Guildford 2 v Kingston 2, Surrey League division 2 match played at the Guildford Institute on 20 October 2025

Two very solid-looking teams lined up for this one, with Guildford 2 having the rating advantage on the top four boards and Kingston 2 on boards 5 to 7. I lost the toss, a significant advantage for Guildford in a closely balanced match with an odd number of boards.

Most of the games were long battles, so the outcome was unclear until Guildford’s impressive crop of juniors had gone home. The relatively early finishes were draws. On board 5, David Rowson (with Black) and his opponent Malcolm Twigger-Ross both missed a tactic which would have won a pawn for White, but David was soon able to stabilise for a draw. On board 4, the game between John Foley, who had White, and Adrian Wallace lacked the mistakes that make for excitement, and soon reached a drawn rook and pawn ending.

On board 1, Peter Hasson and Clive Frostick have faced each other several times before, and were perhaps drained after their successful efforts for Kingston/CSC’s second team at the 4NCL over the weekend. Peter lost a pawn but got some major piece activity and the white advantage dwindled away in time trouble to a drawn rook ending. 

The first decisive result came on board 2, where Guildford’s Tim Foster made several aggressive decisions and I was conscious of needing to use the white pieces even though a draw would have been a useful result judging from the ratings. The outcome was a slugfest which did not lack the mistakes which make for excitement.

One up with three to play was looking good. Stephen Moss on board 7, with Black against Anton Barysenka, had struggled to find a plan in a game where he had the worst of the minor pieces, a bishop on b7 whose only role in life was to defend isolated pawns on d5 and a6. Understandably he fell short of time, and to add to the psychological pressure, his board was nearest to the café, where the post-mortems were sufficiently loud to impinge on the playing area. But after he relieved his feelings on the chess pathologists, and finding that losing a pawn resulted in the exchange of the bad bishop, he was able to simplify to a draw with a neat little tactic.

Soon after this, Alan Scrimgour on board 6, with White against Ian Deswarte, notched the decisive point by converting an advantage which had evolved from positional superiority out of the opening to material superiority in the endgame. There was just one moment when this progression could have come unstuck.

With Jasper Tambini on board 3 having come through a turbulent middle game with Black against Matthew Dishman to go into a much better endgame, a Whatsapp message informed our distant fans that we were going to win 5-2. That turned out to be an overstatement.

And after the excitement, Black has a much better endgame, a pawn up and with White having three isolated pawns to worry about. This, though, was not the end of the story and the resourceful Guildford player was not going to make it easy for Jasper.

Nevertheless a draw with Black against Matthew Dishman is a good result, and 4.5-2.5, with everyone contributing, an excellent win in a match we lost comfortably last season. Our morale survived even the frustration of the night closures on the A3 on the consequently prolonged return journey.

Peter Andrews captains the club’s first and second teams in the Surrey League