The inaugural Gavin Wall Memorial Trophy match took place at Orleans Park School, Twickenham, the HQ of Richmond Junior Club, on Saturday 20 June.

The trophy celebrates the life of IM Gavin Wall, who sadly died last summer. Gavin was one of the very early members of Richmond Junior Club, and, later, for many years in the late 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s, a much valued member of the RJCC team, helping to run the morning group as well as giving regular lessons and simuls.

It was only just before his untimely death that he returned to RJCC to give a simul.

We fielded a team of players rated under 1800, but it soon became clear that the young stars of RJCC were all underrated by several hundred points, a tribute to the excellent coaching they receive there.

Although we had the white pieces in the first round, we lost every game against our mostly lower rated opponents.

In the second round we did slightly better, with a great win for George, along with draws for Advik and Oscar. We’ll need to field our A team next season if we want to get our hands on the trophy.

Thanks to everyone who played in our team, and especially to Karl for getting the team together and captaining on the day. I understand that, despite the result, everyone enjoyed the experience.