Surbiton A v Kingston A, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at Fircroft, Surbiton on 26 February 2025
We faced familiar opponents in this local derby. The Surbiton team was quite strong, though missing Mark Josse and Chris Briscoe. Kingston outrated them significantly, but as we know, it’s not the rating difference which wins the game but the better play on the evening.
The first game to finish was on board 1, where David Maycock (pictured) had been developing a ferocious attack against Altaf Chaudhury’s Sicilian Defence. In this position Black needs to be very careful about how he protects his kingside, especially as his king is still in the centre.
John Hawksworth’s game with Black on board 4 was more sedate. Joshua Pirgon played a line against John’s Sicilian which I have favoured for years – not necessarily a recommendation – the King’s Indian Attack. Joshua missed his chance to develop an attack in this position:
On board 3 Ash Stewart and David Scott reached this position from Ash’s English Opening:
The Jasper Tambini–Peter Lalić game was more or less level until this position was reached:
My own game, with White against Joseph Morrison on board 5, was strangely uneventful – so uneventful, in fact, that I think the only moment of any (very relative) interest was probably at move 9:
The last game to finish, with the score 5-0 to Kingston, was on board 6, where Nick Faulks had opened with the English. Pieces were exchanged two-by-two until a king and pawn ending was reached. John Foley showed great ambition in trying to win this, but it turned out that it was White who held the trumps, and after many moves of a queen and pawn ending (following promotions by both players) John was finally forced to resign, giving Surbiton a compensatory point.
Thus Kingston A won their seventh Thames Valley League division 1 match out of seven. Our results so far have been 5.5-0.5, 4-2, 6-0, 5-1, 4-2, 4-2 and now 5-1. I have to give the usual warning that we shouldn’t get ahead of things, but we can at least feel that we are in a situation where we will only have ourselves to blame if we don’t win the title for the third year in succession.
David Rowson, Kingston captain in Thames Valley League division 1
