Kingston C v Maidenhead D, Thames Valley League division X match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 4 November 2024

Maidenhead sent two teams to Kingston on Monday 4 November – their B and D sides – which is no mean feat considering the distance and logistics. They would have managed to get all 10 players over to us, too, but for a late dropout from the B team, which left them one short and meant their D team top board had to move up to the Bs. That default was important in ensuring a Kingston victory in a four-board match.

We had juniors Jaden Mistry and William Lin on boards 1 and 2, and both played forceful games to win against decent opponents. Rob Taylor lost on board 3 and looked at bit disconsolate – “take the positives”, as they say, Rob, the wheel will turn – and Colin Lyle won by default on board 4 to complete a welcome 3-1 TVX victory. Kingston have half a dozen promising juniors, and they are very important to the future of the club.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain

Surbiton B v Kingston B, Thames Valley League division 2 match played at Fircroft, Surbiton on 30 October 2024

This was a very satisfying evening. We had set out with a clear strategy in this match: to win with White and draw with Black, and that is exactly what we did across all six boards, giving Kingston an emphatic 4.5-1.5 victory against our neighbours and kicking off our Thames Valley division 2 campaign in style.

The first game to finish was on board 4, where Alan Scrimgour – with Black – and Andrew Boughen agreed a draw after 13 moves in the position below. Black has certainly equalised and may even have a small plus, but given the team strategy this was a perfectly satisfactory start.

Board 6, between Surbiton legend Paul Durrant (how good to see him back playing competitive chess) and Jon Eckert, also ended in a draw. Paul was a pawn to the good, but Jon had an initiative which Paul considered sufficient compensation, and peace was declared in the position below.

The critical board 2 game between Will Taylor, with Black, and Joshua Pirgon was also drawn after a dry, technical struggle in the Petrov Defence. We had identified Josh as a dangerous young player likely to turn out for Surbiton on board 2 or 3, and Will was the perfect opponent to steer him away from the sort of tactical melee in which he excels. The final position, with White to play, is stone-cold level.

Half the mission had been accomplished. Now could the Kingston players with the White pieces keep their side of the bargain? Peter Andrews, up against old adversary and Surbiton captain Nick Faulks on board 3, certainly could. He had the upper hand from an early stage and we were confident he would convert, which he did after a couple of hours’ play.

Kingston were now 2.5-1.5 up and we were feeling comfortable. Board 5 was looking good for us, and board 1 perhaps drawish. On board 5, Stephen Lovell was making one of his rare appearances for Kingston. It is always very welcome when he does have time to turn out, because he is a strong player whose rating would most likely be 2000-plus if he played regularly. Here he played an excellent game against the very experienced Graham Alcock. Things were level until Graham made a slip in opening up the position on his 26th move.

That was the match done and dusted, and David Rowson on board 1 then made it the perfect evening by winning against Liam Bayly – these two are also old adversaries – as Liam’s clock started to run down.

Stephen Moss, Kingston Club Captain

Hounslow C v Kingston C, Thames Valley League division X match played at the Royal British Legion, Hounslow on 28 October 2024

I intend to pass very quickly over this match. We lost 4-0 to a much higher-rated Hounslow team, and you may think anything I say constitutes sour grapes, but in fact the match was played in what we considered unsatisfactory conditions – a noisy bar area which was certainly not an appropriate environment for rated chess.

Kingston captain Jon Eckert decided to proceed with the match – in conditions really only suitable for friendly, beer-fuelled blitz – on the grounds that his players had made the long journey over to Hounslow and were there to play chess. But the Kingston club has made representations to the league about the conditions in which the match was played, and will be seeking assurances that they will not be repeated against a visiting Kingston team.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain

Wallington 1 v Kingston 3, Surrey League division 4 match played at Wallington on 23 October 2024

We always knew this would be tough. Kingston 3 were up against Wallington’s first team, and they had strong players (including a certain Mr P Lalić) on boards 1 to 3. That we ran them so close is testimony to the fighting spirit of the team and bodes well for future battles in Surrey division 4.

David Bickerstaff and Kingston captain Ed Mospan had good wins against lower-rated opposition on boards 4 and 5; Jon Eckert had an excellent draw with Black against the strong Wallington (and indeed Coulsdon) veteran Nick Edwards on board 2; while on board 4 Ye Kwaw miscalculated in a Closed Sicilian and paid the price against Robert Davies.

The board 3 match-up between Alicia Mason and David Jones was a tough battle that was resolved in Jones’s favour after just shy of 60 moves. Alicia played aggressively and was ahead for much of the game, but she made some errors in the endgame – time trouble was inevitably a factor – and let her advantage slip.

Despite that, she had good drawing chances until a misjudgement on her 52nd move. The position below looks tricky for White, with the Black king about to snaffle the white pawns, but with best play it is drawn. As it was, there was no way back from the move which Alicia chose. Such is the precision required in endgames, where every tempo is a matter of life and death.

Board 1 was a battle of the Kingston Peters – Peter Lalić (moonlighting for Wallington) and Peter Roche, a former Kingston chair now happily restored to competitive action after a five-year break. Facing the mighty Lalić is always a challenge, but Peter R gave him a good run for his money in a well-contested game.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain

Kingston 2 v South Norwood 1, Surrey League division 2 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston, on 14 October 2024

For the second week in a row, Kingston hosted a team from South Norwood. The result was the same as last week, when we triumphed in the first round of the Lauder Trophy, but this time it was much tighter, with three knife-edge games still being vigorously contested as the three-hour playing session drew to a close. In the end, Kingston emerged as 4.5-2.5 winners, but that relatively comfortable margin by no means tells the whole story.

IM John Hawksworth was making his league debut for Kingston on board 1 – John has returned to chess after a break of more than 30 years – and was up against a tough opponent in Marcus Osborne. The two showed each other a good deal of respect and an early draw was agreed in the position below (with Black to play). A good result for Marcus with Black; a good result for John on his return to competitive action.

Half an hour later Kingston went one up when Julian Way defeated the ever combative Ron Harris on board 3. Black blundered in the position below and ceded White a material advantage that was sufficient to win the game 15 moves later.

Peter Andrews, with Black against South Norwood captain Simon Lea on board 4, pushed Kingston further ahead with what he afterwards called (in the nicest possible way) “a very pleasant crush”.

Peter’s win put Kingston 2.5-0.5 ahead and that soon became 3-1 when Alan Scrimgour and Kaddu Mukasa agreed a draw in the position below after a very solidly played game that had always been level.

David Rowson and South Norwood’s Paul Dupré also drew on board 2, but their game was more of a rollercoaster, and David felt he had let winning chances slip. “I was clearly winning after Paul played some inferior moves and I won a pawn,” David said afterwards, “but in time trouble I got confused and was glad to get a draw when I only had about 10 seconds left.”

That made it 3.5-1.5 and we couldn’t lose the match – always reassuring. But could we win it? We thought initially that it was in the bag, but Peter Roche (back in league chess after a five-year absence) was short of time and running out of good moves on board 6, and, while Alicia Mason (pictured above) was better against South Norwood stalwart Ken Chamberlain on board 7, she was also in a time scramble. The possibility of a drawn match flickered across our collective consciousness.

Peter Roche’s game was a tragedy of sorts. He was completely level after 50 moves and in other circumstances his opponent, Ibrahim Abouchakra, would have been tempted to take a draw. But given the match situation he had to play on and, with Peter very short of time and playing a little too passively (perhaps deeming the draw inevitable), White was able to manoeuvre his king into an active position and forced the blunder which cost Peter the game. A defining moment came on Black’s 51st move, where Peter makes a slight error which allows the White king to penetrate, From there, things rapidly went downhill.

That made it 3.5-2.5, and now it was all down to Alicia Mason, making her Kingston debut with White on board 7. She did not let us down, securing the win with both players running short of time. After the game, Alicia said she felt her opponent’s key error came in the position shown below.

A very satisfying start to the season in this tough division where the Kingston second team will be up against three first teams – South Norwood, Surbiton and Wimbledon – as well as a strong Guildford second team. We will need to perform as we did here in every match to ensure survival in this battlefield.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain

Kingston v South Norwood, Lauder Trophy first-round match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 7 October 2024

This was in the end surprisingly easy. South Norwood are canny operators in the Lauder Trophy, a knockout competition played over six boards with a maximum collective ECF rating of 10,500. That rating ceiling levels the playing field – you can’t play six highly rated players; you have to slice and dice – and South Norwood have made good use of their relatively limited resources to win it four times in the trophy’s quarter-century history. But on this occasion, their team was unusually weak, they defaulted a board and Kingston ran out emphatic 5.5-0.5 winners.

