Surrey beat Kent at the weekend to win the Southern Counties Chess Championships and lift the Shannon Cup for the first time since 1964. The Open team, led by Graeme Buckley won 5-11 in Dartford. The full results are here. It was the culmination of five years of trying by Graeme who hands over the reins to Owen Phillips.

Surrey now moves on to the national Quarter Final on 21st May at home against Warwickshire. The results will be on the English Chess Federation website under County Championships. Should Surrey proceed any further, the Semi-Final wouldl be again at home on 11th June against Staffordshire or a Northern Counties team, probably Yorkshire or Lancashire. The two home matches are the reward for winning the Southern Counties section.

Kingston has had three players in the Surrey team this season: David Rowson, Julian Way and John Foley.

In the previous season, John won the prize for the Best Game in Surrey County matches.

John Foley v Ian Reynolds
Essex v Surrey January 2010

A game marked by building up a winning advantage, throwing it away and then finding a tricky move at the right time to give the opponent a chance to go wrong.