Kingston B v Hounslow A, Thames Valley League division X match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 3 February 2025
This was a well-contested match between two strong teams. Kingston’s 4-2 victory, to make it 6/6 in Thames Valley division 2 so far this season, was an excellent result against a club first team and confirmed that promotion to division 1 for our B team is a live possibility.
On board 1, Peter Andrews with Black closed out a canny draw against the very sold Mateusz Dydak. “I was fairly confident we’d have the edge lower down,” said Peter afterwards, “and Alicia was already ahead when I drew.” This was the position in which a draw was agreed. The engine adjudges Black to have an edge, though it is perhaps not immediately clear why.
David Rowson also drew with Sesh Vaddadi on board 2, but this was a far meatier tussle. There were no undue alarms for David, but despite a time advantage he became a little anxious, perhaps because his opponent had the outside pawn. “I never got the attack I was hoping for and had to be a bit careful near the end,” he explained. “I was glad I found 29. b3.” That occurred in this position, immediately before David’s draw offer.
On board 6 Alicia Mason was indeed winning with White against Eugene Gregorio, but she had a huge time disadvantage – Eugene invariably plays at blitz speed – and, though the exchange up, had to contend with a lively knight. Eugene did have one opportunity to equalise, highlighted by Alicia in her post-game analysis, but happily for us did not take it. It occurred in the position below.
We now had our noses in front and the other boards looked promising too. Alan Scrimgour, with White against Hounslow captain David White on board 4, played an uncompromising game and built a space advantage early on. David ventured an overambitious move in the position below and Alan took full advantage.
Jon Eckert was playing with great panache with Black against Hounslow veteran Leon Fincham on board 5. Give Jon the initiative and he will grab it with both hands, which is what happened here. Using the bishop pair to good effect, he put Leon under considerable pressure and, with time starting to become a factor, Leon thought he saw a tactic that would lead to a back-rank mate. Sadly for him, he had miscalculated and the queen sac he thought was winning actually lost on the spot.
We had won the match and, with Stephen Lovell holding a slight advantage with White against the capable Calum Kinloch on board 3, it looked like the scoreline would be emphatic. But time took its toll here, too, and in a tricky knight-and-pawn endgame Calum turned the position round, forced an exchange of knights and eventually marched a pawn home. An absorbing game, a hard-fought match and a welcome 4-2 victory over the only A side in Thames Valley division 2.
Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain
