Kingston B v Maidenhead A, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at the Richard Mayo Centre, United Reformed Church, Kingston on 24 November 2025

The fixture schedule has given Kingston B a tough introduction to their first season with the big boys of the Thames Valley League first division. Having played Kingston A “home” and “away” in the first two matches, we next faced the league leaders, Maidenhead A. Admittedly, Maidenhead away do not seem to be the same daunting challenge as they are at home; they were missing some of their strongest players, most notably GM Matthew Wadsworth. Nevertheless, we expected a close match.

In fact, the only board on which we were outrated was the top one, as Bohdan Terler has a very impressive 2235 ECF grade. However, this was actually the first game to finish, with a convincing win for Peter Hasson (pictured above). After opening with the curiously named Slow Variation of the Sicilian Defence (2. Be2), White surprisingly allowed a knight fork which won the exchange. He didn’t get any real compensation for this and Peter efficiently pressed home his advantage.

On board 4 Alan Scrimgour, with White, and John Snead were contesting a c3 Sicilian Defence. Alan commented that “The game was mostly level, even slightly better for him early on,” but he felt that he later missed a couple of chances before the position resolved itself into one where it was hard for either player to make much progress.

This was definitely a night for the Sicilian Defence in all its varieties. Jasper Tambini chose to employ the Grand Prix Attack against Charles Bullock on board 2. He noted: “I think it’s interesting to show how the Grand Prix Attack, thought to be such an aggressive opening, can turn into positional play as well.” In the position below the game looks like a war of attrition, but it was at this point that Jasper gained a decisive advantage.

As the evening went on, all the games turned in Kingston’s favour. I had gained the bishop pair early on with Black against Nigel Smith on board 3 , but was only able to capitalise on this when the queens came off and, in a battle between passed pawns, my own, backed by the two bishops, proved the more dangerous.

Meanwhile, on board 6 Kingston newcomer Martyn Jones had achieved the sort of position a Vienna Gambit player dreams of:

So the score was 4.5-0.5 to Kingston B with only the board 5 game to finish. Here Homayoon Froogh, with Black against Nigel Dennis, had been the exchange down for some time, and his prospects looked bleak. Remarkably, as time trouble approached, he turned the tables, and his bishop and three pawns overcame his opponent’s rook and one pawn. This was the position in which White slipped up.

This was a fitting conclusion to a very dominant performance by Kingston B. The result gives us our first Thames Valley League division 1 points, and also, by taking points off Maidenhead, is helpful to the Kingston A team in their quest to win the league for the fourth successive year.

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

Surbiton 1 v Kingston 2, Surrey League division 2 match played at Fircroft, Surbiton 19 November 2025

For this match I deputised as captain for Peter Andrews, who was busy moving house, though he did manage to come to the venue later to support his team. The thread of his WhatsApp commentary expressed well the twists and turns of the match, in which for a long time the final decisive result appeared improbable. Surbiton had a rating edge on five of the boards, and on the other two the ratings were close to parity.

The first game to finish was on board 3, where Alan Scrimgour (who had Black) and Joshua Pirgon agreed a draw, despite the fact that, as Alan Scrimgour said later, he was possibly slightly worse in the final position. After that the difficulties of my own game required all my concentration, so I wasn’t aware of the order of events.

I did, however, register that Stephen Moss was conducting a devastating kingside attack with Black against Graham Alcock on board 7. One thing that was original about this was that Stephen had opened with the Caro-Kann Defence and then castled queenside – commendably ambitious play. A key early moment came in this position.

In the board 1 game, Mark Josse began with the English Opening against Kingston’s Jasper Tambini (pictured above, right), and the two players castled on opposite sides. The presence of all four bishops on open diagonals made for a double-edged position.

The board 4 game between Stephen Lovell and Liam Bayly had also begun as an English Opening. White was able to put pressure on Black’s queenside pawns.

On board 5, Homayoon Froogh had Black against Neil Davies. It was an intense struggle, but after a long period of manoeuvring Homayoon got on top in a time scramble to record another good win. Meanwhile Jon Eckert, with White on board 6, was pressing Nick Faulks hard with a kingside attack. He showed principle in refusing to take a draw by perpetual check, but unfortunately a subsequent error resulted in him losing.

On board 2, having misplayed the middlegame and lost a pawn with White against David Scott, I tried to find tactical resources to avoid going straight into a lost endgame. In this position I was eventually successful.

So Kingston 2 defied the ratings to achieve a clear victory in a very well-contested match. We look forward to the return match against Surbiton 1 at home tomorrow.

David Rowson is Kingston second-team captain in the Thames Valley League and was acting captain in this Surrey League match

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 Ealing A, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 12 May 2025

After contesting 11 matches crammed into just five months of play, we arrived at our final Thames Valley division 1 encounter on Monday 12 May. I say “we arrived”, but I was actually abroad for this last match and was grateful to Peter Large for taking on the captaincy duties.

Kingston effectively made a winning start before any of the players had sat down, as Ealing’s captain, Andrew Harley, considerately informed us in advance that their board 6 had had to drop out due to pressure of work.

The first game to finish was that on board 3, where Jonathan White had moved 1. f4, Bird’s Opening, against Vladimir Li. A complicated set of exchanges took place in the centre of the board, leading, eventually, to a level position. Despite the players still having four pieces and six pawns each, neither of them saw a reason to continue.

In Vladimir’s case this was probably partly due to his disappointment at not having taken some chances to gain an advantage earlier.  Vladimir has played little recently and he said afterwards, with typical self-criticism, “I think I am simply in bad form for a variety of reasons. The main one is being rusty.” To the average observer the chances not taken were far from obvious. In the position below White has just played 11. Qa4? attacking two pawns but potentially reducing the co-ordination of his pieces.

The board 4 game opened with Peter Lalić, with White, choosing the Austrian Attack against Tony Wells’s Modern Defence. His opponent advanced his kingside pawns but neglected his piece development. This was the position after White’s 13th move:

This game is a good example of the perils of underdevelopment. Tony Wells only brought out his king’s knight on the 34^th move, upon which Peter immediately chopped it off.

Board 5 saw Ealing’s Xavier Cowan, with White, opting for the Sämisch Variation against Ash Stewart’s King’s Indian Defence. After the queens were exchanged a position with asymmetrical pawn structures was reached, in which chances were roughly even, but Black had to keep an eye on White’s c4 and d5 pawn pair:

On board 2, against Alan Perkins’ Sicilian Defence Peter Large played a kind of Closed line with Bb5. His bishops were soon pointing menacingly at Black’s king’s position:

The remaining game saw the debut of Supratit Banerjee (pictured above) on board 1 for Kingston, an acknowledgement of the remarkable fact that at just 11 years of age he has reached an ECF rating of 2401. With Supratit Black, the opening was a classical French Defence (1.e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 dxe4). White won a pawn on the queenside, but Supratit played resourcefully to set his opponent problems. This was the position after White’s move 26:

Thus Kingston not only won the match 4.5-1.5, but also completed an historic 100%-winning Thames Valley division 1 season (see final table below). As captain, I want to thank all our players for making our progress so smooth and relatively undramatic. We have an incredibly strong squad, but results don’t always follow ratings, and what was impressive was the determination and consistency with which our top players won game after game.

Special mention must be made of Peter Lalić’s remarkable record of 10 wins and one draw from 11 games, and also the fact that both Peter Large and David Maycock had ECF rating performances of 2441 for their Thames Valley League seasons. John Hawksworth and Ash Stewart were great additions to the squad, and our very talented young players Supratit Banerjee and Luca Buanne made significant contributions. At different times different clubs looked capable of challenging us, but none of them managed to maintain such a level of consistency.

Thanks are also due to Peter Andrews and Peter Large for stepping in to captain in my absence, to Stephen Moss for all his support and advice, and to Greg Heath and Ed Mospan for unfailingly being available to set things up in the Willoughby.

That makes it three Thames Valley League titles in a row. Can we do it again next season?

David Rowson, Kingston A captain in Thames Valley League division 1

Wimbledon A v Kingston A, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at St Winefride’s Church Hall, Wimbledon on 17 April 2025

Our penultimate Thames Valley League division 1 match of the season found us away to Wimbledon, playing in the kindergarten surroundings of St Winefride’s Church Hall. On arrival I showed the Wimbledon captain, Ian Heppell, our team’s line-up, and he commented drily, “You didn’t need to bring such a strong team.” This was because Wimbledon were missing all their top players and the rating differences between the two teams made the contest look as if it would be a huge mismatch. Little did either Ian or I suspect how the evening would go.

The first game to finish was my own, a damp squib on my part. I had White and the positional advantage I thought I might have achieved from my Italian Game, intangible at best, was easily annulled by Stephen Carpenter, who was probably a little better in the position where we agreed a draw (White to play):

On board 2 Luca Buanne had White against Marcus Baker, and Luca’s Ruy Lopez was challenged by Marcus with the Marshall Attack, gambiting a pawn. In this standard position Luca opted for an unusual continuation:

Thus Kingston were a game down, with the position on board 6 also starting to look ominous for us. As Stephen Moss commented pessimistically on the club WhatsApp group, “The unfolding drama … Nightmare at the Nursery.” Fortunately, soon afterwards Peter Large struck back on top board.

Peter, with White against Neil Cannon, began with the Trompowsky Attack, but was critical afterwards of the way both players handled this tricky opening. This was the position after 11…0-0:

Kingstonian relief at levelling the match score was short-lived as Will Taylor lost soon afterwards on board 6 against Georgi Velikov. Will’s ambitious queenside play from the Black side of a Ruy Lopez had led to his losing a pawn, and then, in a difficult position, the exchange. In time trouble Will continued to fight, but his opponent played accurately and forced resignation when threatening unavoidable mate. So the score was 2.5-1.5 to Wimbledon with boards 2 and 4 still in play. It seemed that the Kingston players were slightly better in both games, but neither was completely clear. Were we about to lose our proud 100% TVL division 1 record?

The board 4 game between Wimbledon’s Gordon Rennie, with White, and Kingston’s John Hawksworth had opened with a Sicilian Defence, Taimanov Variation, leading to a position with contrasting pawn structures:

This result levelled the score at 2.5-2.5. As has often happened this season, Peter Lalić’s game, playing Black against Wimbledon newcomer Stephen McLoughlin, was the last to finish and the one which would decide the match. The game started as an Albin Counter-Gambit, but multiple exchanges led to a position in which Black’s queen and knight were superior to White’s queen and bishop, especially as the dark-squared bishop was handicapped by pawns on the same colour. Here White made a mistake which led to the loss of a pawn: 

Over the next 20 moves or so, with both players in time trouble (although quite possibly Peter doesn’t see playing on the increment as time trouble), Peter manoeuvred to get his pawns on to white squares, safe from the bishop. He was then helped by Stephen McLoughlin’s moving his queen away from his king’s defence, so that when this position was reached he had to go in for an unfavourable exchange of queens in order to save his f-pawn:

Kingston had thus won the match by the narrowest margin, 3.5-2.5, and great credit must go to the Wimbledon players for giving us such a scare. This was our closest match result so far this season, of which only one contest remains, against Ealing on 12 May. Can we finish with a 100% winning record?

David Rowson, Kingston A captain in Thames Valley League division 1

Kingston A v Surbiton A, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 14 April 2025

We confirmed our retention of the Thames Valley League division 1 title in mid-March with three matches still to play; paradoxically, could it be said that we had won the league too soon? What I’m trying to say is, how would the team find the motivation to win the remaining three “dead rubber” matches?

Fortunately, chess is only partially a team game. Even when people are members of a team, they are still playing as individuals, keen to get a result in every game for their own satisfaction, as well as for their club. This was demonstrated in our home match against Surbiton. Lacking several of their top players, our opponents still put up a fight, but in the end the rating differences and the determination of the Kingston players told.

On board 1 Kingston’s Julian Way was representing Surbiton. An early error by Julian in the English Opening led to David Maycock winning the exchange and getting a grip on the position which was hard to shake. The two players castled on opposite sides and David’s attack crashed through quite quickly.

The results on boards 5 and 6 (two draws) were disappointing for Peter Andrews (playing Black) and myself (White), given our advantages in rating and on the boards themselves, though we should acknowledge that our opponents didn’t make it easy for us. The outcome of Peter’s game against David Cole was especially frustrating for him, as he discovered afterwards that in the final position he was actually clearly winning:

Peter explained: “With time starting to press, I saw some imaginary demons. The main problem was that after 17… Nxd4 18. Bxd4 Bxd4 19. Rxd4 I had intended 19…Qax4. But then 20. Rxd8+ Kxd8 21. Qxb7 is uncomfortable with my king exposed. I had thought when I played c5 that 21….Qa1+ would win the rook on h1, but now noticed that it was still defended by the queen on b7. 17…Bd5 is good, forcing e4. Now my calculations muddled whether or not White still had the d4 pawn, in which case Bc6 could be met by d5. And I had to take into account whether g5, opening the line of the bishop on h3 against the black queen, could upset things. In fact, the d4 pawn has long gone, and 18. e4 can be met by 18…Nxd4 19. Bxd4 Bxe4 (I missed this trick) 20. Qxe4 Bxd4 and Black is two pawns up with a strong grip. 20. Bxg7 is no good after 20…Bxf3 21. Rxd7 Rxd7, threatening mate on d1, so after 22. O-O Rb8 Black is the exchange and two pawns up.”

With White against Alexey Markov on board 6, I won a pawn early on almost by accident, but then failed to find the right way to exploit this. It’s probably not a good idea to arrange your pawns in such a way that the extra one is backward on an open file, as in the position where we agreed a draw:

John Hawksworth’s opponent, Paul Durrant, played the Benoni Defence to John’s d4, but made a strategic error the move before the position below was reached. Here he has just moved 13…Rb8, which John countered with 14. Nb5! The point is that White is threatening both a7 and d6, so Black has to exchange knights, but after 14…Nxb5 15. axb5 White has a permanent bind on the queenside and the a7 pawn is weak.

Later, John used his pawn majority to break through in the centre, giving this position with White to play:

The board 2 game was atypical for Peter Lalić, playing with the white pieces against David Scott, as the queens remained in play until the end. It opened with the Caro-Kann Defence, against which Peter played the Panov Attack. In the following position Black already looks to be in difficulties due to his problems with development, the awkward situation of the bishop on e6 and the weakness of the b6 square.

With Kingston already 4-1 ahead, the last game to finish was the board 3 contest between Ash Stewart and Surbiton captain Graham Alcock, which began as an unusual kind of Closed Sicilian Defence, with White’s king’s bishop developed to c4 but his central pawns cautiously held back. This resulted in a slow positional battle. Ash advanced on the queenside, but Graham managed to post his bishop on b5 and in the following position he could have cemented it there with the move 25. c4.

David Rowson, Kingston A captain in Thames Valley division 1

Richmond A v Kingston A, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at The Adelaide, Teddington on 18 March 2025

Those of us who fancy ourselves as arithmeticians had worked out, prior to this match, that a win or even a draw would be enough to give us the Thames Valley Division 1 title. However, we were missing several of our leading players, so we anticipated a close match. In general, this season we’ve been fortunate enough to field very strong teams, thanks to the willingness of our top players, and have often found that opposing clubs, in contrast, have not been at full strength. This was indeed the case at Richmond, as they were missing both Gavin Wall and Mike Healey.

Another surprise was Richmond’s time control of 65 minutes plus 10 second increments, making for a shorter evening than usual. This seemed to disadvantage their own players, as some of them quite quickly found themselves in time trouble.

My own game was the first to finish. I had got a bind as White in the Italian Game, and in this position Chris Baker clearly decided that he wasn’t going to die wondering:

We had been fortunate that Stephen Lovell and John Bussmann both stepped in to play when some of our usual squad were unavailable. John’s opening against George Milligan was reminiscent of Peter Lalić’s favoured defence, with Black forgoing castling for a queenless middlegame in which he hoped to outplay his opponent. In this position White should keep his bishop pair, but he exchanged off, giving Black play on the open g-file:

If the two games described above were relatively smooth wins for Kingston, the John Burke v David Maycock encounter on board 2 (pictured above) was anything but. White started with 1. d4, but the opening transposed into the Exchange Variation of the Caro-Kann. In this position David went wrong, as he admitted afterwards:

Alan Scrimgour has had an excellent season so far for Kingston, but things did not go right for him in his game with Black on board 4 against Richmond captain Maks Gajowniczek. (Maks has produced his own report on the match and his victory.) He played the double-edged Benoni Defence and commented afterwards, “It’s bad enough losing your first Kingston game of the season but worse when you make a mistake as early as move 10 in an opening you think you know. Another bad choice a few moves later lost an exchange and left my opponent in a dominating position. I managed to stay in the game, but also fell behind on the clock. In the end I couldn’t stop his passed a-pawn and resigned on move 42.”

The board 5 game between Stephen Lovell, with White, and Victor Bluett had started as an English Opening. When the queens were exchanged, Stephen commented: “I thought I emerged with a pleasant positional advantage (two bishops, chances of a minority attack). I grouped my pieces on the queenside in what seemed the right way and was looking for the right time for the b5 break.” As Stephen said, the position after move 24 could have been a good moment for this:

The board 1 game was a quiet positional Sicilian Defence, in which play was level until a time scramble put pressure on the players. Peter Large, with White, had an outside passed pawn while Maxim Dunn had an extra pawn in the centre:

Thus Kingston A have won the Thames Valley Division 1 title with three matches to spare. Following our victories in 2023 and 2024, this is the first time in our history that Kingston have won three TVL titles in a row. As Kingston club captain Stephen Moss reported, “We won it in 1949 and again in 1950, so twice in a row, and recorded single wins in 1978 and 1984. Pinner did the treble in 1993, 1994 and 1995. Richmond have, remarkably, done the treble five times and the quadruple once (1974, 1975, 1976, 1977).” So there is our next target! Meanwhile, I wish to thank all the players who have contributed so much to this historic achievement, and to Stephen, Peter Andrews, Greg Heath, Ed Mospan and others for their hard work in supporting the team.

David Rowson, Kingston captain in Thames Valley League division 1

Surbiton A v Kingston A, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at Fircroft, Surbiton on 26 February 2025

We faced familiar opponents in this local derby. The Surbiton team was quite strong, though missing Mark Josse and Chris Briscoe. Kingston outrated them significantly, but as we know, it’s not the rating difference which wins the game but the better play on the evening.

The first game to finish was on board 1, where David Maycock (pictured) had been developing a ferocious attack against Altaf Chaudhury’s Sicilian Defence. In this position Black needs to be very careful about how he protects his kingside, especially as his king is still in the centre.

John Hawksworth’s game with Black on board 4 was more sedate. Joshua Pirgon played a line against John’s Sicilian which I have favoured for years – not necessarily a recommendation – the King’s Indian Attack. Joshua missed his chance to develop an attack in this position:

On board 3 Ash Stewart and David Scott reached this position from Ash’s English Opening:

The Jasper Tambini–Peter Lalić game was more or less level until this position was reached:

My own game, with White against Joseph Morrison on board 5, was strangely uneventful – so uneventful, in fact, that I think the only moment of any (very relative) interest was probably at move 9:

The last game to finish, with the score 5-0 to Kingston, was on board 6, where Nick Faulks had opened with the English. Pieces were exchanged two-by-two until a king and pawn ending was reached. John Foley showed great ambition in trying to win this, but it turned out that it was White who held the trumps, and after many moves of a queen and pawn ending (following promotions by both players) John was finally forced to resign, giving Surbiton a compensatory point.

Thus Kingston A won their seventh Thames Valley League division 1 match out of seven. Our results so far have been 5.5-0.5, 4-2, 6-0, 5-1, 4-2, 4-2 and now 5-1. I have to give the usual warning that we shouldn’t get ahead of things, but we can at least feel that we are in a situation where we will only have ourselves to blame if we don’t win the title for the third year in succession.

David Rowson, Kingston captain in Thames Valley League division 1

Hammersmith A v Kingston A, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at the London MindSports Centre, London W6 on Thursday 13 February

The Thames Valley fixture list this season determined that our home and away matches with the club most likely to be our main rivals, Hammersmith, took place one after the other. Having beaten Hammersmith 4-2 at home on 27 January, we visited the London MindSports Centre just two and a bit weeks later.

Both teams were missing one player due to illness, but Kingston were very fortunate to have as a late sub Peter Finn, making his debut in this competition. The addition of Peter to the team meant it had four players with the same first name, always a good augury. Peter Finn did not take long to get on the scoreboard as White against Cian Ward. In an opening which might be categorised as a Queen’s Gambit Semi-Slav or possibly a Queen’s Indian Defence, this position was reached:

On board 4, Will Taylor (who had selflessly offered to change his first name to Peter in the interests of the Peter-ish team) was Black facing the experienced Carsten Pedersen, who had drawn with Supratit Banerjee in the corresponding match at the Willoughby. Will commented, “I made a big effort to play quickly and was 35 minutes up on the clock at some point (almost unprecedented for me). Alas, I didn’t manage to convert the time advantage into anything serious on the board.” However, he was never in any trouble against Carsten’s Vienna Opening and a draw was agreed in this position:

Black has just played 37…Nxh3. White has a choice between Nxh5, gxh5 and Ne4, but none of these moves would give him an advantage.

Hammersmith soon equalised the score by winning on board 5. From an English Opening, Peter Andrews reached this position against Aryaman Ganguly:

Thus scores were level with boards 1, 2 and 6 still in play. If Kingston members following events on WhatsApp were feeling the tension, for the players at the venue it must have been agonising, especially given the way each of the remaining games veered from favouring one side to the other.

On board 6, John Foley faced the same opponent, Greg Billenness, as in the corresponding match last year. John again deployed the Caro-Kann Defence, but this time forearmed, instead of the Fantasy Variation, Greg chose a line which chess.com tells me is called the Von Hennig Gambit. The opening moves were: 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Bc4 Nf6 5. f3 e3. With this move, John explained, he was “trying to move the game into uncharted waters”. The book move is 5…b5. After both players castled queenside, the following position was reached, White having just played 22. f5.

Kingston were now a point ahead, with the top two boards still in play. Peter Large’s game against Ali Hill was on a knife edge. In accordance with one of his New Year Resolutions, Peter had played the Trompowsky Opening for the first time. After 16 moves, this was the position, Peter having just played 16. Bb5:

The last game to finish, perhaps not unexpectedly, was Peter Lalić’s – he was Black against Thomas Bonn (see photograph at top of page). It might have ended with a threefold repetition as early as move 15, but Peter varied from his previous moves to avoid this. A long ending of rooks and knights followed, with the advantage veering from one side to the other. Thomas queened first, and Peter had to give up his rook for the queen, resulting in the unusual balance of forces shown in this position, with Black to play:

This made the final result 4-2 to Kingston, the same result as in our home match against Hammersmith. This puts Kingston in a dominant position in the league at the halfway stage.

David Rowson, Kingston captain in Thames Valley League division 1

Kingston A v Hammersmith A, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 27 January 2025

In the past two seasons Hammersmith have been our main rivals for the Thames Valley league title. In 2022/23 we were running neck and neck until we beat them at their venue, and last season they looked to have it in the bag before they slipped up mid-season and we showed our mettle by finishing with a run of wins. This year we have seen our squad boosted even further by several very strong additions, to the remarkable extent that our line-up for this match had international masters on boards 1 and 6.  However, although we comfortably outrated Hammersmith’s team on the night, they were still strong and a hard-fought match ensued.

The first result came quite quickly: a very nice, deceptively smooth win for Peter Lalić (pictured above) on board 5 against Paul Kennelly. Having made his trademark pawn sacrifice in the opening, he developed quickly, gained the two bishops and had White’s king in the centre as a target. In the position below his opponent played 14. Rhd1? 14. h3 was correct to stop Black’s next move, which forces the position open.

The second game to finish, on board 6, also resulted in a Kingston win for IM John Hawksworth against Robin Sarfas. From a Slav Defence this position was reached:

So Kingston had a two-point lead, but the remaining four games were all hard to call and, in two cases at least, very tense. The board 1 game saw IM Peter Large play the Hedgehog Defence against Alistair Hill, reaching this position:

It’s hard to know what to focus on when describing the board 2 game between David Maycock and Zain Patel (not named in the scoresheet below as Hammersmith do not appear officially to have registered him with the Thames Valley League), as it had so many twists and turns, with creativity – and, as time trouble set in, errors – running wild on the part of both players. From an unusual variation of the Ruy Lopez, this position was reached:

This meant the score was now Kingston 3 Hammersmith 1, and we only needed a draw from the remaining two games to win the match.

The board 3 game, in striking contrast to Maycock v Patel, was a close positional contest from a Caro-Kann Defence Exchange Variation. Supratit Banerjee and Carsten Pedersen manoeuvred carefully until a rook and knight ending was reached with all the pawns on the same side of the board. Eventually, in the position below, the players agreed a draw, and Kingston had the half-point we needed to win the match.

The final game to finish was the board 4 encounter between Ash Stewart, with White, and Hammersmith captain Bajrush Kelmendi. Ash established an advantage from the position below, which at first sight looks a little worrisome for White:

Thus a hard-fought match resulted in a win for Kingston by 4-2. A very professional performance, one might say, not conceding a single game, even though there was no shortage of tension. As it happens, our next Thames Valley League Division 1 match is at Hammersmith’s venue on Thursday 13 February, so the battle will continue. Having won all five of our Thames Valley matches so far, we are three points ahead of Hammersmith with a game in hand, but there are still more than half the fixtures left to play – and look what happened to Hammersmith last season after they had made all the early running. We take nothing for granted.

David Rowson, KIngston captain in Thames Valley League division 1