This week saw our first post-lockdown London League match, against Imperial College, on paper at least one of the weaker Division 1 teams. In this match we unveiled two new star signings: young Irish IM Conor Murphy and teenage Mexican star David Maycock, who will be known to many of you both from his membership of Kingston Chess Club and from his occasional social visits to Richmond.

Our captain Gavin Wall was unavailable as he was playing in an international tournament in Newcastle.

Here’s what happened.

1. Gautam Jain (2030) 1:0 Conor Murphy (2537)
2. Elliott MacNeil (1905) 0:1 Callum Kilpatrick (2465)
3. Seny Denisov (1832) 0:1 Iain Gourlay (2353)
4. Kai Lam (1690) 0:1 David Maycock (2336)
5. Jamie Todd (1808) 0:1 Andreas Wetscherek (2095)
6. Harrison Roberts (1804) 0:1 Caspar Bates (2133)
7. Adriel Au (-) 1:0 Martin Benjamin (2043)
8. Michael Pristin (1732) ½:½ Jon Eckert (1895)

You’ll see that Conor unexpectedly lost on top board, but we still scored the expected comfortable victory. With Conor and David in the team we should be competing for one of the top spots in the division. Thanks to all who played, and especially to Jon for captaining the team on the night.

Last Tuesday at the Adelaide, Richmond C played their return match against Richmond D, again coming out on top.

Here’s the result.

1. Otto Weidner (1684) 0:1 Alex Shard (1739)
2. Jack Thompson (-) 1:0 Barry Sutton (1598)
3. Christos Venetis (1697) ½:½ George Dokic (1374)
4. Mike Robinson-Chue (1442) 1:0 Laurie Catling (1366)
5. Ron Bilkhu (1404) ½:½ Jim Anandajeyarajah (1226)
6. Julian Bedale (1117) 1:0 Ken Broadley (1049)