Epsom 2 v Kingston 2, Surrey League division 2 match played at the Epsom Christian Fellowship on 26 January 2026

It had been only a fortnight since our tightly fought home draw v Epsom 2, and less than two months since Kingston 1 were defeated by Epsom 1, with three of our side for this latest match and four of theirs also present on that occasion. But to plagiarise the comedian Eric Morecambe for elite chess, we may have been playing the same people, but not necessarily in the same order.

Epsom captain Marcus Gosling (pictured above, directing operations at the start of the match) used the full tolerance allowed by Surrey League rules to promote players in form, notably the fast-rising junior Lev Razhnou, who had added 100 points to his rating between early November and mid December. I had been one of his victims in that run, and had seen him grind down the Essex board 2 in a county U2050 match at the weekend in an endgame, usually a hallmark of class. So we reassured David Rowson, who was to face him, that if he got a result it would be one to treasure when Lev achieves stardom in a few years.

Martyn Jones on board 6 also drew a tough assignment, facing former British champion Peter Lee, while Stephen Moss, who had stepped in at a late stage for the unwell John Foley, was also outrated by his young opponent on board 7. We were clearly outrated on four boards, about evenly matched on two, and only had a significant advantage on board 3.

A challenging task was mitigated by winning the toss for the first time this season (in our 6th match), which gave us four Whites out of seven boards, and probably gave us the colours we wanted for the match-ups – three of our four outrated players had White, and in the middle order Rowson and I are just as likely to score with Black, while Jasper Tambini’s style may better suit White.       

Julian Way played a sensible if unexciting game against James Allison on top board giving us an early draw on one of our “uphill” boards. But Martyn Jones succumbed on board 6, though as he put it there were “plenty of learnings” against such an experienced opponent. I was unable to see much of the rest of the match because of the excitement in my own game on board 4 versus Gosling. Those of my team-mates who saw the game will probably have counted it as a win from early on, but given my previous game with Marcus it didn’t feel that way.

I emerged from my trance over this game to find that on board 3 Jasper Tambini had squashed Chris Wright in a game which carried a useful lesson about engine analysis.

On board 2, David Rowson’s game with Black against Lev Razhnou did not quite live up to its billing. There were some tactical slips on both sides, starting with David losing a pawn but taking the initiative in the middle game, and culminating in an ending in which his pawn advantage with a goodish bishop v knight and connected passed pawns on the kingside were winning, one might have thought easily. But even in endgames chess can be a difficult and cruel game. With both players in acute time trouble, White had one chance to turn the tables.

Thankfully I didn’t see that, or my nerves might not have been fit to drive home. As it was, I came round from my own game to find that we were now 3.5-1.5 ahead, with boards 5 and 7 still going. A draw from one of them would be sufficient to win the match.

On board 7, Stephen Moss had a fighting game with another rising Epsom junior, Maya Keen, in which he dodged several bullets.

Just as Stephen was congratulated by his team-mates for getting us over the line, Homayoon Froogh also delivered a draw. This was a fine result against Robin Haldane, a scourge of Kingston this season having already beaten Peter Hasson in the first-team match in December and Jasper Tambini in the second- team match in early January. Homayoon was never worse, and at the time it felt like a solid and accurate performance. So it was frustrating for him to show his effort to Mr Stockfish next day and find that he had missed an immediate win.

So we had won 4.5-2.5 despite being outrated, a great team effort celebrated with the doughnuts generously brought by Peter Lalic, who came to watch the end of the match. Almost all the games were hard and long, and several of them contained missed one-move opportunities to change the course of history. Which goes to show that chess is hard for humans, but that, along with humour between the teams and doughnuts, is what makes the game worth playing.  

Peter Andrews is Kingston captain in Surrey division 2