Surbiton A v Kingston A, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at Fircroft, Surbiton on 26 February 2025

We faced familiar opponents in this local derby. The Surbiton team was quite strong, though missing Mark Josse and Chris Briscoe. Kingston outrated them significantly, but as we know, it’s not the rating difference which wins the game but the better play on the evening.

The first game to finish was on board 1, where David Maycock (pictured) had been developing a ferocious attack against Altaf Chaudhury’s Sicilian Defence. In this position Black needs to be very careful about how he protects his kingside, especially as his king is still in the centre.

John Hawksworth’s game with Black on board 4 was more sedate. Joshua Pirgon played a line against John’s Sicilian which I have favoured for years – not necessarily a recommendation – the King’s Indian Attack. Joshua missed his chance to develop an attack in this position:

On board 3 Ash Stewart and David Scott reached this position from Ash’s English Opening:

The Jasper Tambini–Peter Lalić game was more or less level until this position was reached:

My own game, with White against Joseph Morrison on board 5, was strangely uneventful – so uneventful, in fact, that I think the only moment of any (very relative) interest was probably at move 9:

The last game to finish, with the score 5-0 to Kingston, was on board 6, where Nick Faulks had opened with the English. Pieces were exchanged two-by-two until a king and pawn ending was reached. John Foley showed great ambition in trying to win this, but it turned out that it was White who held the trumps, and after many moves of a queen and pawn ending (following promotions by both players) John was finally forced to resign, giving Surbiton a compensatory point.

Thus Kingston A won their seventh Thames Valley League division 1 match out of seven. Our results so far have been 5.5-0.5, 4-2, 6-0, 5-1, 4-2, 4-2 and now 5-1. I have to give the usual warning that we shouldn’t get ahead of things, but we can at least feel that we are in a situation where we will only have ourselves to blame if we don’t win the title for the third year in succession.

David Rowson, Kingston captain in Thames Valley League division 1

Kingston 2 v Wimbledon 1, Surrey League division 2 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 24 February 2025

Kingston white on the odd numbered boards

I really ought to go away more often. I captain Kingston 2 and we have been chugging along happily enough this season in division 2 of the Surrey League, just about doing enough to avoid relegation. I was, though, abroad when this match was played, and my absence seems to have inspired the team. Captained by Will Taylor (pictured), they pulled off one of the results of the season, with a 4.5-2.5 victory over table-topping Wimbledon 1.

Will himself got an excellent draw as white against the highly rated Russell Picot, who had beaten him in the reverse fixture earlier in the season. Julian Way drew with black against Dan Rosen on board 3, and John Bussmann also halved with Sean Ingle on board 6. The key result, though, was board 4, where Stephen Lovell, who is happily playing a good deal more for us this season, enjoyed a tremendous win over Ian Heppell.

“He surprised me with a pawn sacrifice in the opening that looked pretty good,” says Stephen. “Very understandably, he then went after the pawn on f2. What neither of us appreciated at the time was that a well-timed Na5 could have caused White a lot of bother. My pieces would have remained in a tangle on the kingside, and it’s hard to defend c4 without creating weaknesses. After he took on f2, my pieces sprang into action and his position unravelled remarkably quickly. The resignation felt a touch early, but really there isn’t too much hope for Black by that stage.”

We pick up the game, which was decidedly short, at the point where Black should consider Na5.

Stephen’s win set the scene for what followed. On board 1, our very own Peter Lalić (turning out for Wimbledon in this division because he is nominated as a Div 1-only player for Kingston) got the better of Luca Buanne and thus gained revenge for his defeat in the away match at Wimbledon. Peter played one of his more bamboozling openings and this was the resulting position:

Peter’s renegade win for a moment put the result of the match in doubt, but Kingston’s new father and son double act – Homayoon and Zubair Froogh – secured the vital points with wins against strong opponents on boards 6 and 7. Peter Lalić reckoned Froogh Senior’s win was a “swindle”, but we will ignore this remark and celebrate a triumph which doesn’t just free us from any threat of relegation but propels us into the top half of the table.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain

Maidenhead D v Kingston C, Thames Valley League division X match played at St Luke’s Community Hall, Maidenhead on 24 February 2025

No one relishes the long trek to Maidenhead on a dark, wintry evening, but Kingston’s team in Div X of the Thames Valley League made light of it and came home with the spoils.

