In what may be a first for the Thames Valley League, Kingston have been crowned champions of the knockout cup without having to take on a rival in the final. Harrow and Richmond had been due to contest a semi-final to determine who would meet us in the final, but communications seem to have broken down between the clubs and the match never took place.

The Thames Valley season has now been concluded, leaving no time for their semi, let alone a final against Kingston, and the league has decided to award Kingston the trophy. Congratulations to Kingston’s successful TVKO captain Alan Scrimgour (pictured), though naturally he would have preferred to get his hands on the silverware after a proper contest.

The win by default means that Kingston have completed (for the third time in four seasons) a clean sweep of all four major Surrey League and Thames Valley League titles – the Surrey Trophy (Surrey League Div 1), the Alexander Cup (Surrey League 10-board knockout), Thames Valley Div 1 and the Thames Valley knockout.

It has been a period of extraordinary domination by Kingston in the local leagues. We also won the Thorpe Trophy (Surrey team rapidplay) and the Beaumont Cup (Surrey League Div 2) this season, and our 4NCL partnership with CSC saw our first team finish second in the top division – another mighty performance.

There were too many fine individual performances by Kingston players to enumerate them all, but we must note the showing of some of our more senior members in the John Hawson Trophy, the Surrey League competition for over-60s awarded on the basis of best percentage score in Surrey league and cup matches. The trophy was shared by two revered Kingston players, Peter Large and Alan Scrimgour, with a 75% record, and, as the list below shows, there were three other Kingston players in the top six. Quite extraordinary. Even your own aged correspondent managed to break 50%. A memorable season all round. Let’s do it all again next year – if we still have the strength.

Stephen Moss is Kingston club captain

* To win the John Hawson Trophy, players must play a minimum of five Surrey games. The players marked in red in the list above all played at least five games.

The climax of the 4NCL season saw our first team soar to second place in division 1, while our second team were at last promoted from division 3

Photograph above of the CSC/Kingston 1 team which played on Saturday and Sunday (from left): Vladyslav Larkin, David Maycock, Roland Bezuidenhout, Jakub Kosakowksi, Ameet Ghasi, Harry Grieve, Zain Patel, Liwia Jarocka

The final weekend of the 2025/26 4NCL season – the long early May bank holiday weekend – saw CSC/Kingston 1 playing in Daventry and the squad’s second and third teams in Coventry. Each faced three tough matches over three days, and the results could hardly have been better.

The first team began on Saturday with a match against Oxford 1, who had some very talented young players. CSC/Kingston had a rating advantage, but it was far from one-way traffic. Oxford juniors Kenneth Hobson and Jan Murawski got draws with IM Harry Grieve and GM Ameet Ghasi respectively and Daniel Udovenko overturned FM Roland Bezuidenhout in a tricky rook endgame on board 5. But the extra firepower of the CSC/Kingston team eventually told, and we ran out winners by 5.5-2.5.

The team had another success on Sunday, beating a strong White Rose 1 team 5-3. CSC/Kingston’s Polish GM Jakub Kosakowski held the 2677-rated GM Gawain Jones to a draw on top board, and victories by Harry Grieve, Roland Bezuidenhout and Liwia Jarocka sealed an impressive victory, which guaranteed CSC/Kingston 1 would have a high placing in the final table.

Just how high was not clear until Bank Holiday Monday, when victory in the crunch match against the powerful Wood Green Youth and the fact that high-flying Sharks 1 could only draw with Cheddleton allowed CSC/Kingston 1 to leapfrog both into second place in the table. It was admittedly a fairly distant second place – the senior Wood Green team, who brought in super-GM Michael Adams for the final weekend, won all 11 of its matches across the season and took the title at a canter – but it still represented a tremendous achievement in only our second season in the top flight.

There were seven draws in the CSC/Kingston v Wood Green Youth match (including one on board 5 for Supratit Banerjee, who had come in from a training camp in Munich especially to play), but a smooth win by Ukrainian IM Vladyslav Larkin on board 4 against Irish IM David Fitzsimons sealed the match and second place in the table for CSC/Kingston. A wonderful end to an unforgettable season in which our talented young team performed heroically.

Final Division 1 table

The CSC/Kingston second team has been knocking on the door of promotion from division 3 for several seasons, and finally achieved it with two victories on Saturday and Sunday and a heart-stopping draw on Monday. The first two matches were won fairly comfortably, with Silverio Abasolo, Peter Finn and Clive Frostick all scoring 2/2, but the final game against Iceni (with Silverio unavailable) was very tough.

Iceni slightly outrated the CSC/Kingston 2 team, so a draw in the match was a good result. But would it be enough? At one point it looked as if the highly rated Golden Cockerels would pip us at the post, but in the end they could only draw their match with Warrington Mates, and Peter Finn’s draw against Iceni on board 1 was enough to get us over the line. Indeed, we were in the end only pipped to the Division 3 (Knights) title by Poole Patzers by half a game point. Two teams go up from this division 3 pool, and that was always the principal objective. We will now have both the first and second teams at the same venue next season, which we hope will make team planning and transport arrangements simpler.

Final Division 3 (Knights) table

The third team contains players with a wide spread of strengths and promotion was never likely against some strong outfits in a competition which operates as a 30-team Swiss. The Swiss system means that a win one day tends to pit you against a strong team the next, and vice versa.

All three of CSC/Kingston 3’s matches went according to rating: a 4-2 loss on Saturday against the strong Castell Nedd, one of the four teams ultimately promoted from the division, was followed by a win on Sunday by the same score against the outrated (and perhaps aptly named) Eternal Optimists.

Monday saw a match-up with The Full Ponty, who ended up in second place in the division and were also promoted. CSC/Kingston 3 fought admirably and five of the games were drawn (special mention to Petr Vachtfeidl for holding the highly rated Sven Zeidler on board 1), but Tony Hughes got the better of Mike Cresswell on board 5 after a tough struggle and The Full Ponty (excellent name for this Welsh side!) were home. Congratulations to them. That left CSC/Kingston 3 in mid-table after a season in which they won five matches, lost five matches and drew one – a very satisfactory all-round performance.

Final Division 4 table

Shortly after the final 4NCL weekend, we received the welcome news that IM Harry Grieve, a mainstay of CSC/Kingston 1 this season, had achieved his final IM norm at a tournament in Budapest and was now a grandmaster-elect. Hopefully next season, GM Grieve will be turning out for CSC/Kingston. Vladyslav Larkin also reached the magic 2500 rating mark in the June Fide list, and is now just one norm away from also becoming a grandmaster. This young team is truly coming of age.

We also had the less happy, but not entirely unexpected, news that Kate Cooke was stepping down from the captaincy of the CSC/Kingston squad after an immensely distinguished and hard-working 12 years in charge. We thank Kate and her husband Charlie for all their selfless dedication to the cause over the past decade and more. Kingston president John Foley, a very good player as well as being a leading chess educationist, has kindly agreed to take up the mantle and assume the captaincy of CSC/Kingston. Kate and Charlie will be a very hard act to follow, but we will press on in the hope of even better things to come.

Stephen Moss is Kingston club captain

Surbiton D v Kingston C, Thames Valley League division X match played at Fircroft, Surbiton on 15 April 2026

Kingston C completed their Thames Valley division X season in style with a 4-0 victory over Surbiton D. Club newcomer Aytek Koyun won well on board 1 against the very capable Nikolai Mantaev; Sean Tay, with Black on board 2, was too strong for Kim Cross; Mark Sheridan on 3 shaded a tough encounter with Harry Roberts; and Rob Taylor completed the whitewash by defeating Charlie Feigen on board 4.

A very encouraging result for Jon Eckert’s team to end a season in which they have competed well throughout, but suffered several narrow defeats in close matches that kept them in the bottom half of the table (see final standings at foot of report). Div X is primarily about getting game time, and Jon selected teams that prioritised giving as many club players as possible experience under matchplay conditions. Many thanks to Jon and his players. We do it all again in Div X next season.

Stephen Moss is Kingston club captain

Final Thames Valley Div X table for 2025/26

Epsom 1 v Kingston 1, Surrey League division 1 match played at Epsom Christian Fellowship, 22 West Hill, Epsom on 30 March 2026

Matches against Epsom always have an extra edge – in a good way – and this had more than most. If we had lost here, Guildford 1 would have maintained a 1.5 point lead in Surrey League division 1. We could still have caught them, but it would have been much tougher. As it was, a 6-2 victory over Epsom allowed us to close to within half a point and the decider will now be Kingston 1’s home match with Guildford on 13 April. Those two clubs will also contest the final of the Alexander Cup at Ashtead on 26 May, confirming that they have been the dominant teams in Surrey this season.

We had a strong team out at Epsom and slightly shaded it on ratings. But Peter Lalić was in trouble from an early stage with White on board 1 against IM Graeme Buckley, so nothing could be taken for granted. Epsom’s Chris Russell was playing aggressively against David Maycock on board 2; Peter Andrews and Robin Haldane were having a (metaphorical) punch-up on board 6; Jasper Tambini was facing former British champion Peter Lee (pictured above) on board 7; and on board 8 Kingston president John Foley was up against Sachin Kumar, the junior who had beaten him in a Kingston 2 match in January. Anything could happen.

David Maycock (pictured above, left) opened the scoring for Kingston with a win with Black over Christopher Russell, though David was mad at himself for one error which could have cost him the game. Russell played an aggressive opening and when I looked at the position below, I thought he had given himself a good chance of breaking through with the early g4. Full marks for ambition anyway.

On board 4 John Hawksworth secured an important draw with Black against James Allison, who has been a thorn in Kingston’s side this season. The game, which started as a Nimzo-Indian, was nip and tuck throughout. “I spent much too long on the opening and, although I got an acceptable position, I was behind on the clock throughout the game,” John said afterwards. He thought his opponent had a sniff of a chance in the position below.

Peter Hasson, as so often this season, calmed nerves further with an assured win with White over Arnav Kumar, elder brother of Sachin, on board 5. “Arnav was confused by my speculative pawn sac.” Peter said after the game. “The final position has some pretty mates if he plays on.” We join the game on White’s 12th move, when Peter decides to try to exploit Black’s cramped set-up.

Kingston were 2.5-0.5 up, but Epsom quickly hit back, IM Graeme Buckley beating Peter Lalić with Black on board 1 – a very good result for Graeme which ended Peter’s sequence of 41 undefeated classical games. Peter played a bold version of the Smith-Morra, but only succeeded in giving up two pawns for not very much. Graeme had no difficulty defusing any hopes of counterplay, and Peter resigned in the position below.

John Foley’s game against Sachin Kumar was very similar to their earlier encounter. John built up a hefty time advantage and they entered an endgame – with rooks on this occasion rather than bishops as previously. John was pressing, but Sachin defended well on the increment and peace was eventually declared. That made it 3-2 to KIngston.

IMs Peter Large and Susan Lalić played a vigorous game on board 3, with both sides looking to grab the initiative and attack. Peter had White, but was well into the middlegame before he could establish any sort of advantage. In the position below, Stockfish gives White a small plus, but Black’s command of the c-file looks promising.

Jasper Tambini’s win over Peter Lee was a thriller, with tactics galore. A French Advance led to this position in which White is already much better thanks to Black’s kingside weaknesses.

The wins by Peter Large and Jasper Tambini gave Kingston an unassailable 5-2 lead. Now could the Kingston captain, Peter Andrews, put the icing on the cake? We join the game with Peter about to play his tenth move. The commentary is by Peter, who sums up the game by saying: “We both attacked, mainly out of desperation when we felt we were getting into trouble.”

“Robin was kind enough to say that he had enjoyed the game very much despite the result, hence playing on to mate, said Peter afterwards. “And of course unlike Gordon Rennie the previous week, Robin was safe from any flying pieces because my mating attack comprised backwards moves.”

Thus Kingston enjoyed a very satisfying – and perhaps slightly flattering – 6-2 victory. Now the deciding match against league leaders on 13 April Guildford awaits. It promises to be an epic encounter.

Stephen Moss is Kingston Chess Club captain

Staines B v Kingston C, Thames Valley League division X match played at The Literary Institute, 51 High Street, Egham on 26 March 2026

We don’t often visit Staines – one of the trickier journeys we face for away matches – so well done to this intrepid foursome for getting there. Rob Taylor was the star of the show. He captained in Jon Eckert’s absence and enjoyed a good win. His three team-mates were less successful as Kingston C went down to a 3-1 defeat, but it was pleasing to see Aytek Koyun making his league debut for the club on board 1.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain

Kingston 4 v Surbiton 3, Surrey League division 5 match played at the Richard Mayo Centre, United Reformed Church, Kingston on 23 March 2026

This was a well-contested local derby – Kingston and Surbiton are about three miles apart – between two very solid teams. Surbiton proved too strong on the bottom boards, with the canny Paul McCauley beating Rob Taylor (pictured, above left) with White on board 5 and Nikolai Mantaev getting the better of Nette Robinson with Black on 6. But it was a different story on the top boards.

Seth Warren had a fine victory over Surbiton veteran Malcolm Groom with Black on board 1, Ye Kyaw won against Oleksiy Podolyan on 3, and Genc Tasbasi ground out a crucial success against Surbiton captain Phil Goodings on 5. The vital half-point in a 3.5-2.5 win was supplied by Adam Nakar, who drew against the dangerous and tactically inclined Alexey Markov on board 2. This was a very good result for Adam, who hasn’t had a chance to play many games this season, and was enough for Kingston 4 to claim local bragging rights.

Stephen Moss is Kingston club captain