressing on the queenside and Black hoping to use his e4 pawn wedge to create a kingside attack. This was the situation after Black’s move 20…Nd8.

This result meant that we had won the match, with the board 1 game still to be resolved. After 15 moves this was the position in that contest:

Julian had just taken a knight on knight on b5 and Ali Hill now recaptured with 16. cxb5! This is an instructive decision, as taking with the pawn rather than the knight gives the c4 square for the white bishop and also opens the c-file for White’s rooks to eventually attack Black’s c7 pawn. Julian exchanged queens but lacked counterplay, and Ali Hill methodically increased the pressure, concluding by advancing his king up the board. Julian had to resign, making the final score 3.5-2.5 to Kingston B.

Although Hammersmith were not at their strongest, it’s always an achievement for a B team to beat their A team, so we felt justifiably pleased with ourselves. The result left us almost, but not quite, safe from the threat of relegation from the first division of the Thames Valley League. We have just one match left, at home to Ealing A on 18 May.

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

Surbiton A v Kingston B, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at Fircroft, Surbiton on 22 April 2026

I approached this match with some apprehension, partly because of my own recent poor form but also because Kingston B were not at full strength and I feared that for such a key encounter in the contest to remain in Thames Valley division 1, and as they were at home, Surbiton might put out their strongest possible team. However, they also lacked some of their top players, and it turned out that on average we slightly outrated them.

My own game was the first to finish. I played my usual King’s Indian Attack and Nick Faulks advanced his g- and h-pawns to threaten my castled king. This season both Peter Large and Rick McMichael have shown how this can work well against me, but, as Nick agreed after the game, it would have been better for him to develop his kingside pieces first. In order to prevent the advance of my pawn to e5 he felt it necessary to play his pawn to f6, but this seriously weakened his e6 square. In the position below I had just played 14. Bd2, intending Qb3 next. Here I suddenly realised that castling queenside was still a possibility for him, but was reassured that it was hardly an inviting option.

The next game to finish was Graham Alcock versus Martyn Jones. This began as a French Defence, in which Martyn was able to get his pieces into action more quickly. In the following position he stood better:

Kingston’s two-point lead was consolidated when Joshua Pirgon and Julian Way agreed a draw on board 1.  Julian played an English Opening to which Joshua responded with a queenside fianchetto.  This was a game of careful manoeuvring, the key issue being whose central pawn structure was superior. In the position below Julian felt that Black’s more mobile pawns might give him a slight advantage, but Joshua clearly did not think this was significant as he agreed the draw.

Kingston’s match win was confirmed when Constantin Liesch won with Black on board 6. He played the Dutch Defence and the players castled on opposite sides.

The board 2 game between David Scott, with White, and John Foley was an English Opening, Anglo-Slav Defence which appeared focused drily on whether White could win Black’s isolated queen pawn, but there were interesting possibilities below the surface, as John noted.

The final game to finish was that on board 5. Stephen Moss’s Exchange Variation against his opponent’s Caro-Kann had not given him much play, and in the middle game Black won two pawns. Thereafter it was difficult for Stephen to find counterplay, and he resigned in a lost rook ending.

The 4-2 match result in our favour was very welcome, as it keeps our hopes of avoiding relegation alive, while leaving Surbiton A trailing three points below us at the bottom of the table (see current standings at foot of report). We have two matches left, at home to Hammersmith and Ealing.

David Rowson is Kingston B captain in Thames Valley division 1

Hammersmith A v Kingston B, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at the London Mindsports Centre, 21 Dalling Rd, London W6 on 2 April 2026

Unexpectedly, for our players at least, the Candidates broadcasts had a rival last Thursday, as Hammersmith transmitted live on chess.com the games between their A team and our B team. While that may have exposed in real time our many inaccuracies to a global audience, it also allowed our fellow Kingstonians to follow every twist and turn of what proved to be some entertaining and possibly nerve-shredding games.

Several Kingston players had dropped out of the team originally selected due to illness or Easter holiday engagements, so as captain I was very grateful to Constantin Liesch and Genç Taşbaşı for making themselves available at short notice. Hammersmith were also without some of their usual A team players, but they still significantly outrated us.