Sean Tay (pictured) maintained his good form with a win on top board; Mark Sheridan and Rob Taylor won smoothly on 2 and 3; and the only reverse was on board 4, where recent Kingston arrival Nette Robinson came unstuck against the highest-rated player in the Maidenhead line-up (why playing down on board 4, I wonder?). An excellent 3-1 victory, which always makes the long journey home more bearable.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain

Hounslow v Kingston, Thames Valley Knockout first round, due to be played at Hounslow on Thursday 20 February

There is sadly nothing to say about this match as it never took place. Hounslow had kindly agreed to Kingston’s earlier request for a deferment of the match, but when the time came to play – on a Thursday, an unusual playing day for both clubs – they were unable to raise a team they considered to be of sufficient strength and defaulted. A very unsatisfactory outcome, especially after Hounslow’s sporting gesture in allowing the match due to be played before Christmas to be postponed.

Kingston now proceed to the semi-final, where TVKO captain Alan Scrimgour (pictured) will need a powerful team against Epsom. A potentially even greater challenge would lie in the final, where Harrow – specialists in this competition and with a very strong line-up – already await.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain

Epsom 1 v Kingston 1, Surrey League division 1 match played at Epsom Christian Fellowship Hall on 17 February 2025

Photograph above by John Foley: front David Maycock (left) v Graeme Buckley; second game is Peter Lalić v Susan Lalić

Home advantage has been a notable factor in Surrey League division 1 this season, so a visit to defending champions Epsom promised a tough match. We were missing our two IMs, Peter Large representing England at an international seniors event and John Hawksworth ill, but were still formidably strong, with the captain able to play a watching brief after driving half the team down. Epsom were missing a likely future IM in Zain Patel, at another overseas tournament (if the Solent counts as overseas).

The absence of Peter Large resulted in an intriguing mother v son clash between the Lalićs on board 2. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this ended in a quick draw. The players played some friendly moves afterwards in which mother established an advantage over son, and before I noticed that the clocks had stopped and the result sheet filled in, I was concerned, but I was soon able to move on.  

Peter Hasson could make little headway on board 5 against the solid Chris Wright, with exchanges down to a bishop ending in which neither side could penetrate the other’s position. On board 6 Jasper Tambini quickly established a winning advantage against Epsom president Marcus Gosling, a pawn up and having wrecked the white kingside, albeit with some damage to his structure. Marcus then sensibly decided to sacrifice a piece for two pawns to take the initiative and pose concrete threats. The sacrifice was not sound for a machine, but for a human chess player it wasn’t easy to find an accurate defence, and the game quickly went downhill for Jasper.

David Rowson v James Pooler on board 7 was also looking good for some time, but also went downhill after an opportunity had been missed. David’s effort to break through with a pawn advance left holes around his king, which his opponent belied his relatively modest rating to exploit. 

Thankfully Mike Healey almost immediately hit back on board 3 against Robin Haldane. The queens were exchanged early on, and Mike backed his bishop against Robin’s knight, together with a lead in development and central pawn mass. His judgement was right, and the queenless middle game was a smooth squash with no big tactics. According to Stockfish, White was 95% accurate.

So with three games left in play, Kingston were 3-2 down. We had been slightly better in all three for much of the game, but by the closing stages all looked objectively drawn, and with all six players short of time, anything could happen. 

Board 4 was a clash between the oldest player in the match, the former British champion Peter Lee, and the youngest, Luca Buanne. Luca exploited a classic Sicilian pin down the c-file to win a pawn. 

On board 8, John Foley dodged a bullet when his opponent declined to make a very promising piece sacrifice.

So scores were level and the match would be decided by board 1, Maycock v Buckley, who were predictably in a time scramble – David had been playing on the increment for some time. Although he had an advantage out of the opening, he missed several chances to cash in. The one he regretted most, although it required great visualisation in several lines, occurred at move 20.

This was a fantastically complicated game for which we owe the players thanks. The match finished 4-4, leaving both sides feeling rightly that they could have done better, and Epsom feeling justifiably that they had outperformed the ratings.

The result of this match means that if both Kingston and Guildford win their other matches (by no means a certainty), Kingston may need another 4-4 draw at Guildford to be sure of the title, although the game points may be sufficiently in our favour that a narrow loss would suffice.   

Peter Andrews, Kingston captain in Surrey League division 1

* See also match report from Epsom.

