Kingston 1 v Wimbledon 1, Surrey League division 1 match played at the Richard Mayo Centre, United Reformed Church, Kingston on 27 October 2025

David Rowson was kind enough to captain this match, as I was returning from Paris and could not guarantee reaching the venue before the start time. Happily Eurostar was on time, and I was able to attend. Indeed, with David Maycock struggling to arrive before the default time, I was nearly required to substitute on board 1. Had I done so, I would have outrated the Wimbledon board 1, an illustration of the huge disparity between the ratings of the two teams, an average of over 300 points a board. The story of the night was that Wimbledon, depleted by the absence of several players at a tournament in Guernsey, nearly overcame that difference.

The early skirmishes favoured Kingston. On board 1, David Maycock with White overcame his initial deficit on the clock to win decisive material on move 17, upon which Marcus Baker immediately resigned. Then Zain Patel, also with White on board 3, exploited Tony Hughes’ inaccurate implementation of a correct idea.

Then things went off track. Stephen Carpenter sacrificed a piece unsoundly against Jasper Tambini, who had Black, on board 6, but Jasper moved his king to the wrong square allowing the white queen a crucial check, depriving the defence of a critical tempo and leading to mate. Next, Peter Hasson, with Black on board 4, chose the wrong capture in complications against Gordon Rennie and lost a piece.

Meanwhile, John Foley was in increasing difficulty with White on board 7.  When the match line-ups were circulated, George Lin had warned on WhatsaApp that Djan Sennaroglu was a dangerous junior, having been one of William Lin’s main rivals for the recent British Under-10 championship – they had drawn their individual game. But by then John had switched off his phone, and perhaps underestimated an opponent ostensibly 300 rating points below him.  The youngster had an edge from early on, despite apparently not needing to spend much time at the board. He eventually reached a minor piece ending two pawns up and duly converted it. The match was decidedly not going according to plan.

On board 8, David Rowson with Black faced Omar Selim’s drawish Scotch, but David got on top after the queens were exchanged:

That made the score 3-3. Both board 2 (Neil Cannon v Peter Lalić, who had Black) and board 5 (Julian Way with White against John Polanyk) looked around equal, although unbalanced. Could at least one of our players make their higher ratings count? In the event, they both did. With both players running short of time, Neil Cannon made several slips which allowed Peter to win material, eventually a queen. So a draw from Julian would be sufficient. He is a highly experienced endgame player, and duly delivered, although we have no record of the last 20-plus moves.

So we had won after all, albeit with a sharp reminder that it may take only one mistake to lose a game, even if one is the higher-rated player. Wimbledon should be applauded for a gutsy effort despite being below strength, and clearly Djan is an extremely promising junior who will appear on higher boards in future seasons. Wimbledon captain Gordon Rennie claimed a “moral” victory, and we grant him that. Happily we take the actual victory, though it was a worrisome evening.

Peter Andrews captains Kingston’s first and second teams in the Surrey League

Guildford 2 v Kingston 2, Surrey League division 2 match played at the Guildford Institute on 20 October 2025

Two very solid-looking teams lined up for this one, with Guildford 2 having the rating advantage on the top four boards and Kingston 2 on boards 5 to 7. I lost the toss, a significant advantage for Guildford in a closely balanced match with an odd number of boards.

Most of the games were long battles, so the outcome was unclear until Guildford’s impressive crop of juniors had gone home. The relatively early finishes were draws. On board 5, David Rowson (with Black) and his opponent Malcolm Twigger-Ross both missed a tactic which would have won a pawn for White, but David was soon able to stabilise for a draw. On board 4, the game between John Foley, who had White, and Adrian Wallace lacked the mistakes that make for excitement, and soon reached a drawn rook and pawn ending.

On board 1, Peter Hasson and Clive Frostick have faced each other several times before, and were perhaps drained after their successful efforts for Kingston/CSC’s second team at the 4NCL over the weekend. Peter lost a pawn but got some major piece activity and the white advantage dwindled away in time trouble to a drawn rook ending. 

