Kingston 2 v Guildford 2, Surrey League division 2 match played at the Richard Mayo Centre, United Reformed Church, Kingston on 9 February 2026

Kingston 2 had a somewhat reshaped team for this match. My main concern was that Guildford 2 would turn up with the strength of which they are capable and our new and newish players might then have a discouraging experience.

My worries were half mitigated before and at the start. Guildford’s captain Clive Frostick, himself a Kingston player in the 4NCL, was unable to make the journey. And although we would be heavily outgunned on the top 3 boards, the match-ups looked close on the other four, and given that our new players tend to be improvers, I thought they might sneak a few results. The toss didn’t help – we lost for the sixth time in 7 matches, which in seven- board matches counts for a bit.

On board 2, Alan Scrimgour made a quick draw with Guildford’s stand-in captain Adrian Wallace in a Spanish. The computer evaluation of the final position, a queenless middle game, was indeed level. There was plenty of material and play left for both sides, but Alan was happy to take a draw on one of the “uphill” boards, especially as the situation was starting to look encouraging elsewhere.

Jon Eckert drew first blood with White on board 6 against Alvin Petersen. The game hung on a mistake in the position below.

Next, with White on board 4, Martyn Jones (pictured above in a previous match) terminated Alistair Jennis’s threatening attack by spotting mate the other way.

Guildford hit back in a fluctuating and spectacular battle on board 3 between our Stephen Lovell, who had Black, and Tim Foster.

Around the same time, I succumbed with Black on board 1 to Matthew Dishman, in a game that showed the danger of allowing emotion to override calculation. Early over-optimism was succeeded by premature pessimism.

That meant scores were level with two games still in progress, in both of which the Kingston player was making his second-team debut. So they were both getting a full evening’s entertainment. Could they also get the points to get us over the line in the match?

Constantin Liesch, with Black on board 7 against Anthony Garrood, certainly had a memorable introduction to second-team chess, with a crowd around the board in the later stages of this exciting battle.

That left another second-team debutant, Alex Chmelev, needing to win with Black on board 5 against Guildford veteran Trevor Jones to save the match. Fortunately he had won a pawn around move 20, and by the time spectator attention turned to his board he had reached what looked to be a winning rook and pawn ending, with his king able to get in front of his passed pawn and to the queening square, the textbook condition to win.

It was a long slog – the game went some 80 moves – and there may have been a few detours off the textbook path, but all was well that ended well. So we added a matchpoint to our tally and deprived Guildford of one. Despite being outrated in at least half our matches to date, we stand top of division 2. As the old hands at the club remind us, it is not so long since Kingston 1 were pleased to reach such heights.

Peter Andrews is captain of the Kingston first and second teams in the Surrey League