The first and second teams played at the Holiday Inn, Coventry. The third team played in Peterborough on the third 4NCL weekend 15/16 February 2025

From left: front: Nia Videnova, David Maycock, Ash Stewart; back: Viviana Galvan Cipriani, Ulysse Bottazzi, Peter Finn, Liwia Jarocka, Vladyslav Larkin (Photograph: John Foley)

The 4NCL is the national chess league which is played one game per day over five weekends at hotels in central England. Divisions 1 and 2 comprise 12 teams – eight players in division 1, six in division 2. Division 3 is split into two groups of 12 teams, with six players in each. Division 4 has 32 many teams of six players. Kingston has teams in Divisions 1, 3 and 4. The team is called CSC/Kingston to reflect the aspiration that we provide a pipeline for those learning under the Chess in Schools and Communities project.

This was the third weekend and marks the halfway point of the season. It was make or break this weekend, and we proved ourselves up to the challenge. We were short-handed because some of our players were on international duty for England at the World Senior Team championships in Prague. Peter Large is in the 65+ first team, Clive Frostick is in the 50+ second team, and his wife Helen is in the women’s team. We were also missing players from our second team – Chris Fegan for England and Alan Scrimgour for Scotland. Nonetheless, we have a strong squad and others were drafted in.

The Kingston team is newly promoted and battling to survive at the top flight of British chess. During the first two weekends, we had won just one out of four matches. However, most of these opponents were from the “elite” group of first-division teams. We won against Alba which, although the top Scottish team, was not quite at the elite level. So we had not given up hope of survival.

Division 1 Round 5

The first match this third weekend was against the formidable Wood Green, a sponsored team which has won the title on many occasions. They outrated us on every board and the final defeat by 3-5 was within our expectations. Six of the games were drawn and we lost only two. This proved that we were able to slug it out with the elite.

One factor in our favour for the longer term is that the average age of our team is only 19 years old. We are much younger than the soi-disant “Wood Green Youth” team, whose teeth are getting long. Past players for our CSC/Kingston team (the fluctuating history of the team will be told one day) were the then teenagers Matthew Wadsworth and Harry Grieve, both of whom have now graduated to bigger teams.

Division 1 Round 6

After the loss, the team repaired to the Hungry Horse to lift our spirits. This had the desired effect because the next morning the team arrived fresh and creative to face the strong Barnet Knights A team. Barnet Knights have been a mainstay of junior coaching in north London and their talented protégés were participating, including the Badacsonyi brothers. We were delighted to see Stanley, who was a joint winner of the Kingston Invitational last summer.

This result marked the “coming of age” of the Kingston team according to an exultant tweet from Kingston club captain Stephen Moss, who had decamped to Florida. He loyally left aside the attractions of sun, sea and beach and hung on the live results feed from 4NCL. We were a shade outrated but by less than in the previous round. The first game to finish was from Ulysse Bottazzi, who made short work of his international master opponent as if in compensation for his quick loss the previous day. Peter Finn had two extra pawns against Ethan Pang, but both sides had two rooks which made progress very slow but he got there in the end.

The league table shows we are now fourth from the bottom, which crucially is just above the cut-off point for demotion back down to the second division. A decade ago, I captained a team which had just been promoted to the first division, and my policy was to reward the players who had won promotion for their loyalty and devotion by retaining them in the team. They had the pleasure of playing some of the best players in the country, if not Europe. Whilst this policy had ethical merits, it led to our immediate demotion. The competitive reality is that to survive after promotion it is necessary to strengthen the team, which is what we have done this season.

Division 3 Round 5

Turning now to our second team, which was on 3/4 after two weekends, our only loss being to Sussex Martlets 1, which is the strongest team in the division and top of the table. As mentioned, we were shorthanded as some of our players were on international duties. To make matters worse, at the very last minute, after the pairings against The Rookies, one of our players pulled out due to illness. Defaulting a game is a serious matter in the 4NCL, losing not just the game, but also suffering a penalty point and possibly a financial penalty. Fortunately, Gerhard Bezuidenhout, the father of one of our first-team players, stepped into the breach and, although he lost quickly, he saved the penalties.

This was an excellent victory 4-2 against a slightly higher-rated team. I wondered if they were members of the Stephen Moss fan club named eponymously for The Rookie, his book ruminating on the chess world. Alas, he could not be present to give a speech. After the match, the team tracked to the Hungry Horse for dinner with the first team. The social aspects of team morale cannot be underestimated.

Division 3 Round 6

The morning train from London to Coventry brought our Sunday substitute, Giampiero Amato, who eschewed the offer of a lift to take the No 9 bus from the station. One has to admire his faith in public transport, but it doesn’t do much for the captain’s blood pressure. We swapped the bottom board from the first team and the top board of our second team partly to keep our opponents MK Phoenix guessing.

The team cruised to another victory. Giampiero won a piece in the early middle game and could get the next train back. Ewan Wilson notched up his second point of the weekend. Zain Patel obtained a draw on board 1, as did Viviana Galvan Cipriani on board 2. Tom Farrand was under attack for most of the game, but when the smoke cleared he was the exchange up in the endgame and won.

The games have yet to be published on the 4NCL website at the time of writing so I will mention mine. I had overreached, losing a pawn. I was on the wrong side of a R+P v R ending. It looked ominous, but the game ended curiously. I had been continually checking my opponent’s king from the rear, not allowing any time for the pawn to be promoted. I offered a draw and, to my surprise, my opponent accepted, which was quite a relief. The scoresheets were signed. Our team-mates on both sides subsequently queried whether the position was really drawn. They were right of course – the position was lost.

The second team’s hopes of promotion were greatly increased this weekend with two victories. We are third in the table. Our match against second-placed ToBeDecided will be critical.

Division 4

The third team were playing a Peterborough, which meant that I was unable to learn much more than the match results. The vibe was very positive, with match wins on both days. Chris Rice and Harry Evans both scored a brace.

Division 4 Round 5

Division 4 Round 6

It was an excellent weekend, with five match victories out ofsix. Kingston are definitely contenders for promotion from Divisions 3 and 4 and to avoid demotion from Division 1. Most of the credit should be given to Kate Cooke, who organises the entire squad and was there for all the crucial moments such as dropouts and replacements, logistics and transfers. It really is a team effort.

John Foley

Kingston 3 v Wallington, Surrey League division 4 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 17 February 2025

This was another solid performance by Ed Mospan’s team – a 3-3 draw against a club first team constitutes a very good result. The veteran Nick Edwards outmanoeuvred Alicia Mason on top board, but David Shalom and Adam Nakar drew against higher-rated opponents, new recruit Paul Seymour and the ever reliable Mark Sheridan drew on boards 4 and 5, and Rob Taylor (pictured), who is really finding his feet this season, netted the equaliser on board 6. A very satisfactory evening.

Stephen Moss. Kingston club captain

Hammersmith A v Kingston A, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at the London MindSports Centre, London W6 on Thursday 13 February

The Thames Valley fixture list this season determined that our home and away matches with the club most likely to be our main rivals, Hammersmith, took place one after the other. Having beaten Hammersmith 4-2 at home on 27 January, we visited the London MindSports Centre just two and a bit weeks later.

Both teams were missing one player due to illness, but Kingston were very fortunate to have as a late sub Peter Finn, making his debut in this competition. The addition of Peter to the team meant it had four players with the same first name, always a good augury. Peter Finn did not take long to get on the scoreboard as White against Cian Ward. In an opening which might be categorised as a Queen’s Gambit Semi-Slav or possibly a Queen’s Indian Defence, this position was reached:

On board 4, Will Taylor (who had selflessly offered to change his first name to Peter in the interests of the Peter-ish team) was Black facing the experienced Carsten Pedersen, who had drawn with Supratit Banerjee in the corresponding match at the Willoughby. Will commented, “I made a big effort to play quickly and was 35 minutes up on the clock at some point (almost unprecedented for me). Alas, I didn’t manage to convert the time advantage into anything serious on the board.” However, he was never in any trouble against Carsten’s Vienna Opening and a draw was agreed in this position:

Black has just played 37…Nxh3. White has a choice between Nxh5, gxh5 and Ne4, but none of these moves would give him an advantage.

Hammersmith soon equalised the score by winning on board 5. From an English Opening, Peter Andrews reached this position against Aryaman Ganguly:

Thus scores were level with boards 1, 2 and 6 still in play. If Kingston members following events on WhatsApp were feeling the tension, for the players at the venue it must have been agonising, especially given the way each of the remaining games veered from favouring one side to the other.

On board 6, John Foley faced the same opponent, Greg Billenness, as in the corresponding match last year. John again deployed the Caro-Kann Defence, but this time forearmed, instead of the Fantasy Variation, Greg chose a line which chess.com tells me is called the Von Hennig Gambit. The opening moves were: 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Bc4 Nf6 5. f3 e3. With this move, John explained, he was “trying to move the game into uncharted waters”. The book move is 5…b5. After both players castled queenside, the following position was reached, White having just played 22. f5.

Kingston were now a point ahead, with the top two boards still in play. Peter Large’s game against Ali Hill was on a knife edge. In accordance with one of his New Year Resolutions, Peter had played the Trompowsky Opening for the first time. After 16 moves, this was the position, Peter having just played 16. Bb5:

The last game to finish, perhaps not unexpectedly, was Peter Lalić’s – he was Black against Thomas Bonn (see photograph at top of page). It might have ended with a threefold repetition as early as move 15, but Peter varied from his previous moves to avoid this. A long ending of rooks and knights followed, with the advantage veering from one side to the other. Thomas queened first, and Peter had to give up his rook for the queen, resulting in the unusual balance of forces shown in this position, with Black to play:

This made the final result 4-2 to Kingston, the same result as in our home match against Hammersmith. This puts Kingston in a dominant position in the league at the halfway stage.

David Rowson, Kingston captain in Thames Valley League division 1

Wallington v Kingston, Lauder Trophy semi-final played at Wallington United Reformed Church on 12 February 2025

This match was always going to be tense. It goes with the territory in the Lauder Trophy, where the collective rating of the team cannot exceed 10,500. How do you divide up the rating cake: two strong players and four weaker players; six mid-rated players? The puzzle always takes a lot of solving.

Wallington and Kingston went for very similar teams – two strong players and four very decent players in the 1500-1750 bracket. A close match was guaranteed and so it proved, with Kingston squeezing home by 3.5-2.5 after an evening of high drama.

On top board, veterans David Rowson of Kingston and Nick Edwards of Wallington (and indeed Coulsdon) faced each other – amazingly, so David says, the first time they have ever met in a classical game despite both being an integral part of the Surrey chess scene for more than half a century.

Nick is a very principled, positional player and opened with d4, to which David replied with an unusual King’s Indian-type line. “Nick and I had a great set-to,” says David, “which we both enjoyed, with some rather unusual positions arising from what I think is called the KID Kramer System. After the game we spent a long time analysing it, but putting it through Stockfish it seems we assessed a lot of the positions wrongly.”

This was a key position. Should Black take the pawn on h4? “Maybe I should have taken,” says David, “but it looked very risky to me.”

Alan Scrimgour had White and a hefty rating advantage on board 2, and his assured win against the very solid David Jones was vital to the Kingston cause. This was how Alan succinctly summed up the game afterwards: “Careful manoeuvring around the queenside majority combined with pressure on the IQP [isolated queen’s pawn] led to win of the exchange. My opponent, despite his time shortage, responded with a kingside sortie that White had under control.” This was the game’s denouement. White is on top, so Black decides to go for broke.

Meanwhile on board 3, Jon Eckert was defending an Exchange French. He felt it was drawish from an early stage, but there were some late complications and he had winning chances. But Jon also recognised that we probably had our noses in front in the match – with good positions with White on boards 2 and 4 – and offered his opponent a draw, which was accepted. The fact that Kingston’s players were all taking stock of the match situation was one of the great positives of this win. Chess is a very individual game, good players are often egoists, and the match context can sometimes be forgotten.

Kingston’s one reverse came on board 6, where Aziz Sannie lost to the promising Wallington junior Mohamed Nasrudeen Meeran. Aziz went the exchange (rook for knight) down and, try though he might, couldn’t generate much counterplay as his opponent liquidated to a won endgame.

On board 5 Kingston captain Ed Mospan was facing Luke Glinton in another match-up between players with almost identical ratings. Neither could establish a significant edge in a series of blocked positions and a draw was agreed. Another important result with Black for Kingston.

That left David Bickerstaff (pictured above on the right of the picture, with Ed Mospan beside him, in a previous match at South Norwood), to put the ball in the back of the net, which is exactly what he did. David had White on board 4 against the slightly higher-rated Robert Davies, but he never gave his opponent a chance with a perfect pawn storm against Black’s KIng’s Indian Defence. Here is the game which took Kingston into the Lauder Trophy final, where we will face Coulsdon, with annotations by David.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain