There was a full programme of activities at the club on Monday 22 January.

Three matches took place in the main room. In the Surrey Border League Division 1, Guildford A beat Farnham A by 4–1. This reflected the rating difference of +270 in favour of Guildford A, who turned out their strongest team of the season with an average of 2239. In the Surrey Border League Rapidplay Division 2, Guildford RB lost 2.5–5.5 to Crowthorne RB, again reflecting the rating difference which was over +300 in favour of Crowthorne. And in the Surrey League Division 4 (Centenary Trophy), Guildford 3 beat Kingston 3 by 5.5–0.5, with a rating advantage of +200 a board. All this must say something about the rating system – it proved a good predictor of the match results tonight.

Upstairs, the juggernaut known as the internal rated rapidplay saw three further rounds with nine players taking part. James Toon continues to lead the event, now with 18 out of 18. The sequence of 18 consecutive wins sees the player known as "The Organiser" closing in on Bobby Fischer (20 consecutive wins in 1971) and the world-record holder, Wilhelm Steinitz (25 consecutive wins between 1873 and 1882).

Next door, the Beginners' Group took part in a lively session with a set of Find the Continuation positions provided by Mike Gunn, ending in a series of blitz and other casual games.

Well done everyone and here's to a successful and enjoyable second half of the season.

Guildford 2 hosted Wimbledon 2 in the Surrey League Division 3 (Ellam Trophy) on Monday 15 January. Guildford edged it on paper with an average rating of 1900 a board vs 1850 and this was reflected in the final score, a 4–2 home win. The top two boards swung it with a couple of late victories. On board 1, James Toon played positional chess as White against his opponent's QGD Tarrasch Defence (by transposition), winning Black's isolated d-pawn to reach a rook ending with six pawns vs five pawns. There was only going to be one outcome. See the Games page for the annotated game. Then on board 2, defending against the English Opening, Seb Galer reached a queen and rook ending with complicated pawns, outplaying his opponent to win a piece in an exciting finish with both payers very short of time. After that Guildford 2 are third in the table but it's very close at the top.

Guildford 3 travelled to South Norwood 2 for this table-topping Centenary Trophy match on Thursday 4 January. Although Guildford lost 4–2, several players were better at some stage in their games. Thanks to all who played, especially Paul Welling who stepped in after 25 minutes on board 6 when our player had a car problem and couldn't reach the venue. Captain Mike Gunn admits failing to convert a +30 advantage and ending up with a draw (we've all been there).

We also had an away league match on Monday 11 December – Kingston 3 v Guildford 4 in the Surrey League Division 4 (Centenary Trophy). On paper the teams were very evenly-matched and so an eventual 3–3 draw was about right. Early on things looked promising when we won boards 4 and 5, and drew boards 3 and 6, to lead 3–1, but Kingston finished strongly with wins on boards 1 and 2. Mike has annotated his win from this match – see the Games page.

Winding down for Christmas… just one home match tonight. Guildford A beat Godalming A 5.5–2.5 in the Surrey Border League Rapidplay Division 1. Not surprising as Guildford outrated the opposition by 140 points a board. It would have been even more decisive if Godalming had not fielded the very strong Gwilym Price on top board, who scored most of the team's points himself.

Seb Galer led the Beginners Group in a session focusing on opening play. Next door, the internal rapidplay continued: 13 sessions, 41 rounds, and 49 players. James Toon stretched his lead in the rapidplay table, reaching 16 wins from 16 games.

The usual range of activities took place on Monday 27 November. In the main room on the 1st floor, Guildford teams had mixed fortunes in league matches. In the Surrey League Division 3 (Centenary Trophy), Guildford 3 beat Epsom 3 by the score of 5–1. We outrated them by over 100 points a board. But in the Surrey Border League Rapidplay Division, Guildford RA lost 5–3 to Farnham RA. Here the two teams were evenly-matched on paper. Well done to Zac Welling who won both his games on board 3.

Upstairs, the Beginners Group and the Improvers Group came together (for the second time this month), this time for a coaching session led by Andrew Martin. This does not suggest that the Improvers are getting worse, but rather that the Beginners are getting better and probably shouldn't be called Beginners any more. Expect further collaboration between these two groups.

The internal rapidplay continued next door, with 11 players taking part over the four rounds. Some of these came in towards the end after finishing the league matches on the floor below.

Our first team was strong for this Surrey Trophy match against Wimbledon and we outrated them by over 100 points a board on average. So the final score of 5–3 in our favour was what we might have expected on paper. In fact the match was much closer than that.

Six of the eight games finished inside two hours. Alan Punnett lost on board 4, James Toon won on board 6, and there were draws on boards 1, 2, 3 and 7 for Gwilym Price, Nigel Povah, Clive Frostick and Julien Shepley.

The last two boards took much longer to finish. They did not look promising. Rolandas Lukosius was the exchange down on board 5, in an ending with bishop and pawns v rook and pawns. Trevor Jones was passively-placed in a complicated middlegame on board 8. It seemed that a draw was the best we could hope for in both games, and we might even lose. But both players showed admirable fighting qualities to keep the games going. Admittedly with some help from their opponents, in desperate time trouble…

First, Trevor's opponent blundered, overlooking a tactic that won the exchange and then a piece. Then, Rolandas's opponent managed to misplay the ending completely, allowing Rolandas to establish a passed pawn on the 7th rank that was defended by his bishop, resulting in an easy win.

This win keeps us top of Division 1 with three of our eight matches played.

Guildford Young Guns, who play in Division 4 of the 4NCL, made a strong start in rounds 1 and 2 of the current season, defeating Crowthorne B 4–2 and Celtic Tigers C 5–1. Both matches were very competitive.

It is great to see our young players gaining experience and improving rapidly as they do so.

A big thank you to Roger Emerson and Nigel Povah, who support the team behind the scenes in many important ways, and to Rob Merriman, who runs the still-growing Junior Club with remarkable efficiency.