Author Archives: John Foley

About John Foley

John is president of Kingston Chess Club. He teaches chess in a school and a library. He also trains teachers on how to teach chess and sometimes trains the trainers. He is on the Education Commission of the European Chess Union and is a qualified FIDE Instructor.

Measuring how individuals contribute to a team

A case study based on the performance of the CSC/Kingston first team in the 4NCL in the 2024/25 season, by John Foley

Our first team, having been promoted in 2023/24 to the first division of the Four Nations Chess League (4NCL), managed to stay up and achieved a creditable mid-table seventh place in 2024/25. The season comprises 11 rounds over five weekends of exciting and exhausting chess. The start of the 2024/25 season was ominous as we lost our first three matches. In mid-season, with two wins from six matches, the team management even contemplated the unthinkable – making this our last campaign – but our players rallied and, in a final glorious weekend, we drew one match and won two matches against our rivals to secure our survival.

Ten years ago, I was team manager when (under a different team name) we were last promoted. I kept the players together as a reward for their efforts – allowing them to play the cream of the chess world. Whilst my intentions were noble and regarded as fair by the team members, this was not the mindset to achieve glory. There is no room for complacency at the top; one needs a ruthless attitude. During the course of the 2024/25 season, we strengthened the composition of the team as it became clear that obtaining promotion from division 2 is one thing, but staying up in division 1 is something else completely.

The team managers deserved tremendous credit for keeping the show on the road. Each weekend requires considerable planning in terms of team selection, logistics and accommodation. Complications are multiplied because we also have a second and third team, and not all the teams play on the same weekend nor at the same venue. The first team is eight boards and the lower teams are six boards. Nightmare! We did not default a single game out of the 220 played during the season. The person at the centre of the operation is Kate Cooke, who should receive a medal from the 4NCL organisers.

We have one of the youngest teams in the first division, with an average age of around 21. They liked playing for us and a good team spirit developed both over the dinner table and through watching and analysing the games. The matches were written up by Stephen Moss, who doubled as the shadow team captain and guardian angel, always solving problems in the background and ensuring that we had the right resources to deploy competitive teams.

Four measures

The team’s success depends upon the contribution by its members. We use four measures to analyse different aspects of individual performance:

Commitment
Competitiveness
Combativity
Decisiveness

1. Commitment

Commitment can be measured by the number of games played in the campaign. Playing a game implies that one was available and selected. Three players participated in all 11 matches: Vladyslav Larkin, David Maycock and Supratit Banerjee. Vladyslav, a young man from Ukraine, made a considerable effort to come to the Midlands hotels in which 4NCL matches are played. Supratit was only 10 years old, so his parents also had to make a significant commitment. David Maycock not only played in the 4NCL, but is a vital member of the Kingston first team which won eight trophies. Liwia Jarocka and Roland Bezuidenhout each played nine games, for which they also deserve recognition.

Vladyslav Larkin: The Ukrainian IM played in all 11 matches, showing huge commitment. Photograph: John Saunders

2. Competitiveness

The traditional measure used to recognise performance is the percentage score. To be eligible, a minimum number of games must be played to be fair to other players who may have turned up more often, even if they have not been so successful. Turning up on two weekends out of five seems a reasonable cut-off point – equivalent to four games out of 11. There were two players who played at least five games and obtained a positive percentage score: Supratit Banerjee had 6.5/11 (59.1%) and Liwia Jarocka 5/9 (55.6%). Zain Patel and Ulysse Bottazzi both scored 50% from six games.

Supratit Banerjee: The most competitive player based on his percentage score. Photograph: John Saunders

3. Combativity

The Tour de France has a special prize for the most combative cyclist – the participant who animates the race by their aggression, attacking flair and will to win. The equivalent in chess is to find the players who perform well beyond their rating. This can be measured as the ratio between their actual performance and their expected performance. The expected performance is derived from the difference in the elo ratings of the players. A 100-point gap confers a two-thirds winning chance for the stronger player; a 200 points gap confers a three-quarters winning chance for the stronger player, and so on.

