The Surrey Championships take place over the summer at the Surbiton Chess Club. It is a comfortable location to play chess on the balmy evenings. The venue, Fircroft, is a house from another era with large oak-panelled rooms and high ceilings. Yet within this calm environment lurk some brutal chess machinations.

The game between John Foley of Kingston and Stephen Berry of Wimbledon proved to be an attacking sacfest. Stephen is a FIDE Master the joint highest rated player in the Challenge Cup (FIDE 2314) and has won it seven times. An accomplished chess writer, he has been in sparkling form this month having just won the Leuven Open and the Costwold Open. However, there is no undue respect for titles in the Surrey and John was determined to make Stephen play hard for the point.

It was a game in which John as White persisted with his attacking plan irrespective that Stephen usually found the best defensive moves. Stephen defended stoutly against all the ordnance John threw at him. If a kitchen sink had been part of the starting line-up of pieces then he would have thrown that as well.

Stephen succumbed in time trouble after he played his only poor move of the game. He could still have saved the game after that. However players defending under pressure throughout a game willl often crack even though objectively they may have a superior position. Although the game was not without error, it was entertaining and exciting for the kibitzers who had gathered around.

Meanwhile Susan Lalic leads the Championship.

Julian Way also played a brilliant two knight sacrifice this season.

John Foley (184) v FM Stephen Berry (205)
Surrey Challenge
ECO D05
Colle System

Annotations by John Foley