With board six already in the bag by default – a (sort of) debut victory for new Kingston junior Anqi Yang – our top two boards went to work to build on the lead. Mike Healey had White against Ron Harris, who as usual blitzed out his moves. But Mike is too strong a player to be intimidated as we lesser mortals are when faced by a very fast player who is always looking to grab the initiative. Ron made the somewhat rash decision to castle queenside in the position below, and Mike launched a ferocious attack that ended in victory after 30 moves.

David Rowson was playing South Norwood stalwart Simon Lea with Black on board 2, and the latter stumbled into a piece-losing tactic as early as the 11th move, in the position shown below.

South Norwood captain Ken Chamberlain held Jon Eckert to a draw on board 4 to save his side from being bagelled 6-0, but that result was enough to take Kingston over the line and confirm the victory. Joe Inch, another promising junior making his debut for the club, then scored an excellent win over the veteran Gengadharan Somupillai with White on board 5, playing confidently in a rook endgame.

Julian Way, with White on board 3 against the resourceful Ibrahim Abouchakra, played the longest and most complicated game of the night. Abouchakra played the Dragon Variation of the Sicilian Defence and was always looking to attack, but Julian kept control of the situation. In the position below he is well on top, but is a little concerned about the exposed position of his king, which might give Black hopes of mate or a perpetual. Julian finds a pragmatic way to win, winning a piece and diverting the Black queen to a defensive role. The engine, which never sees ghosts, opts for something flashier.

Julian’s win, on the stroke of 10.30pm and after a three-hour battle, made it 5.5-0.5, and South Norwood had to face a long and forlorn drive back to south London. The match would have been a different story if they had been at home, where they tend to be much stronger, but that’s the luck of the draw. We now face Wallington in the semi-final, and this time we have to travel to that distant location. An advance party will be setting off immediately.

Stephen Moss, Kingston Club Captain

Dorking 2 v Kingston 4, Surrey division 5 match played at Crossways Community Baptist Church, Dorking on 3 October 2024

Kingston has a new third- and fourth-team captain in the Surrey League – one of the most demanding roles at the club – and Edward “Ed” Mospan started his tenure with an excellent 3.5-2.5 win at Dorking in a closely fought match. The future, as we always knew it would be, is safe in Ed’s hands.

Just getting to Dorking from Kingston is a battle, especially in a week when the Great Dorking Sinkhole had made entering the town by road almost impossible. But Ed’s team managed it and proceeded to play with great aplomb.

David Shalom (pictured above, right, in action at a recent blitz tournament at All Saints church in Kingston) had a terrific success on board 1 against Pablo Telford. The game was very sharp, with David proving that the more mild-mannered a person is the more aggressive they are likely to be at the chessboard. His aggression paid dividends when his opponent went horribly wrong in the position below.

David Bickerstaff also enjoyed an excellent win with Black on board 2, finding a neat tactic in the position below which as good as sealed the deal.

Aziz Sannie was the third Kingston winner on the night, with White on board 5, and Mark Sheridan got a crucial draw with Black on board 6 to ensure that Kingston went home (avoiding the sinkhole of course) with the points.

Rob Taylor lost on board 3 – we accidentally played him out of board order, but Surrey tournament controller Graham Alcock kindly forgave us the early-season slip and told us to sharpen up our act – and Captain Ed lost with Black on board 4, despite having both a time advantage and what he believed was a winning position. “If helpmate was an actual competition,” he remarked on the club’s WhatsApp group, “I would be a grandmaster.” Don’t fret about it Ed. As a person and a captain, you are already at super-GM level!

Stephen Moss, Kingston Club Captain

Streatham v Kingston, Alexander Cup first-round match played at St Thomas’s Church, Streatham, on 1 October 2024

In one sense this was groundhog day. We had played Streatham at exactly this time of the year last season at the same venue and come out on top by 7-3. But there were also significant differences: this was a revamped (and we hope renewed) Kingston team, with no fewer than four debutants – Peter Large, Sam Walker, Ash Stewart and Peter Hasson. We had been working through the summer to reinvigorate the squad – a team that stands still is doomed to fail – and this would be the acid test: would we be Man City, recruiting wisely, or Man United, living on past reputation?

We like to believe it is the former, though the home team fought hard to expose us as the latter. We outrated Streatham on every board and ran out 6.5-3.5 winners, but it was a tense evening nonetheless, and there were some anxious faces in the Kingston support group as 10pm approached and we started to enter time scramble territory.

