Wallington 1 v Kingston 3, Surrey League division 4 match played at Wallington on 23 October 2024

We always knew this would be tough. Kingston 3 were up against Wallington’s first team, and they had strong players (including a certain Mr P Lalić) on boards 1 to 3. That we ran them so close is testimony to the fighting spirit of the team and bodes well for future battles in Surrey division 4.

David Bickerstaff and Kingston captain Ed Mospan had good wins against lower-rated opposition on boards 4 and 5; Jon Eckert had an excellent draw with Black against the strong Wallington (and indeed Coulsdon) veteran Nick Edwards on board 2; while on board 4 Ye Kwaw miscalculated in a Closed Sicilian and paid the price against Robert Davies.

The board 3 match-up between Alicia Mason and David Jones was a tough battle that was resolved in Jones’s favour after just shy of 60 moves. Alicia played aggressively and was ahead for much of the game, but she made some errors in the endgame – time trouble was inevitably a factor – and let her advantage slip.

Despite that, she had good drawing chances until a misjudgement on her 52nd move. The position below looks tricky for White, with the Black king about to snaffle the white pawns, but with best play it is drawn. As it was, there was no way back from the move which Alicia chose. Such is the precision required in endgames, where every tempo is a matter of life and death.

Board 1 was a battle of the Kingston Peters – Peter Lalić (moonlighting for Wallington) and Peter Roche, a former Kingston chair now happily restored to competitive action after a five-year break. Facing the mighty Lalić is always a challenge, but Peter R gave him a good run for his money in a well-contested game.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain