Surrey League division 2 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 9 October 2023

So near and yet so far, and I fear it is all my fault. Kingston 2 lost 4-3 to Ashtead 1 in a surprisingly tight Surrey division 2 match, and if I had managed to hang on for a draw on board 2 against Dan Rosen we would have got out of the evening with a draw and a half-point. That would have been quite an achievement given that we were substantially outrated on the top five boards.

Still, accentuate the positive: it was a night of some singular personal achievements. On board 1 Jon Eckert made light of a 350-point rating deficit against Phil Brooks and, reverting to his trusty Dutch after a dalliance with the French last season, made a comfortable draw. David Shalom also drew on board 5 against Bertie Barlow – another terrific result on a night when the outgunned Kingstonians fought hard all the way.

Even better, on board 4 Gregor Smith overcame a 200-point rating gap to win against the Ian McLeod. Ian shed a knight in a tactical melee in the middlegame and thereafter Gregor gave him zero chance of counterplay. An accomplished performance and an excellent scalp. We suspected Gregor was underrated and here was proof.

Charlie Cooke and Adam Nakar had solid draws on the bottom boards and Kingston were well in the hunt, but it was on boards 2 and 3 that the problems lie. Dan Rosen and Jon Hinton are extremely good players, and on the night they proved too good for me and Nick Grey.

Nick went wrong early against Hinton’s Wing Gambit, lost the exchange and endured a pretty miserable evening. He battled on, but in truth there could be only one winner. I played unbelievably boringly with White against Dan Rosen, traded everything I could and got to a same-coloured bishops and six pawns endgame which I thought might just be drawing (see diagram below).

With correct play maybe it was, but I was short of time and Dan is a far better endgame player than me and was able to shuffle his bishop and king around in risk-free way until I was pinned on the back rank and pawns were about to start falling. An irritating way to lose and even worse was that at some point in a long-drawn-out endgame, where Black feints with the king to infiltrate on the queenside before switching back to the centre, I resigned myself to defeat. Toughen up!

Defeat was in any case exactly what I deserved for such a negative approach. Against a player who is technically superior to you, you have to mix it and go down with all guns blazing. Here I went out with a whimper rather than a bang. The last time I will ever play so insipidly. I hope anyway.

Well done to Ashtead on a successful start to their campaign – they will surely be favourites for promotion from this division as several of their strongest players were missing for this match. And thanks, as ever, to their captain Bertie Barlow, the nicest and politest man in Surrey chess.

Stephen Moss, Kingston captain in Surrey division 2

Thames Valley division 1 match played at Actonians Sports Club, Ealing on 9 October 2023

We arrived at Ealing to find tables set up for a match, and young Xavier Cowan (ECF- rated 1957), whom I recognised as a strong performer in last year’s Surrey U2050 team, standing at one end of it. Assuming that he was to be Ealing’s board 6, I headed for those tables, to be told that it was for an internal training match, and Xavier was board 1 for one of the teams. 

If the Ealing first team was to have six players stronger than him, we were likely to be up against it, and so it proved.  When a second set of tables was set up, mostly in the dark periphery of the room, and team sheets were exchanged, Ealing were 2139 on board 6; our bottom three were outgunned while the top three looked fairly balanced. 

David Maycock has been making a big effort to improve his time management, and on my first tour of the boards, his game against Martin Smith (2299) was well advanced while the others like my own were still in the early stages. Some complications in the Ruy Lopez which would be hair-raising for those not versed in these lines led to the queens coming off early; David had two pieces and a lot of activity for a rook and two pawns, which Stockfish judges to be a winning advantage. It was, however, not to be so simple. 

In the position below, David played the innocuous-looking 15. Nc3, but it is an error which allowed his opponent to roll his pawns and “win” a piece for three pawns.

The game proceeds 15…c5 16. Bg5+ Kc8 17. Nxe4 b5 18. Nxc5 bxa4 19. Nxa4 Kc7 20. Re1 Rhe8. David now had one pawn for the exchange and was worse, with little material left. But his opponent’s king was the more exposed, and David managed to create a mating attack despite having only a rook and two minor pieces to work with on an open board. A few moves later, this was the position and David went for the kill.

The game proceeds 26. Nd7 Rac8 27. a4+ Ka5 28. b4+ Kxa4 29. Nb6+ Kxb4 30. Rb3+ and checkmate is imminent. A crucial victory for Kingston.

Vladimir Li was on the black side of a Torre Attack against fellow FM Rick McMichael (2256) in which the queens are exchanged early, giving Black doubled pawns on the b-file. That can be double-edged, but Vladimir mixed up different parts of his preparation and was significantly worse by move 12. As sometimes happens, the opponent taking the pawn that his play has earned gives compensation and clarity to the other side.  Vladimir had drawing chances by move 19, and had equalised by move 23. 

Then his opponent blundered into a psychological trap, set by 23…b6, allowing Vladimir to win material, and the rest was mopping up. The game proceeded 24. e4?? Bf4 25. Rc3 Rac7 26. g3 Bd6 27. Rac1 Ba3 28. R1c2 Bb4 29. Nd2 f6 30. Kf2 Be8 31. d5 Bxc3 32.Rxc3 Bxa4 0-1

I had Black against Alan Perkins (2177), who was well over a grade of 200 in old money for many years, and we had a rather intense game which made it difficult to stay abreast of what was going on elsewhere. He got nothing from the opening, a solid line in the Queen’s Gambit Accepted, but we both had plenty of possibilities to manoeuvre things around and try ideas, most of which would have been unsound.

I spent an age here on move 19 considering plans with Nb6-a4 and Nf6-d5, but White had too many ways to disrupt them. I decided to refrain from speculation, especially after my disaster in the Lauder Trophy last week.  In the final position (see diagram below), I offered a draw with both players down to five minutes. My structural disadvantage of doubled isolated b-pawns doesn’t matter too much when they are not on an open file; he no longer has bishops, which like attacking loose pawns, and the front pawn keeps his knights out of c5. 

John Foley played a London System against John Quinn (2171). They first played each other in 1969 when John Quinn, the newly crowned British under-21 champion, came to Salvatorian College to give a simultaneous display. Not much seemed to be happening from the opening when suddenly there was a tactical melée. Our John offered an exchange sacrifice which the other John declined with a clever counter-sacrifice. The position got tricky but, after the smoke had cleared, John Quinn had a winning advantage. The last occasion that Kingston played Ealing was in April, the final match in the Thames Valley league. Kingston won the match with the sole result being the victory by John Foley over Andrew Harley. On this occasion, John’s result was the only defeat for Kingston. Swings and roundabouts.

Alan Scrimgour played carefully against Andrew Harley’s c3 Sicilian, finding a line which liquidated the major pieces and led to a quick draw.  So when my game finished we were 3-2 ahead, with Peter Lalić’s game on board 3 against the strong junior Nischal Thatte (2178) still in play. Peter played the Exchange Variation against the French Defence, and on my first tour of the room I was surprised that for one of his games the position looked fairly normal – material balanced, no unusual pawn advances. Peter had more open development to compensate for an isolated queen’s pawn, and his manoeuvres gradually induced Black to huddle his pieces on the queenside, where they were largely immobile and could do little to defend the king. 

An exchange sacrifice opened up the black king, and then with players short of time a little sequence won a rook, leaving Peter ahead and with mate imminent.

The game proceeded 26…Rd7 27.Qg6+ Kf8 28.Qxh6+ Kg8 29.Qxg5+ Kf8 30.Qh5 Kg7 31.Qg4+ Kf8 32.Qxd7 1-0

A really tough match and, with Ealing having an average rating advantage of 50 points a board, a very gratifying result against the odds. Kingston’s defence of the Thames Valley title is off to the best of all possible starts, with an away victory against one of the club’s fiercest rivals.

Peter Andrews

South Norwood v Kingston, Lauder Trophy, West Thornton Community Centre, 5 October 2023

This was always going to be a tough match and so it proved. The rules of this excellent competition dictate that the collective ratings of the six players in a team must be less than 10,500. This tends to make for very close and exciting matches, and this was no exception.

South Norwood have won the Lauder four times in its 23-year history and are expert at bringing in their team just under the 10,500 threshold to maximise their chances. They had the strong Tariq Oozeerally on board 1, the dangerous (and underrated) Simon Lea on 2, and solid players all the way down to captain David Howes on 6. We knew this was a difficult assignment.

Jon Eckert, playing with the black pieces on board 3, drew first blood for Kingston with a fine win over Kaddu Makusa, opening up the g-file and using his queen and rook to inflict an irresistible mate. It looked very good for the away team because Dieter McDougall, making his debut for Kingston, was a piece up against John Ganev on board 5 and seemed nailed on to make it 2-0. But he got into horrendous time trouble, tried to play for an age on the increment and eventually blew up, falling into a mating net. South Norwood were back in the hunt.

Another new Kingstonian, Ergo Nobel, drew with the experienced Howes on 6 and Sean Tay was doing fine against Ken Chamberlain on 4, but Peter Andrews was in trouble against Simon Lea on board 2, having played what he later admitted was an unsound sac of piece for two pawns. Everything pointed to the match hingeing on the heavyweight clash on board 1 between Oozeerally, with White, and the ever reliable (indeed inspired) Peter Lalić, who has often been Tariq’s nemesis in these clubs’ encounters in the past.

This was a tremendous game, later described by a veteran Kingstonian as “one of the most amazing I’ve ever seen”. This was the position after White’s 14th move:

Four moves later, Black’s queen was trapped in the opposite corner:

But in moving between prisons, it had managed to account for both White rooks. Tariq resigned in a position which was hopeless, despite Peter’s queen still resting on h1. A quite extraordinary game, over in 19 moves.

Peter’s win and Sean’s eventual draw on board 4 took Kingston to 3-2, which guaranteed victory on board count – the top boards are given higher numerical values in the event of a tie and Kingston had won on boards 1 and 3. Peter Andrews battled on and got a pawn to the seventh, but with knight and two rooks against queen and two rooks it was going to take a miracle to get it any further. No miracle was forthcoming, so the match ended up tied at 3-3. But the wins by Lalić and Eckert were enough to secure a 12-9 win on board count, and Kingston march on to the next round, where we will face Coulsdon or Dorking.

Stephen Moss, Kingston Lauder Trophy captain

Alexander Cup first round played over 10 boards at St Thomas’s Church, Streatham on 3 October 2023

Kingston, playing away to Streatham & Brixton, won 7-3 in the first round of the Alexander Cup, which is the knockout competition for teams in the Surrey League. This was the opening fixture of the season for Kingston’s first team, which won impressively on the top five boards. In spite of the summer break, the team has come back refreshed and ready for action. No doubt the fact that most of the top players participated in the Kingston Invitational has helped to expand their opening repertoires, strengthen their positional nous and sharpen their tactics. Although the final result was convincing, during the match the games ebbed and flowed and after two and a half hours Kingston was only edging ahead 4-3.

The highlight of the match was the win on board 1 for Kingston by David Maycock (ECF-rated 2289) against Venkat Tiruchirapalli (2320). This was their second encounter in the Alexander Cup this calendar year – David also beat Venkat in last season’s semi-final in January. Venkat played the Breyer Variation against David’s Ruy Lopez, but soon got into trouble. David, who had prepared for the encounter, made not one but two exchange sacrifices to leave Venkat in zugzwang with queens still on the board. This was a sublime game which the team members praised afterwards as being among David’s best so far in his promising career.

On board 2, Streatham’s Phil Makepeace (2176) avoided early complications by going for a double fianchetto in a queen’s pawn opening. Vladimir Li (2263) put his queen’s bishop outside the pawn chain and waited for White to do something. Sure enough, White opened up the position, after which the Vladimir’s more actively placed pieces dominated the board. At 9:01pm our on-site commentator Stephen Moss sent an update on WhatsApp to the club faithful: “Vladimir’s position against Phil Makepeace is wild. Monster calculation required.” Two minutes later he was obliged to issue a correction, “Ignore my last message. My stupidity. For wild read complex, but Vladimir had it under complete control and his opponent has just resigned.” This is the burden upon a chess commentator – how to rapidly assess a complex position between strong players.

Kingston’s Mike Healey (2236) against James Toon (2097) on board 3 was the first game to finish in just over an hour and notched the first point to Kingston. Mike belied his reputation as a purveyor of chess anarchy by playing a splendidly practical game. He thought it was dull; we found it delicious. He went a pawn up, traded off pieces and that was that. He could take the early train home.

The board 4 game between Streatham’s Robin Haldane (2076) as White and Silverio Abasolo (2226) was a delight to watch. Robin advanced his pawns in the middle and on the kingside with aggressive intent. Silverio was completely calm about the situation and to while away the time watched some other games until Robin finally launched his attack. Silverio was fully prepared and had massed several pieces against Robin’s f4-pawn in an obverse strategy to overprotection. Once the position opened up, it was clear that Silverio held the upper hand. However, Robin had some tricks up his sleeve and, although down to just a few minutes, he reeled off some fancy moves. Silverio had seen it all and won a piece for two passed pawns. The endgame was blitzed out by both players. Whereas ordinary players might try to stop the passed pawns, Silverio opted to go for checkmate directly. It was not obvious how he was going to mate with rook and bishop against a king on the flank, but with the reinforcement of the king into the fray he achieved victory in the nick of time.

Matthew Tillett (1988) of Streatham put up strong resistance in the Pirc Defence to Peter Lalić (2251) on board 5. Peter described the game as uneventful, by which he meant there were no sacrifices or wild attacks. Peter focused on improving the position of his pieces and sidelining the enemy knight on the queenside. As the pieces were gradually exchanged, the relative advantage of Peter’s pieces became evident. It was a slow and systematic victory.

Whereas on the top half of the team list, Kingston scored 5/5, on the more evenly matched bottom half Kingston scored only 2/5. Peter Andrews (board 8) and Alan Scrimgour (board 10) took draws, having checked the match position. On board 6, Ben Simpson (1977) defended well against Will Taylor (2091), who left himself with too little time to prosecute the attack. When Ben forced the exchange of queens, Will’s attack was bust and Streatham took the point. On board 9, Kingston’s Julian Way essayed the Three Knights Game a little too casually, leaving his king stranded in the middle unable to castle. Mark O’Neill finished off the game with a sacrificial flourish.

David Rowson was making no progress on board 7 and his offer of a draw was refused by Azizur Rahman. As the game drifted into completely drawn territory, David adopted a stoic demeanour. Suddenly, out of the blue, David complicated matters by sacrificing the exchange for a couple of pawns and an advanced outpost for his knight. Nobody could work out who was winning as the worn-out players entered a time scramble. In the dramatic finale, they each had a minute left on the clock. Rahman allowed a knight fork against king and rook. David picked up his knight and played it to the wrong square, but before he released his finger he switched squares to deliver the fatal blow. The victory came after two hours and 50 minutes of intense concentration.

The time control was 75 minutes plus 10 seconds for each move. This match was the first played under the new arrangements for three-hour matches in the Surrey League. Both teams had non-playing captains – John Foley for Kingston and Martin Smith for Streatham. During the match, the captains conducted detailed discussion about how to interpret the new arrangements whereby the clocks are stopped after three hours of play and the result of each game is to be “determined” by agreement between the captains and the relevant players, with the default being adjudication. Fortunately all the games were completed with 10 minutes to spare, so the new arrangements did not need to be activated.

Kingston has won the Alexander Cup for the past two seasons. We will now face Coulsdon at home in the semi-final, with Epsom or Wimbledon waiting should we progress to the final. On a personal note, Martin Smith kindly purchased a copy of my new book for beginners, Checkmate!, which has just been published. It is to be an addition to the Streatham chess library and a recommendation to Streatham juniors. To be fair, I had previously purchased a copy of Martin’s magisterial history of Streatham and Brixton Chess Club. Authors in the chess sphere provide support to each other.

John Foley, Kingston Alexander Cup captain

Thames Valley division X match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 2 October 2023

It is fair to say that this was not the optimum start to our 2023/24 season – a 4-0 whitewash at the hands of visitors Maidenhead C. But fair play to Maidenhead for bringing a strong team, and well done too for getting to the club in excellent time despite a long journey. The match actually started two minutes early, which is unheard of in the Thames Valley League. The Maidenhead captain, Yuri Krylov, said he was new to captaincy and that no one had told him how far it was from Maidenhead to Kingston. Such naivety.

Kingston junior William Lin on board 4 had a sharp encounter with Pierre Roy, who looked a more than capable player. Roy got the better of the tactical battle, and the two players retired to the garden of the pub for a friendly post-mortem, with William’s father watching intently. “We know where we went wrong,” he said as the analysis ended, which is surely the point both of junior chess and of this important training division.

On board 1, Colin Lyle essayed a French Defence against Krylov, but the result was far from joli for the Kingston player as Colin went the exchange down and the Maidenhead captain smoothly converted. Jaden Mistry on board 2 and Ergo Nobel, making his club debut on board 3, fought hard in games which went to the wire, but both eventually succumbed in tight rook endgames. Things can, to coin a phrase, only get better.

