Guildford 2 v Kingston 2, Surrey League division 2 match played at the Guildford Institute, Guildford on 24 March 2025

Perhaps this was a match too far for Kingston 2 in the Surrey League. We were safe from relegation in division 2, had little but pride to play for and were up against a strong team still vying with Wimbledon 1 for promotion to the top flight. We were outrated but, in truth, we should have done better than losing 5-2. We did well to draw on boards 1 to 3, and on 7, but were outgunned in the middle order.

Let’s get the bad news out of the way first. Zubair Froogh, who is a doctor, had been working nights. He was knackered frankly, hallucinated in an opening line he knew well, and dropped a piece with Black on board 5 against Guildford captain Malcolm Twigger-Ross. He fought on, playing quickly and seeking counterplay, but in vain. One of those nights.

Jon Eckert fought valiantly with White against Anton Barysenka, sac-ing a pawn for an attack. But Black neutralised the assault and that extra pawn then became critical in a rook and pawn endgame, especially once the rooks had come off, with Black expertly converting. Not all rook and pawn endgames are drawn!

John Bussmann has had a terrific season, but this was not to be his night either and he was disappointed with his play with White against the youthful Sebastian Twisk, who is fast homing in on an ECF rating of 2000. John thought the game was lost in the opening when he played too passively against his opponent’s Slav Defence. He was forced to sac the exchange and reached this unpleasant position after 26 moves:

John battled on for another 30 moves, but to no avail. A joyless way to spend an evening, trying to conjure counterplay out of a position like this.

The disasters on boards 4 to 6 were offset by significant pluses elsewhere. On board 7, Homayoon Froogh, an excellent recent recruit to the club along with his son Zubair, drew with Black against the solid Ian Deswarte. The game was very enterprising on both sides, but once the queens and a pair of rooks had been exchanged, it all became very blocked and peace was declared in the position below after much shuffling of white rook and black knight and bishop.

Alan Scrimgour also drew with Black on board 3 against Guildford veteran Julian Shepley, and on board 2 Julian Way, with the white pieces, halved with the dangerous Matthew Dishman, agreeing a draw in the level endgame shown below.

The main excitement was on board 1, where Peter Andrews had Black against the up-and-coming Luke Nelson. Peter has kindly supplied some thoughts on the game, starting with what he considered a fascinating position on move 29.

So a disappointing result despite four good draws, but the positives have certainly outweighed the negatives in Surrey division 2 this season. We have a tough match left – against Surbiton 1 in a couple of weeks – but for once we can enjoy it and not worry about the spectre of relegation, which has hung over us for the past three seasons. This year, despite this blip at Guildford, we have proved we can hold our own in Surrey division 2. Long may that continue to be the case. The club needs a strong second team.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain

Kingston C v Surbiton D, Thames Valley League division X match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 24 March 2025

Kingston fielded an all-junior team in the final TVX match of the season and were rewarded with a 2-2 draw against a more experienced Surbiton team. Anqi Yang beat Harry Roberts on board 2; Zhixing Bai fought hard before succumbing to Surbiton captain Phil Goodings on board 1; and the Chmiest twins, Piotr and Robert, made encouraging debuts on boards 3 and 4, Piotr beating Surbiton junior Dominic Tang on 3 and Robert losing to the wily Kim Cross on 4.

Well done to the team. Thanks to Ed Mospan for captaining on the night, while regular skipper Jon Eckert was with the second team in Guildford. Ed also organised half a dozen internal rated games, which ran alongside the match (see photograph of playing room above showing both match and rated games). Thanks of course to Jon for steering his team through the season, helping Kingston’s newer players get experience of classical controls and the rigours of playing league matches.

We ended the TVX season in mid-table (see below), with four wins, three losses and a draw. This is a training division and what matters is the chance to compete, but it is also good that our young and relatively inexperienced players demonstrated they can win matches. It bodes well for the seasons ahead as the new generation get match-fit.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain

Kingston entered three teams in the Thorp Trophy and the A team came up trumps, lifting the prize ahead of Epsom and Richmond at Cheam on 22 March 2025

The Thorp Trophy – a four-board team rapidplay played on a single afternoon – hasn’t been held for 20 years, but this season the Surrey Association enterprisingly revived it, and last weekend 16 teams from across Surrey gathered at the Parochial Hall in Cheam to do battle for the trophy. (Well, the trophy has actually been lost, so let’s say for the honour of being the first Thorp champions since South Norwood in the 2003/04 season.)