The most combative player was Supratit Banerjee, whose combativity score was 1.34. One way of looking at this is that the average return on a bet across all the games on Supratit would have returned 34%. This was a tremendous performance from a seriously talented junior. Supratit’s best result was in round 3 against the higher-rated Tomasz Sygnowski, in a match in which Kingston were trounced 6.5-1.5 by Wood Green Youth.

Evening blitz: (players from left) David Maycock, Zain Patel, Ulysse Bottazzi, Vladyslav Larkin.
Ulysse was one of the team’s most combative players

Competitiveness and combativity are correlated and Supratit is the most competitive player, so, to share the honours, we can look to the next highest combative player, Ulysse Bottazzi (then rated 2320) achieved a combativity score of 1.18 from six games. Ulysse had a formidable run in rounds 6, 7 and 8, where he beat IM Stefan Macak (2305) and took draws from IM Rajat Makkar (2413), and GM Daniel Alsina Leal (2490).

Eray Kilic: Most combative player over three games

If we want to recognise more players who contributed to the final team standing, or to recognise outstanding performance, we can widen the net to those who played just three games. On this criterion, the most combative player was Turkish IM Eray Kilic, who scored 2.5/3 (83%) on the final weekend to gain a combativity score of 1.42. This was largely on account of having beaten GM Keith Arkell in round 9 in the match which we drew against Cheddleton, one of the stronger teams in the competition (Cheddleton were fifth in the final table).

4. Decisiveness

The measure of decisiveness recognises that some games are more important than others. In a tight match, an individual result can make the crucial difference: converting a lost into a drawn match or a drawn match into a won match. Using an idea by the Nobel prize-winning game theorist Lloyd Shapley, we can identify the player who has made the greatest difference to the team result by winning or drawing in critical matches.

Think of the sort of person who holds their nerve when under a lot of pressure. They pay attention to the balance of games in each match and try to get the right outcome, eg taking a draw to win the match or trying to get a positive result from a hopeless position. With a minimum of four ranking games, we can rank the players who made the most decisive impact:

David Maycock               21.0%
Vladyslav Larkin             20.7%
Liwia Jarocka                  20.6%
Supratit Banerjee          19.9%
Roland Bezuidenhout 17.9%

David Maycock: Most decisive player based on performances in matches where CSC/Kingston either won or drew

David Maycock made an impact when the team won or drew. He scored four points in these six matches, perhaps most valuably in round 10 when there was a small margin between the teams. Liwia was also in the running and might have pipped David, but she participated for one fewer weekend. In the game below, David converts a lost ending to a decisive victory.

To summarise, we have navigated through the team result numbers to identify the valuable contributions made by individual players. We identified the most committed player, the most competitive player, the most combative player and the most decisive player. Putting these together, the player who made the overall greatest impact on the team’s performance – the most valuable player – was Supratit Banerjee.

I am grateful for computational support from Dr Lawrence Liao in preparing this article.

Stuart Fancy v Ken Inwood

Evening Standard 10th Islington Open, played at the Islington Green Youth Centre, Prebend Street, London N1 on 20 December 1974

We don’t have many games of our long-time top Kingston board Ken Inwood. This is a notable game where Ken succumbed to the dynamic Four Pawns Attack of Alekhine’s Defence. The game was originally published in Chess magazine in January 1975. It is sourced from John Saunders’ historic database resource for chess in Britain. The winner Stuart Fancy later moved to Papua New Guinea, where he became a member of their Olympiad team.

Source: CHESS, January 1975, p110

Irresistible and smooth – Peter Large wins 16th All Saints Blitz

Peter Large won the 16th blitz held at the All Saints church in Kingston on 26 November 2025 with 5.5/6

The phrase “irresistible and smooth” refers not only to the style of play of IM Peter Large in winning All Saints Blitz XVI but also to the first prize of a box of Lindor salted caramel chocolates. Peter has now won seven of the 16 All Saints blitzes, just enough to open a confectionery kiosk in the market square for Christmas. He dropped half a point in the penultimate round to Graham Keane, the second-highest rated player after Peter.

