Maidenhead A v Kingston A, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at St Luke’s Community Hall, Maidenhead on 13 January 2025

It is a truth universally acknowledged that half the battle when it comes to winning away chess matches on winter evenings is getting a full team to the venue. This is particularly the case when it comes to Maidenhead (or South Norwood, where the second team ventured this same week). So the fact that six players, one unwell and one only 11 years old, made it to a church hall in distant Berkshire was a very good start. Three of us, very kindly driven there by Stephen Moss, arrived 10 minutes late due to traffic problems, but the Maidenhead captain, Nigel Smith, very sportingly did not start the clocks until we had sat down.

Maidenhead, like some of our other recent opponents, were surprisingly weaker than expected, especially given that they were playing at home. We, on the other hand, were near full strength, bolstered by the presence of Supratit Banerjee on board 3. How important this was rapidly became clear when, after less than an hour’s play, Supratit’s opponent resigned, after going wrong in a tactically complicated position, the kind of position where Supratit seems completely at home. At this point, after just seven moves, Black is already under pressure from the pin on the f6 knight:

On board 2 a Nimzowitsch-Larsen Attack led to a wild position. Things took off from here when David Maycock played the provocative 9…g5:

On board 5 John Hawksworth was consolidating a positional advantage. He commented: “My opponent Tony Milnes played an unusual combination of the Dutch and the Bogo-Indian. I didn’t know the theory, but got a pleasant position playing natural moves. He misplaced his knight with 17…Nb7, which I could completely neutralise with 18.b4!” This gave the position below:

John’s win made the score 3-0 to Kingston. In my own game on board 6, everything also appeared to be going swimmingly as my opponent allowed me to win two pawns early on:

The board 4 game had seen manoeuvring in the centre and on the queenside, with neither player gaining much advantage, until the following position was reached. At this point Charles Bullock had about three minutes to Peter Lalić’s one and a half, but Peter thrives in such situations and he was the one who was pressing.

This made the score 4.5-0.5, with the top-board contest still outstanding. From a Caro-Kann Defence Peter Large and his young opponent, Bohdan Terler, reached this position:

With all the games completed (but the long journey home still in front of the Kingston players), Kingston had chalked up another convincing Thames Valley League division 1 victory. Our record so far this season is played four, won four, with 20.5 game points out of a possible 24. However, we still have eight matches to play, and our next two may well be crucial in deciding whether we retain the title, as we face Hammersmith home and away.

David Rowson, Kingston A captain in the Thames Valley League