Epsom 7 v Kingston 4, Surrey League division 5 match played at Epsom Christian Fellowship on 12 January 2026
Who knew Epsom even had a seventh team? Yet here they were beating Kingston 4. At one point they were leading 4-0, and if we had been bagelled by a seventh team we would probably have gone into liquidation. But Nette Robinson – singer, artist and chess player – on board 6 and Seth Warren on board 2 combined to save the day (if not the match), both winning with White to make the final score an almost respectable 4-2 to Epsom. Ignominy was thus narrowly averted, even if Epsom were in seventh heaven (geddit?) as Ed Mospan’s shellshocked team slunk away.
Hounslow C v Kingston C, Thames Valley division X match played at the Royal British Legion, Hounslow on 5 January 2026
Sean Tay led Kingston C at Hounslow in captain Jon Eckert’s absence and the team emerged with a very creditable 2-2 draw. Nette Robinson, pictured above in her role as jazz singer rather chess player (with grandmaster Daniel King as accompanist), enjoyed a quickfire win with White on board 3 and Nick Powell was also victorious with Black on 4. But the top two boards were lost, with Rob Taylor unlucky to lose with Black on board 2 after being on top for much of the game. But a trip to Hounslow is never easy, and we were happy to settle for a draw.
Kingston 3 v Epsom 4, Surrey League division 4 match played at the Richard Mayo Centre, United Reformed Church, Kingston on 5 January 2026
Epsom run seven teams in the Surrey League and they are always competitive. So it proved here. Captain Ed Mospan had picked a strong Kingston 3 side, but Epsom still ran out winners by 4-2 in a closely fought match.
The problems came on the bottom boards. Epsom enjoyed a clean sweep on boards 3 to 6, with veteran Michael Wickham and promising junior Ethan Bogerd (who is also a member at Kingston) leading the way.
Consolation came on the top two boards, where two players new to Kingston this season – Xavier Cowan (pictured above foreground, left) and Alexander Chmelev (sitting beside Xavier) – recorded excellent wins. Xavier outwitted Alan Bates’ Kings’s Indian Defence in a well-crafted game, while Alexander, who has made a terrific start to his Kingston career, got the better of a tight technical struggle in the Sicilian with Black against the highly rated Alastair Mills.
The defeat is a setback for Kingston 3, who have legitimate aspirations to win this division, and a boost for Epsom 4, who are now top of the table. But the emergence of two strong new players in Xavier and Alexander is a considerable upside amid the gloom.
Kingston A v Richmond A, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at the Richard Mayo Centre, United Reformed Church, Kingston on 22 December 2025
This match was played three days before Christmas, but a very strong Kingston team were not in the mood to show any seasonal goodwill to the visitors from Richmond, and the latter were (to use tennis parlance) bagelled, losing 6-0 despite showing plenty of fight. The result meant that Kingston A would be top of the Thames Valley division 1 table over Christmas and New Year.
The Kingston team had three IMs, two FMs and what team captain Peter Large jokingly referred to as a “lowly CM”. The lowly CM, Peter Lalić, was actually playing board 3 and is FM strength – for various reasons, his Fide rating lags behind his true strength. It was a formidable team, and remarkable to think that three other titled Kingston players – GM Ameet Ghasi and FMs Supratit Banerjee and Vladimir Li – were not involved in the match. The club is surely stronger now than at any point in its history, even the fabled 1930s (the era of Blake and Michell) and 1970s (John Nunn) when it swept all before it.
The first game to end – a lot of moves were made but at great speed – was on board 6, where FM Julian Way with White got the better of Bertie Barlow in a bishop v knight endgame. Julian is a master of endgames and once again proved it here. The position below is level, but Bertie makes some tiny slips and Julian pounces on them.
On board 2, IM Graeme Buckley had White against Alastair Armstrong, a returner to chess who has rapidly re-established his 2000-plus credentials. Alastair played Alekhine’s Defence, resulting in the position below where White has several moves of roughly similar strength.
IM John Hawksworth soon made it 3-0 with a smooth win with Black over Sampson Low. John felt he was winning out of the opening, though it would probably take an IM to know that.
Kingston captain Peter Large was next to win, and that victory ensured the match would be Kingston’s. Peter had White against Richmond president Richard James – a meeting of two south-west London chess legends (pictured below as their game reaches its conclusion). Richard was kind enough after the match to post a report that sang the praises of what we are trying to build at Kingston. Coming from so distinguished a source, this made us feel we must be getting something right, though we know we have a very long way to go to secure a sustainable future for the club.