The first game to finish was Julian Way’s on board 8. He was playing White against promising junior Qixuan Han, and in the following position Julian believed his opponent could have struck a critical blow. The move Julian feared was 20…c5, because of the threat from the Black queen to the pawn on g3 – the f2 pawn is pinned. The engine concurs that Black is better, but it takes a fair amount of manoeuvring to prove the advantage. As it was, Han chose a quieter line and a draw was agreed a few moves later. White has a slight advantage in the final position, but Julian was 20 minutes down on the clock and admitted his mind was still dwelling on the potential for Black of 20…c5.

Kingston’s first win came courtesy of club president John Foley on board 10. His opponent had fallen into a trap in the opening, leading to the loss of a vital pawn, and looked singularly dejected for the rest of the game. This is the game, with comments from John:

There was more good news soon after when David Maycock defeated Streatham veteran Graham Keane’s Pirc Defence on board 2, a tremendous win which showed that David has superb positional sense as well as sharp command of tactics. He has annotated his success in the Games section.

That made it to 2.5-0.5 to Kingston, and things became even better shortly afterwards when Sam Walker – one of Kingston’s new recruits and playing off a handy ECF rating of 2272 – won with Black on board 3. White had had a slight edge for most of the game after playing the English Opening, but the game swung suddenly when Sam landed a neat tactical blow in the position below. Watch how the apparently strong knight on d6 suddenly becomes a key target.

We were now 3.5-0.5 up and surely it was plain sailing. But not so fast: the team’s non-playing captain Alan Scrimgour thought we stood worse on boards 1 and 5, and Peter Andrews was under pressure on board 9. This was by no means over yet.

The next game to finish was on board 6, where another Kingston debutant, Peter Hasson, drew with Antony Hall. This was the key position in which Peter opted for a drawing line:

“I misplayed the opening and ended up in a slightly worse position but kept it in balance,” Peter explained afterwards. “At the end I wanted to stop Black posting a knight on c4, which is a bit awkward so used the exchanging combination starting with 24. Nxa7. If he plays 24… Bxb4, I have Nc6. I was probably slightly better at the end [a draw was a agreed a few moves later], but given the state of the match at the time I felt it simplest to secure the half-point which was close to taking us over the line.”

A good choice as it turned out, but there were wobbles on the way. On board 5, Ash Stewart was behind on time and, playing on the 10-second increment (the control was 75 minutes per player plus 10 seconds added on every move), went down fighting in a scramble. That made it 4-2. With Peter Large having the worst of it on board 1, the board 9 clash between Peter Andrews and Streatham captain Martin Smith now became crucial.

The Streatham player opted for an interesting line in the Catalan, with 7. Ne5, but Peter played accurately and established a small advantage out of the opening. Then a thunderbolt in the position below:

Fine indeed. Critical in fact, because just as Peter A took a draw another of our four (!) Peters, IM Peter Large, was losing to Phil Makepeace, who had played a impressively forceful game, on board 1. Had both Peters lost, it would have been 4-4 – such are the fine margins in team chess. As it was, we were still ahead by 4.5-3.5, so another point would do it (having lost on board 1, which counts for 10 points in the event of a tie, the higher maths of board count in the event of the match ending 5-5 did not appeal).

We were now confident David Rowson was winning on board 7, though he said later he was nervous of blundering away his advantage in a long-drawn-out endgame. But as so often it was Peter Lalić who took us over the line. His game on board 4 against Matthew Tillett was closely contested, but, with time and the pressure of the match situation no doubt taking their toll, his opponent blundered in the position below in which Black’s bishop on d4 is directing affairs.

That made it a match-winning 5.5-3.5 to Kingston, and David Rowson on board 7 duly added the point that made the win look a little more comfortable than it really was. David’s victory came courtesy of the “nervy endgame” he described, but the game had really been decided by the middlegame sequence shown below.

We got back to Kingston close to midnight, but it was worth it. A potential banana skin – Streatham are a very well-run club with a powerful squad of players – had been sidestepped, and the pursuit of our fourth successive Alexander Cup was successfully launched. Next up, probably in the New Year, dangerous wannabes Epsom. Even now, Epsom President Marcus Gosling – the Ernst Stavro Blofeld of Surrey chess – will be plotting our downfall from his heavily fortified lair somewhere on the North Downs.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain