Maidenhead A v Kingston A, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at St Luke’s Community Hall, Maidenhead on 2 November 2026
Maidenhead were one of our closest rivals last season and had just seen off our B team, so this was likely to be one of our trickiest matches. There was therefore relief, tinged with disappointment, when we found that GM Matthew Wadsworth was not listed to play for the home side.
One of the benefits of playing in a club as distinct from online is that ideas may be shared and practised with fellow members, or absorbed from watching other games or even reading match reports. So in recent weeks we have seen David Maycock and now Jasper Tambini deviating from their usual principled styles to the insidious flanking manoeuvres more associated with Peter Lalić, while Lalic has sometimes followed the Maycock/Tambini route of getting his pawns out of the way as soon as possible. The conventionally minded might see this process on occasions as a dangerous epidemic rather than cultural enrichment, but it serves at least two purposes: making it harder for opponents to prepare against us; and producing new positions in which creative talent can flourish. It made the Maidenhead v Kingston A match a good watch, if not always an easy one for the anxious captain.
There was nothing unconventional about my draw on board 6. The game was always evaluated level, but as Black I felt under a little pressure, having to play accurately, so after exchanges I was content to agree a draw. It was frustrating to find afterwards that I had agreed a draw having achieved a materially positive evaluation for the first time in the game, but since I had missed the move which would have given me the advantage I could hardly complain.
Meanwhile Peter Hasson, with Black on board 4, found his position unusually hard to assess. We invite readers to guess the evaluation at the point when the action starts, after White’s 17th move.
Peter Large, with White on board 3 against the promising junior Josh Sharma, had the game about which I was least anxious. Only two results – a win for Peter or a draw – ever seemed possible. The game was a good demonstration of how to win the classic Spanish ending, in which Black has doubled c-pawns and White has a knight against a bishop.
A 2-1 advantage was reassuring given that the other boards all looked double-edged. Peter Lalić (pictured above), with Black against FM Andrew Smith, fell into difficulty on the board and the clock.
A score of 3-1 in favour of Kingston was a great relief. It was difficult to understand what the players were trying to do in the board 1 game between David Maycock and Bohdan Terler, and, although David has an extraordinary percentage for us in league matches, the youthful Bohdan is still improving and has been a tough nut to crack in the past.
Last to finish was the board 5 game between Jasper Tambini, who had White, and Stephen James, which we could watch with a degree of detachment with the result of the match decided. That was just as well. This was another game which had had an unorthodox start and a middle game which was hard to assess.
The car journey home from Maidenhead is long enough (and with little enough traffic) to relive several of the games, and we were delighted to learn with the last 1% of Jasper’s phone battery that he had still been winning after leaving his rook en prise. Even so, not many matches finishing 5-1 can have had so many heart-stopping moments.
Peter Andrews is Kingston Chess Club‘s first-team captain