There was a tremendous attendance on the night by social players, including two who had come along in the wake of the opening of the concrete chess tables at the Fairfield recreation ground in central Kingston, and in an effort to lift the spirits after an opening-match drubbing here’s an attempted arty picture of night-time chess in the incongruous beach huts in the garden of the Willoughby Arms. Enticing, don’t you think?

This week sees a hugely significant away match in the first round of the Alexander Cup against a strong Streatham team as Kingston start their defence of that coveted title, as well as the opening Lauder Trophy match against South Norwood (a tricky draw in both competitions). And next week we begin our Thames Valley division 1 title defence. There will be no hiding place in a tough eight-month campaign comprising more than 70 matches. Frankly, we feel exhausted just thinking about it. Back to the beach huts and roll on summer!

Stephen Moss

Surrey League division 2 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 29 May 2023

Well that, frankly, was bizarre. This was a crunch relegation match between Kingston 2 and South Norwood 1. Lose it and we would go down to division 3. If South Norwood 1, who on their day can field a strong side, were to lose by more than 5-2, they would be relegated. We expected them to come with a strong team. As it was, only four South Norwood players showed up.

The three defaults gave us an instant 3-0 lead. We were almost safe without having to push a pawn – thank you South Norwood! Alan Scrimgour then agreed an early-ish draw with Paul Dupré on board 2 to ensure a drawn match – enough for us to leapfrog Surbiton 1 and survive in the division. Soon after, Nick Grey agreed a draw with South Norwood captain Simon Lea on board 5 to win the match and ensure we finished the division clear of the relegation zone. That left two extremely hard-fought games: Peter Andrews against the 2220-rated Marcus Osborne on board 1 and David Shalom against Ibrahim Abouchakra on board 6.

Peter played excellently, pressing throughout and having the better of the game, but Marcus is nothing if not resourceful. He kept posing counter-threats and setting traps, and in time trouble Peter blundered and allowed a mate. Peter was, naturally, not best pleased, but the consolation is that he has had a tremendous season and contributed hugely both to the first team’s triumphs and to keeping both B teams in the second divisions of the Surrey and Thames Valley leagues.

David Shalom was also on top in his game, winning the exchange, but Ibrahim used his bishop well against David’s rook to control a pawn advance, eventually queening and forcing mate. Again, disappointment for David, but his return to competitive chess this season has been a great success, and he played a key role in the vital second-team victory away to Surbiton 1 which helped make survival in this tough division possible.

The four players from South Norwood had done well, limiting Kingston’s victory to 4-3, which means they, too, will survive in division 2, sending Surbiton 1 down. Truly, a bizarre conclusion to a very strange evening. The moral of this tale may be “Don’t play league chess matches on bank holidays.”

Stephen Moss, Kingston 2 acting captain in Surrey League

Thames Valley Knockout final v Harrow played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 22 May 2023

Kingston had a considerable rating edge over Harrow in the Thames Valley Knockout final, but we knew they had some strong players, including the fast-improving Bodhana Sivanandan, who last year represented England at the Fide World Cadet Championships in the under-eight girls age group, coming second.

I welcomed Harrow in my capacity as chair of Kingston and, with Harrow’s permission, spoke of my personal game history with Harrow’s sadly deceased and much-missed IM Colin Crouch. I lost to him four times: three times in Scotland, where Colin was a regular visitor, and finally in a league match in which Colin showed his legendary attacking prowess by forcing mate with a rook sacrifice followed by a queen sacrifice.

On board 1 David Maycock unusually found himself well ahead on the clock as his opponent arrived late. The critical moment in the game came when David accepted an unsound bishop sacrifice for a bunch of pawns. He carefully defended, exchanged material and was clearly winning when his opponent lost on time.

Peter Lalić started with his trademark Nc3 and h4 opening. He developed quickly and broke through on f7 when his opponent failed to stop him adding a knight on e5 to the other one already on g5 (see position below).

With Black’s king on the run, an attempt to find counterplay backfired when Peter added the b-file to his attacking lines. After an exchange sac on c7 he had unstoppable threats of mating in either two or four moves. A tremendous game by Peter, making it 2-0 to the Deadly Duo.

