Surrey League division 2 (Beaumont Cup) match played at the United Reformed Church, Tolworth on 29 March 2022

After the knife-edge drama of our narrow wins against Epsom and South Norwood, and with us having already won the division and promotion, the match against Surbiton 2 was always likely to be a little anti-climactic. Nevertheless, I think I can speak for the team in saying that we were determined if possible to make it five wins out of five.

Surbiton put up some stiff resistance. Mark Hogarth, for example, was generous in offering me a draw in a position where he stood well. He’d cunningly chosen the Exchange Variation of the Ruy Lopez, which I happen to hate playing against, and I’d tried to take him off the beaten track by playing 4…bxc6 instead of the standard 4…dxc6. As things transpired, I came to a deep understanding of why bxc6 is off the beaten track.

Another Surbiton player who might perhaps have played on was their board 2, Nick Faulks, who resigned a difficult position against David Maycock but one which didn’t quite seem terminal yet. On board 5 Alan Scrimgour gave the Benoni another outing (he had had a spectacular success with it against South Norwood). This time there were no fireworks and he soon agreed a draw, to make it 2-1 to Kingston.

John Shanley on board 7 outmanoeuvred his opponent in an English to win a pawn, and showed good technique in successfully converting this: 3-1. Three games were now left, and these were the hardest fought. Peter Andrews was slowly increasing his space advantage after opening with an English, when he grasped the chance to play a winning combination instead of a routine recapture. This gave us the match, but the two remaining games still drew groups of spectators, as they were the tensest of all.

Jon Eckert had won a pawn but had the kind of position where it’s not easy to make progress. He was also understandably tired after making two 4NCL car trips at the weekend. His opponent, David Razzell, seized his chance to launch a queen and rook attack down the h file aimed at Jon’s king. At first it seemed, to me at least, that Jon could secure a draw by repetition, but that was shown to be a superficial assessment as Razzell forced a win.

The final game to finish, naturally, was Peter Lalić’s. His will to win is probably unrivalled by anyone else in the team, and most likely in the whole division. He’s also blessed with nerves of steel, which enable him to play on increments for as long as it takes to grapple his opponent to the floor – I think the wrestling metaphor is not inappropriate here.

At the climax of the game the caretaker was about to appear demanding that the room be closed up for the night, and Stephen Moss and I were speculating that he had no chance of doing that before Peter achieved his win. Angus James was actually in the game right up to the point when it became a minor piece ending, but then lost a pawn and finally had to concede, sadly denying us the contest between Peter and the caretaker. 

Farewell to our Beaumont Cup season

This 5-2 win was the conclusion of our successful season in division 2 of the Surrey League: five wins out of five, first in the division and promotion to go with it. From the start we had such a strong squad (further increased in strength by the welcome addition of Peter Andrews, supersub, halfway through the season) that we were expected to do well, but in chess you can’t take anything for granted.

Crucially, apart from the combined playing ability, we were blessed with high levels of motivation and team spirit. A good example of this was the willingness of our top three players, Mike Healey, Peter Lalić and David Maycock, to turn out on occasions when they might have thought that there was little in it for them in playing weaker opposition. 

I’m also very grateful to the “engine room”, as Stephen Moss calls John Foley and Alan Scrimgour (and I should certainly add here Julian Way and Jon Eckert) for being so collectively reliable that even on the rare occasion when one misfired the others scored their points.  Add to this the pleasure of watching creativity at work – Will Taylor’s win against Epsom was especially noteworthy.

This section has already turned into the most clichéd of Oscar awards speeches – though happily with no slaps and no tears – but I would like to acknowledge too the contribution of our drivers (especially important in the case of the long day’s journey into South Norwood) and the great work that Greg Heath does to get everything ready at the Willoughby. Last but far from least, my thanks to Stephen for being our superfan/mentor/manager.

David Rowson, Kingston Beaumont Cup (Surrey League division 2) captain

Thames Valley League division 2 match played at the Adelaide, Teddington on 22 March 2022

It is never nice to be bagelled (as they say in tennis) 6-0, and on the surface this does look like a runaway win for Kingston over Richmond B. But raw statistics sometimes lie, and there was some excellent fighting chess in this match before that very satisfying (from a Kingston point of view) scoreline.

