In cricket, the Gentlemen v Players game was a First Class cricket match regularly played from 1806 until 1962 between a team made up of elite amateurs (the 'Gentlemen') and young sportsmen of independent means (from the universities), and a team made up of professionals (the 'Players'). Just as life imitates art, so chess imitates cricket. The distinction between Gentlemen and Players still operates in some chess leagues, notably the London Chess League (Wood Green always win), and the Surrey Border League.

In last night's Division 1 match at Guildford, the home team fielded a very powerful team of elite amateurs rated 2300 on average and featuring two IMs and an FM. But they were roundly defeated, losing 4–1 to a team of professionals from Sandhurst – that's professional as in paid to play chess – rated nearly 100 points higher on average, and featuring two GMs, one IM and one Candidate Master. Well done to Alberto Suarez Real and Alex Golding for taking half a point each off their GM opponents. Gwilym Price was unlucky on board 3, turning down a draw in a better position when the team situation required him to play on, then dropping a piece in time trouble.

Meanwhile, back on Planet Earth, Guildford D narrowly lost to Godalming B by 2–3 in Division 4, with both sides evenly matched in rating terms. Elsewhere, Guildford G travelled to Fleet & Farnborough B for a Division 7 match which finished 2–2.

Back at the club, the latest Andrew Martin coaching session was very well attended. Some club members then made their competitive debut in an informal Beginners' Rapidplay event. Next door, the main internal rapidplay has now seen 53 rounds of play, featuring 52 players.

The FIDE Congress is now only 10 weeks away. How are the preparations going?

So far we have 46 entries.

• 23 in the Open (average rating 1978), including 3 IMs.
• 12 in the Major / U2000 (average rating 1640).
• 11 in the Minor / U1600 (average rating 1376).

That's a promising number so far in advance of the event. We may well reach 160 which is the maximum the venue can hold.

The entries include 15 juniors; 11 members of Guildford; and 2 female players. These aren't mutually exclusive – a number of Guildford juniors have already signed up.

We have a team of three FIDE arbiters – Emma-Jane Billington-Phillips and John Bowley, who were arbiters at the first FIDE Congress in 2023, and Paul McKeown, who joins us this year.

As last year, this will be an international event: a total of 8 different FIDE Federations are already represented.

For more details, see the FIDE Congress page on this website or the Chess-Results server.

Two league matches tonight, two losses for the Guildford teams. We can't say we were out-rated since in both cases the opposition was of a similar strength. In the Surrey League Division 1, Guildford 1 lost 2.5–5.5 to Epsom 1. Clive Frostick and Julien Shepley picked up our only wins. Roger Emerson came away with a half point. Guildford still lead the table, level on points with Epsom and with a superior game points total. But it was Epsom's night, and they have a match in hand. In the Surrey Border League Rapidplay Division 2, Guildford RB lost 1–7 to Farnham RB. Liam Ireland took the solitary point.

Upstairs, Trevor Jones took the Beginners' Group through some of his positional games. Next door, the internal rated rapidplay reached 50 rounds for the season to date. The Organiser and Wonderboy A remain the only players on 100%.

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).

The 2nd Guildford FIDE Congress will take place from Friday 12 April to Sunday 14 April 2024. The congress has its own webpage on the site under Activities. Entries are now open.

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.