The 16th edition of the All Saints Blitz was held in the heritage room of the church, which is a quiet and comfortable space to the side of the church with wooden flooring, panelled cupboards and a vaulted ceiling. It was also warm, which was welcome on a day starting at -2°C.

There were 12 participants in the blitz, including former winners Peter Large, Robin Haldane and Marcus Gosling. The time control was the usual three minutes per game plus seven seconds per move. We treated ourselves to six rounds, which meant each game followed immediately after the other without intervening chit-chat.

Many games swung between comedy and tragedy. Several games were lost on time in a winning position. Tactics were missed given the short time control. In round 1 (photo above), Graham Keane as White had three connected pawns, a sheltered king and a queen against Alan Hayward’s queen and isolated pawn, with the king exposed in the middle of the board. Nevertheless, Graham somehow managed to lose when Black’s king went on the attack.

It was excruciating to watch some endings. On the optimistic side, players can improve simply by studying basic concepts such as the “opposition” in king and pawn endgames. A study of rook endgames is required to disprove the doleful but pragmatic perception of JJ Walsh that “Rook endings a pawn up are generally drawn – but rook endings a pawn down are usually lost.”

Graham won his next three games and faced Peter Large in round 5. The two top-rated players agreed a quick draw after a level opening – the only draw of the entire event.

Round 5: Graham Keane v Peter Large and behind Robin Haldane v Marcus Gosling

All Peter had to do in the final round was avoid defeat against Alan Hayward, who can be a dangerous player. Alan managed to whip up a threatening attack but ran out of time trying to prosecute it. So Peter ended up with 5.5, a clear point ahead of the field. Peter said afterwards that he keeps coming because he enjoys the relaxed atmosphere of the All Saints Blitz.

The winner Peter Large (right) receiving his box of irresistible and smooth chocolates from John Foley

We took a midway break to officially present a cheque for £250 as the club’s donation to the Saxon Kings Embroidery Project. As president of the Kingston club, I handed over the cheque to the Revd Joe Moffatt, vicar of All Saints, thanking the church for hosting the chess and expressing our particular interest in the tapestry of Æthelred the Unready as the unofficial club patron saint. In turn, the vicar said that they were very happy that we used the space as part of the community and brought custom to the café. He noted that we were friendly and flexible.

Revd Joe Moffatt receiving a cheque for £250 from John Foley, President of Kingston Chess Club, for the tapestry project (behind)

Final standings

5½ IM Peter Large (Kingston)
4½ Graham Keane (Crystal Palace)
4 Robin Haldane (Streatham), James Pooler (Epsom)
3 Alan Hayward (Pimlico), Marcus Gosling (Epsom), Peter Roche (Kingston), Dominic Fogg (Kingston)

Full results

List of All Saints winners

Jasper Tambini (Kingston) v David J White (Hounslow)

Hounslow v Kingston, Thames Valley Knockout match played at the Royal British Legion, Hounslow on 10 November 2025

Photograph: Jasper Tambini (top right), having won his game, watches the Moss-Fincham finale

This game was the best of the match between Hounslow and Kingston in the Thames Valley Knockout. It answers the question about the difference between a strong player (over 2000 rating) and a regular club player. Jasper deploys an opening – the Grand Prix Attack – which is full of danger for his unsuspecting opponent. Black allows White to drive a stake at f6 into the king’s position, after which the mating attack is inevitable.

Kingston KO Hounslow in Thames Valley Knockout

Hounslow v Kingston, Thames Valley Knockout match played at the Royal British Legion, Hounslow on 10 November 2025

Photograph: Stephen Moss (right, seated) sets a puzzle for Leon Fincham, while David White (left) and Jasper Tambini (right) look on. David Rowson (centre) is keeping the club updated on WhatsApp

Even though Kingston did not field our strongest side, we still outrated Hounslow by an average of 160 elo per board. Hence the final result of 5-1 was no surprise. As holders of the Thames Valley Knockout Cup, Kingston had a solid launch to the 2025/26 campaign.

