Kingston A v Maidenhead A, Thames Valley League division 2 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 3 March 2025
In the end the emphatic 5.5-0.5 score may have flattered us a little – Maidenhead had good chances at different points on at least two of the boards – but this was nevertheless an important win which demonstrated the all-round strength of Kingston’s first-team squad as it continued its relentless pursuit of a third Thames Valley title in a row.
Luca Buanne was on the scoreboard first with a win with White over Stephen James on board 4.
Board 5 between John Hawksworth and Maidenhead captain Nigel Smith was a cagey Catalan in which Nigel, with White, opted for a risk-free line and duly secured a draw. But on board 6 Alan Scrimgour, with the advantage of the white pieces and back from a very solid tournament at the World Senior Team Championships in Prague (seven draws in seven games, three against titled players), was having a good tussle with Simon Foster until the kingside attack he had been preparing reaped sudden and devastating rewards.
On board 3 Peter Lalić (pictured), playing Black, appeared to be in a spot of bother against Ishan Wiratunga – he was playing on the increment in what looked a tricky position, while his opponent had oodles of time. But Peter is a remarkable player when he is in time trouble and was able to simplify the position down to a winning endgame.
David Maycock, with White, was up against the young Ukrainian Bohdan Terler on board 2, and quite a game they made of it – as we expected from two such talented young players. The crunch comes in the position below:
I congratulated David on taking his youthful opponent out of his comfort zone with some typically energetic and enterprising play. “In order to confuse your opponents, you need to confuse yourself,” he replied, which sounds like the sort of aphorism Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu might have produced, alongside “the opportunity to secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself”. Thinking about it, Sun Tzu On Chess could be a bestseller.
David’s win made it 4.5-0.5 and left IM Peter Large (with Black) and FM Andrew Smith as the last players standing – OK sitting. The evening had started with Alan Scrimgour saying a few words in honour of Peter Large’s gold medal-winning performance at the Prague Seniors tournament, where England’s 65+ team, of which Peter was part, became world champions. Andrew Smith had played for Ireland in the same event in Prague, so both were primed for what promised to be a close encounter.
So it proved and, after much middlegame jockeying for position, there was little in it as the witching hour – and mutual time trouble – approached. This was the position when Peter (as he is allowed to do once his clock time falls below five minutes) stopped recording:
Peter, with Black, has an edge by virtue of the bishop pair, but it is by no means conclusive. There were many more moves – sadly lost to posterity – and eventually Andrew stumbled into an unusual mate, executed by a rook and a couple of doubled pawns on the h-file. An unsatisfactory conclusion to so classy a match-up, but such is evening club chess, where a game has to be shoehorned into three hours.
That made it 5.5-0.5 and left Kingston sitting pretty atop Thames Valley division 1 (see current table below, beneath match score). If we beat Richmond away on 18 March, the title will be ours for the third year in succession – a feat the club has never achieved in its history. It would also mean we had won the league with three games to spare. But of course we mustn’t get ahead of ourselves. Let’s actually finish the job before we start the celebrations.
Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain
