I’ve been enjoying looking at the games played at last week’s Kingston Invitational Tournament. Richmond’s London League star Conor Murphy took an impressive first place in the Masters section (Peter Lalic also took part), while Mike Healey shared 3rd place in the second section. Many of the other players were good friends of Richmond & Twickenham Chess Club, and, in some cases, also occasional players, past or present.

Congratulations to our Kingston friends for running another excellent event.

I particularly enjoyed the first round game between IM Graeme Buckley and South African FM Roland Bezuidenhout.

Here’s a critical position from this exciting encounter.

This is a Rock Paper Scissors question, with Black (Roland), who has two extra pawns, to play. You have three choices: which would you prefer? Choose from Qa2+, Qb2+ or Qc2+. (If you prefer another move, tough luck!) And how would you assess the position?