Kingston 4 v Dorking 2, Surrey League division 5 match played at the Richard Mayo Centre, United Reformed Church, Kingston on 26 January 2026
This drawn match was a good result for our fourth team against Dorking 2 and a sign that we are developing more strength in depth as a club. We are also growing! New members Tom Mayers and Sebastian Allam made their first appearances for Kingston in this match.
Dorking had strong players on the top two boards, so for Kingston to win them both was exceptional. Dorking were too strong for us in the middle order, and won on boards 3, 4 and 5. As I know from bitter experience, Peter Horlock is seriously underrated at 1569. But Nette Robinson, who is in a rich vein of form, won with Black on board six to tie the match at 3-3. An excellent outcome for for Ed Mospan’s team given the rating disparity.
IM Peter Large won the 17th blitz held at All Saints church in Kingston on 28 January 2026 with a perfect 6/6
This was the 17th All Saints Blitz and, in winning the event with a perfect 6/6, IM Peter Large took his eighth title, pronouncing it his “cleanest” win yet. It was a strong field, but Peter made victory look straightforward, beating Peter Roche, Robin Haldane, CM Chris Briscoe, Arne Eilers, CM Tony Hughes and Graham Keane en route to the title – a handy half dozen, all very strong players. If there was a trophy, we would give it to Peter in perpetuity, but there isn’t, so he had to make do with his umpteenth box of chocolates as a prize.
Chris Briscoe came second with 5/6, finishing his final round just in time to dash off to teach chess at Kingston Grammar School. Peter Roche, a key figure in sustaining the Wednesday social chess group at All Saints, was third with 4/6, followed by Tony Hughes and All Saints debutant Arne Eilers on 3.5. A gaggle of players finished on 3/6 – Robin Haldane, Graham Keane, Alan Hayward and David Shalom.
It was the first All Saints Blitz in which Edward Mospan was tournament controller. Many thanks to Ed for doing a brilliant job, especially as he had to manually pair the first round when the ecclesiastical internet disappeared. The tournament was held in the Heritage Room at All Saints Church, and we thank the church for making this delightful space available to us. This will be the home of the tournament henceforth. There will be 10 All Saints Blitzes during 2026. The next one is scheduled for Wednesday 4 March, and the big question is “Who can stop IM Large grabbing the chocolates again?”
Final standings
1. Peter Large (Kingston) 6/6 2. Chris Briscoe (Surbiton) 5/6 3. Peter Roche (Kingston) 4/6 4-5. Tony Hughes (Wimbledon) and Arne Eilers (Streatham) 3.5/6 6-9. Robin Haldane (Streatham), Graham Keane (Crystal Palace), Alan Hayward (Pimlico) and David Shalom Kingston) 3/6
Wallington v Kingston 3, Surrey League division 4 match played at Wallington United Reformed Church on 21 January 2026
The visit to Wallington ended in an emphatic 5-1 win for Ed Mospan’s team. The success included wins on boards 1 and 3 by players new to Kingston this season, plus excellent performances by some seasoned club players.
Alexander Chmelev, one of the new arrivals, won well on board 1 against a highly rated rival, and another newcomer, the talented Thivan Gunawardana, won a thrilling game with White on board 3. With both players in severe time trouble, Black resigned in the position below when he was actually winning!. Zeitnot can do the strangest things.
Jon Eckert constructed a neat mating net with Black on board 2; Seth Warren won smoothly on board 4; and Genc Tasbasi overwhelmed his opponent on board 5. Wallington gained a consolation win on board 6, where Ed Mospan’s young opponent played well to win with a well-oiled London System. Ed, though, is a team man, and his side’s victory will mean more to him than his own reverse.
Maidenhead A v Kingston B, Thames Valley division 1 match played at St Luke’s Community Hall, Maidenhead on 19 January 2026
Another Monday evening, another trip to Maidenhead. Last week it had been our A team making the journey, and now it was our B team, but for two of us, Peter Hasson and me, it was a return trip, as we played in both matches.
The Maidenhead team was very similar to the previous week apart from the absence of GM Matthew Wadsworth and the addition of John Wager. The average ratings of the two teams on the night were almost identical, and this was reflected in the play, but unfortunately for Kingston (spoiler alert) Maidenhead succeeded in winning games in which they were at best slightly better early on and drawing games in which they were slightly worse.
Having said that, on board 4 the result might have gone Maidenhead’s way if John Wager had found the winning line in the ending. In the middlegame the centre and kingside had become blocked, which meant that the question was whether White could exploit his advanced pawn chain on the queenside. He managed to get a pawn to a7, but John Foley blocked this with a knight, resulting in this position:
Shortly after this, Alan Scrimgour and Tony Milnes also agreed a draw. The game had started as a French Defence Winawer Variation, with complex play on both sides of the board. In the end the players were happy to share the point.
Prior to my own game I had noticed that Andrew Smith usually played the Centre Game, but, as he told me afterwards, he has very recently started to try out the Ruy Lopez. However, he admitted that he was unfamiliar with the line I played, and after 19 moves I had reached a comfortable position:
The board 3 game began with a classical Closed Ruy Lopez. Jasper Tambini, with White, established a knight on d6, but Stephen James had counterplay through his bishop on the a8-h1 diagonal and his rook on g6:
So the score was Maidenhead 2.5 Kingston 1.5 with two games to finish. The board 6 game between Maidenhead’s Charles Bullock, with White, and Kingston’s Homayoon Froogh opened with the Slav Defence. In the position below White is looking threatening on the kingside, but, as Homayoon noted afterwards, if he had played 25…Nc5 or Qc6 he would have been at least equal, as White’s next move would not have been possible.
Maidenhead now had a decisive two-game lead. In the remaining game, on top board, Peter Hasson (pictured above left), with White, had achieved an advantage, since Bohdan Terler’s h-pawn advance backfired, as can be seen in the diagram below (after Black’s 29th move):
Thus the match ended in a Maidenhead win by 4-2. We could dwell on the might-have-beens, but better to move on and do our best to obtain the points we need to stay in the division.
David Rowson, captain of Kingston B in Thames Valley division 1
Kingston 2 v Epsom 2, Surrey League division 2 match played at the Richard Mayo Centre, United Reformed Church, Kingston on 12 January 2026
A match against Epsom always has a special flavour. The unstoppable force meets the immoveable object. We see ourselves as a pukkah Sherlock Holmes, while the likeable (but very determined and adroit) Epsom president-for-life Marcus Gosling is (in the nicest way possible) the Professor Moriarty of Surrey chess. It is a battle for domination. The Reichenbach Falls probably beckon, which is another way of saying that, amid the egomania of Epsom and Kingston, the quiet professionalism of Coulsdon and Guildford will probably eventually prevail. Anyway, leaving aside this powerful subtext, this was an excellent match which ended in a 3.5-3.5 draw.
Martyn Jones got Kingston off to a winning start with victory on board 7 over promising junior Ethan Bogerd (a Kingston member currently playing for Professor Moriarty’s team). But another of the professor’s large crop of promising juniors, Sachin Kumar, equalised with a win on board 3 in an opposite-coloured bishop endgame which Kingston president John Foley thought he could hold despite being a pawn down. Sachin played superbly on the increment to prove John wrong.
On top board, Julian Way and James Allison had a high-class tussle which ended in a draw. Allison, who played for Ashtead last season, is proving a terrific recruit for the professor and rising significantly in the ratings. On board 6, Epsom’s Chris Wright was always material up against Xavier Cowan and duly converted, while on board 2 that wily old fox Robin Haldane had too many tactical tricks for Jasper Tambini. Robin, the nicest of men but the doughtiest of opponents, is turning into something of a nemesis for Kingston this season. It was looking like Epsom would take the spoils, but there was a twist in the tale.
Alan Scrimgour played a lovely game to beat former British champion Peter Lee with White on board 4. He has analysed the game in the blogs section alongside his win in 2004 against another British champion, Bob Wade, pointing out that both victories hinged on the same piece sacrifice.
That made the score 3.5-2.5 to Epsom, and the fate of the match was in the hands of the professor himself, with White on board 5 against the gentle but resilient Stephen Lovell (pictured above, left foreground). The protagonists were both playing on the increment; spectators clustered round the board; match scores were thrust under the players’ noses so they understood the significance of the game result – a draw was enough for Epsom; Stephen didn’t seem to twig that he had to win, which was perhaps just as well as he might have frozen. The Reichenbach Falls swirled below. Stephen has annotated the match-defining game below.
With one bound we were free and the match drawn. The professor looked disconsolate. The journey back to Epsom would be a painful one. Honours were even in a division that is proving very competitive and unpredictable. Kingston and Epsom had nullified each other in their unending struggle. The story will be continued …
Maidenhead A v Kingston A, Thames Valley division 1 match played at St Luke’s Community Hall, Maidenhead on 12 January 2026
This always promised to be a crucial staging post in Kingston A’s attempt to retain the Thames Valley title. An away trip to Maidenhead is never easy – distant location, strong opposition. To do it in the depths of winter immediately after Christmas makes it all the harder, so this 4.5-1.5 victory by Peter Large and his team was a tremendous achievement.
David Maycock (pictured above), with White on board 1 against grandmaster Matthew Wadsworth, led the charge with a win which defied all logic. He was 20 minutes late because of a train delay and was playing one of the UK’s strongest players – a player against whom he had suffered several defeats in recent seasons. But GM Wadsworth made a slip in the early middle game, and David pounced, playing thereafter, in the words of fellow Kingston FM Vladimir Li, “like a machine” and winning in 80 moves. A remarkable win for David after a disappointing 4NCL weekend in which he had suffered two losses. John Saunders has analysed David’s victory in our games section.
Peter Lalić recorded an emphatic victory against strong junior with Black on board 2. Terler seemed uneasy against Peter’s Philidor’s Defence and was lost as early as move 17. David Rowson and Peter Andrews had hard-fought wins on boards 5 and 6; Peter Hasson drew with Black on board 4; and the captain, worn down by the burden of office (and the long drive to Maidenhead), lost against FM Andrew Smith. But he will have been cheered by the result overall – a critical success in what is turning into a three-way fight for the title between Hammersmith, Maidenhead and Kingston.
Maidenhead A v Kingston A, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at St Luke’s Community Hall, Maidenhead on 12 January 2026
This game was played between Kingston board 1 David Maycock, who is an FM, and Maidenhead board 1, Matthew Wadworth, a GM. David had lost both his games playing for CSC/Kingston 1 at 4NCL on the previous two days and had been left disconsolate by the experience. Now he had to trek to Maidenhead from south-west London to face grandmaster Matthew Wadsworth, who had got the better of him in their two previous encounters. David was delayed on a train and arrived at the board 20 minutes late for the game. The auguries were not good, but he proceeded to win, playing, in the words of fellow Kingston FM Vladimir Li, “like a machine” once GM Wadsworth had made a critical slip. John Saunders, associate editor of Chess Magazine and a former Welsh international player, has kindly annotated the game.
Alan Scrimgour shows the sacrifice which led to victories against Peter Lee and Bob Wade
Allow me to compare the only two games in which I have beaten British champions. It was a long time previously that they held the title – Peter Lee (1965) and Bob Wade (1970). I played them when they were past their prime, but then again so was I. There is always a certain satisfaction in beating a title-holder. In both cases I won the game with a Nxd5 sacrifice.
The most recent win was against Peter Lee, who was playing for Epsom’s second team visiting Kingston’s second team in the second division of the Surrey League.
The win against Bob Wade was in the London League in 2004, when I was playing for Cavendish 2 against Athenaeum.
Epsom 7 v Kingston 4, Surrey League division 5 match played at Epsom Christian Fellowship on 12 January 2026
Who knew Epsom even had a seventh team? Yet here they were beating Kingston 4. At one point they were leading 4-0, and if we had been bagelled by a seventh team we would probably have gone into liquidation. But Nette Robinson – singer, artist and chess player – on board 6 and Seth Warren on board 2 combined to save the day (if not the match), both winning with White to make the final score an almost respectable 4-2 to Epsom. Ignominy was thus narrowly averted, even if Epsom were in seventh heaven (geddit?) as Ed Mospan’s shellshocked team slunk away.
Hounslow C v Kingston C, Thames Valley division X match played at the Royal British Legion, Hounslow on 5 January 2026
Sean Tay led Kingston C at Hounslow in captain Jon Eckert’s absence and the team emerged with a very creditable 2-2 draw. Nette Robinson, pictured above in her role as jazz singer rather chess player (with grandmaster Daniel King as accompanist), enjoyed a quickfire win with White on board 3 and Nick Powell was also victorious with Black on 4. But the top two boards were lost, with Rob Taylor unlucky to lose with Black on board 2 after being on top for much of the game. But a trip to Hounslow is never easy, and we were happy to settle for a draw.
