The second round of 4NCL matches, spread across two weekends in January, saw mixed results for CSC/Kingston’s three teams, with a setback in division 1 but solid progress in division 3

For a moment we dared to dream. After two victories on the opening weekend, including a remarkable 6-2 victory over GM-laden Cheddleton, we had started to believe our own publicity. Might we actually be able to win the competition? Unfortunately, the answer was a resounding no: on the Saturday of Weekend 2 (10 January) we drew with Barnet Knights and the following day we lost 5.5-2.5 to Wood Green, by some margin the strongest team at 4NCL. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

We had taken a very strong team to Coventry in the hope that we could spring a surprise: Polish grandmaster Jakub Kosakowski on board 1, former British champion Harry Grieve on 3, GM Ameet Ghasi on 3, youthful Ukrainian IM Vlad Larkin on 4 – but our opponents had strengthened too.

The match on Saturday against Barnet Knights ended in a thrilling 4-4 draw, with Grieve pressing hard for a win against GM Eldar Gasanov on his debut for CSC/Kingston. On Sunday, we were outgunned on the lower boards – every Wood Green player was 2400-plus – though the result could have been closer. Ulysse Bottazzi was on top against IM Jonah Willow until time trouble undermined him. A good learning experience for all of us – this league is tough! The players remained in good spirits and, as the photograph above shows, happily played blitz and bughouse late into the night on Saturday. Good for team bonding, if not for early-morning prep on Sunday.

CSC/Kingston 2, playing on the same weekend and at the same venue – a Holiday Inn somewhere on the M6 – had a more successful weekend in their quest to win promotion from division 3 (knights). They beat south-west London neighbours Surbiton 4.5-1.5 on Saturday, and followed it up with victory by the same margin over Ashfield on Sunday. Peter Finn and Clive Frostick both scored 2/2, and everyone contributed in what has become a tightly knit and very effective unit. The team is now 4/4 after two weekends and sit proudly atop the division (see tables at foot of report).

CSC/Kingston 3 played in division 4 a week later (17/18 January) in Dudley and suffered a 5.5-0.5 hammering by the evocatively (sic) named FCPL-UK on Saturday. FCPL-UK were outrated, so one can only assume they have some seriously underrated players. Or perhaps we just had a bad day at the office. Anyway, well done to Chris Rice for securing the half-point which avoided the dreaded “bagelling” (ie 6-0, as in a very one-sided set in tennis).

Sunday was a much better day, and CSC/Kingston 3 bounced back with a convincing 4.5-1.5 victory over Crowthorne B to leave the team eighth of 30 teams in the table (division 4 is a Swiss, unlike the other divisions which are all-play-alls). Chris Rice and Giampiero Amato won, as did Kingston junior (and British under-10 champion) William Lin on his debut weekend at 4NCL.

A great result for William and, despite the Wood Green setback, a generally encouraging set of results for the 44-strong CSC/Kingston squad. Thanks as ever to squad matriarch Kate Cooke for looking after the players, booking the hotels and making the logistics work. Weekend 3, when all three teams play on the same days (7/8 February) in Coventry and Daventry, promises to be even more complicated.

The tables after Weekend 2

Stephen Moss is Kingston club captain

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.

Stephen Moss, captain of Kingston Chess Club

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.

Stephen Moss, captain of Kingston Chess Club

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 …

Stephen Moss, captain of Kingston Chess Club

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.

Stephen Moss, captain of Kingston Chess Club

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.

Stephen Moss is captain of Kingston Chess Club