Kingston 2 v Kingston 1, Surrey League division 1 match played at the Richard Mayo Centre, United Reformed Church, Kingston on 21 September 2026

A week after the first division 1 match between Kingston’s first and second teams came the return fixture, this time with Kingston 2 at home (the league designates a “home” team even when both teams are in effect at home). The toss once again gave the first team White on the odd boards. Both teams were a little stronger than in the earlier match. Most of the games were well contested and long, and the final score flattered the stronger side.

Three games finished relatively early. On board 5, young Harvey Li scored a quick win
against Martyn Jones. In a standard-looking Queens Gambit Declined, a single wasted move allowing White to make the critical e4 break, and the resulting pressure led to a quick collapse.

On board 3, Zain Patel’s sharp eye (there is another example in the puzzles section of this month’s English Chess Federation online magazine Chess Moves, which is loaded with Kingston achievements) led to the win of a pawn against David Rowson. The extra pawn was an advanced passed d-pawn in the early stages of the endgame, and further tactics exploiting it to win a piece meant that the later stages were not required. Here is the critical stage of the game.

Between those two, on board 4, Stephen Lovell had held Julian Ward (who was making his Kingston debut) to a draw; Julian felt that he’d had a slight edge, made a slip and the game levelled out.

The board 8 game between Jon Eckert and myself was always close to level. I found a late middlegame trick to win a pawn, but Jon had compensation and soon found a trick to win it back, at which point a draw was agreed. Stockfish rated us both at 96% accuracy, unusually high at this level, which explains why the evaluation never changed much.

Alan Scrimgour and Peter Hasson both recommended their game on board 6 to me as an interesting one, but it seems that they both missed just how interesting the finish was!

Joshua Pirgon v Tom Mayers on board 7 was another game recommended to me by the
loser as a particularly interesting one. Tom prepared some very detailed notes on it
afterwards – looking through games that you have lost, although painful, really is the way to learn. I subjected the game and the notes to the Stockfish engine on Lichess, and found some remarkable tactics all the way through.

I’m usually wary of showing openings in these columns for fear of facilitating preparation by other clubs against our players later. But in this case White’s opening disaster was an important part of the story of the game and is very unlikely to be repeated. So here is the whole of the game until it was decided as a contest: sit back and enjoy, with a scotch in your hand, a cold towel round your head, or Mozart in the background, as best helps you grapple with complexity. Although there are errors, that is inevitable in a game like this, and it reflects very well on the resourcefulness of two of our younger newcomers. It also proves, incidentally, that 1. b3 is not for herbivores wanting a quiet life.

Board 2, Jasper Tambini v Peter Large, was not quite the spectacle we might have expected from players with contrasting styles. I confess I had not realised Jasper had the London System in his armoury. But after a fairly even battle it livened up in the time scramble.

Jasper (pictured top right, next to John Hawksworth) commented afterwards that if he didn’t often win games from lost positions there wouldn’t be much point playing. This sudden turnaround was hard on Peter, but it did finally give the second team a win to celebrate.

There was drama of a different kind on board 1, where David Maycock won on time against John Hawksworth in a position where Black had a winning advantage. John has undergone the painful therapy of producing a high-quality analysis for the Games section, so I will only note here that David’s determination and will to win even in bad positions are among the qualities which have made him one of the rocks of our success since he joined us five years ago.

So overall another win for Kingston 1, 6-2 this time, but no cause for complacency. We hope these matches have warmed everyone up for the crucial Alexander Cup battle against Guildford on Monday 5 October, and look forward with mixed feelings to the two derby matches in the Thames Valley League later in the month.

Peter Andrews is Kingston first-team captain and club chair