This was Kingston’s first visit to Richmond’s excellent new venue, the Adelaide pub in Teddington, and we were mighty impressed. There were two matches in the playing room – Richmond were also entertaining South Norwood 2 in the Surrey League – which made it busy and intense but not too congested. With social chess being played in the bar downstairs and a general air of a club that knew its business and had found a fresh focus, Richmond are clearly on the up. As their near neighbours, we have been warned.

This was an A team up against a B team and we were expected to win handsomely. But Richmond were by no means weak, and Alan Scrimgour on board 5 was immediately in some difficulty with his trademark King’s Gambit against Serhat Abay. “The opening went wrong somewhere and I was lucky,” he said later.

I thought there must be an element of false modesty in him saying this because, in a horribly double-edged position with Black only a move or so from proclaiming mate himself, Scrimgour launched a powerful attack on Black’s exposed king and got there first to make it 1-0 to Kingston. But, admirably honest about his own play, he insisted there was no false modesty. “Having looked at my game,” he told me, “I can confirm that I was lucky. It was a messy game, and I missed a clear win earlier. We both made some terrible mistakes, but my opponent made the last one. As Savielly Tartakower said, ´The winner of the game is the player who makes the next-to-last mistake’.”

David Rowson, playing his usual brand of classical positional chess – winning a pawn early and building a series of incremental advantages – won smoothly on board 3 against Pablo Soriano to make it 2-0. And Peter Lalic, playing as so often for a long period on the 10-second increment, then won a dynamic attacking game against Raghu Kamath on board 1 to put Kingston 3-0 up with three games still in progress.

The way Peter plays such beautifully controlled chess on the increment is a wonder to behold, though he said he was fortunate to stumble on one tactic at the height of his time trouble and chided himself for being “unprofessional” in once again having to rely on the increment. For all that, however, his results and the general standard of his play suggest he is doing something right. He is a perfectionist in the opening – hence his tendency to fall into time trouble at the short controls that apply in evening chess – and the depth of thought early in the game seems to stand him in good stead for later tactical complications.

David Maycock won a bafflingly brilliant game on board 2 against Ieuan Fenton, sacrificing a knight for an obscure positional advantage that nobody could really understand and magically not just getting the piece back 15 moves later but going a whole bishop up soon after that, without his opponent making any obvious blunders. It really was sorcery.

In the analysis afterwards, David doubted whether the sac was truly sound, but, as he said, “not all Tal’s sacs were sound”. (David is a modest fellow and you should not get the impression he was comparing himself with Tal; he was just making a general point that there were so many complications and possibilities he had a gut feeling something would turn up, which it duly did.) He also explained that he is practising playing without looking at the board – he feels seeing the pieces makes them too static and he prefers to imagine them moving in his head. I feel we have a genius in our midst.

It was 4-0 and the match was won, but Kingston weren’t finished yet. John Foley got the better of Victor Bluett in a hard-fought game on board 4, with Foley maintaining a slight edge throughout before eventually trapping Bluett’s knight. Jon Eckert then completed a clean sweep for Kingston with an efficient win on board 6, his opponent resigning in the face of Eckert’s three connected passed pawns driving ever closer to the finish line. A memorable evening that puts Kingston top of Thames Valley division 2 and, with games in hand, eyeing promotion to the premier division.

Stephen Moss, Kingston Thames Valley captain

Surrey League division 2 (Beaumont Cup) match played at West Thornton Community Centre on 17 March 2022

An epic match: twists and turns on nearly every board, luck (it can happen in chess) playing a crucial role, and the outcome unclear until the final game was decided, the players down to 10-second increments. This more than lived up to its significance as the encounter that would determine the Beaumont Cup winners.

