Thames Valley Knockout final played at Harrow High School, Harrow on Thursday 19 June

It felt a little strange to play a major chess match on the longest and hottest day of the year so far, with several players in shorts and complaints that the air conditioning was too effective. But two strong teams, albeit missing the prodigious Bodhana Sivanandan on the Harrow side and the infectious Peter Lalic on ours, contested a tense match containing some high-quality chess. Kingston had a rating advantage on all boards except board 1.

First to finish was Will Taylor, with Black on board 6 against Jagdeep Dhemrait. In a Four Knights Opening, White had played Nc3 and Bc4, allowing a classic Nxe4 idea, ready to fork with d5 if White plays Nxe4. Instead White played Bxf7+ to dislodge the black king before recapturing on e4. In my youth, that was regarded as unclear, but modern computer assessments suggest the two bishops outweigh the loss of castling. Will seemed to have an edge for much of the game, based on more centralised major pieces, but his attempts at a winning attack were frustrated by back-row mate threats and a shortage of time, so a draw made sense.     

The game on board 2 between Manmay Chopra and David Maycock (pictured above) quickly exploded.

Our other Black game, Ash Stewart on board 4 v Nigel Alldritt, went less well. Ash’s pawn structure was seriously damaged in the early middle game. He got some activity for it, but after the queens were exchanged it was soon clear that the ending was hopeless.

On board 1, two FMs were in combat. To this spectator’s eye it was not quite clear that Supratit Banerjee’s kingside attack would outweigh the queenside initiative of Tanmay Chopra, but Supratit is familiar with the line and was confident that he had it all in hand. He was never worse, and after a less-than-obvious error by Black he outplayed his opponent, proving that the division of Black’s army – with his king’s rook unable to assist the battle on the queenside – was crucial.

2.5-1.5 up and with board count in our favour, things looked good. John Hawksworth on board 5 had not been able to break through against Harrow captain Nevil Chan, but in the major piece ending he seemed to have a space advantage. He found afterwards that the computer assessment was level – no breakthrough was available. And the downside of the space advantage was that his pawns were a little more extended. Nevil found a tactic, winning a pawn and coming down to a rook ending in which he controlled the only open file, so one pawn soon became two, which was fatal.

So the score was level at 2.5-2.5 and it was all up to Peter Large on board 3 against Steven Coles. Peter had allowed his c-pawns to be doubled, but in compensation had pressure down the half-open b-file against Black’s queenside-castled king, which looked promising even with the queens off. He “mislaid” the pawn on c3, and then temporarily sacrificed a rook, exploiting the position of the black king to win the material back and come down to an ending with rook and knight v rook and bishop, with one extra pawn but with his passed a pawn harder to defend than Black’s passed d-pawn.

With both players very short of time, the decisive phase of the game was not recorded, which was probably just as well for those of a nervous disposition. Peter had thought we were winning board 5 so could try to win this game without risk to the overall result, and he turned down at least one draw by repetition. But from being a little better, his position deteriorated to be level and then probably losing.

However, to deal with the white a-pawn the black king had gone over to the queenside and was therefore out of reach when the game crystallised to rook and one pawn each on the kingside. Even though Peter’s pawn was the h-pawn, he managed to place his rook behind his king on the g-file, and the black rook could not stop the pawn unaided, forcing Black to resign.

A 3.5-2.5 win for Kingston gave us our seventh trophy of the season, although given the difference in ratings the closeness of the match also reflects well on the home side.

Peter Andrews, acting Kingston TVKO captain

Richmond B v Kingston B, Thames Valley League division 2 match played at the Adelaide pub Teddington on 3 June 2025

Richmond wanted to prove a point in this match – that their B team could live with our title-winning side – and they proved it emphatically, running out winners by 5.5-0.5. We are champions of the division, but we were humbled by this result – the second team’s first defeat of the season in its final match. Indeed, the club’s final match of the season. All that remains is the Thames Valley Knockout final away to Harrow on 19 June – a tough assignment.

Richmond B, under their determined and resourceful captain Alastair Armstrong, put out an extremely strong team, spearheaded by the 2200-plus Maxim Dunn. We competed for a large part of the evening, but in the end as time pressure kicked in – Richmond use a tight control of 65 minutes plus 10-second increment – we crumbled.

Peter Andrews, with White against Maxim on board 1, was level (indeed felt he was slightly better when Maxim rebuffed his draw offer), but was outmanoeuvred as time took its toll. “Maxim found a plan and I didn’t,” was Peter’s succinct summing up. The litany of our woes on the other boards is almost too painful to recount. On board 2 Will Taylor, with Black, had fought valiantly against the Richmond captain and had a draw for the taking, but he had to find the correct move in the position below:

Homayoon Froogh, with White against the durable Sampson Low on board 5 (the two are pictured above, with Homayoon on the left), also blundered in time trouble in a position that was probably winning, and John Foley let at least a draw slip with White against John Burke on board 3. This really wasn’t our night. Jon Eckert, Black on board 6, lost the exchange against Pablo Soriano, and the Richmond man was in the box seat thereafter, smoothly converting in a well-played game.

Zubair Froogh, with Black on board 4 against the accomplished John Bass, saved us from the humiliation of a whitewash, getting a draw to cap an excellent first season for the club. The arrival of father Homayoon and son Zubair at Kingston this season has been one reason why we have ended up as champions of division 2 (see the final division 2 table at the foot of this report). It has been a truly fantastic season for Kingston B, and once we get over the pain of this defeat we will celebrate winning the title in appropriate style. For the club to win both Thames Valley division 1 and 2 is a truly remarkable achievement and surely a first in Kingston’s history.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain

Final Thames Valley division 2 table

Kingston B v Richmond B, Thames Valley League division 2 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 2 June 2025

In the penultimate league match of the season, Kingston B held on to their unbeaten record with a reasonably comfortable victory against a battle-hardened Richmond B side, who were in with a chance of promotion if they could beat us in the final two back-to-back matches of the season.

Jon Eckert recorded a rapid victory against Richmond newcomer Polina Popovtseva on board 6, when White rounded on Black’s uncastled king in a French Defence that went badly wrong. Alan Scrimgour, playing White, took an early draw against distinguished Richmond veteran Richard James on board 2, while Stephen Lovell (Black on board 3) and Zubair Froogh (White on board 4) had rather more extended and exhausting draws against Sampson Low and Bertie Barlow, two tough opponents. Indeed, Stephen’s game did not finish until 10.30pm after three hours of hard-fought struggle.

On board 5, Homayoon Froogh had Black against Simon Illsley. Homayoon was always well ahead on the clock, but he was the exchange down and it looked like the Richmond player had at least a draw. Indeed, if the match had not been swinging Kingston’s way, he might well have offered one. But he played on and, with time short, blundered when under attack by queen and bishop, and was mated.

On board 1, in a high-class struggle between Richmond captain Alastair Armstrong, with White, and Kingston stalwart Peter Andrews, this was the complicated and double-edged position after Black’s 27th move, with time trouble already looming:

A satisfying win for Peter and a fine victory for Kingston B by 4.5-1.5, setting up the return match away to Richmond B due the very next day and with many of the same personnel likely to be involved.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain