Our final match of the season pitted our TVA team against Kingston A, who fielded IMs on boards 2, 4 and 5,

As we were outrated by an average of almost 400 points a board, the result was hardly surprising.

Nevertheless, we put up a respectable fight on most of the boards. Bertie was outplayed in the ending, Sampson’s weak c-pawn eventually fell, I chose a difficult opening and went wrong early on, Alastair’s game seemed to finish very quickly, while John and Maks provided most resistance before going down towards the end of the session.

For many years, our TVA team has been held together by Gavin and Mike Healey on the top two boards. Now Gavin is sadly no longer with us, and Mike has moved out of the area so is available less often, it’s not easy for us.

Kingston, meanwhile, have a very impressive set-up, run to professional standards. They now meet in an attractive and spacious venue ideally located right in the town centre, with much activity even three days before Christmas. Alongside our match there were nine rated games, featuring a wide range of players: male and female, young and old, rated between 1100 and 2021.

We were using DGT enabled boards and custom printed duplicate scoresheets: their players handed in the carbon copy to the match captain after their games, just as we used to do at RJCC back in the day. Kingston Chess Club pens were also provided on each table.

It’s very clear that there are a lot of people, many retired but still energetic, putting in a lot of work to make the club successful. They have a lot of different skills: playing, organising and writing. I’ve long believed that, in the future, there will be fewer but larger chess clubs, offering much better facilities and serving the wider chess community: competitive players at all levels, social players and juniors.

Kingston are setting an example in demonstrating what is possible: well done to them!