Kingston C v Hounslow C, Thames Valley League division X match played at the Richard Mayo Centre, United Reformed Church, Kingston on 20 October 2025

Kingston C were outrated by Hounslow C in their opening Div X match of the season, so to emerge as 3-1 victors was quite an achievement. The team had been assembled by Jon Eckert, but was captained on the night by Genc Tasbasi, as Jon had to leave once the preliminaries had been conducted.

Genc (pictured above), who has had a tremendous start to the season after returning to chess earlier this year, defeated the veteran David White on board 1. Genc was a pawn down and under pressure early in the game, but he stayed calm and, with time trouble in this 65+10 game starting to kick in, he turned it round to beat his very capable opponent. The fact he had Black, in line with the rule that the away team in Thames Valley matches always take White on board 1, made the victory all the sweeter.

On board 2, Rob Taylor, with White, downed his higher-rated opponent Steve Hall. Anqi Yang lost on board 3 to another Hounslow veteran, Barry Fraser, whose Ruy Lopez prevailed against Anqi’s stern resistance. But on board 4 Nette Robinson made sure Kingston took the spoils with victory against Andrew Cleminson. A top-notch start to the season for Jon Eckert’s team.

Stephen Moss