It was the board 5 game which might have finished first, as Tom Townsend offered Constantin a draw, which the Kingston player had the spirit to refuse, even though at that point he only had a slight advantage. In fact, the first result came on board 3, where Jasper Tambini (pictured above) had played the Advance Variation against Maria-Alexandra Ciocan’s French Defence. In the following position the two players had equal chances:

This win was a fillip for the team and for those watching on Chess.com, and as the other games were still too close to call there was a flicker of hope that we could yet achieve a result against expectations.

On board 2, where I had Black against Luke Lau, I felt that I had equalised in the opening (an Italian Game), but both players were continually faced with difficult choices which had impacts on both sides of the board. After Luke’s 32. h4 this was the position:

The board 6 game began as a Sicilian Defence Alapin Variation, with a fairly level position up to this position:

On board 1 Peter Andrews had opened with his usual English. Stereotypes of this opening as one which generally steers clear of tactics were exposed as totally wide of the mark by the way the game went. Peter gained an extra pawn (on c5), but also exchanged his g2 bishop for Black’s c6 knight, commenting afterwards that “giving up the two bishops is a high price to pay”. Unusually, Ali Hill positioned his bishops on h4 and h5, and his control of the e-file gave him the advantage:

John Foley succinctly summed up both his journey to the venue and the way his game started as follows: “I was stuck in traffic, so bailed out and Limed it to Hammersmith 20 minutes late. I rattled off the trusty Caro-Kann and times were level after 19 moves.” There were many twists and turns in this game too, until the position simplified, if that is the appropriate word, into a queen and bishop ending where John had an extra pawn:

With five of the six games concluded, Kingston B had now lost the match, trailing 3.5-1.5, but on board 5 Constantin Liesch was still fighting to try to win a rook ending against his much higher-rated opponent. This nearly backfired when, in time trouble, he allowed his opponent the chance to advance his passed pawn to e2 at a moment when Constantin’s rook was not in a position to stop it queening. Fortunately for him, Tom Townsend overlooked this and the game was drawn, a very good result for Constantin. This gave a final match score of 4-2 to Hammersmith.

Not a bad result given the rating discrepancy, and I imagine we gave plenty of entertainment to the chess.com viewers. However, it’s been quite frustrating this season that we have put up good fights against Hammersmith, Ealing and Maidenhead (away – we beat them at home), but have fallen short in the end. We still have three matches in which to gain the points to stay in division 1.

David Rowson is Kingston B captain in Thames Valley division 1

Richmond A v Kingston B, Thames Valley League division 2 match played at the Adelaide pub Teddington on 17 March 2025

Like Kingston B’s previous fixture, a narrow win against Surbiton A, this match at Richmond was a relegation clash. The two teams were quite similar in terms of average ratings, but Richmond were strong on the top two boards. In view of my recent poor form, Alan Scrimgour kindly agreed to take board 1 against Mike Healey.

I was also grateful to John Foley for stepping in to play at short notice, and it was John who secured the first half-point for us. He commented on an amusing aspect of his encounter: “I played an uneventful Caro-Kann, with an early draw. I thought at first it was Chris Baker IM. I was confused because I played CBIM previously and this person looked different.”

The evening’s other draw was that on board 5. Raghu Kamath played the Dutch Defence and had pressure on the half-open f-file, but Homayoon Froogh defended stoutly. In the following position, Black could have opened a second front on the queenside and centre by playing his pawns to b6 and c5.

The board 1 game between Alan Scrimgour, with White, and Mike Healey began as a Sicilian Defence, c3 variation (1. e4 c5 3. c3). It was level until this position was reached:

Kingston soon equalised the score thanks to Stephen Lovell’s win with White on board 3. Here his opponent, John Burke, has just played 17…N(f6)xNd5. Stephen (pictured above, left) had to decide how to recapture, and had three choices.

This left the match all square with two games outstanding – boards 2 and 6. Both these games seemed hard to call for one side or the other, but in the case of the board 2 game this was because the position might be described as on a knife edge, while on board 6 the game looked to be heading for a draw. One Interesting aspect of Gajowniczek v Jones on board 6 was that Martyn had played the Grunfeld Defence, which in my experience is rarely seen in club chess, though I don’t know why.

The action in my game was all on the queenside, as Casper Bates had a passed pawn on the b-file and I had one on the a-file. As we entered time trouble the question was whether either of us could win the opposition’s pawn or force a weakening in his position. Unfortunately, I played too quickly, without sufficient calculation, as is often my problem when in time trouble, and allowed Casper’s queen and knight to enter the heart of the position and give mate.

Disappointed, I looked at the match sheet and saw that someone had scored the board 6 game as a draw, which would have meant that we had also lost the match. However, it turned out that whoever had assumed a draw in that game had jumped the gun: the two players were still fighting it out, although the opposite-coloured bishop ending did appear dead drawn. Martyn, who thought I was either winning or drawing my game, had offered a draw, which Maks had rejected. Sadly for the Richmond player, moments later he lost on time, still in a theoretically drawn position. So Kingston B had very fortuitously drawn the match 3-3.

This result still leaves the relegation issue very much undecided. Richmond have 8 points, but only two matches left, and those are against Kingston A and Hammersmith A. Ealing and Kingston B both have 6 points, but we have an extra match in hand. At the bottom are Surbiton with 5 points, but they have played a match less than us. So it’s all to play for.

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

Kingston B v Surbiton A, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at the Richard Mayo Centre, United Reformed Church, Kingston on 9 March 2026

It’s sometimes said that relegation battles are not for the purist;  I think the course of this match supports that view. The key point is not how you play, but whether you get the required result, and in the end this was what Kingston B achieved against Surbiton A. Two short draws, one longer one, a game that saw an unlikely turn-around, a game decided by a blunder, and my own game, about which the least said the better (though the reader will see below that I have said quite a lot).

The first game to finish was the board 5 encounter. It began as a c3 Sicilian Defence, but after the queens were exchanged the players decided there was little to be gained from playing on and agreed a draw. Following this, another draw, on board 2. As Peter Andrews pointed out, the drama here was only in what might have been. In the following position Black played 17…f6, but Peter noted that “Black was struggling for a plan here, and missed a nice pawn sacrifice pointed out by the machine: 17…. h5.” The analysis below shows what follows if White accepts the pawn sac.

This was also the result on board 3, but only after more than 40 moves. From a kind of Catalan Opening, numerous exchanges led to an ending in which Jasper Tambini (foreground, left, in photograph above), with Black, had a bishop against Neil Davies’s knight but ultimately could not make progress.

So three peaceful conclusions left the match all square, but the remaining games were much more contested. Martyn Jones, playing White, and David Cole dared to explore the complications and imbalances of the Winawer variation of the French Defence. As can happen in this opening, White’s queen hoovered up Black’s kingside pawns, but allowed Black to take his central pawns in return. The position here is unbalanced but roughly equal:

Martyn’s win put Kingston one game ahead, but the signs for the overall result were not promising as I was struggling to defend an inferior ending on board 1 and Stephen Lovell was the exchange and a pawn down on board 4.

Stephen had played the English Opening, but commented: “My opponent played a system I hadn’t encountered before, and I didn’t find the best way of meeting it.” This was the position after Nick Faulks had shored up his queenside by moving the a8 rook off the long diagonal and his pawn to b6 and taken a grip on the centre:

Due to the players’ shortage of time, the record of the moves ends in the position above, but this was the key result for Kingston B, as it ensured that we would win the match and made the result of my own game incidental.

As Black in another English Opening I had obtained what I thought were promising chances, but accepted exchanges which eventually resulted in a fairly level position:

My dissatisfaction with the way my game had gone was offset by the fact that we had won the match, an important step towards possible safety from relegation in Thames Valley division 1. I’ll take another few chaotic encounters like this if we can get the results we need.

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

Ealing A v Kingston B, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at Actonians Sports Club, London W5 on 16 February 2026

On arrival at Ealing’s venue, we were pleasantly surprised to find that their team was not as strong as feared. Andrew Harley, their captain, was absent, and overall we actually slightly outrated them.

The early result on board 3, where Peter Andrews (pictured above) had White against Alejandro Lopez-Martinez, increased my hopes that we would get something from the match. From an English Opening, a close positional contest was looking likely when Peter’s opponent made a serious oversight.

The next result, a win for Martyn Jones on board 5, put us two up. Jack Sheard played the Lion variation of the Philidor Defence, but took a risk in opening up the centre early and was efficiently punished by Martyn. In the following position Black has just played 8…d5.

The board 2 game, in which Kingston’s Will Taylor had Black against Duncan Grassie, begun with an unusual opening – the Levitsky Attack). It is worth looking at the game from the beginning:

The board 4 game, with Kingston’s John Foley playing Black against Xavier Cowan, began with a deceptively quiet line of the Queen’s Gambit Declined, only to explode into tactics in the position below.

The most significant rating difference was on board 1, where I faced FM Rick McMichael. I have played him twice before, some years ago. This game was similar to the others in that I had White and chose the King’s Indian Attack against his French Defence. However, it was different in terms of the line played and, eventually, the result (I hadn’t previously lost to Rick).

Rick played imaginatively, assessing that having a backward pawn on e6 was not important in comparison to the attacking chances he obtained against my kingside. We reached this position after my 30th move:

On board 6 Seth Warren succeeded in equalising out of the opening, an Italian Game. His opponent’s attempts to attack on the kingside led to his pieces getting rather tangled up, and Seth managed to capitalise on this to win a pawn. Unfortunately, he made just one error in the ensuing ending and lost the exchange; a pity, after he had done well to reach a good position.

Thus the match ended 4-2 to Ealing. This was another disappointing result for Kingston B, given that for some time it appeared a close-fought match from which we could have anticipated at least a draw. We still have six matches left this season, so we just have to do our best to get points from them.

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

Maidenhead A v Kingston B, Thames Valley division 1 match played at St Luke’s Community Hall, Maidenhead on 19 January 2026

Another Monday evening, another trip to Maidenhead. Last week it had been our A team making the journey, and now it was our B team, but for two of us, Peter Hasson and me, it was a return trip, as we played in both matches.

The Maidenhead team was very similar to the previous week apart from the absence of GM Matthew Wadsworth and the addition of John Wager. The average ratings of the two teams on the night were almost identical, and this was reflected in the play, but unfortunately for Kingston (spoiler alert) Maidenhead succeeded in winning games in which they were at best slightly better early on and drawing games in which they were slightly worse.

Having said that, on board 4 the result might have gone Maidenhead’s way if John Wager had found the winning line in the ending. In the middlegame the centre and kingside had become blocked, which meant that the question was whether White could exploit his advanced pawn chain on the queenside. He managed to get a pawn to a7, but John Foley blocked this with a knight, resulting in this position:

Shortly after this, Alan Scrimgour and Tony Milnes also agreed a draw. The game had started as a French Defence Winawer Variation, with complex play on both sides of the board. In the end the players were happy to share the point.

Prior to my own game I had noticed that Andrew Smith usually played the Centre Game, but, as he told me afterwards, he has very recently started to try out the Ruy Lopez. However, he admitted that he was unfamiliar with the line I played, and after 19 moves I had reached a comfortable position:

The board 3 game began with a classical Closed Ruy Lopez. Jasper Tambini, with White, established a knight on d6, but Stephen James had counterplay through his bishop on the a8-h1 diagonal and his rook on g6:

So the score was Maidenhead 2.5 Kingston 1.5 with two games to finish. The board 6 game between Maidenhead’s Charles Bullock, with White, and Kingston’s Homayoon Froogh opened with the Slav Defence. In the position below White is looking threatening on the kingside, but, as Homayoon noted afterwards, if he had played 25…Nc5 or Qc6 he would have been at least equal, as White’s next move would not have been possible.

Maidenhead now had a decisive two-game lead. In the remaining game, on top board, Peter Hasson (pictured above left), with White, had achieved an advantage, since Bohdan Terler’s h-pawn advance backfired, as can be seen in the diagram below (after Black’s 29th move):

Thus the match ended in a Maidenhead win by 4-2. We could dwell on the might-have-beens, but better to move on and do our best to obtain the points we need to stay in the division.

David Rowson, captain of Kingston B in Thames Valley division 1

Kingston B v Richmond A, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at the Richard Mayo Centre, United Reformed Church, Kingston on 5 January 2026

I’m not sure if Kingston have ever previously had two teams in the first division of the Thames Valley League. We may well have, but I haven’t been able to trace a record of it.  It’s clearly a challenge for a B team to retain their place in the division, so we are anxious to earn every point we can in order to avoid relegation. Last season just six points would have been sufficient to stay up, but we can’t be sure that will be enough this year.

Therefore our home fixture against Richmond A was another six-pointer, to use the football cliché. We actually outrated our opponents slightly on every board except the top one, so could hope for at least a draw, and the first results suggested that we might expect more.

The board 4 game finished surprisingly early.  Against Stephen Lovell’s English Opening, Maks Gajowniczek played ambitiously, but his pawn advances looked to be premature, as his pieces were not well placed and he had kingside weaknesses. In the position below Maks moved 12…d5.

Not long after this, Kingston went two points up with a win on board 6 by Martyn Jones over the always combative Bertie Barlow. This game opened as a French Defence Winawer Variation, in which Black gives up his g- and h-pawns in exchange for White’s d-and e-pawns, leaving an unbalanced position. Martyn allowed a queen exchange, as his outside passed pawns looked more dangerous than Black’s central pawns. This was the situation after White’s 31st move:

Shortly after this, Kingston’s drive for the full points also looked to be almost unstoppable as Homayoon Froogh won with Black to make it a whitewash on the bottom three boards. The opening was a Caro-Kann, with Sampson Low opting for the Advance Variation. Homayoon gained the two bishops and made good use of them, reaching this position:

So we were three-nil up with three games remaining in which to gain the winning half point. On board 3 Alastair Armstrong had chosen the c3 line against Peter Andrews’ Sicilian Defence, and Peter, in an unfamiliar position, had misplaced his king’s knight to c7, where it had very little scope for action. However, Alastair did not choose the best plan and Peter managed to reach a position which was almost level.

Alastair annotated his win on the Richmond club blog, and, in the spirit of inter-club cooperation, the link to his analysis is here. His victory over Peter made the score 3-1 to Kingston, so could we conjure up a half-point for a home win?

The board two game also proved to be a tough one for Kingston. Jasper Tambini, with White, made what seemed a good pawn sacrifice, but John Burke defended carefully and, as sometimes happens, Jasper felt it necessary to make further imaginative sacrifices in order to keep his attack alive. Ultimately, a piece down after a long battle, he had to accept that his opponent had managed to snuff out the attack.

That made the score 3-2 to Kingston with one game left to finish, which was, as luck would have it, my own with Black against the highly rated Mike Healey (our encounter is pictured at the top of the report). From a kind of hybrid Vienna/Italian Opening the game progressed into a queenless middlegame in which neither of us had much activity, or, to put it more accurately, I had almost zero activity and Mike had a little more than zero. As often seems to happen, the game was blown open just when we both had little time left.

My immediate resignation meant that the match was drawn 3-3. This was not a bad result against an A team, but a disappointment considering our impressive 3-0 start. Still, with eight matches left this season we can remain hopeful of survival.

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

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

Surbiton 1 v Kingston 2, Surrey League division 2 match played at Fircroft, Surbiton 19 November 2025

For this match I deputised as captain for Peter Andrews, who was busy moving house, though he did manage to come to the venue later to support his team. The thread of his WhatsApp commentary expressed well the twists and turns of the match, in which for a long time the final decisive result appeared improbable. Surbiton had a rating edge on five of the boards, and on the other two the ratings were close to parity.

The first game to finish was on board 3, where Alan Scrimgour (who had Black) and Joshua Pirgon agreed a draw, despite the fact that, as Alan Scrimgour said later, he was possibly slightly worse in the final position. After that the difficulties of my own game required all my concentration, so I wasn’t aware of the order of events.

I did, however, register that Stephen Moss was conducting a devastating kingside attack with Black against Graham Alcock on board 7. One thing that was original about this was that Stephen had opened with the Caro-Kann Defence and then castled queenside – commendably ambitious play. A key early moment came in this position.

In the board 1 game, Mark Josse began with the English Opening against Kingston’s Jasper Tambini (pictured above, right), and the two players castled on opposite sides. The presence of all four bishops on open diagonals made for a double-edged position.

The board 4 game between Stephen Lovell and Liam Bayly had also begun as an English Opening. White was able to put pressure on Black’s queenside pawns.

On board 5, Homayoon Froogh had Black against Neil Davies. It was an intense struggle, but after a long period of manoeuvring Homayoon got on top in a time scramble to record another good win. Meanwhile Jon Eckert, with White on board 6, was pressing Nick Faulks hard with a kingside attack. He showed principle in refusing to take a draw by perpetual check, but unfortunately a subsequent error resulted in him losing.

On board 2, having misplayed the middlegame and lost a pawn with White against David Scott, I tried to find tactical resources to avoid going straight into a lost endgame. In this position I was eventually successful.

So Kingston 2 defied the ratings to achieve a clear victory in a very well-contested match. We look forward to the return match against Surbiton 1 at home tomorrow.

David Rowson is Kingston second-team captain in the Thames Valley League and was acting captain in this Surrey League match