Kingston B v Ealing A, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at the Richard Mayo Centre, United Reformed Church, Kingston on 18 May 2026

This, the last match of Kingston B’s TVL season, coincided with Kingston A playing Maidenhead A, also at home. As a result of the extra demand on the pool of players, and with some people unavailable for either team, I was grateful to Tom Mayers and Seth Warren for agreeing to play. Kingston B were already safe from relegation, but the match was crucial for Ealing A, who needed to win to avoid last place and the drop to Division 2.

Board 1 was one of two boards where the Kingston player’s opponent significantly outrated him. Not only that, but Peter Andrews with Black found himself confronting FM Andrew Harley’s expertise in the c3 (Alapin) line against his Sicilian Defence. Andrew has co-authored (with GM Eduardas Rozantalis) a book about this line, Play the 2.c3 Sicilian. Peter did well to find a move early on which, unbeknownst to him, had previously been played by a grandmaster to equalise. After the queens were exchanged, this position was reached:

Here Peter comments, “Black’s pawn weakness on the queenside is only notional. The two pawns and the black pieces hold the white majority, and the king is close enough to the queenside to be an extra defender.” His judgement was proved right a few moves later when, realising that he did not have serious chances of pushing for a win, Andrew Harley agreed to a draw. A good start for Kingston.

Not long after, I also agreed to a draw on board 2, in a position where I could perhaps have tried for more:

Black had just played 21…Qe6. The symmetrical pawn structure limits White’s chances of an advantage, but I did have the better bishop and could have played 22. Nd2, with the idea of repositioning it on c4. Black would have been forced to defend rather passively, though he could have played his pawn to h5 at some stage to try to take advantage of White’s weakened kingside pawn structure.  Anyway, all that was might-have-been after we shook hands.

The board 3 game in which John Foley had Black against Duncan Grassie began as a Trompowsky Attack. White gave up the two bishops by exchanging on f6, but in compensation doubled Black’s f-pawns. He then launched a queenside pawn storm, to which John responded by playing his knight to e4.

On board 4 Constantin Liesch, with White, faced the experienced Tony Wells. Exchanges resulted in this position after move 29, with equal material but a black pawn majority on the kingside countering White’s passed (but immobile) pawn on d4:

On board 5 Tom Mayers had opened with the King’s Indian Defence against Xavier Cowan (who plays for Ealing in the Thames Valley League when he isn’t playing for Kingston in the Surrey League). In this position, Tom came up with an effective blockading plan:

So, 3-2 to Kingston B, with one game to finish, that on board 6. Agnieszka Milewska played the Caro-Kann Defence and, perhaps unusually from this opening, both players castled queenside. The star of this game was Black’s queen’s rook, which moved from d8 to d5 to a5, targeting, with the back-up of the black queen, White’s pawn on a2. Seth defended this by playing his bishop to b1, but this boxed his king in on a1 and made his position quite uncomfortable, as the diagram below demonstrates.

Seth fought well, giving up the exchange for two pawns. He seemed to have equalised when the queens came off (Agnieszka having missed a one-move win as they both struggled with time trouble). However, Black’s remaining piece, the energetic rook, outmanoeuvred White’s sole bishop and Agnieszka gained the point to leave the match a 3-3 draw.

Unfortunately for Ealing, as their captain Andrew Harley remarked to me, a draw was not enough for them to avoid last place in the division and relegation to Division 2. The sad loss last October of the player who was their mainstay for many years, Alan Perkins, and the absence of several other strong players has meant that their teams have been significantly weaker this season.

What about Kingston B’s season? “They all said it couldn’t be done, a B team surviving in Division 1.” Well, maybe they didn’t, but when we lost close matches at Maidenhead and Ealing earlier this year I myself was pessimistic. However, thereafter our results were much better: played 6, won 3, drew 2, lost 1.

Congratulations and thanks to everyone (18 of you) who played for the B team this season. In terms of points scored, I would like to make special mention of Martyn Jones (6/6!), Stephen Lovell, Constantin Liesch and Homayoon Froogh. There were other players who may not have scored so highly, but who took on the challenge of facing the opposition’s top boards – Peter Andrews and Jasper Tambini in particular.

Thanks also to those who gave lifts to remote places (Maidenhead) – John Foley and Stephen Moss, and to those who stepped in at short notice to prevent a default: Seth Warren, Tom Mayers and Genc Tasbasi. Now I think we can all enjoy some satisfaction at our season’s outcome and a few months’ rest.

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

Epsom 4 v Kingston 3, Surrey League division 4 match played at Epsom Christian Fellowship KT19 8JD on 11 May 2026

The Kingston 3 team had recently secured a crucial victory at Ashtead, keeping them level with league co-leaders Epsom 4 and meaning that this final match of the season would decide the Centenary Trophy (Surrey division 4). Kingston captain Ed Mospan had fielded his top team and Kingston had a healthy rating edge on most boards.

The first result to break the tension was facilitated by a canny equalisation tactic from Sammy Hedges, who had Black against me on board 6. My small edge from the opening was eliminated and we quickly reached a draw. How important that half point would turn out to be!

On board 5 Constantin Liesch, with Black against Venkatesh Subramonium, built a strong attack and soon things began to look very perilous indeed, as the position below demonstrates.

Kingston 3 were leading 1.5-0.5 and the top four boards were all locked in combat. Board 1, between Epsom’s Alan Bates with White and Xavier Cowan, was a complex struggle which we will review below; on board 2 Kingston’s Alexander Chmelev, playing White, had a small edge counterbalanced by accurate and solid defence. KIngston’s Tom Mayers, with Black on board 3, seemed to have a burgeoning positional dominance, while Jon Eckert on board 4 was down a piece but was mounting a complex attack. Surely, the ghost of Kingston murmured, we could acquire two points from such a field.

On board 2, Alexander Chmelev with White, has secured a powerful pawn on e5 (see diagram above) and has a very active outpost for his knight. A black rook is staring directly at his king, however, with ideas such as Qh4 hanging in the air. The game continued with a combination of these ideas (Rh6, Qh4, White queen to g3 and eventually a trade of queens). The endgame looked very promising for White, but Epsom’s Pietro Silke Balerna was putting up a very solid defence and progress was slow.

Meanwhile the situation on board 4, where Jon Eckert had White against Lucy Buckley, had developed significantly. The double-edged situation pictured above shows the two sides poised for fireworks; indeed by the time I looked again, they had detonated, leaving Jon a knight down with some attacking chances. Lucy retained the necessary sangfroid, however, and brought the game to a victorious conclusion, levelling the match at 1.5-1.5.

As the evening wore on, so did Pietro’s clock on board 2, and despite defending valiantly in his endgame against Alex Chmelev, he was forced to sacrifice an exchange to stop the e-pawn and later faltered in desperate time trouble. Kingston had regained the lead at 2.5-1.5, and now needed just half a point to tie the match and one point from the remaining two games to win it.

This was the position on board 1 at an earlier stage in the game:

By this late stage of the evening, however, the game had advanced and Xavier, with less than 30 seconds on his clock, boldly offered White a piece in this position:

White decided he could not accept the bishop for fear of Nf3+ Bxf3 and complications arising from Re1+. If instead White plays Kh1, Bf4 and Rg3 would win the white queen. After Kf1 White is far from safe and two pawns down to boot. To play a position of this nature is difficult at the best of times, but by this stage both players had less than a minute on their clocks and more than once Xavier played a move with just a second or two to spare. After enduring what can only have been an episode of intense tachycardia, Xavier was the first to falter and when Bc4+ arrived – as a lightning bolt from a storm cloud – it was met with Rf7 and, horror, Re8#. Congratulations of course to Alan Bates for his remarkable composure.

With the match score now level at 2.5-2.5 the outcome of the Centenary Trophy would indeed be the outcome of Wickham, Mike v Mayers, Tom. Winding the clock back an hour, the position was this:

At this point both players were desperately low on time and no further moves were recorded. White’s c5 pawn fell, leaving Black with two connected passers. An active knight was snapped off for the bishop. Tom could feel that he was in control and that to stabilise the position below would be to win it.

A few moves followed quickly. The average blood pressure in the room rose further.

Heartfelt congratulations to the epic battalion of tonight’s match and of the season before it. Congratulations to Epsom for their composure and resilience; all that remains to say is that all ye woebegone Kingstonians, your scars will make you that much the stronger.

Seth Warren was acting captain of Kingston 3 in this match

Final Centenary Trophy (Surrey Div 4) table

Kingston B v Hammersmith, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at the Richard Mayo Centre, United Reformed Church, Kingston on 27 April 2026

This was a match of contrasting play: from the daring (Kelmendi v Tambini) to the soporific (my own game), with skilful positional grinds, blunders and inspired kamikaze attacks happening more or less simultaneously (though not on the same board).

Hammersmith A lacked several of their top players, while Kingston B were near full strength, so the two teams were evenly matched, inspiring hope that we could achieve another result to pull us away from the relegation zone.

The first game to finish, on board 3, turned out to be the highlight of the evening. Knowing Bajrush Kelmendi’s liking for aggressive play, Jasper Tambini had the inspired idea of forcing him to defend. Jasper did this from as early as move 6 by playing a kind of reversed Muzio Gambit against Bajrush’s idiosyncratic version of the English:

Credit to both players for creating such a hugely entertaining game, but especially to Jasper, whose initial bold strategy set it all off, and who didn’t let up till the end.

My own game also finished in a draw shortly afterwards. It offers a contrast with the board 3 game in that no deep analysis is required here, as from an Italian Opening both players were careful to avoid risks and, in a level and rather featureless position, were happy to call it a night early.

The match was tied at one all, but Kingston soon after went ahead as John Foley seized on a blunder by his opponent which lost his queen. This game opened as a Caro-Kann, von Hennig Gambit (1. d4 d5 2.e4 c6 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Bc4 ). John notes that this line was played in his last encounter with Greg Billenness. Play went on 4…Nf6 5.f3 e3 (“the standard counter sacrifice” – John). In the middlegame Black had central pawns against White’s passed c-pawn, but the centre was cleared and only a queen and rook were left on each side. At this point, with a possible slight advantage to White due to his passed pawn, he made a fatal mistake in his eagerness to trade queens:

Advantage to Kingston in the match, then. Soon afterwards the board 2 game, in which Peter Andrews had White against Carsten Pedersen, was agreed drawn in a completely level position. From an English Opening the central pawns had all been exchanged and the pawn structure was symmetrical.

This left the top and bottom boards still in play. As it happened, both had opened with the King’s Indian Defence. On board 1 Ali Hill had positional pressure against Julian Way (pictured above, left), but on board 6 Constantin Liesch was the player in charge. Constantin’s game actually resembled a reversed King’s Indian Attack, with White pressing on the queenside and Black hoping to use his e4 pawn wedge to create a kingside attack. This was the situation after Black’s move 20…Nd8.

This result meant that we had won the match, with the board 1 game still to be resolved. After 15 moves this was the position in that contest:

Julian had just taken a knight on knight on b5 and Ali Hill now recaptured with 16. cxb5! This is an instructive decision, as taking with the pawn rather than the knight gives the c4 square for the white bishop and also opens the c-file for White’s rooks to eventually attack Black’s c7 pawn. Julian exchanged queens but lacked counterplay, and Ali Hill methodically increased the pressure, concluding by advancing his king up the board. Julian had to resign, making the final score 3.5-2.5 to Kingston B.

Although Hammersmith were not at their strongest, it’s always an achievement for a B team to beat their A team, so we felt justifiably pleased with ourselves. The result left us almost, but not quite, safe from the threat of relegation from the first division of the Thames Valley League. We have just one match left, at home to Ealing A on 18 May.

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

The climax of the 4NCL season saw our first team soar to second place in division 1, while our second team were at last promoted from division 3

Photograph above of the CSC/Kingston 1 team which played on Saturday and Sunday (from left): Vladyslav Larkin, David Maycock, Roland Bezuidenhout, Jakub Kosakowksi, Ameet Ghasi, Harry Grieve, Zain Patel, Liwia Jarocka

The final weekend of the 2025/26 4NCL season – the long early May bank holiday weekend – saw CSC/Kingston 1 playing in Daventry and the squad’s second and third teams in Coventry. Each faced three tough matches over three days, and the results could hardly have been better.

The first team began on Saturday with a match against Oxford 1, who had some very talented young players. CSC/Kingston had a rating advantage, but it was far from one-way traffic. Oxford juniors Kenneth Hobson and Jan Murawski got draws with IM Harry Grieve and GM Ameet Ghasi respectively and Daniel Udovenko overturned FM Roland Bezuidenhout in a tricky rook endgame on board 5. But the extra firepower of the CSC/Kingston team eventually told, and we ran out winners by 5.5-2.5.

The team had another success on Sunday, beating a strong White Rose 1 team 5-3. CSC/Kingston’s Polish GM Jakub Kosakowski held the 2677-rated GM Gawain Jones to a draw on top board, and victories by Harry Grieve, Roland Bezuidenhout and Liwia Jarocka sealed an impressive victory, which guaranteed CSC/Kingston 1 would have a high placing in the final table.

Just how high was not clear until Bank Holiday Monday, when victory in the crunch match against the powerful Wood Green Youth and the fact that high-flying Sharks 1 could only draw with Cheddleton allowed CSC/Kingston 1 to leapfrog both into second place in the table. It was admittedly a fairly distant second place – the senior Wood Green team, who brought in super-GM Michael Adams for the final weekend, won all 11 of its matches across the season and took the title at a canter – but it still represented a tremendous achievement in only our second season in the top flight.

There were seven draws in the CSC/Kingston v Wood Green Youth match (including one on board 5 for Supratit Banerjee, who had come in from a training camp in Munich especially to play), but a smooth win by Ukrainian IM Vladyslav Larkin on board 4 against Irish IM David Fitzsimons sealed the match and second place in the table for CSC/Kingston. A wonderful end to an unforgettable season in which our talented young team performed heroically.

Final Division 1 table

The CSC/Kingston second team has been knocking on the door of promotion from division 3 for several seasons, and finally achieved it with two victories on Saturday and Sunday and a heart-stopping draw on Monday. The first two matches were won fairly comfortably, with Silverio Abasolo, Peter Finn and Clive Frostick all scoring 2/2, but the final game against Iceni (with Silverio unavailable) was very tough.

Iceni slightly outrated the CSC/Kingston 2 team, so a draw in the match was a good result. But would it be enough? At one point it looked as if the highly rated Golden Cockerels would pip us at the post, but in the end they could only draw their match with Warrington Mates, and Peter Finn’s draw against Iceni on board 1 was enough to get us over the line. Indeed, we were in the end only pipped to the Division 3 (Knights) title by Poole Patzers by half a game point. Two teams go up from this division 3 pool, and that was always the principal objective. We will now have both the first and second teams at the same venue next season, which we hope will make team planning and transport arrangements simpler.

Final Division 3 (Knights) table

The third team contains players with a wide spread of strengths and promotion was never likely against some strong outfits in a competition which operates as a 30-team Swiss. The Swiss system means that a win one day tends to pit you against a strong team the next, and vice versa.

All three of CSC/Kingston 3’s matches went according to rating: a 4-2 loss on Saturday against the strong Castell Nedd, one of the four teams ultimately promoted from the division, was followed by a win on Sunday by the same score against the outrated (and perhaps aptly named) Eternal Optimists.

Monday saw a match-up with The Full Ponty, who ended up in second place in the division and were also promoted. CSC/Kingston 3 fought admirably and five of the games were drawn (special mention to Petr Vachtfeidl for holding the highly rated Sven Zeidler on board 1), but Tony Hughes got the better of Mike Cresswell on board 5 after a tough struggle and The Full Ponty (excellent name for this Welsh side!) were home. Congratulations to them. That left CSC/Kingston 3 in mid-table after a season in which they won five matches, lost five matches and drew one – a very satisfactory all-round performance.

Final Division 4 table

Shortly after the final 4NCL weekend, we received the welcome news that IM Harry Grieve, a mainstay of CSC/Kingston 1 this season, had achieved his final IM norm at a tournament in Budapest and was now a grandmaster-elect. Hopefully next season, GM Grieve will be turning out for CSC/Kingston. Vladyslav Larkin also reached the magic 2500 rating mark in the June Fide list, and is now just one norm away from also becoming a grandmaster. This young team is truly coming of age.

We also had the less happy, but not entirely unexpected, news that Kate Cooke was stepping down from the captaincy of the CSC/Kingston squad after an immensely distinguished and hard-working 12 years in charge. We thank Kate and her husband Charlie for all their selfless dedication to the cause over the past decade and more. Kingston president John Foley, a very good player as well as being a leading chess educationist, has kindly agreed to take up the mantle and assume the captaincy of CSC/Kingston. Kate and Charlie will be a very hard act to follow, but we will press on in the hope of even better things to come.

Stephen Moss is Kingston club captain