Next to finish was board 3, where a draw resulted after Vladimir Li repelled Steven Coles’ kingside pressure to leave a broadly equal position. It was now down to the bottom three boards, where Silverio Abasolo seemed to be building a dangerous kingside attack, Will Taylor – down on the clock – had given up a pawn for counterplay, and David Rowson was pressing in the middlegame, with his hanging pawns producing this dynamic and double-edged position:

Against Will on board 5, Bodhana was playing calmly to incrementally increase her advantage, though Will did have a golden chance to equalise on move 36:

Here 36…Qxc4 leads to a probable draw. Will chose the plausible 36. Ra2 instead. Bodhana blocked with Rd2 and, instead of exchanging rooks, Will then played 37…Ra3, freeing up White’s c-pawn to create mayhem as it advanced. This was the final position:

This was Will’s third game against Bodhana and his first loss, as he described ruefully (but with great good humour and humility) afterwards. “I’ve had the privilege of playing this remarkable young lady three times now,” he said. “In our first game, nine months ago, she weighed in at a mere 1290 Fide rating points (though grossly underrated, of course). But she is now up to 2000 ECF and close to 1800 Fide, and still improving rapidly. After our last game, I told her ‘You’ll get me next time!’, which unfortunately for me turned out to be correct. This time it’s my turn to proclaim: ‘I’ll be back!’ I look forward to our next game, albeit with some trepidation, and to following Bodhana’s chess career as it develops.” Has the Willoughby Arms hosted a potential women’s world champion?

Bodhana’s win made it Kingston 2.5-Harrow 1.5, and it was all to play for. Silverio’s game had turned in Harrow captain Nevil Chan’s favour. He had castled queenside and broken through there with queen and rook. Things were looking decidedly dicey, and Kingston’s chances seemed to lie with David on board 6. He had exchanged his hanging pawns for a passed pawn, and was pressing on the a4-e8 diagonal.

There were inaccuracies on both sides as the time grew short, but David eventually transposed to a winning queen ending courtesy of his advanced c-pawn.

David’s win meant the title was Kingston’s, but by what margin? Back on board 4, Silverio had barely survived the counterattack from Black and was now a piece down, with queen against queen and knight. However, Nevil’s exposed king gave the Kingston player some chances, and in the end Silverio found a perpetual check to draw.

Silverio’s valiant escape made the final score 4-2 to Kingston, in a close match where Harrow did well given the rating disparity. Kingston thus added the Thames Valley Knockout crown to the Surrey League’s Alexander Cup and our two first division wins in the Surrey and Thames Valley leagues. We believe this “Quadruple” has never been achieved before. Congratulations to all the captains, players and supporters who made this historic achievement for the club possible.

Alan Scrimgour, Kingston chair and captain of the Thames Valley Knockout team

Thames Valley League division 2 match played at the Royal British Legion, Hounslow on 22 May 2023

Well, this was a turn-up for the books. Having successfully retained our place in division 2 of the Thames Valley League, there was zero pressure on us for this trip to play Hounslow A, who outrated the Kingston B side by more than 70 points a board. Perhaps that was the secret to our surprise victory – we could play with freedom and without fear.

Julian Way and Mateusz Dydak were well matched on board 1 and, with neither making obvious progress, agreed a shortish draw. Boards 5 and 6 were also evenly matched in rating terms, and though Charlie Cooke went the exchange up in his game, his opponent forced a perpetual. So far, as expected. However, what happened on boards 2, 3 and 4, where Hounslow held a substantial ratings advantage, was much less predictable.

On board 2 I played my usual unduly passive Scandinavian, but managed to hold my own in the opening without undue difficulty. We reached this position on move 29, with White to play:

Here White should just exchange queens and offer a draw, which, given the 300-point rating disparity, I would have taken, but my opponent was keen to maintain pressure along the g-file and played Qg3. This is, if not immediately losing, extremely bad for White: 29… Rd1 30. Kf1 Qd2 and the loss of at least a pawn is inevitable. I managed to get to a king and pawn endgame that was completely winning, but then made valiant attempts not to win. My opponent may even have had a theoretical draw, but happily for me (and despite my wretched endgame play) eventually lost on time.

Kingston captain Gregor Smith put up a tenacious fight against the canny Leon Fincham on board 3, but eventually succumbed in time trouble. That left Nick Grey up against Hounslow captain David White on board 4, and, in a closed Sicilian, Nick played superbly to win the game with Black and secure a memorable victory for the Bs by 3.5-2.5. A tremendous end to the season after all the travails earlier in the year.

Stephen Moss