Kingston B v Kingston A, Thames Valley division 1 match played at the Richard Mayo Centre, United Reformed Church, Kingston on 19 October 2026

The fourth and last intra-club match before league rules allow us to play other teams featured fewer dramatic games than the previous three, but the B team still felt they had chances until late in the evening.

Three games finished fairly early. David Rowson v Tom Mayers on board 5 was a quick draw, a good result for Tom who had held players rated 100 points above him with Black in successive weeks. Jon Eckert was unfortunately distracted by the club’s newly purchased clocks and succumbed to Alan Scrimgour on board 6, and on board 1 Jasper Tambini blundered a piece against David Maycock coming out of the opening.

On board 4, I faced an unfamiliar position against Homayoon Froogh. While the nerveless machine judged the game equal for a long time, I found it difficult to play, gradually fell into time trouble while Homayoon continued to play fluently, and crumbled under continuing pressure.

The most exciting game was the veteran v youth clash on board 3 between IM Peter Large and former British under-10 champion and recent national Terafinalist William Lin. Peter played very accurately in this game, won a pawn coming out of the opening, and according to Stockfish on Lichess maintained a winning advantage. But William manufactured an attack, and those watching the game, both spectators and other participants in the match, were not sure what was happening for a while.

Board 2 featured Peter Lalić, characteristically last to finish on his return to league action. His gambit opening, which we shall not feature here partly to protect it for other occasions and partly because it might lead impressionable readers astray, had been convincingly rebuffed by Stephen Lovell even without knowing such theory as there may be. But although White achieved a grip on the position to add to his extra pawn, it was not clear how he could make progress.

Parking the bus for a draw is not an option against Messrs Lalić and Maycock, whose determination and will to win have served the club so well in recent years. After three hours on top, Stephen found that his opponent turned from human into savage beast as the witching hour, or at least mutual time trouble, loomed.   

Peter saw that as a reward for courage in playing for a win even in a losing position, but it was hard luck for Stephen who had been on top for all but a few minutes of a long game. The final score was thus 4.5-1.5, reflecting credit on the B team without damaging the A team’s title bid.

Peter Andrews is Kingston chair and first-team captain

Stephen Moss writes: Before the match began, we had the great pleasure of presenting Kingston member Aytek Koyun with the Felce Cup, the Surrey Individual trophy for players in the 1500-1750 ECF rating range, competed for during the summer when league matches are in abeyance. Well done to Aytek, a relative newcomer to the local chess scene, on his achievement.

At the end of formal proceedings, we were able to perform the same pleasurable task with Peter Lalić, presenting him with the Challenge Cup – in effect the individual Open championship of Surrey. He succeeds another Kingston member, IM Peter Large, as Surrey champion. Naturally, to complete this Peterish ocasion, Kingston chair Peter Andrews presented the trophy. One day soon, now that the A v B-team matches are finally over, we really will have to organise that Peters v The Rest match we have long been considering at Kingston. What a contest that would be.