Thames Valley League division X match played at Egham Constitutional Club, Egham on 14 December 2023
Kingston C captain Stephen Daines neatly christened this a “watery encounter” – Kingston upon Thames away to Staines upon Thames, in Dix X of the Thames Valley League naturally. It was going to be sink or swim – and, happily, Kingston swam.
One warming point to remember about this match is that none of these players was even at Kingston before the pandemic of 2020/21 shut us down for a prolonged period. All four, including the captain Stephen Daines (who is doing sterling work running three league teams), have come on board since we resumed operations, which shows what strides we have made as a club. Half of our entire membership have joined since over-the-board chess came back in 2021.
At Staines, Dieter Mcdougall on top board showed his great potential with a decisive win against David Bean, who has a far from negligible rating. An excellent victory for Dieter, who has played only a handful of matches for the club so far, but is making a solid case for second-team chess. Colin Lyle, a relative tyro and always very modest about his play, also enjoyed a good win, but the captain was not so fortunate, essaying the Dutch for the first time and coming unstuck as he tried, in his words, to “wing it”. He failed to take flight. A Double Dutch perhaps.
That made it 2-1, so at least the ship could not go down with the captain (metaphors are being horribly mangled here). Even if Ergo Nobel lost on board 2, we would still have a draw. At one stage, that did indeed look like a danger: Ergo was the exchange down, with rook and knight against two rooks. Often that spells disaster, especially if rooks can be exchanged to leave one fast-moving rook up against a creaky knight. But Ergo fought admirably, was able to avoid his opponent simplifying to a won position and eventually a draw was agreed, giving Kingston the match by 2.5-1.5.
A result achieved against the tide? Actually no: that was just a pathetic attempt to end on an aquatic note. It was never in doubt. Well done to Captain Daines and his crew.
Stephen Moss
