Kingston chair Peter Andrews won the well-attended seven-round blitz which kicked off the new season at the United Reformed Church in central Kingston on 7 September 2026
We expected about 30 players at the opening blitz of the new season. In the event we got almost 50, and players were still streaming in when the tournament was due to start at 7.30pm. Kingston treasurer and event controller Genc Tasbasi, who signed up a stack of new club members on the night, dealt with the rush with aplomb (amid occasional panic when the pairings went wrong) and we eventually got going at about 7.40pm.
Young Harvey Li, a newcomer to the club, played superbly and was on 4/4 when homework and an early school start meant he had to withdraw. He was given a prize for his achievements to that point. I filled in thereafter, scoring 2.5/3. Doesn’t that make Harvey and me joint winners? (I did not receive a prize!)
The usual suspects – Jasper Tambini, David Rowson, John Bussmann, Joshua Pirgon (another new Kingston member), Stephen Lovell, Martyn Jones, Richmond stalwart Maks Gajowniczek – all performed well. They were never far away from the top of the leaderboard and tussled with each other as the evening wore on.
Alan Bracher, returning to chess after a very long break, showed his skill is still intact, finishing joint eighth. A tremendous performance given he has hardly touched a chess piece for 50 years and that we were playing at quite a sharp time control – five minutes with a three-second increment.
Alan is a very strong player who played for Cambridge in the Varsity match in 1968 before disappearing overseas. Now he is back and we will hope to see him at some point in Kingston colours, though at present he says his preference is for casual chess.
Fine performances, too, by Ben Hambridge, yet another new Kingston member; Kingston veteran Peter Roche; Mark Sheridan, taking time off from the Proms, where he has been playing cello all summer with the BBC Symphony Orchestra; and the mercurial Jimmy Kew, another recent joiner.
We have, though, left the best till last. After being, in his words, “smashed” by Siddarth Ramaraju in the opening round, Kingston chair Peter Andrews sailed through the rest of the tournament with 6/6 to pip Jasper Tambini and David Rowson, who finished joint second on 5.5/6. Another triumph for the so-called “Swiss Gambit”, where an opening loss in the first round eases a player’s path thereafter.
Absolutely not deliberate on Peter’s part, in case you draw any such inference. He was probably discombobulated by not knowing, in the opening confusion, whether he would get a place in the tournament. “I was withdrawn to make room for more players when we didn’t have enough clocks, then re-entered to replace no-shows, leading to confusion,” he explained afterwards.
Oddly, he appears twice on the results list – at the top and the bottom (this may be a first in chess history, coming first and last in the same tournament). The enfeebled Peter Andrews loses his first game and appears to withdraw. A second, emboldened Peter Andrews then appears, having donned his Superman outfit in the lavatory at the venue, and sweeps through the rest of the competition to secure victory. “The wrong Peter Andrews was deleted,” he said afterwards. As he said to Jasper, “You can never have enough Peter Andrews.”
“Fix”, I cried, but to no avail. It is true that Jasper’s opponents, in particular, were rather more testing – which is why the Swiss Gambit can be effective – but we take nothing away from Peter. It was a well-deserved victory, achieved with dynamic play, and earning him the box of chocolates which he had brought along as first prize. A memorable (if exhausting) way to mark the start of the season.
Stephen Moss is captain of Kingston Chess Club
Leading scores
1 Peter Andrews 6/7
2-3 Jasper Tambini and David Rowson 5.5/7
4-7 John Bussmann, Joshua Pirgon, Stephen Lovell, Martyn Jones 5/7
8-13 Maks Gajowniczek, Alan Bracher, Ben Hambridge, Alex McTavish, Peter Roche, Liam O’Sullivan 4.5/7