Our last Thames Valley League match of the season pitched our A team against second placed Hammersmith A. With nothing at stake we hoped they might not be at full strength, but that wasn’t the case. We were outrated heavily on all except the top board.

It was great to welcome Nick, an RJCC star 45 years or so ago, back to competitive chess.

Given the disparity in ratings a heavy defeat was to be expected, but Alastair scored an excellent win with t he Black pieces against a much more recent RJCC star.

Here’s the game: click on any move for a pop-up window.

Thanks to captain Maks and to all who played in this match, and indeed all our matches this season.

Still to come we have a London League match, again against Hammersmith, which was scheduled for 2 June, but has been postponed due to the tube strike. I’ll update the Fixtures page when a date has been agreed. We’re also still awaiting news of a date for our TVKO Semi-Final against Harrow, with the winner to play Kingston in the final.