Kingston B v Ealing B, Thames Valley League division 2 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 18 November 2024
This was one of those matches which felt closer than the scoreline suggests. Jon Eckert drew on board 4 without any alarms, but Jameel Jameel let slip a very promising position on board 6 and went down to defeat as both kings came under threat from queens and rooks. Alan Scrimgour was well placed on board 2, but the other three games looked less clear-cut. We had a rating advantage of 100 points a board, so should have felt confident, but there are statistics and there is chess.
Alan castled queenside and went for the jugular with a kingside attack while his opponent tried to mount his own offensive operation against the White king. Alan’s assault was faster and he brought matters to a swift conclusion with a nicely judged combination. “White gained space on the kingside against Black’s Philidor Defence by advancing his g-pawn,” Alan said later. “A couple of minor errors allowed White to create threats on the light squares, with the game ending suddenly after a bishop sacrifice on g6.”
John Bussmann felt he always had an edge on board 3, but nerves were not calmed by a clock malfunction which led to a delay and a resetting of the times. But he did in the end prevail. John’s return to chess action is important to the club, as we have surprisingly few players in the 1850-1900 ECF bracket. Alicia Mason, who has had a good start to her Kingston career, will soon be in that bracket at her current rate of progress. Here she squeezed out a win with Black from a level knight v knight endgame position.
Top board was a match-up between Kingston veteran Peter Andrews and Ealing B’s immensely likeable young captain Xavier Cowan (both pictured in action above at a relatively calm early stage of their battle). It was a thrilling game, here annotated by Peter – at least to the point where both players were in a time scramble.
An excellent victory for Peter over a talented young player. The wins by Peter, John and Alicia came in the last half hour of the match to complete a 4.5-1.5 victory which had not looked on the cards earlier – a victory, moreover, which leaves us flying high in division 2 of the Thames Valley League. For the moment at least.
Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain
