Some excellent news from Richmond D, who maintained their position at the top of Division 4 of the Thames Valley League with an emphatic victory at Surbiton.

What’s particularly gratifying is that we had three new members taking part in the match. Adam and Rob were playing their first games for us, and Max his third. Adam managed to win his game with 12 seconds remaining on the clock: perfect timing! All were attracted to the club in the first instance by the promise of social chess, were impressed by the friendly atmosphere on our social evenings, and have now graduated to competitive chess.

Congratulations to all of them, and also to Eamon, continuing his strong run for the D team, and Colin, showing that he’s coming back into form by beating a much higher graded opponent.

Thanks also to Julian for giving some of our new members the opportunity to take part in this team.

This is the future: promote social chess in a welcoming environment, promote it via a website and social media, and people will turn up.

Congratulations to Adam for winning on his debut, Rob, who stands better in his unfinished game against a talented young opponent, and Max, who is now on 2½/4 in between his A Level studies. Yes, we’re attracting teenagers as well as adults of all ages by the promise of social chess.

	Surbiton C		Richmond D
1	Robert Faint 134	0:1	Eamon Rashid-Farokhi 143
2	David Cole 120	0:1	Adam Naglik –
3	Oleksiy Podolyan 120	0:1	Colin Dailley 103
4	Radha Ratnesan 123	Adj	Rob Hunter –
5	Augustas Jonikas 96	0:1	Max Brindley –
6	Paul McCauley 87	1:0	Julian Bedale 60
		1:4

Richmond D played white on the odd-numbered boards.