Resignation ends the game
In the Surrey League Alexander Cup semi-final, Guildford beat Coulsdon 6–4 in an exciting which was in balance until near the end of the session. This was largely due to the Guildford juniors Adam Sefton, Zac Welling and Seb Twisk, who scored 2.5/3 between them. In the final, on a date to be arranged, we meet the winners of the other semi-final between Epsom and Kingston.
An interesting point arose in the Surrey League Division 2 match (Beaumont Cup) between Guildford 2 and South Norwood 1. On board 3, the Guildford player's flag fell – but neither player said anything. The South Norwood player resigned. He then noticed his opponent's flag fall and claimed a win on time. We had to consult the FIDE Laws of Chess. These state:
1. Resignation ends the game immediately (Article 5.1.2)
2. A player must make all his moves in the time allotted for the game (Article 6.3.1)
3. A flag is considered to have fallen when either player makes a valid claim to that effect (Article 6.8)
4. A player loses if he does not make all his prescribed moves in the allotted time, unless his opponent has already resigned (Article 6.9).
In this case, resignation preceded the win on time claim, so that had no effect. This affected the match result as it meant that Guildford 2 won 4–3 instead of losing 4–3.
Victory also for Guildford E in the Surrey Border League Division 5, who beat Bracknell A by 3–2 despite being outrated by nearly 150 points a board.