To my great pleasure and surprise, the Kingston A team (comprising Peter Large, Peter Lalić, Homayoon Froogh and Ye Kyaw – pictured above) came first with 12 game points across the four rounds. The games were played at a time control of 20 minutes plus a five-second increment, with total game points rather than match points determining the winners. All four of the A team scored well, but special mention should be made of Ye Kyaw, who chalked up a perfect 4/4 on board 4.

What makes the tournament distinctive is that two of the players in each four-person team must have an ECF rapid rating of less than 1750, which makes putting teams together tricky. Players must follow strict rating order. The great plus of the competition is that, unusually, first-team players such as the two Peters are competing alongside players from lower teams, which is great for fostering club spirit.

The B team (David Maycock, Jasper Tambini, Aziz Sannie and Jaden Mistry) came fourth, and crucially in the final round got a 2-2 draw with leaders Epsom A, allowing Kingston A to leapfrog Epsom with a 4-0 victory over Richmond A. Good squad-work! Kingston C (the venerable team of John Foley, Stephen Moss, Ed Mospan and Rob Taylor) came a creditable joint tenth. Full scores with the results of individual match-ups can be found on the Surrey Association website on the Competitions page under Thorp Trophy. https://www.scca.co.uk/comps/comps_index.html

This is Peter Lalić’s first-round game against Streatham’s Robin Haldane. Peter is proud of having achieved a 98% accuracy rating in this game.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain

Final table

Kingston v Epsom, Thames Valley Knockout semi-final played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 17 March 2025

Epsom are always challenging opponents, and so it proved in this Thames Valley Knockout semi-final match. Kingston had a sizeable rating advantage and the victory, by 4-2, looks reasonably comfortable on paper, but it never felt straightforward and we were especially wary of the talented young Kumar brothers on boards 4 and 5.

The board 2 game between David Maycock, with White, and Epsom’s president Marcus Gosling, who recently celebrated passing 2000 in the ECF ratings list (an admirable achievement given his heavy administrative burdens at the club), was entertaining. Does David ever play a dull game? No seems to be the answer. He played an aggressive line against Marcus’s Caro-Kann and established an early advantage, The sequence below more or less decided the game:

Alan Scrimgour had White and a rating advantage on board 6, so we hoped this was a banker, but his opponent Chris Rigby had other ideas and played a combative French Defence in which he sought to create a pawn swarm on the kingside. “Playing against the French,” said Alan afterwards, “I carelessly allowed my opponent the chance to close the queenside. However, when he tried the same on the kingside my 13. exf followed by 14. f5! gave me a bind and several targets to attack. I thought Black should have castled queenside instead of his risky 19…c3.” That critical sequence is shown below.

On boards 4 and 5, Epsom’s young stars Arnav and Sachin Kumar were up against Kingston stalwarts David Rowson and John Foley. Believing we should have the edge elsewhere, we decided neutralisation was the best policy. One never quite trusts the ratings of juniors, and the Kumars are clearly talented. David described his game, with White against Arnav, as “uneventful and reasonably accurately played by us both”, but he says he did have one chance to get an advantage in the position below:

Neutralisation was also the name of the game on board 5, where John Foley had Black against Sachin Kumar. The game was not without its alarms for the Kingston president; Sachin had a chance to win the exchange but fortunately for us missed it. There followed a good deal of expert shuffling and eventually a draw was agreed. That made the score 3-1 to Kingston and now our two Peters, both playing Black, had to finish the job.