Hannibal crossing the Alps, Napoleon’s trip to Russia … prior to match day, the Kingston team’s concerns were all about the logistics of getting to the South Norwood venue, due to the distance to be covered and the potential public transport complications. In the event, there were no problems and all the players arrived on time. However, that was when we suddenly realised that the real challenge was actually matching the strong opposition team facing us over the board. The arrival, not the journey, mattered.

If we could win this match, we would be Beaumont Cup champions with the prize of promotion to Surrey’s top division. So far, the plan we might have envisioned at the start of the season had been, if not a doddle, at least followed to the letter, and the team had built up a confidence in its own strength. Hubris? Our collective confidence was very soon shaken, as our two “banker” players, John Foley and Jon Eckert, both lost without really getting into their games. It was John’s first classical chess loss for three years, and for Jon it came on the back of a 10-victory run.  Were we about to be found out?

I redressed the balance to some extent by winning against Paul Dupré. He played the quirky Lion variation of the Philidor, advancing with h6 and g5 just out of the opening. I risked exposing my king with f4, giving his rook the g file after the pawn exchange. The first 14 moves were a rerun of a game we played about three years ago, when I won a piece with a two-move combination. Paul remembered that and varied, but my control of the centre made it very hard for him to coordinate his pieces in the long run.

On board one Mike Healey had opened with his favourite Polish, and a strategically complex battle was under way. Suddenly, those observing were taken aback to see that Mike was a queen to a piece and some pawns down. His reputation is such that we thought this had to be a brilliant sacrifice, and waited expectantly for the compensation payoff to be revealed. Sadly, as Mike admitted afterwards, it had all been a mistake, and Marcus Osborne avoided any tactical traps to win and make the score 3-1 to South Norwood.

So we needed an unlikely three wins from the three remaining games to win the match, and they were not looking good for us. On board 6, from an unusual Benoni (White castled queenside), Alan Scrimgour was the exchange down. Initially it wasn’t clear if he had compensation for this, but, after he downed a three-spoonful cup of coffee, Alan’s pieces managed to open up lines to attack his opponent’s king. A discovered check sequence led to that king having to run to the other side of the board, where Alan found a neat forced mate. 3-2 to South Norwood.

Julian Way had not originally been down to play in the match, but when Peter Andrews unfortunately had to drop out due to illness, Julian very decently stepped in as a replacement.  A super-sub for our super-sub. Julian has recently been trying out Alekhine’s Defence, but this time he found himself in a rather passive position, with Roy Reddin’s pieces massed around his queenside-castled king. At the start of play Roy and Julian had opted for adjudication. Now, with Roy about to win a pawn and time nearly due to be called, things looked ominous for Julian. There might be no point in sending the game off for adjudication. But on move 35 Roy sat tight and didn’t make the last move required by the time control. When his flag fell Julian pointed out politely that his opponent had lost on time. It turned out that Roy had missed writing the moves on one line of his scoresheet, so thought he’d already made 35 moves. Terrible luck for South Norwood, but this was the fillip which Kingston needed. We had drawn level, 3-3, with only board 2 to be decided.

Peter Lalić was so absorbed in his game that I couldn’t find an opportunity to tell him the match situation. I think that he had already turned down a draw offer. Should Kingston be cautious and accept a tied match, instead of risking defeat, having come back from the nearly dead? Peter had been pressing, but Tariq Oozeerally found a combination to win a pawn. In compensation, Peter’s pieces, rook, knight and king, had a grip on the centre of the board. As players from both teams gathered round to watch the tense finale, Peter and Tariq barely had more time on their clocks than the 10-second increments per move. All the while John Foley was hammering out updates on What’s App for the Kingston members who had not ventured over to South Norwood.

In time trouble situations like this, games turn on the proverbial knife edge. Tariq allowed Peter to win back a pawn and the latter, coolly and accurately upping the pressure despite his time shortage, won White’s bishop and then efficiently saw off Tariq’s final attempts to fight back. South Norwood had tested us to the limits and were very sporting in defeat. Against all the earlier run of play, Kingston had won 4-3, and were the Beaumont Cup champions with a match to spare. We still have Surbiton 2 to play, but we can already celebrate.

David Rowson, Kingston Beaumont Cup (Surrey League division 2) captain

Thames Valley League division 2 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 14 March 2022

Maidenhead A came to Fortress Willoughby sitting proudly atop division 2 of the Thames Valley League, having pushed past long-time leaders Richmond B. They had come well prepared too, with a team averaging close to 2000 in rating terms. Maidenhead have not always been the best of travellers – they do, after all, face a lot of long away journeys – but this season have been performing well and this was a good team to muster for an expedition to Kingston in mid-March. It was certainly stronger than the team that lost 4.5 to 1.5 away to Surbiton B a month ago. Some stops had been pulled out as they eyed promotion.

But we were also strong, with Peter Lalic and David Maycock – the two young players whose arrival has galvanised Kingston this season – on boards 1 and 2 and a matchless set of Kingston stalwarts on boards 3 to 6: FM Julian Way, club chair John Foley, club secretary (and Scottish international) Alan Scrimgour and Jon Eckert, who had been in tremendous form this year. All marshalled by another great Kingston veteran, Nick Grey, in the continuing absence of yours truly, who is still trying to get over brain-deadening Covid and writing this report on the basis of scraps of information what’s-apped by Nick and the faithful band of Kingston supporters on the night. We have actually been doing rather well in my absence, and I sense a growing movement to keep me locked away at home.

We had lost to Maidenhead when we made the reverse journey at the start of the season, but we had been without Lalic and Maycock that night, though the other four had all played. Having the two young guns on the top boards, though, changes the complexion of the team, and we surely started as warm favourites, despite the wealth of experience in the Maidenhead ranks, animated by their excellent captain Nigel Smith.

That prediction was rapidly born out. Playing White, David Maycock made short work of beating Anthony Milnes on board 2 in an Advanced French, and Alan Scrimgour, playing a sharp line of his trusty Sicilian, put Kingston 2-0 up with a smooth success against another veteran, Nigel Dennis, on board 5. With Jon Eckert a piece to the good on board 6, it all looked very promising for Kingston.

Eckert eventually overcame his opponent’s concerted efforts to get a perpetual and converted his winning position, and John Foley, appropriately given his pivotal position at the club, secured the draw against Nigel Smith that took Kingston over the winning line. There was, though, a sting in the tail, with Charles Bullock beating Julian Way on board 3 in a Benoni that had at one point seemed to favour Black, and Stephen James making light of a 200-point rating difference to get a draw with Peter Lalic on board 1.

That made the final score 4-2 to Kingston, who are gradually manoeuvring themselves into the promotion fight and can start to dream of a berth in the bearpit that is Thames Valley Division 1 next season. But there are five tough matches still to come, with a crucial visit to promotion rivals Richmond B looming next week, so the ginger beer has not yet been put on ice.

Stephen Moss, (still indisposed) Kingston Thames Valley captain

Lauder Trophy semi-final played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 10 March 2022

Full disclosure: this is a somewhat imperfect report on a wonderful – and clinical – 5-1 victory for Kingston over Ashtead in the semi-final of the Lauder Trophy, because despite being the proud team captain I wasn’t actually present, having tested positive for Covid a few hours earlier. David Rowson, who was playing on board 1, stepped into the breach as captain, and FM Julian Way, who was lending his support to the team at the Willoughby Arms, kept the wider membership informed of developments via What’s App. I have accordingly pieced together this brief report from his excellent dispatches on the night.

Rowson, with White, was up against Ashtead captain Bertie Barlow on board 1. Bertie opted for what Julian called his “trusted Alekhine” and the game was a fairly sedate draw. Board 2, featuring Kingston’s rock-like veteran Alan Scrimgour and Ashtead’s Jonathan Hinton, author of the highly regarded anthology of chess games A Gnat May Drink, was also drawn, but it was far from sedate. Hinton responded to Scrimgour’s time-honoured Sicilian with the Wing Gambit – an opening Alan considers dubious – and the game descended into what Way described as “chaos”. But when the smoke cleared, both players were still standing and they agreed a draw. “Unfortunately I have now lost my 100% record against the SWG [Sicilian Wing Gambit],” Scrimgour emailed me later. “I was previously 6/6, which was good as some strongish Scottish players used it.” Alan learned his trade in Scotland and plays for the Scottish senior team.

The top boards were always likely to be tense battles and it was no surprise to see honours shared, but Kingston certainly had the edge on the bottom boards. Nick Grey, another Kingston veteran but playing his first game of the season for the club, swept to victory on board 4; Yae-Chan Yang played what Way described as a “beautiful” game to win on board 5, and Gregor Smith won on board 6. There was a blip in the middlegame where Way felt Smith’s opponent, Nick Thynne, was getting some counterplay in exchange for two pawns, but Smith, who is having a terrific debut season for Kingston, had it all under control and won smoothly.

Board 3, with Jon Eckert as White up against the dangerous Ian McLeod, was a dramatic clash between two players who know each other’s games well. McLeod played the Scandinavian and went the exchange up. But Eckert had three pawns as compensation, and in the end they told. That made it 5-1 to Kingston – a result far beyond my wildest brain-befogged expectations. We now face new-kids-on-the-Surrey-League-block Chessington in the final, which is likely to be played in early May. We won the Lauder Trophy in 2018/19 and would dearly like to get our hands back on the cup, but we aren’t counting our chickens yet. Chessington put out Lauder specialists South Norwood in their semi-final, are nurturing some capable juniors and will be no pushovers.

Stephen Moss, (indisposed) Kingston Lauder Trophy captain

Surrey League division 4 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 7 March 2022

This was the clash of the Centenary Trophy titans. League leaders Epsom 3 arrived knowing that a win would clinch the Surrey division 4 title. Kingston 2 had fielded a largely novice team when visiting Epsom in November, but this time selected four players with grades of 1800+ as we looked to secure a victory that would blow the title race wide open.

Kingston fielded Peter Andrews, John Bussmann, John Shanley, Gregor Smith and Max Mikardo-Greaves, with captain Adam Nakar coming in as a late substitute on board 3. We had been confident ahead of the match, but Epsom had come well prepared and the two strong teams soon started to cancel out. 

There was a drawish Sicilian (or as Shanley preferred to call it, perhaps implying he had found the line a little baffling, a “Sardinian”) on board 4, followed by another draw on board 1 for Andrews. First blood then went to Kingston, with Smith pulling off a nice win on board 5 – 2-1 to the home side. Epsom, however, stormed back. Mikardo-Greaves is surely now only one game away from his first league win, but here he lost a “won” endgame in time trouble against a far higher-rated opponent – 2-2.

Disaster then struck for the home team on board 2. Bussmann’s offbeat opening put him under severe and sustained pressure on his queenside against former Kingstonian Chris Wright, who is surely stronger than the grade of 1700 off which he was playing here. Despite a valiant effort, Bussmann couldn’t hold the position: 3-2 to Epsom, who now had at least the half-point that would keep them on top of the table.

That left me – up against Michael Wickham, who had won both the previous games we had played. I am rather fond of dubious gambits (Halloween Gambit, anyone?), but on this occasion it was my opponent who opted for the imaginative route, playing the Urusov Gambit (1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Nf6 3. d4). Unfortunately for him – and happily for me – it didn’t really work out, and he was on the back foot throughout. My play was more patient than usual and I managed a match-saving win.

But it was still Epsom who were the happier with a 3-3 draw. We have to win our last two matches, both against Richmond, to have any chance of catching them, but if Epsom beat South Norwood 2 away in their final game they will lift the trophy and gain promotion to division 3. Our destiny is no longer in our own hands, which is never a pleasant feeling.

Adam Nakar, Kingston Centenary Trophy (Surrey League division 4) captain

Surrey League division 2 (Beaumont Cup) match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 21 February 2022

Where to start?  It’s true that we’re only talking about the parochial world of Surrey chess but, within those confines, this was a hugely anticipated clash. This season has seen the birth of a new rivalry, between a re-established and ambitious Epsom and a rejuvenated Kingston. This was the fourth 2021/22 encounter between the two clubs, each one hard-fought. Both sides understood its significance, as it was highly likely that the victor of this match would go on to win the Beaumont Cup.

In recent days Kingston scouts had sniffed out rumours that Epsom were going to reinforce their team with one or even two more international masters. Were they worried that fielding one IM (Peter Large) was not enough to match Kingston? This fomented a great deal of speculation among the Kingston players about possible pairings and how to prepare for them. In the event, there was one especially intriguing match-up on board 1, where Peter Lalić faced his stepfather, IM Graeme Buckley. The other end of the pairings, board 7, would see a generational challenge, as our Scottish national senior team player was up against the British under-12 championship runner-up.

I had decided to sit, or rather, stand, this one out as non-playing captain. This meant I could observe the play without being distracted by my own position, and enjoy (or worry about) each of the games. In the initial stages many of the players seemed to be understandably cagey, apparently not wanting to commit themselves too soon in the opening, with the result that, for me at least, several of the openings defied labelling. One exception to this was the Scrimgour-Patel game, where Alan essayed the King’s Gambit, confidently accepted by Zain, and another was the Young-Way opening, as Julian boldly chose Alekhine’s Defence. All the games except for board 6 were being played according to the Fischer time control, but on the top boards in particular the players used up a lot of time over the opening stages.

As the first hour passed the outlines of the positions became more clearly defined and the players became more committal. Peter Andrews, our supersub on board 3, playing instead of his captain, carefully built up a positional advantage and cunningly delayed castling in order to attend to more important aspects of his game. Suddenly there was a little flare-up of tactics which resulted in Peter temporarily having two queens on the board, both unfortunately en prise, but with his position subsequently improved.

Around the same time, the other Peter confidently rejected his opponent’s draw offer.  Alan’s King’s Gambit went from being strategically to tactically complicated; he acquired two bishops for a rook and several pawns, but his opponent’s rooks were inactive and his kingside in the line of fire of most of Alan’s pieces. How to take advantage of this? Alan played what looked to me like a winning rook sacrifice on h7, but Zain spotted that a check by his queen on the first rank allowed it simultaneously to return to defeat Alan’s threats. Kingston 0 Epsom 1.

Soon after this Kingston got on the scoreboard when Julian came up with a clever defensive exchange sacrifice which resulted in an agreed draw. Then John Foley, who had outplayed his opponent in the central skirmishes of a London System and won a pawn, successfully steered through the complications to win our first whole point.  Kingston 1.5 Epsom 1.5.

I hadn’t been able to follow what was happening in the Taylor-Gosling game because it was taking place near the far wall, but now I registered with surprise that Will had sacrificed a rook – two rook sacs in one match! Although Marcus Gosling had plenty of pieces, they were positioned in such a way that they were unable to come to defend his king, and Will’s attack crashed through – an excellently played game.

So Kingston had won the battle of the lower four boards 2.5-1.5, and everything depended on the top three pairings. Peter Andrews was winning in principle (ie positionally), but his opponent was creating practical threats against his king and time trouble was a factor for both players. The position exploded with each side attacking the opposition’s king, but Peter’s attack was the unstoppable one and just at that point Michael Dams lost on time. Now Kingston could not lose, but could they win? David Maycock had been holding the very experienced Peter Large well, but in another case of time trouble he lost his way and a pawn, then a piece. Kingston 3.5 Epsom 2.5.

All eyes were now fixed on the board 1 family clash. The opening seemed to me to have followed an original course, with Peter (playing White) occupying the centre and Graeme sniping from the flanks, to the extent that his king’s knight was placed on h6. As the denouement drew near, with both sides down to their 10-second increments, the players reached a rook ending in which Black was pressing dangerously (see video below). However, Peter impressively kept cool and managed to reach a position in which he could give up his rook for Graeme’s passed pawn while forcing Graeme to return the favour a few moves later. The tension was such that Peter admitted he wasn’t sure that it was a draw right up till the final moments, which appropriately finished with just kings left on the board. Peter had ensured that bragging rights were with Kingston, as we edged the match 4-3.

With three wins out of three and this key victory against our most dangerous rivals, we are now favourites to win the Beaumont Cup. However, we still have to make sure we beat South Norwood and Surbiton 2 in the final rounds. Further dramatic encounters with Epsom undoubtedly lie ahead, and we greatly look forward to them.

David Rowson, Kingston Beaumont Cup (Surrey League division 2) captain

Your match reporter providing a live feed of developments

Surrey League division 4 match played at West Thornton Community Centre on 17 February 2022

A trip to South Norwood is never undertaken lightly – it is one of Kingston’s more demanding trips – and to come away with a convincing victory was very satisfactory.

Kingston are still working out what their attitude is to division 4 of the Surrey League: are we aiming to win promotion or should we treat this team as a training ground for our new players? In an earlier match this season against Epsom 3, the club played an experimental side with four newcomers, all of whom lost. This was admirable but perhaps made it a little too easy for ambitious Epsom, who have made it clear they are eyeing promotion. Against South Norwood, partly by accident and partly by design, we fielded a much stronger team, with an average rating across the six boards of over ECF 1700. In the end, this proved more than enough to secure the match and raise hopes of possible promotion, which would be useful if the club want to add a third team in the Surrey League next season.

Peter Andrews, making an auspicious debut for the club, played a dramatic game on board 1 against South Norwood veteran Ron Harris, who sac’ed a piece playing Black against Andrews’ English opening and then proceeded to blitz out moves in an all-out offensive that was always going to end in death or glory. Andrews could easily have gone wrong in the resulting melee and was way behind on the clock, but he stayed cool, neutralised Harris’s attack and eventually took the spoils. An excellent start for a player with a lot to offer to the club as it builds for the future.

John Bussmann, in combative form as ever, won a complex game on board 2, and Jon Eckert, who is having a fine season for Kingston, overwhelmed his opponent on board 3. Andrews, Bussmann and Eckert are three very strong players to be involved in a division four match, and winning on all three of the top boards was not a complete surprise.

I played Black against the wily Ken Chamberlain on board 4 and played tedious (and not very good) moves against Ken’s well-rehearsed Queen’s Gambit. A cheapo cost me the exchange, but luckily the bishop I had for rook proved reasonable compensation, with the white squares in front of my opponent’s king ripe for exploitation by queen and bishop, and Ken accepted my rather desperate offer of a draw.

The Kingston captain Adam Nakar, who had just driven back from Eastbourne and must have been knackered – oh, the joys of evening league chess! – still had enough energy to play a long game against an opponent who fought till the end despite being a piece down and almost managed to get back into the game by creating a passed pawn for which Nakar had to give up his surplus knight. But that left the Kingston skipper with a pawn that queened first, and Kingston had their fourth win of the night.

South Norwood’s John Ganev gained a consolation victory on board 6 against Max Mikardo-Greaves, but that left Kingston handsome 4.5 to 1.5 winners and only half a point adrift of Epsom in the division four table. That makes the match between the two at Kingston on 7 March all-important, and Nakar will have to decide once and for all whether he is blooding new players or looking to win promotion by fielding the old campaigners.

The friendly rivalry between Kingston and Epsom – in this division, in Surrey division two, and in both the Lauder Trophy and Alexander Cup – is shaping up to be the theme of the season, and if both clubs stay on their upward trajectory could become a defining feature of future seasons too. Both are still adrift of Guildford in terms of playing strength, but emulating that behemoth is now the goal for both.

South Norwood were as usual excellent hosts, with the traditional half-time tea and biscuits – quaintly signalled by the dinging of a bell – much appreciated. Your correspondent certainly ate more custard creams than he made worthwhile moves. It struck me that South Norwood really are a model club in many ways, with an excellent attitude to club chess (competitive but always gregarious), a very well-run venue and an ability to get the best out of their relatively small pool of players. More power to them: they have been in continuous existence since 1881 and give a sense that they know exactly what they are about. They may not be glamorous but they are mighty effective, and don’t seem to suffer the vicissitudes of other clubs, which is surely what explains their longevity. More planet than meteor.

Stephen Moss