Reflections of new Club Champion, NM Sam Walker

Battersea Club Championships 2025/26

Hello everyone – and happy new season to you all!

I was delighted to be asked to pen a short write-up of the Club Championship from last season, which I was fortunate to win. Importantly, a big thank you to everyone who participated in all the club events.

And most importantly, thank you to Greg Taylor and others who ran our fantastic events – our club trophy is over 100 years old and it’s only thanks to the efforts of people who help that we can have such a fantastic club championship.

As well as Midhun in the final, I had an extremely tough journey to get there – credit to my opponents Ethan Luc, Greg Taylor, Chris Rawlinson, Sam Riggs and Tom Farrand for all the thrills and spills we had together. I especially love how after every game we were able to grab a drink together and catch up.

Now Come and Play

I would encourage anyone to enter the Club Championships (there are different events depending on your ability and availability, from beginners to seasoned veterans!) for this precise reason – you get to have a competitive game vs a club member and you can analyse the game together after. I’m especially looking forward to seeing some of our junior members enter the competition this year and see how they get on!

My advice to anyone who’s interested is to step up to the plate (chessboard!) and go for it.

Can you spot the tactic?

Here’s a position from my run through the club championships – can you see the winning tactic which allowed me to get over the line in the semi-final vs Tom Farrand?

Sub-plot – Tom had deviously escaped a lost position in the previous game to hold a draw – he’s a player who fights right until the end, so I knew I had to take my chance this time… What combination does White have after Re6 from Black?