Board 1 was a heavyweight match-up between IMs Peter Large (Kingston) and Graeme Buckley (Epsom), former team-mates who know each other’s styles inside out. They reached the position below when Peter stopped scoring under the five-minute rule (ie he had only five minutes plus a 10-second increment left for all his remaining moves):

White is about +1.2 here. By no means decisive, but he is calling the shots and has a much easier game. Peter is very resilient and played many moves on the increment, but eventually – with more time and a better position on the board – Graeme prevailed to get a point back for Epsom and make the match score 3-2 to Kingston.

That meant the board 3 encounter between Chris Wright, with White, and Peter Lalić would decide the match. If Chris won, the match would be drawn and Epsom would got through on board count – high boards scoring more points in the event of the tie, making a victory on board 1 critical. But Peter Lalić is a great player to have on your side in a crisis, and facing an English Opening he sought a positional bind. This proved very successful, restricting all his opponent’s pieces, and afterwards Peter said he considered this one of his best games. He is already winning in the position below:

Peter’s victory secured the match by 4-2. We now face a very strong Harrow side in the final. AWAY! We will start the logistical planning immediately. Past trips to Harrow have proved a little, well, harrowing. A tortuous evening on the A312 beckons.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain

Kingston B v Hounslow B, Thames Valley League division 2 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 17 March 2025

Kingston B have been going surprisingly well in Thames Valley division 2, winning seven and drawing one of their eight matches before this encounter. Helped by a Hounslow default on bottom board, they kept their unbeaten record with a 5-1 victory and now have a very good chance of being promoted, which would give Kingston two teams in Thames Valley division 1.

Seth Warren was making his second-team debut for Kingston and won a hard-fought game with Black against Steve Hall. This was the sequence which paved the way for Seth’s win:

Alicia Mason kept up her great season with a win with White on board 4 against Ritesh Tendulkar. It was a Sicilian Dragon in which Black decided on an imaginative – but ultimately fruitless – piece-for-two-pawns sac in the position below:

Black plays Bxg4 here, reckoning that after fxg4 and recapture by one of the knights, the pair of knights will make merry. It’s not the worst idea in the world, but just too optimistic. Black did almost get back into the game when White’s e-pawn fell, but a further piece-winning tactic quickly quashed the revival and that was that, though Black played on and on hoping for a miracle.

John Bussmann on board 1 and Jon Eckert on 3 both had draws, while Zubair Froogh, who is also having an immensely promising debut season for Kingston, won in good style with White against the very capable JJ Padam on board 2. Zubair’s win completed an emphatic victory which keeps Kingston B on top of Thames Valley division 2, though with five matches still to play in a protracted season which will last into June.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain

Epsom 4 v Kingston 3, Surrey League division 4 match played at Epsom Christian Fellowship, Epsom on 10 March 2025

This was another great result for Kingston 3, led by Ed Mospan. Epsom were seriously strong for a fourth team – what great strength in depth they have – but Kingston countered everything Epsom threw at them and came away with a deserved 3-3 draw.

I wasn’t at the match, so rely on the summary provided by Epsom’s non-playing captain, Alistair Mackenzie. “This was Epsom 4’s strongest team,” Alistair emailed Ed after the match, “so your team did fantastically well. I was confident of victory, but in reality we were very lucky to get a draw, as we could have been well beaten.”

Alistair said that Oliver Kuzmanoski was fortunate to get a draw on board 6, and that Lev Razhnou had to show good technique to save the game against new Kingston recruit Seth Warren on board 1 – a promising result for Seth with Black against a highly rated player.

“I didn’t understand the game between Maya Keen and David Shalom,” added Alistair. “Maya was behind in material but had pressure, and David slipped up with a simple error. David Bickerstaff, with White on board 4, was comfortable for the whole game. James [Pooler] managed to close the gap somehow, but it was not enough. It was a great win for Adam [Nakar], pulling those moves off at the end – he is always good fun to watch.” Adam, who was ecstatic with his victory, is on a tremendous run, and his live rating is climbing fast.

Aziz Sannie had the better of the early exchanges against Epsom veteran Michael Wickham (see Marcus Gosling’s photograph of their encounter above), but the latter was able to turn the game around and grab the point that ensured the two teams would share the spoils. All four decisive games in the match ended with a win for White. It really does make a difference, you know.

Ed took an additional four players along to Epsom to play rated friendlies – a great innovation this season at Kingston, where we are trying to offer rated chess outside the traditional league structure so more players get games. This has been a terrific innovation by Ed, who has made a huge difference since returning as a team captain and club officer, and we hope it will be a template for the club’s development.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain

Surbiton 3 v Kingston 4, Surrey League division 5 match played at Fircroft, Surbiton on 5 March 2025

This was another stunning victory for Ed Mospan’s merry band against a higher-rated team. I arrived to see Adam Nakar beaming with pleasure, having just downed John Polanyk on board 1. Jaden Mistry had already triumphed on board 5, and Rob Tayor, who is on a good run, was a piece up and close to winning against Surbiton captain David Morant. Add three solid draws against Surbiton stalwarts for Paul Seymour, David Shalom and Ed Mospan himself, and you have an unexpected 4.5-1.5 victory and a recipe for the perfect evening.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain

Kingston A v Maidenhead A, Thames Valley League division 2 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 3 March 2025

In the end the emphatic 5.5-0.5 score may have flattered us a little – Maidenhead had good chances at different points on at least two of the boards – but this was nevertheless an important win which demonstrated the all-round strength of Kingston’s first-team squad as it continued its relentless pursuit of a third Thames Valley title in a row.

Luca Buanne was on the scoreboard first with a win with White over Stephen James on board 4.

Board 5 between John Hawksworth and Maidenhead captain Nigel Smith was a cagey Catalan in which Nigel, with White, opted for a risk-free line and duly secured a draw. But on board 6 Alan Scrimgour, with the advantage of the white pieces and back from a very solid tournament at the World Senior Team Championships in Prague (seven draws in seven games, three against titled players), was having a good tussle with Simon Foster until the kingside attack he had been preparing reaped sudden and devastating rewards.

On board 3 Peter Lalić (pictured), playing Black, appeared to be in a spot of bother against Ishan Wiratunga – he was playing on the increment in what looked a tricky position, while his opponent had oodles of time. But Peter is a remarkable player when he is in time trouble and was able to simplify the position down to a winning endgame.

David Maycock, with White, was up against the young Ukrainian Bohdan Terler on board 2, and quite a game they made of it – as we expected from two such talented young players. The crunch comes in the position below:

I congratulated David on taking his youthful opponent out of his comfort zone with some typically energetic and enterprising play. “In order to confuse your opponents, you need to confuse yourself,” he replied, which sounds like the sort of aphorism Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu might have produced, alongside “the opportunity to secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself”. Thinking about it, Sun Tzu On Chess could be a bestseller.

David’s win made it 4.5-0.5 and left IM Peter Large and FM Andrew Smith as the last players standing – OK sitting. The evening had started with Alan Scrimgour saying a few words in honour of Peter Large’s gold medal-winning performance at the Prague Seniors tournament, where England’s 65+ team, of which Peter was part, became world champions. Andrew Smith had played for Ireland in the same event in Prague, so both were primed for what promised to be a close encounter.

So it proved and, after much middlegame jockeying for position, there was little in it as the witching hour – and mutual time trouble – approached. This was the position when Peter (as he is allowed to do once his clock time falls below five minutes) stopped recording:

Peter, with Black, has an edge by virtue of the bishop pair, but it is by no means conclusive. There were many more moves – sadly lost to posterity – and eventually Andrew stumbled into an unusual mate, executed by a rook and a couple of doubled pawns on the h-file. An unsatisfactory conclusion to so classy a match-up, but such is evening club chess, where a game has to be shoehorned into three hours.

That made it 5.5-0.5 and left Kingston sitting pretty atop Thames Valley division 1 (see current table below, beneath match score). If we beat Richmond away on 18 March, the title will be ours for the third year in succession – a feat the club has never achieved in its history. It would also mean we had won the league with three matches to spare. But of course we mustn’t get ahead of ourselves. Let’s actually finish the job before we start the celebrations.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain

Kingston B v Surbiton A, Thames Valley League division 2 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 3 March 2025

This was an unexpected victory against a strong Surbiton B team. We suffered an early blow when Jon Eckert was forced to pull out half an hour before the start. That meant I had to play: a disaster at the best of times, but a complete catastrophe on this occasion because, up against the in-form Graham Alcock’s time-honoured Scandinavian on board 4, I hung a rook on move 10 and it went downhill from there. The game was over mercifully quickly.

I thought that would be decisive in terms of the match, but how wrong I was. On board 1 John Foley (pictured foreground, left, above) outfoxed old adversary Liam Bayly in a rook and pawn endgame, winning a pawn and forcing it home for victory. A few moments later came a crunch result – John Bussmann beating the dangerous Paul Dupré on board 2 to give Kingston a 2-1 advantage and suddenly convince me we could get something from the match.

John B played a very imaginative and powerful game which we pick up on move 17 with White, who has an edge, to play.

The other key turnround was on board 3, where Surbiton’s experienced captain Nick Faulks was playing Kingston newcomer Zubair Froogh. NIck had been well on top in the opening and middle game, with Zubair’s queenside rook and knight horribly restricted. But Zubair has great resilience, fought back, equalised and even had chances to win in the endgame. The game ended in a draw, which felt to me like a win after the early horror show, though Zubair – nothing if not a perfectionist – was bemoaning his failure to convert his endgame advantage late into the night.

On board 5, Froogh Senior was up against the doughty Andrew Boughen. It was a good scrap decided by a middlegame error by Andrew in the position below:

On board 6 Alicia Mason, who is having an excellent first season for the club, had White against another Surbiton stalwart, David Cole. Some neat tactical play by Alicia in the middlegame settled the issue.

Kingston had won 4.5-1.5 – a victory that took us back to the top of Thames Valley division 2. Well played to the team (with the exception of that dozy board 4). The win showed great fighting spirit and the team’s (if not my) confidence appears to be rising as we sustain a slightly surprising promotion push. Soon we might have to start asking the perennial question: could we cope with two teams in Thames Valley Div 1?

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain

Kingston 2 v Wimbledon 1, Surrey League division 2 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 24 February 2025

Kingston white on the odd numbered boards

I really ought to go away more often. I captain Kingston 2 and we have been chugging along happily enough this season in division 2 of the Surrey League, just about doing enough to avoid relegation. I was, though, abroad when this match was played, and my absence seems to have inspired the team. Captained by Will Taylor (pictured), they pulled off one of the results of the season, with a 4.5-2.5 victory over table-topping Wimbledon 1.

Will himself got an excellent draw as white against the highly rated Russell Picot, who had beaten him in the reverse fixture earlier in the season. Julian Way drew with black against Dan Rosen on board 3, and John Bussmann also halved with Sean Ingle on board 6. The key result, though, was board 4, where Stephen Lovell, who is happily playing a good deal more for us this season, enjoyed a tremendous win over Ian Heppell.

“He surprised me with a pawn sacrifice in the opening that looked pretty good,” says Stephen. “Very understandably, he then went after the pawn on f2. What neither of us appreciated at the time was that a well-timed Na5 could have caused White a lot of bother. My pieces would have remained in a tangle on the kingside, and it’s hard to defend c4 without creating weaknesses. After he took on f2, my pieces sprang into action and his position unravelled remarkably quickly. The resignation felt a touch early, but really there isn’t too much hope for Black by that stage.”

We pick up the game, which was decidedly short, at the point where Black should consider Na5.

Stephen’s win set the scene for what followed. On board 1, our very own Peter Lalić (turning out for Wimbledon in this division because he is nominated as a Div 1-only player for Kingston) got the better of Luca Buanne and thus gained revenge for his defeat in the away match at Wimbledon. Peter played one of his more bamboozling openings and this was the resulting position:

Peter’s renegade win for a moment put the result of the match in doubt, but Kingston’s new father and son double act – Homayoon and Zubair Froogh – secured the vital points with wins against strong opponents on boards 6 and 7. Peter Lalić reckoned Froogh Senior’s win was a “swindle”, but we will ignore this remark and celebrate a triumph which doesn’t just free us from any threat of relegation but propels us into the top half of the table.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain