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