The first decisive result came on board 2, where Guildford’s Tim Foster made several aggressive decisions and I was conscious of needing to use the white pieces even though a draw would have been a useful result judging from the ratings. The outcome was a slugfest which did not lack the mistakes which make for excitement.

One up with three to play was looking good. Stephen Moss on board 7, with Black against Anton Barysenka, had struggled to find a plan in a game where he had the worst of the minor pieces, a bishop on b7 whose only role in life was to defend isolated pawns on d5 and a6. Understandably he fell short of time, and to add to the psychological pressure, his board was nearest to the café, where the post-mortems were sufficiently loud to impinge on the playing area. But after he relieved his feelings on the chess pathologists, and finding that losing a pawn resulted in the exchange of the bad bishop, he was able to simplify to a draw with a neat little tactic.

Soon after this, Alan Scrimgour on board 6, with White against Ian Deswarte, notched the decisive point by converting an advantage which had evolved from positional superiority out of the opening to material superiority in the endgame. There was just one moment when this progression could have come unstuck.

With Jasper Tambini on board 3 having come through a turbulent middle game with Black against Matthew Dishman to go into a much better endgame, a Whatsapp message informed our distant fans that we were going to win 5-2. That turned out to be an overstatement.

And after the excitement, Black has a much better endgame, a pawn up and with White having three isolated pawns to worry about. This, though, was not the end of the story and the resourceful Guildford player was not going to make it easy for Jasper.

Nevertheless a draw with Black against Matthew Dishman is a good result, and 4.5-2.5, with everyone contributing, an excellent win in a match we lost comfortably last season. Our morale survived even the frustration of the night closures on the A3 on the consequently prolonged return journey.

Peter Andrews captains Kingston’s first and second teams in the Surrey League

Kingston C v Hounslow C, Thames Valley League division X match played at the Richard Mayo Centre, United Reformed Church, Kingston on 20 October 2025

Kingston C were outrated by Hounslow C in their opening Div X match of the season, so to emerge as 3-1 victors was quite an achievement. The team had been assembled by Jon Eckert, but was captained on the night by Genc Tasbasi, as Jon had to leave once the preliminaries had been conducted.

Genc (pictured above), who has had a tremendous start to the season after returning to chess earlier this year, defeated the veteran David White on board 1. Genc was a pawn down and under pressure early in the game, but he stayed calm and, with time trouble in this 65+10 game starting to kick in, he turned it round to beat his very capable opponent. The fact he had Black, in line with the rule that the away team in Thames Valley matches always take White on board 1, made the victory all the sweeter.

On board 2, Rob Taylor, with White, downed his higher-rated opponent Steve Hall. Anqi Yang lost on board 3 to another Hounslow veteran, Barry Fraser, whose Ruy Lopez prevailed against Anqi’s stern resistance. But on board 4 Nette Robinson made sure Kingston took the spoils with victory against Andrew Cleminson. A top-notch start to the season for Jon Eckert’s team.

Stephen Moss

Kingston 1 v Coulsdon 1, Surrey League division 1 match played at the Richard Mayo Centre, United Reformed Church, Kingston on 13 October 2025

Coulsdon were severely handicapped in this match by a train stoppage in the Waterloo and Clapham Junction area. Their board 7 defaulted, and several other players lost time which might have proved valuable later, although we made a concession to the circumstances by agreeing to start 10 minutes late. On paper, they were significantly weaker than Kingston below board 1, and weaker than we would expect them to be at home. Nevertheless, halfway through the evening the match could easily have been close, but Kingston pulled away in the closing stages.

The first to finish was Zain Patel, making his very welcome debut for us in local league chess with White against Ishan Ramdewar, and this one was crushing from an early stage.

The Surrey League is privileged to have young entertainers of national status like David Maycock and Supratit Banerjee (pictured at the top of the report) turning out on Monday evenings, and they did not disappoint.

As an interesting psychological footnote, we are indebted to Supratit for the score of this game. The final moves were played more or less on the increment by both players, and David’s score ran out a few moves before the end. Supratit’s was neat and complete, despite the time shortage, the complexity of the game, and even though he had been close to lost for several moves. Some of us barely ever have a complete score of a game that goes the distance. Moral – the best players do not allow their emotions to override their ability to think.

The spectators had expected an early conclusion on board 8, where Jasper Tambini had opened up White’s kingside. But Stockfish actually gave Coulsdon’s Paul Jackson the advantage at this point, and Jasper needed a second round of tactics to win:

On board 3, Peter Large with White survived a moment of real danger against Mark Smith:

On board 6, with Black, Peter Hasson blocked the kingside against Martin Faulkner’s numerical superiority on that side, and was able to spare his queen for a raid which snaffled the a-pawn. It didn’t look like much, but after over 70 moves, it turned out to be enough to win the rook and pawn ending.

John Hawksworth was less fortunate with Black on board 4. He achieved a slight edge against Ian Calvert’s notorious 1. b3, and went into the rook and pawn ending a pawn up. But with both players down to around a minute, he missed a fleeting opportunity to penetrate with his king, and the endgame resolved into a textbook draw with R+P v R with the defending king in front of the pawn, so Black’s extra pawn could not be forced home.  As an aside, this is an ending which comes up often enough to be worth looking up in a book – anyone can draw it against an experienced IM if they know the right plan.

Peter Lalić on board 2, with Black against Evaldas Baltrunas, also reached what looked like a drawn ending, this time with a knight each. But I had experienced his skill with knights in the ending at first hand last week, so had not given up on the win. Peter’s endgame play has been compared to Capablanca’s.* That may be an overstatement, but he does find chances others do not see.

And so a long and well-contested match finished with a rather flattering 7-1 scoreline to Kingston, which may be useful if the battle for the league title is tight at the end of the season. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

* My batting has been compared to Don Bradman’s, ie “it’s not as good”, but I don’t think that was meant in Peter’s case.

Peter Andrews is chair of Kingston and captains the club’s first and second teams in the Surrey League

Chessington 2 v Kingston 4, Surrey League division 5 match played at the North Star, Chessington on 8 October 2025

A silent disco was taking place at Surbiton station on my evening journey to the North Star pub in Chessington. “Yes sir, I can boogie.” But could we? Kingston’s players – all but one of them anyway – arrived well ahead of the 7.30pm start time and enjoyed the music (more soft rock than disco) and drink (in moderation) at the pub. But there was no sign of the opposition and we started thinking “Right venue, wrong day, darts match anyone?”

The match eventually started at 7.50pm after waiting for the digital clocks to arrive. The joys of pub chess! Kingston’s board 6 Sam Wilcox was running 30 minutes late and risking a forfeit, but in the spirit of the match I explained to his opponent that besides having a time advantage it’s always better to play a nice game of chess then win by default.

On board 1 Stephen Moss, with Black, got a slightly better position out of the opening against Malcolm Bovey’s Queen’s Gambit Declined and went a pawn up. But the engine suggests it was a strangely illusory pawn. Black had gone for a swift counter-attack to win the pawn and omitted to castle, an oversight that allowed White compensation once the queens had come off. Stephen, realising his hoped-for win was disappearing, spent 15 minutes pondering one move, the pub table straining under the rocking generated by his elbows. The winning move wasn’t there and White forced a repetition. Stephen was very irritated – but then he is easily irritated.

Seth Warren played against the unflappable Murugan Kanagasapay in a cat-and-mouse encounter on board 2 which was the last game to finish on the night. Seth was two pawns up, but Muragan continued to eat away at Seth’s advantage and ended with knight and pawn against Seth’s four pawns, leading to a draw once Seth’s defenceless army had been mopped up and Muragan’s dangerous pawn eliminated.

On board 3 Genc Tasbasi, who has had a very good start to the season on his return to regular competitive chess, was up against Tomas Kubin, who has a 1475 ECF rating but a worryingly high Fide of 1947, though Tomas insists the latter is a doppelganger. Tomas, who did appear to be the ECF-rated player and not the Fide one, gave Genc a good run for his money, but Genc built a formidable pawn chain, went a piece up and won the game – Kingston’s sole victor on the night.

David Shalom, with White, faced Jonathan Holbrook on board 4 in a stodgy game which was looking drawish until David lost two pawns. The endgame was still complicated and David had drawing chances, but it was very hard to play in a time scramble and needed a succession of perfectly judged knight moves to neutralise Black’s two connected passed pawns. The knight eventually got itself offside and Holbrook manoeuvred a pawn home to win the game.

Dieter McDougall was Kingston’s board 5 against Chessington’s canny supremo Meena Santhosh. It was another tight game, but Meena has a good eye for tactics, struck some telling blows and gained a victory which put her side within sight of the finishing line. The triumph for Chessington was cemented by success on board 6. Sam Wilcox had arrived just in time, and a hard-fought struggle ensued in which he whittled away at his opponent Graham Legg’s advantage on the clock – Graham later congratulated Sam on playing so well in trying circumstances. But it was all to no avail: Sam went down fighting and Chessington took the match 4-2. We will certainly boogie and possibly all night long – next time!

Edward Mospan is Kingston captain in the Surrey Minor Trophy

Kingston B v Kingston A, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at the Richard Mayo Centre, United Reformed Church, Kingston on 6 October 2025

On Monday 6 October Kingston B (nominally the home team) and Kingston A did battle again in Thames Valley League division 1. Clearly shaken by their relatively narrow 4.5-1.5 win in the first encounter, Kingston A felt impelled to draft in yet another titled player, Supratit Banerjee, to their team, which already contained two international masters and one Fide master. Plucky Kingston B were strengthened by the welcome additions of Peter Hasson and FM Julian Way.

For the second week running I found myself playing an international master, this time on board 5. Wishing to avoid being bested by John Hawksworth’s positional skills, I chose a double-edged line of the Old Indian. It turned out that both of us were improvising from move 6, and I managed to get a promising position. However, a few moves later John made a tactical offer of a draw, which I cravenly accepted, fearing that for the second week running I might throw away a good position against a very strong player.

Shortly afterwards the board 6 players also agreed to share the point. The opening had been a Ruy Lopez, Morphy Defence, and Alan Scrimgour probably had some advantage over Jasper Tambini in the final position, though there was still plenty of play. So Kingston B were all square with Kingston A after the first two results, but unfortunately for the Bs there would be no further early draws on the remaining boards.

The next game to finish was the battle of the FMs on board 2. Julian Way chose the Rossolimo Variation against David Maycock’s Sicilian Defence, and the game was level during a lengthy manoeuvring phase. This was the crucial position:

Kingston B were now a game down. On board 1 there was another close contest in a Sicilian. Eventually Supratit’s queenside pawn majority overcame Peter Hasson’s resistance, as Black could only prevent White promoting to a queen by giving up material.

This result meant that Kingston A were sure of another victory unless the remaining two games went the B team’s way. The board 4 game might be described as relatively uneventful, but IM Peter Large succeeded in making his pieces more active than John Foley’s, and when White made a slight mis-step with his rook Black forced the win of the a pawn, which eventually moved on to a7, leaving John with no choice but to give up a piece for it. Thus Kingston A, 4-1 ahead, were assured of victory.

The last game to finish, between two of the four Peters involved in the match, was closely fought and went down to a time scramble. Peter Andrews played yet another Sicilian Defence and Peter Lalić chose to counter it with an aggressive form of the Closed Variation, boldly advancing his kingside pawns. In this position he sacrificed a pawn to force Black to move his king:

Thus the match ended in an anticipated, but I think not entirely easy, victory for the extremely strong A team, by a margin of 5-1. The B team wish them success in their task of achieving a fourth straight Thames Valley League title. Our own goal is more modest, to see if we can avoid relegation back to the second division. At least we have now got our matches against the strongest squad in the league out of the way.

David Rowson is Kingston B captain in Thames Valley League division 1

Kingston A v Kingston B, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at the Richard Mayo Centre, United Reformed Church, Kingston on 29 September 2025

Photograph: Front table, from left: Peter Large v David Rowson; John Hawksworth v Alan Scrimgour; Rear table, from left: Jasper Tambini v Stephen Lovell; Stephen Moss v William Lin (credit: John Foley)

It is a new season, and Kingston A began the defence of their Thames Valley League division 1 title at a new venue – the Richard Mayo Centre (part of the United Reformed Church) in central Kingston – and with a new captain. Kingston B also have a new captain, and are in a new division for them. Nothing stays the same.

With two teams now in division 1, the rules require that we play our opening matches against each other, to get them out of the way and presumably to discourage any temptation to “fix” results later in the season (not that we would do that). Kingston A were notionally at home for the first match and will be “away” at the same venue for the return encounter.

Almost by definition, an A team should beat a B team, but it is not always so easy in practice. This was demonstrated early on by John Hawksworth, who obtained an advantage out of the opening on board 4 against Alan Scrimgour’s Benoni Defence, but miscalculated on move 20 in a much better position and lost a pawn for little or no compensation. At that point Alan offered a draw, whether from fear, magnanimity, a desire to gain some rating points, or perhaps a feeling that as club secretary he shouldn’t stand in the way of Kingston A winning the league. Either way, John accepted. 0.5/0.5

Peter Lalić though, on board 2 with White against John Foley, began the new season where he left off the last one (he scored 11.5/12 in the Thames Valley League last season), being the first to finish despite arriving late, and winning with an overwhelming kingside attack in only 19 moves. The game began life as a Caro-Kann, but soon transposed into an Advance French. Whether you play the Caro-Kann or the Sicilian or the French against Peter, you will always end up defending against the Advance French. (“I essayed the Keith Arkell line in the Caro-Kann as played by Peter’s mother, Susan, hoping to spook him,” said John afterwards, “but Peter was unfazed.”)

On board 1, David Maycock, with Black against Peter Andrews, was a pawn down after nine moves. If David were not such an incredibly strong player, I would suggest he blundered – at any rate, I was unable to detect much in the way of compensation. But be it blunder or gambit, he carried on playing as if nothing had happened, soon obtained an advantage despite the material deficit, and reached this position on move 23, with Black to play:

I had Black against David Rowson on board 3. David is a strong positional player who loves to play the King’s Indian Attack against the French Defence. I know that now; I wish I had known before the game. David played 1. Nf3, but tricked me by transposition into playing a French Defence against his King’s Indian Attack. By playing simple but strong moves he built up a significant advantage, but fortunately for me he chose the wrong way to cash in, and allowed my cramped position to come to life. 0-1

Perhaps the most interesting game for spectators was on board 6, where the venerable Stephen Moss faced William Lin, under-10 British champion at classical, rapidplay and blitz, who already has a rating of 1745. By move 3 Stephen was a pawn down, having chosen for some reason to handicap himself by playing the Morra Gambit. I was impressed to see the young one play the book refutation, but Stephen retained the usual Morra compensation (a couple of open files), and the position remained balanced. Stephen had a fleeting opportunity to win on move 20, but the moment passed and the game ended shortly afterwards in an honourable draw by repetition of moves. 0.5/0.5

The last game to finish was Stephen Lovell v Jasper Tambini on board 5. This was a tense game where both players may have had an advantage at some point, but it culminated in a queen ending where Stephen had a far advanced pawn and Jasper had a lot of checks. We were obliged to step in and stop the game at the three-hour cut-off point, when it was clear that the computer evaluation would either be +14 or 0.0, depending on whether White had a way of avoiding the checks. It proved to be 0.0, so a draw was agreed. 0.5/0.5

Ultimately it was 4.5/1.5 to Kingston A. Perhaps there is one thing that stays the same after all. Kingston A’s results.

Touch wood.

Peter Large is Kingston A captain in Thames Valley League division 1