The first to finish was David Rowson with a nothing-much-happened draw with Black in the Italian. Next up was Jasper Tambini, who, with White against David J White, executed a classical queen sacrifice against the castled king.

Next to finish was Genc Tasbasi, who exchanged pieces to reach a drawn endgame. I got a neat attack against Vibhush Pusapadi and was well ahead on the clock. My opponent resigned in a hopeless position just before his flag fell. So 3-1 to Kingston with two games remaining. On board 1, Peter Large was squeezing Mateusz Dydak in the endgame such that Mateusz froze with indecision and lost on time, to make it 4-1.

This left Stephen Moss, who had carelessly lost a pawn in the opening – he would argue it was an intuitive gambit – after which he played dynamically and rudely threw away another couple of pawns against Leon Fincham. In the crucial position below, Leon’s queen is under attack and he decided to capture the e3 bishop counter-attacking White’s queen (the counter-intuitive Qb6 is the best move). However, after the rook recaptured, not only was the queen still under attack but so was the bishop on e5, so Black had to lose a piece. The resultant complications ended in yet another frozen-by-indecision flag fall, though Black was lost on the board when his time ran out. That made the score a convincing 5-1.

We look forward to the next round, but discovered that this may not be played until next summer because Richmond and Harrow have busy schedules. Surely a league knockout should be held during the main season. We await developments, with our fixtures secretary on standby.

John Foley

Supratit Banerjee v Simon Williams

Played on 7 August 2025 in round 6 of the 111th British Chess Championship held in Liverpool

Kingston junior Supratit Banerjee made an impression at the 2025 British Chess Championship by finishing with 6/9, just one point behind the winner Michael Adams. He played four grandmasters, beating GM Mark Hebden and GM Simon Williams (game below), drawing with Kingston’s GM Ameet Ghasi, with his only loss to former Russian chess champion GM Nikita Vitiugov in the first round. He also drew with two IMs: Marcus Harvey and Yichen Han.

Tim Wall wrote up the game against Simon Williams, the “Ginger GM” in his daily report from the tournament. Under the heading “Super Supratit”, he noted that Supratit was 11 years old and switched his affiliation from Scotland to England after his family moved to London. “Banerjee displayed excellent endgame skills to outplay ‘Ginger GM’ Simon Williams in an engrossing French Defence struggle.” In truth, this summary does not do full justice to Supratit’s mature play, which also comprised a well-researched opening and a well-judged pawn sacrifice to gain space on the queenside.

Rohan Gadre (Surbiton) v Seth Warren (Kingston)

Rated classical game played at the Richard Mayo Centre, United Reformed Church, Kingston 13 October 2025

Photograph: Seth Warren (top right); Genc Tasbasi (bottom left) playing against Ye Kyaw

Having moved to a new venue, the spacious Richard Mayo Centre at the United Reformed Church in Kingston, the club is able to provide people with the opportunity to play a rated game at a classical time control, 75 minutes per game plus 10 seconds increment per move. Having more time on the clock should mean that one has more time to analyse the position. However, perhaps due to the rise of online chess at much faster time controls, not everyone takes full advantage of this opportunity.

This game was remarkable because Kingston player Seth Warren managed to obtain a draw from being a queen behind against Rohan Gadre. He said afterwards “I still don’t quite believe it! He was winning right until the very end”, describing the game as a swindle. Genc Tasbasi, who was playing next to Seth, enjoyed the encounter saying that his own game took longer because both he and his opponent were following Seth’s.

Seth was psychologically prepared to resign at two points in game, but his resilience and curiosity drove him to play one more move each time. Seth said afterwards “I was very surprised he didn’t just calmly recapture my pawn [on move 23] – it would’ve been far more practical. And again [on move 29] – shifting his rook along the sixth rank, I would’ve just resigned.” He added ” I think I managed to get to him a little; he was blitzing out his moves right up until the end when he realised it was drawn. He finished with about 55 minutes on the clock. Perhaps he should’ve used some of those spare minutes.”