Clash of legends: Peter Large (top, left) shakes hands with Richard James as their game ends. Peter Lalić is impassive
Richard played the Modern Defence and Peter opted for all-out attack, signalling his intent with the move he played in the position below.
Kingston were 4-0 up, with the time-honoured duo of Maycock and Lalić still playing. Richmond captain Maks Gajowniczek played the English against Peter, but Black essayed an early f5, creating a pawn storm, achieving domination of the centre and neutering White’s dark-squared bishop. This was the discouraging position facing Maks by move 20.
Peter’s win left David Maycock and John Burke (pictured at the top of the report) throwing pieces (metaphorically speaking) at each other on board 1. I recall an exciting game these two played at Richmond a while back and they repeated the drama here, with John, who had the white pieces, giving as good as he got against David’s unflagging invention.
That completed the 6-0 win and gave us time to finish off Ed Mospan’s mince pies, happy in the knowledge that Kingston A would be top of the Thames Valley division 1 table at Christmas (see current table at foot of report). The defeat early in December against Hammersmith reminded us that our bid for a fourth successive Thames Valley title would not be a cakewalk, and the always difficult trip to Maidenhead beckons on 12 January, but for the moment we are riding high.
Kingston C v Staines B, Thames Valley League division X match played at the Richard Mayo Centre, United Reformed Church, Kingston on 15 December 2025
This was a well-contested encounter between two evenly matched teams. Ed Mospan, deputising for Jon Eckert, captained and played on board 1, losing with Black to Alex McTavish. Nette Robinson, with White on board 4, levelled the score; Rob Taylor drew on board 2 with Paul Silvester, and the issue was decided in Staines’ favour on board 3, Rashvir Raikmo (again with White) beating Anqi Yang to give the match to Staines by 2.5-1.5.
The evening doubled as a fundraiser by Kingston Chess Club on behalf of the Princess Alice Hospice in Esher. Organised primarily by the ubiquitous Ed Mospan, this initiative raised a fantastic £1,600 for the hospice, through a combination of donations (usually for the opportunity to play a rated game on the night), bids to be involved in a training session with grandmaster Daniel King, and cake sales.
Many thanks to Ed and Genc Tasbasi for running the fundraiser, Daniel King for offering his expertise for free to the highest bidders in the training auction, and to Anqi Yang and Heather Warren for bringing along their wonderful home-made cakes. A memorable evening and exactly the type of community involvement for which we strive at Kingston.
Kingston 3 v Ashtead 2, Surrey League division 4 match played at the Richard Mayo Centre, United Reformed Church, Kingston on 8 December 2025
This meeting in the Centenary Trophy, division 4 of the Surrey League, saw two relatively strong teams pitted against each other, and the 5-1 victory for Ed Mospan’s Kingston 3 side was a considerable achievement. A very welcome one, too, on a night when Kingston 1 suffered an unexpected and painful defeat to Epsom 1, the latest in a string of reverses for the club’s higher-rated teams.
Recent recruit Xavier Cowan (pictured above, foreground left), who is already doing great things at Kingston, beat Ashtead’s very capable Tom Barton with Black on board 1. The opening was a very interesting line of the Sicilian and in this position White has a healthy advantage, but he goes for a tactic which doesn’t quite work.
Homayoon Froogh continued his tremendous winning run with victory over Ashtead captain Bertie Barlow on board 2. He grabbed a pawn in the opening and, once White had made a couple of ill-advised trades, never looked back.
Martyn Jones drew with Black against the very experienced Adrian Waldock on board 3 – like Homayoon, Martyn is having a terrific spell – and I drew with White against Ashley Wilson on board 4. In time-honoured fashion, I missed a likely win because I omitted an important intermezzo in the position below.
That made it 3-1 to Kingston, and Genc Tasbasi and Dieter McDougall completed an emphatic win with victories in well-contested games on boards 5 and 6. It’s still early days of course, but with a team of this strength and confidence Kingston 3 could have a shot at winning the Centenary Trophy this season. Promotion would be useful as we have a lot of players who would benefit from games in division 3.
Hammersmith v Kingston A, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at the Mindsports Centre, London W6 on 4 December 2025
Hammersmith fielded their strongest team so far this season and we were without several key players, so a 4-2 defeat was not surprising. Kingston captain Peter Large, who quite rightly demands very high standards, said it was a hammering, but I felt it was less emphatic than that: a chastening defeat which suggests that winning a fourth successive Thames Valley title this season will be far from easy. Trappy away visits to Ealing and Maidenhead beckon in the next month, and we will need to be at our most resilient.
John Foley, with Black on board 6, was blown away by Sergiy Teslya, who we discovered afterwards had prepared a line against John’s usually trusty Caro-Kann. There was nothing subtle about his kingside blitz, but it was mightily effective, producing this horrible position (for Black) and a quick finish.
On board 2, Peter Lalić had a short but intriguing draw with White against Fide master Michael Fernandez. When I looked at Peter’s position (see diagram below), I thought he had good attacking possibilities. White’s pieces are well coordinated and castling looks dangerous, so what does Black do?
On board 5, Peter Andrews had White against Maria Alexandra-Ciocan. It was a tight struggle, but after establishing a healthy advantage in the middle game Peter missed a winning chance on move 30. The annotations below are Peter’s.
Boards 3 and 4 were going less well for Kingston. Zain Patel had White against the experienced Alistair Hill on board 3, but it always felt as if he was a little behind after the opening, though he sought counterplay throughout. He came very close to building a powerful kingside attack, but was hampered by time trouble and eventually Ali was able to exchange queens, defuse the threats and establish a material advantage that led to White’s resignation. That made it 3-1 to Hammersmith and meant they could not now lose.
Jasper Tambini has been under the cosh and short of moves with Black on board 4 against Gaston Franco for some time, and at no point did it look likely that we would win this game, so defeat in the match was a near inevitability with half an hour of the three-hour session still left to play. Franco played a highly positional game and didn’t allow Jasper, who prefers a more tactical struggle, any oxygen. White won a pawn in the middle game and just squeezed, establishing a winning endgame. A very professional performance by a strong player.
It was left to Kingston captain Peter Large to put a respectable gloss on the scoreline. With Black on board 2 against Thomas Bonn’s Ruy Lopez, Peter ceded a pawn for an initiative, and there followed a tactically complicated struggle which could have gone either way.
That made the final result 4-2 to Hammersmith, who go top of the Thames Valley division 1 table ahead of Maidenhead. We are currently third but have games in hand, and in any case the season is still in its early stages. It does, though, look as if the battle for the title will be extremely hard fought, with any team able to beat any other and home advantage potentially counting for a lot. It promises to be very exciting … and extremely stressful. But we will give it our best shot in an effort to retain our title.
Kingston 4 v Coulsdon 3, Surrey League division 5 match played at the Richard Mayo Centre, United Reformed Church, Kingston on 1 December 2025
In a difficult week for Kingston – with defeats for the first team against Hammersmith and the second team against Surbiton – this victory for Kingston 4 against Coulsdon 3 in the Surrey Minor Trophy provided a chink of light. But it was mighty close against a young and enthusiastic Coulsdon team, with Kingston winning 3.5-2.5.
Alexander Chmelev, an excellent addition to the club this season, led the way with a win on board 1. Colin Lyle and Nette Robinson enjoyed good wins on boards 4 and 5, and it was left to David Shalom to secure the vital half-point with a draw on board 2. A great result for Ed Mospan and his team in an otherwise disappointing week for the club.
Kingston C v Richmond E, Thames Valley League division X match played at the Richard Mayo Centre, United Reformed Church, Kingston on 17 November 2025
This match was in the balance right until the end when Nette Robinson, with Black against Michael Larby on board 3, blundered in a winning position, making Richmond the winners by 2.5-1-5. Rob Taylor lost to the accomplished Abhay Patil on board 1, but there were positives for Kingston on the other two boards: a fine victory for Anqi Yang against Aditya Patil on board 3 and an encouraging draw for Robert Chmiest against Richmond captain Karl Stand on board 4. Thanks as ever to captain Jon Eckert for putting the Kingston team together and overseeing proceedings.
Epsom 5 v Kingston 3, Surrey League division 4 match played at Epsom Christian Fellowship on 17 November 2025
This match was played in freezing conditions at Epsom’s church venue. Note to Epsom – that is really not fair to players and you will need to address these concerns as the winter progresses. But the Kingston players managed to rise above the temperature and put in a strong performance, marshalled as ever by the indefatigable Ed Mospan, winning 4-2.
Kingston newcomer Xavier Cowan won an important victory with Black on board 1 against Epsom veteran Michael Wickham, and Adam Nakar shared the point on board 2 with the dangerous Sammy Hedges. Promising junior Ethan Bogerd, who also plays for Kingston, got the better of Seth Warren on board 3, but the wins that took Kingston over the line came on boards 4 and 5, where the experienced Ye Kyaw and David Shalom got the better of their opponents. Fred Marthoz, though outrated by more than 250 points, ensured a clear margin of victory with an excellent draw on board 6. A terrific victory, appreciated by Ed and his team once they had thawed out.
