Kingston A v Kingston B, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at the Richard Mayo Centre, United Reformed Church, Kingston on 29 September 2025

Photograph: Front table, from left: Peter Large v David Rowson; John Hawksworth v Alan Scrimgour; Rear table, from left: Jasper Tambini v Stephen Lovell; Stephen Moss v William Lin (credit: John Foley)

It is a new season, and Kingston A began the defence of their Thames Valley League division 1 title at a new venue – the Richard Mayo Centre (part of the United Reformed Church) in central Kingston – and with a new captain. Kingston B also have a new captain, and are in a new division for them. Nothing stays the same.

With two teams now in division 1, the rules require that we play our opening matches against each other, to get them out of the way and presumably to discourage any temptation to “fix” results later in the season (not that we would do that). Kingston A were notionally at home for the first match and will be “away” at the same venue for the return encounter.

Almost by definition, an A team should beat a B team, but it is not always so easy in practice. This was demonstrated early on by John Hawksworth, who obtained an advantage out of the opening on board 4 against Alan Scrimgour’s Benoni Defence, but miscalculated on move 20 in a much better position and lost a pawn for little or no compensation. At that point Alan offered a draw, whether from fear, magnanimity, a desire to gain some rating points, or perhaps a feeling that as club secretary he shouldn’t stand in the way of Kingston A winning the league. Either way, John accepted. 0.5/0.5

Peter Lalić though, on board 2 with White against John Foley, began the new season where he left off the last one (he scored 11.5/12 in the Thames Valley League last season), being the first to finish despite arriving late, and winning with an overwhelming kingside attack in only 19 moves. The game began life as a Caro-Kann, but soon transposed into an Advance French. Whether you play the Caro-Kann or the Sicilian or the French against Peter, you will always end up defending against the Advance French. (“I essayed the Keith Arkell line in the Caro-Kann as played by Peter’s mother, Susan, hoping to spook him,” said John afterwards, “but Peter was unfazed.”)

On board 1, David Maycock, with Black against Peter Andrews, was a pawn down after nine moves. If David were not such an incredibly strong player, I would suggest he blundered – at any rate, I was unable to detect much in the way of compensation. But be it blunder or gambit, he carried on playing as if nothing had happened, soon obtained an advantage despite the material deficit, and reached this position on move 23, with Black to play:

I had Black against David Rowson on board 3. David is a strong positional player who loves to play the King’s Indian Attack against the French Defence. I know that now; I wish I had known before the game. David played 1. Nf3, but tricked me by transposition into playing a French Defence against his King’s Indian Attack. By playing simple but strong moves he built up a significant advantage, but fortunately for me he chose the wrong way to cash in, and allowed my cramped position to come to life. 0-1

Perhaps the most interesting game for spectators was on board 6, where the venerable Stephen Moss faced William Lin, under-10 British champion at classical, rapidplay and blitz, who already has a rating of 1745. By move 3 Stephen was a pawn down, having chosen for some reason to handicap himself by playing the Morra Gambit. I was impressed to see the young one play the book refutation, but Stephen retained the usual Morra compensation (a couple of open files), and the position remained balanced. Stephen had a fleeting opportunity to win on move 20, but the moment passed and the game ended shortly afterwards in an honourable draw by repetition of moves. 0.5/0.5

The last game to finish was Stephen Lovell v Jasper Tambini on board 5. This was a tense game where both players may have had an advantage at some point, but it culminated in a queen ending where Stephen had a far advanced pawn and Jasper had a lot of checks. We were obliged to step in and stop the game at the three-hour cut-off point, when it was clear that the computer evaluation would either be +14 or 0.0, depending on whether White had a way of avoiding the checks. It proved to be 0.0, so a draw was agreed. 0.5/0.5

Ultimately it was 4.5/1.5 to Kingston A. Perhaps there is one thing that stays the same after all. Kingston A’s results.

Touch wood.

Peter Large is Kingston A captain in Thames Valley League division 1