This game is about the consequence of relaxing in a winning position, the need to use up all your time and the necessity of continuing to play precautionary moves.

John Foley v Ameet Ghasi (simul)

Simultaneous display 15 September 2025 at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston

The Kingston club’s grandmaster Ameet Ghasi gave an impressive simultaneous display as the last event of our 2025 summer programme at the Willoughby Arms. Ameet was well up to the task and scored 23-1, with John Foley being the only player to beat Ameet. Jasper Tambini also performed well, stretching Ameet in both his games.

The simul, organised by FM Julian Way and Greg Heath, had an unusual format: two playing sessions of 12 players each, at 7.30pm and 9pm. The time control was the same for Ameet as for the participants: 25 minutes plus 10 seconds per move. This meant that, as Julian Way noted in his report on the event, Ameet had to play 12 times faster than his opponents, comprising some of Kingston’s finest. A number of members played in both sessions, including Peter Andrews, Jon Eckert, Peter Roche, Sam Wilcox and Jasper Tambini.

I normally write down my moves as I play them, but on this occasion I felt I ought to concentrate. I could save a few precious seconds looking at the board rather than my messed-up scoresheet. On the other hand, after the game it took no little effort to recreate the moves. I cannot guarantee that the moves shown below are entirely accurate, although Ameet kindly acknowledged that they were a reasonable record.

I shall of course be dining out on this victory for a long time to come.

Large scrapes to victory in All Saints Blitz XIV

14th All Saints Blitz, played at All Saints Church, Kingston, on Wednesday 24 September

The series of All Saints Blitzes resumed on the last Wednesday in September, having had a break to enjoy the hot summer. We had a select bunch of participants who were gearing up for the new season.

The favourite Peter Large suffered a setback in round 3 when he came a cropper against Surbiton’s Joshua Pirgon. Peter fell for a queen fork against his king and a loose rook. Peter, however, kept his resolve and won in the last two rounds. The final standings saw three players on 4/5: Peter Large, Chris Briscoe and Robin Haldane. Peter won on tie-break by the thinnest of margins (using the Buchholz Cut 1 method) reflecting the fact that Peter played all the strongest players : Hayward, Haldane, Pirgon, Keane and Briscoe.

Final round: Large v Briscoe in the foreground; Pirgon v Haldane behind

Joshua Pirgon came in fourth, along with Stephen Moss – the highest placings they have achieved in the All Saints Blitz so far.

The event was held at the same time as a school group was enacting the coronation of King Athelstan in the other side of the church. Although there were cries of acclamation for the new King of England, the players did not flinch or complain.

Stephen Moss prepares for his simultaneous display

Final standings

Richard James (Richmond and Twickenham) v Primrose Westcombe (Kingston B)

Played in 1969 at Richmond

Primrose Westcombe (1926 – 2024) was a member of Kingston Chess Club covering at least the period between 1969 and 1973. We only became reacquainted with this fact following the recent discovery of a 1973 newspaper article which profiled the club and mentioned Primrose as the only female member of the club. She was from the Knight’s Park area of Kingston.

Primrose Westcombe was the daughter of a military officer Captain Lawrence Haynes Adams. She married her first husband Alexander Douglas Frederick Campbell (1927-2004) in 1950 in Thanet with whom she had three children: Alex, Katie and Niall. Her second husband was Norman George Westcombe (1912-79). In 1984, she married her third husband, Sir Lawrence Monck Middleton (1912-1999) the 10th Baronet Middleton, of Belsay Castle, Northumberland. On his death, his baronetcy became extinct. She died peacefully in Somerton in Somerset on Saturday 10th February 2024, aged 97 years.

Obituary notices (21 Feb 2024): Daily Telegraph and Western Gazette (Glastonbury)
Online funeral notice.

We are grateful to Richard James for having provided us with this game from his records.