IM Peter Large won the 8th All Saints Blitz on 27 November for the second time in a row
Photo: Peter Large receiving first prize from Stephen Moss
Peter Large cantered through the All Saints Blitz disposing of his opponents without too much difficulty to win the monthly event with 5/5. Twelve people competed in total. There was one new person who had not played chess over the board in 40 years. He found out about the event through a leaflet he picked up in the church next to the Christmas cards display.
We played in the Heritage Room, which is an ideal venue for chess – quiet and warm. The electric underfloor heating is supplemented by gas-fired radiators, all very welcome during this freezing snap.
I used the occasion to test how many spare queens should be placed on the tables. I allocated one black and one white queen to each table, on each of which two games were being played. As it happened, nobody used an extra queen. The games were quite decisive and any queen promotions were in the endgame after the original queens had been exchanged off. This is useful information for optimising our equipment storage, the crucial question being to size the container for the standard complement of 32 pieces or an expanded 34 pieces. The results of this research will be revealed to a bemused chess world at the end of the season. The matter arises because of the industry fashion from the year 2000 of including an extra queen in each set despite the most likely piece to need replacing being a pawn. There are a tiny number of competitive games (less than 0.1%) where one side has more than one queen. Perhaps the most famous is Fischer v Petrosian from the Candidates Tournament 1959.
Life at the top table: Peter Large v Robin Haldane in their crucial round 4 encounter at All Saints Blitz VIII
Returning to our event, the final positions were
Peter Large 5/5 Robin Haldane 3.5/5 John Bussmann, Alan Hayward, David Rowson 3/5
First prize was an advent calendar with an obligatory chocolate for each day of December up till Christmas Day. Peter said he had not yet finished the box of chocolates he won for coming first at the October Blitz, but this will not deter him from playing chess, which he loves. In any case, he now has two months to work though the backlog. The All Saints Blitz rests in December, while the church reverts to more traditional activities, and resumes on Wednesday 29 January.
IM Peter Large wins the All Saints Blitz VII on 30 November at his first attempt but it wasn’t easy
Photo: Peter Large receiving first prize from previous winner David Rowson
Peter Large, a new and valued member of Kingston Chess Club, is gradually becoming familiar with the club programme. Apart from intense league matches, we run friendly events such as the All Saints Blitz at the central Kingston church each month which is free and open to all.
The event attracted 16 entrants. We played in the Heritage Gallery for the first time since the funeral for Chris Clegg in January 2015. At the time we felt it was an ideal place to play chess and we were proved right again. The room is bright and warm and secluded from the main part of the church.
Mark Frankel (right) v Robin Haldane in round 1Round 2 under way in the Heritage Gallery
Peter qualified as an international master as far back as 1987, but has waited until retirement to relaunch his chess career. He faced tough opposition in rounds 2, 3 and 4 in the form of past Blitz winners Tony Hughes, Alan Hayward and Robin Haldane. Peter appeared to be on the backfoot for most of these games, but defended stoutly and managed the clock well, dropping only a half-point to Robin in the penultimate round. Going into the fifth and final round, Peter and Robin were neck and neck at 3½/4 each. Peter was paired against another newcomer IM, John Hawksworth, on 3/4. In the other top game, Robin faced Tony Hughes, who was on 3/4, but lost.
Final round: Clash of the IMs between Peter Large v John Hawksworth
In the last game to finish, even though John Hawksworth defended ingeniously, Peter expertly converted a rook ending in which he had a couple of pawns advantage. For this display of excellence, Peter was awarded the prize of a box of Lindor chocolates. Wimbledon players Tony Hughes and Stephen Carpenter were just half a point behind.
The Heritage gallery has a smaller space in which casual chess was played. Derek Bruce used to belong to Kingston in the 1960s and has reconnected with the club. He and Kingston club captain Stephen Moss played an instructive game in which (as you may be able to see in the position shown below) Derek has the chance to play a queen sac to win a piece and the game. This may be why Stephen, who has obviously just spotted the killer sequence, is shielding his eyes.
Derek Bruce (left) and Stephen Moss enjoying some languid social chess as the blitz tournament rages next door
The final results for those scoring above 50% were:
4½/5 Peter Large (Kingston)
4/5 Tony Hughes, Stephen Carpenter (both Wimbledon)
3½/5 Robin Haldane (Streatham)
3/5 Alan Hayward (Pimlico), John Hawksworth (Kingston), David Rowson (Kingston)
Congratulations to Kingston member Ameet Ghasi on his tremendous achievement in gaining the grandmaster title at the age of 37
Earlier this week came the heartening news that IM Ameet Ghasi had secured (subject to Fide ratification) the third and final norm he needed to be awarded the grandmaster title. He got the all-important final norm at a very strong tournament in Fagernes, Norway, where he came joint third with 6.5/9 and recorded a tournament performance of 2609.
It will have pleased Ameet that his good friend, 21-year-old IM Jonah Willow, with whom he has recently trained, secured his first GM norm with 7/9 and a tournament performance of 2630, which gained him joint first place alongside Kazakh grandmaster Rinat Jumabayev, a two-time champion of Kazakhstan and a player with a peak rating above 2650.
Ameet is England’s 42nd GM and the oldest to win the title in active competition (Jonathan Penrose was awarded the title retrospectively in 1993 at the age of 60). It marks a neat double this year, as in August 15-year-old Shreyas Royal became the UK’s youngest ever GM.
The oldest and youngest English GM title winners: Ameet Ghasi and Shreyas Royal at Hastings last Christmas
Ameet would have achieved the GM title decades ago were it not for the fact that he prioritised getting a degree and working full time as an accountant. What is remarkable about his achievement is that he has made it to GM as an amateur player and after taking an eight-year break from the game. His great natural talent was underlined when in 2000, at the age of just 13, he shared first prize in the British Rapidplay Chess Championships. In 2015 he again shared the title, this time with Mark Hebden, and in 2023 he won it outright.
Chess journalist John Saunders dug out his British Chess Magazine report on the 13-year-old Ameet’s remarkable performance back in 2000: “About 400 players took part in the British Rapidplay Championships at Leeds Metropolitan University over the weekend of 18/19 November. There were five grandmasters among the 47 entrants in the Open, which had been won by Michael Adams in 1999. There was a two-way tie for first place between Aaron Summerscale and 13-year-old Ameet Ghasi. This was a sensational performance by the youngster from Birmingham, who plays for Slough second team in the 4NCL. After a steady start, during which he drew with experienced IMs Ferguson, Turner and Williams, he reeled off four successive wins in the final rounds, including the scalps of grandmasters Arkell and Hebden.”
Saunders was delighted by confirmation 24 years later of the Birmingham schoolboy’s prodigious talent. “I’ve been following Ameet’s progress avidly via the [English Chess] Forum these past few days. It was on the 65 bus from Richmond to home, browsing the Forum on my smartphone, that I first read that Ameet had achieved his title. I surprised myself (and my wife Elaine rather more) when I punched the air with pleasure on reading the news. Yesterday I sent Ameet a congratulatory message, mentioning his remarkable feat in defeating Hebden and Arkell on the same day aged 13. That should have counted as a GM norm in itself!”
Ameet in league action for Kingston against IM Peter Large, then at Epsom but now happily a Kingston player
Kingston club president John Foley also expressed his delight at the news in the October Kingston Chess Club Bulletin, publication of which fortuitously occurred on the very day Ameet secured the title. “This is a remarkable achievement for an amateur player who, in the real world, is an internal auditor for an American pharmaceutical company, which leaves him little time to devote to chess,” he wrote. ” It is a tribute to Ameet’s grit and determination that he carried this personal project though to a successful conclusion.”
“It’s been a long time coming,” said Ameet. “It’s like a huge milestone, and one that was challenging enough for me. But I can’t say I’ve been celebrating. It’s more just a relief, to be honest. I’ve been given a tag for many years, since I won the British Rapid event at the age of 13, of being a rapid and blitz specialist who should be a GM. Covid didn’t help, and I’ve always been basically working full time. I also took a long break from chess, so there were reasons for the delay. It’s been frustrating, but It’s good that it’s done now. That’s the main thing.”
Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain
* Thanks to John Saunders, former editor of both British Chess Magazine and Chess, for allowing us to use his photographs of Ameet playing Shreyas Royal at the 2023/24 Hastings Congress and in action for Kingston against Epsom. John also kindly allowed us to quote his BCM report on the British Rapidplay Chess Championships in 2000 at which Ameet first came to national prominence.
** Note to GM-elect Ghasi: Are you by any chance available for the first-team match against Coulsdon on Monday? 7.30pm start and we might be able to go halves on your ticket from Clapham Junction as conditions for playing.
The latest edition of the monthly blitz at All Saints Church in central Kingston resulted in a surprise win for newcomer Alan Hayward
After the summer break, the monthly All Saints Blitz resumed on Wednesday 25 September with a cohort of a dozen players. It comprised five rounds, with each player allowed three minutes per game with an increment of seven seconds per move. The tournament controller was John Foley. The event took a brisk two hours from 10.15am with no gaps between rounds.
There was a new winner of the event – Alan Hayward from Pimlico Chess Club (pictured above left receiving his prize), who scored 4/5. It was Alan’s first time at the Blitz, but he showed few nerves as he disposed of four of his opponents. His only loss was to his friend Robin Haldane in the second round, though in the end Robin may have regretted bringing Alan along. Robin led on 4/4 going into the last round against Tony Hughes, both previous winners. Tony bested Robin, leaving Robin and Alan on 4/5, with Alan winning on a tie-break. Tony came third with 3.5/5.
Alan Hayward and Byron Eslava look on as Tony Hughes (White) converts against Robin Haldane in the final round
The prizes were purchased from the church’s charity bric-a-brac table (Kingston Chess Club’s generosity knows no limits). They comprised diverse entertainments: a crossword puzzle book (third prize); a John Grisham thriller (second prize); and a game of Agatha Christie Bingo (first prize). Prizes were ordered based on weight rather than intellectual merit.
Alan was surprised to win because he had lost to Robin earlier – it is quite common to treat the head-to-head result as decisive. However, we use the Buchholz tie-break system, whereby the person with the higher sum of opponents’ scores is the winner. Others who finished on or above 50% included David Rowson, Peter Roche, Byron Eslava and Stephen Moss.
The tournament was completed quickly within two hours. Several participants said they preferred to play during the morning when they were wide awake, and one said it always set him up for the day. In addition to the tournament players, four attendees opted to play social chess, adding to the variety of the chess experience at All Saints.
Kingston become inaugural holders of the Alan Marshall Memorial Shield
Don’t get too excited. Not a blow has been struck in anger yet in the new season, which for the Kingston club begins with a tough away trip to Streatham in the first round of the Alexander Cup on Tuesday 1 October. But we do have a new trophy – the Alan Marshall Memorial Shield, awarded by the Thames Valley League to the winners of division 1. The photograph above shows me receiving the newly minted shield from Ealing’s Alastair Johnstone (right), a senior Thames Valley official of long standing.
The shield replaces a rather unassuming little cup which never quite caught the magnitude of winning division 1 and seeing off the likes of Hammersmith, Ealing, Richmond and Wimbledon. The new trophy is a great improvement and honours Alan Marshall, who died last year. Alan was a member of Harrow Chess Club for more than 40 years, long-time secretary of the Thames Valley League, and a dedicated and much-loved servant of the game. Naming the trophy after him is a worthy tribute and will make the winning of division 1 even more coveted.
The Thames Valley League was founded in 1947, and a plaque on the back of the new shield lists (in challengingly small type) all the previous winners. The first winners were the Teddington-based National Physical Laboratory – a club which, as far as I know, no longer exists; it certainly doesn’t field teams in the Thames Valley League. Kingston (then called Kingston and Thames Valley) triumphed in 1948/49 and 1949/50, and we have won the first-division title on four occasions since. We were champions in 2022/23 and 2023/24, and a hat-trick of titles would be tremendous … but we must not tempt fate.
Richmond and Twickenham have been the most successful club overall, but Ealing, Wimbledon and Surbiton have all enjoyed periods of dominance (one of the attractions of local club chess is how the pendulum swings) and Hammersmith have been powerful in recent years, winning the title in 2018/19 and 2021/22.
The National Physical Laboratory is not the only past first-division winner which no longer features in the league. Pinner, Hayes and Harlington, Slough, Acton and Thames TV have also fallen by the wayside. Sic transit gloria mundi. Or do I mean Memento mori? Either way, it happens to many chess clubs. (Put down roots, folks, and don’t rely on one or two overworked organisers, or this too will be your fate.) What fun it must have been to play at Thames TV. More glamorous surely than a trip to Hounslow (nothing personal, Hounslow – we love visiting you!)
The engraver has made an error on the plaque, showing Kingston as winners alongside Hammersmith in 2018/19. But we weren’t even in division 1 that year – we were champions of the second division. Before the pandemic – a watershed in the history of the Kingston club as well as in all our lives – we tended to bounce back and forth between divisions 1 and 2. Only in the past few years have we been able to mount a consistent challenge for the title.
We hope to continue vying for the crown (or, rather, the shield) with the big guns for a while yet, but we know that the glory days will eventually pass and we will find ourselves back in the chasing pack, though we fervently hope to avoid the fate of Slough, Pinner and Thames TV. Gritty long-term survival – we celebrate our 150th anniversary next year – means more than glittering short-term success. Better to be a planet than a meteor.
Peter Lalić scored a perfect 6/6 to win the final blitz of the summer break, with David Rowson and newcomer Zubair Froogh taking second and third
In the absence of his usual high-class adversaries David Maycock, Vladimir Li, Peter Large and Graeme Buckley, Kingston’s third summer blitz proved something of a walk in the park – or perhaps a stroll in the Willoughby Arms garden – for Peter Lalić. He dispatched his six opponents (including your hapless correspondent) with his usual aplomb, his toughest game perhaps being his first, when Homayoon Froogh had excellent drawing chances which he would almost certainly have converted but for the exigencies of time – the control was three minutes with a seven-second increment.
David Rowson put in an excellent performance, scoring 5/6 and losing only to the tournament winner in round 4, and Zubair Froogh (son of Homayoon) came clear third on 4/6. There were a host of players on 3/6, including Alicia Mason, juniors William Lin and Jaden Mistry, and former club chair Peter Roche, making his first appearance at the Willoughby since the pandemic. Peter plans to make a welcome return to league chess next season. Charlie Cooke and Dominic Fogg also put in solid performances to finish on 3/3.
The tournament was played in the beach huts in the Willoughby garden – a brave decision on the part of co-organiser Greg Heath given the autumnal evening temperatures. The real hero of the evening was Malcolm Mistry, who volunteered to do the pairings and run the tournament when it became clear that club secretary David Bickerstaff (stranded somewhere by an unexpected tide) would not make it to the pub in time. Given that Malcolm stepped in at the eleventh hour, he conducted the tournament with exemplary and (since he has now proved his efficiency for future tournaments) dangerous aplomb.
Malcolm was awarded one of the four prizes, with the leading trio taking the other three. The prize fund – a box of chocolates and three high-class chocolate bars – was the edible equivalent of £12.65. Never let it be said that we don’t know how to incentivise our players at Kingston.
Final standings – top three
Peter Lalić 6/6 David Rowson 5/6 Zubair Froogh 4/6
On Saturday 27 July we brought Hnefatafl and giant chess to the centre of Kingston – and the success of the move exceeded our wildest imaginings
Image: The Mayor of Kingston visiting the Kingston Chess Club stand
Kingston Chess Club will celebrate its 150th anniversary in the 2025/26 season, but last Saturday we decided to delve a little deeper into the history of both Kingston and chess. Several members of the club participated in, or attended, the Kingston Saxon Fayre organised by the Kingston Heritage Service. We had two locations – one in the ancient market square and one in the churchyard of All Saints Church. The day exceeded our wildest expectations. For a start, the weather was glorious – the weather gods are more interested in Saxon history than Parisian sports events – and we were extremely busy at both locations from the start at 11am until the end at 5pm.
Alicia Mason on the large chess board and John Foley on the Hnefatafl board
Market Square
The town’s market square was the centre of the Saxon celebrations. Managing our stall was club president John Foley, who arrived early to set up our gazebo. This housed a trestle table on which was a splendidly large demonstration chess set and a game from the Saxon period – Hnefatafl. The name of the club was prominently displayed on two menu stands. All Saints church had kindly provided the trestle table and four chairs as well as several posters to bring attention to the regular chess social activity which takes place at the church on Wednesday mornings.
Our stall sat prominently within a circle of Saxon-themed stalls, including live sheep and goats, a forge, stained glass-making, some nasty-looking weapons, craftwork, Anglo-Saxon clothing, falconry, historic recreations, music and so on. Also attending were organisations closely involved in research into Saxon history and culture, including the Kingston Society, Surrey Archaeology, the Dark Ages Society and Malmesbury Archaeology.
The set of large pieces attracted considerable interest from the public, proving that chess can be a tactile as well as an intellectual experience. So many youngsters queued up to play that Jaden Mistry was tasked to fetch another chess set which we squeezed on to the trestle table. Jaden was there for most of the day and played chess against all-comers.
Jaden Mistry (front right) takes on the Man in the Suit. Alan Scrimgour plays Dominic Fogg on the second board
John took responsibility for demonstrating the game of Hnefatafl. This was necessary for historical authenticity because the Saxons never played chess – they got it from the Vikings. A brief history of the Saxons is required.
John Foley teaching Hnefatafl
When the Romans left Britain in 410 AD, the Saxons started to arrive in numbers from Germany. Kingston Council runs the Saxon Fayre to reclaim its history. Seven Saxon kings were crowned at Kingston, starting with Æthelstan in 925 – the 1100th anniversary of that event next year promises to be a very big event in the royal borough. Æthelstan was followed by Eadred in 946 and Æthelred the Unready, who we like to consider the patron saint of the Kingston club, in 978. Kingston was the capital of England in the 10th century after Æthelstan effected a merger of the kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia. Kingston is a crossing point on the Thames between the two kingdoms.
The Saxons mixed with the local Britons, resulting in a hybrid Anglo-Saxon culture. The Anglo-Saxons continued to play Roman games such as Nine Men’s Morris and Ludus Latrunculorum. It was only with the Vikings that new games came along. Lindisfarne Priory was famously sacked by the Vikings in 793 AD – not the best way to introduce a new game.
The first record of chess being played in England dates back to Cnut, King of Denmark and England, who learned to play chess while on a pilgrimage to Rome in 1027. The famous Lewis Chessmen found in the Isle of Lewis in Scotland have been dated to the 11th or 12th century. William the Conqueror was already playing chess in 1060, before the Norman Invasion of 1066 which, according to historians, is the official end of the Anglo-Saxon period.
We may infer that the Anglo-Saxons may only have been playing chess for a decade or so before they were conquered. What is certain is that they were playing the game of northern Europe and Scandinavia spread by the Vikings. This game is known as Hnefatafl, which translates as “fist table” where “fist” represents a “king”, giving us the most common translation: “king’s table”.
According to the chess historian Richard Eales “Chess did not become popular in the 11th and 12th centuries because it came to people who thought it wholly original or had never seen board games before. Rather, chess succeeded by displacing the existing range of games; because it was inherently more complex and interesting or because it was introduced as one aspect of a new dominant culture.”
Never a quiet moment at the stand
For this event, we procured from Regency Chess a beautiful Hnefatafl set of reconstructed pieces made from resin and stone powder, with a historically accurate wooden board. John was surprised to find that the queue for Hnefatafl was just as long, if not longer, than the queue for chess. There was no break for lunch.
Hnefatafl is a tabletop game played by both the Saxons and the Vikings, and can be seen as a precursor of chess. The king sits in the middle of the board and attempts to escape to one of the corners, as the monarch’s guards do battle with the berserkers of the chasing army. It all seems rather insurrectionary and politically provocative for the early medieval period – is the king trying to flee his realm? But it proved a big hit in the marketplace, alongside the falconry, forge and flax spinning, and President Foley is now talking about renaming us Kingston Chess and Hnefatafl Club. After all, he argues, nobody challenges the full name of the All-England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.
A Saxon playing with his trusty staff
John did a huge amount of work to ensure the day went well, even dressing up in appropriate Saxon clothing, which may well now become his standard uniform at club matches. At one point he was able to join a passing procession of friars and minstrels without anyone batting an eyelid. With all due respect, a man born a thousand years too late.
Saxon procession from All Saints Church
All Saints churchyard
Stephen Moss managed the giant chess set in the church grounds. His challenge was to find some way to hook the audience. Nobody was going to wait around for Stephen and his able assistant Dominic Fogg to finish their game lumbering over the giant chess table. So he came up with the brilliant idea of borrowing another trestle table from the church and a couple of sets that we use for Wednesday chess. This served as the Beginners Corner, with fascinated children and more especially ultra-competitive dads playing throughout the afternoon.
In the All Saints churchyard
The giant chess set was hampered by the fact that we were four pawns short of a full set – a description which could be applied to the club generally, one wag said unkindly – but we ingeniously got round the problem by wrapping bean tins in plastic bags. At one point we also pressed a young man dressed in chain mail into service as a knight, though the fact that he was smoking was not ideal and it was in some ways a relief when he was captured. One very strong player came by and said he found trying to calculate variations on a giant set where four central pawns were represented by bean tins wrapped in blue and white plastic bags very tough, but who said chess was meant to be easy?
Stephen Moss had been rather doubtful about the day. He was only wearing regular suburban T-shirt and shorts, not the Saxon garb. Even though a cynic, he had to admit it had been splendid. He may have been influenced by the supply of free oat and honey cakes (made using an original Saxon recipe apparently), and by the fact that none of the vigorous battles between small children using swords and shields that were taking place on the lawn where the giant set was located resulted in hospitalisation. He admired the children who stuck with the chess when they could have been plunging vicious-looking plastic weapons into their friends and siblings. A happy day and a peaceful knight.
Credits
Club activators: John Foley, Stephen Moss, Alicia Mason, Malcolm Mistry, Jaden Mistry, Dominic Fogg, Alan Scrimgour, Leila Raivio Club visitors: Vladimir Li, Colin Lyle, David Shalom, John Bussmann, Leon Mellor-Sewell, Ergo Nobel
The second blitz tournament of the summer saw FM Vladimir Li triumph with 5.5/6, heading a powerful field which had thankfully not been put off by an evening of torrential rain
The second Kingston club blitz of the summer, held on Monday 15 July at the Willoughby Arms, promised to be yet another friendly blockbuster. Drawing in the usual suspects and some new faces, the tournament also marked my debut as a nervy (and unqualified) tournament arbiter.
Our very persuasive club captain Stephen Moss, who was attending the Thames Valley AGM that night, somehow convinced me that my familiarity with ChessManager software and tournament playing rules (the latter thanks to my son Jaden’s participation in rated tournaments) were sufficient qualifications for me to add another string to my bow, and In hindsight (and for once) I agree with him.
Unlike the first blitz, held a fortnight ago in perfect summer-like weather conditions requiring players to remain hydrated (non-alcoholic beverages preferred), the rain gods had other plans for the second tourney. As Jaden and I walked briskly to the Willoughby, there was a deluge. Would it put off the players who had registered? Happily the answer was no, and a few last-minute additions to the participants’ list took the final tally to 20.
Round 1 was largely uneventful, with the results generally reflecting the ratings of the players. On board 1, Jaden played Black against Peter Lalić, one of his many Kingston role models. Departing from his favoured Caro-Kann, Jaden decided to play the Sicilian Defence. Though not a surprise to me, given that he spent half of the day before studying the opening, Jaden later admitted that adapting to a new opening in a shorter format wasn’t his best decision of the evening. Despite making good use of the increment (the time control was three minutes and seven seconds), Jaden was eventually forced to resign. But he is undeterred and says he will be studying the Sicilian more deeply during the school holidays.
Round 2 brought heavyweight match-ups on boards 1 and 2. John Bussmann, a very capable and highly tactical blitz player, was paired against FM Vladimir Li, and Peter Andrews was doing battle with Peter Lalić (we are a club of many Peters!). The latter game by no means petered out. They reached an interesting endgame position and spectators clustered around the board. The game was easily the longest of the evening, and much to my relief the two players eventually agreed a draw.
The lengthy (and eventually drawn) battle of the Peters, Andrews and Lalić, attracted a great deal of interest
In round 3 David Rowson had White against club chair Alan Scrimgour, who was just back from representing Scotland in the World Seniors Championship in Poland. Alan scored a crucial win and went joint top of the table with Vladimir, both with 3/3. Sensing a touch of fatigue in the room after three hard-fought rounds, I announced a short break, much to the relief of the players.
Round 4 saw the joint table-toppers paired against each other, with Vladimir having White against Alan. Vladimir, who played superbly all evening, ran out the winner. Just behind Vladimir came Peter Lalić, always a force in these club blitzes, and the highly rated Jasper Tambini, alongside Alan and John Bussmann. Meanwhile, the bottom half of the table was also witnessing some close and competitive games, a notable one being between Edward Mospan and Dominic Fogg, which ended with the players agreeing to share the honours.
Just before pairing round 5, I approached two new club juniors, the Chmiest twins (Piotr and Robert) who were yet to get off the mark in the evening. I asked one what were the chances of him defeating his brother should they be paired in either of the remaining two rounds. Much to my delight, he insisted he would win – there were to be no fraternal favours! It so happened that the twins were paired by ChessManager in round 5, much to the nervousness of their father, who had been spectating throughout the evening. Perhaps to his relief, the family encounter ended in a draw. The two youngsters only started playing chess recently and have bright futures. Well done to them for having the chutzpah to play in this very tough company.
Peter Lalić engaged in a hard-fought (and ultimately successful) endgame tussle with David Rowson
At the top of the leaderboard, Vladimir (on 4/4) was taking on Peter Lalić (3.5/4). A mid-game shake of the head by Peter foretold the outcome: he had blundered, and Vladimir was able to march on and claim the title even before the last round was played. Peter’s loss in the penultimate round also resulted in various permutations opening up in the fight for second place, with Peter himself, the dangerous Dominic Fogg, Alan Scrimgour and John Bussmann all in the running.
The final round started close to 10pm, with the rain still pouring down outside. The battle for second place was intense, and there was also much to play for among the next group, headed by Zubair Froogh, David Shalom, Peter Andrews and Jasper Tambini.
First place was in the bag for Vladimir, though David Rowson, playing Black, managed to deny him a final win. A draw gave Vladimir a final score of 5.5/6. Honours on board 2 were also shared between Alan Scrimgour and John Bussmann, enabling both to finish joint second on 4.5 points. Peter Lalić, as he so often does under immense pressure, pulled out a close win with Black against Dominic Fogg, thus managing to grab a share of second place. Jasper Tambini and Zubair Froogh, both relative newcomers, were close behind.
A tremendous evening which, despite the monsoonal weather, everyone seemed to enjoy. The third club Blitz of the summer is scheduled for Monday 26 August. I’m hoping I can sit that one out in the bar.
Malcolm Mistry
Final top six
1st: Vladimir Li 5.5/6 Joint 2nd: Alan Scrimgour, John Bussmann, Peter Lalić 4.5/6 Joint 5th: Jasper Tambini, Zubair Froogh 4/6
Peter Lalić says the key to doing well when you give a simul is to bore your opponents to defeat. Here he explains how he approached one he gave recently at Kingston
As part of Kingston’s Summer Programme, a number of our strongest players have kindly consented to give simultaneous displays (“simuls” in chess parlance). First up was IM Ameet Ghasi, who annihilated all-comers, helped by what he felt was an overly generous time differential. For the second simul, given by CM Peter Lalić (pictured above), the clock settings were adjusted and the play was a little less one-sided.
Peter had an hour and a quarter with no increment; his 15 opponents had 20 minutes with a 10-second increment. Peter eventually emerged triumphant, with 14 wins, a single draw and no losses. But there were a few hiccups along the way: Peter only realised late on that he had no increment and had to start running between the three or four boards where his time was in danger of running out.
Several games were won with seconds to spare on his clock. He conceded a draw to Kingston stalwart Ed Mospan, which was a source of great satisfaction – to Ed and the rest of us, if not to Peter. Ed was ecstatic and punched the air in delight, saying he would frame the scoresheet. Peter has an ECF rating close to 2300. Ed’s is more than 700 points lower, so this was a significant achievement.
It is the nice point about simuls that players who do well remember their games forever. I was in touch recently with a 67-year-old club player now retired from over-the-board chess. He sent me a game he had played almost 50 years ago against Britain’s first GM, Tony Miles. My correspondent hadn’t won or even drawn the game, but he had played well and Miles had congratulated him. That memory burned bright half a century later.
Peter takes such exhibitions very seriously and, to my surprise, said afterwards that he was “more proud of this performance than of any of my classical games, especially because I played with the black pieces and had no increment”. I asked him to explain why it mattered so much to him. “I thought I had an increment, but I was watching one of the kids and when I watched the clock I panicked because I realised I didn’t have an increment and all of a sudden I thought ‘I can lose half of these on time’. I had only minutes left on some of them., and when I managed to be unbeaten it was a great relief.”
Peter had opted to play Black in all the games, and says his strategy was to bore his opponents to defeat. He played 1…d6 in all games, regardless of White’s opening move, and says that he was generally able to control the pawn structure which ensued. Eighty per cent of the games had the pawn structure shown in the first diagram below; a third of the games had the structure shown in the second diagram, with queens exchanged (a Lalić speciality); in a third of the games White advanced a pawn to d5 (diagram 3), and in a fifth of the games Black was able to construct the pawn chain shown in diagram 4.
“I was able to race around the room on the opening moves because I was playing the same thing,” Peter explains. “They are the equivalent of pre-moves. Even after five moves, 33 per cent of my games had the same position (see diagram 2 above). It’s the Lalić system! I’m sure that if I’d played anything that was less systematic I would have dropped a couple of losses. It could even have been worse than that because if you have a couple of difficult games there can be a domino effect. I could easily have scored only 60 per cent with a different opening. It’s the fact that the games are so boring that excites me!”
Peter Lalić working the room at his simul at the Willoughby Arms, He ended with 14 wins, a draw and no losses
Peter says calculation is difficult in a simul and it’s easy to lose the thread of a game. He had asked his opponents to keep score and says he sometimes had to remind himself what had been played by sneaking a look at their scoresheets – and this is a player with a phenomenal memory! “That’s why I had to play on autopilot,” he says. “I wanted to avoid chaos, and my study of these opening structures and my ability to force my opponents on to my territory meant I had virtually no chaos.”
He says the only player who brought him close to the anarchy he was seeking to avoid was John Bussmann, as shown in the game below. ” It’s no coincidence that he, being the most highly rated player, was the only one to create chaos,” says Peter. “He knew good simul technique and shows what a challenger should do.”
Ed Mospan was justifiably proud of the game he played against Peter and deserves his framed scoresheet:
Peter notes the two players’ accuracy in this game was down at 91 per cent. In the game against Emma Buckley, his accuracy level was 99 per cent! Emma’s accuracy level was a more than creditable 93 per cent, she battled on for 64 moves, and in the course of the game set this nice trap:
Emma played 25. c5 here, which appears to invite Kc3. The latter would lose the knight to b4 – easy to overlook in a simul. Peter dodged the bullet and went on to win the endgame. Emma is Peter’s half-sister, which made the competition all the more intense; on move 22 she told Peter the position was “dead drawn” – familial trash talking!
Generally Peter’s “boring is beautiful” strategy worked. “I tried to make sure there was nothing going on,” he says, “and the games hinged on one or two static weaknesses in my opponents’ positions.” This is often what happens in simuls: the master-level player isn’t necessarily looking to blow you away over the board, but instead to gain a technical advantage and then squeeze. So when you’re next facing a superstar in a simul, be ready to trade blows and create as much chaos as possible. Even if you lose you will have a lot of fun and, who knows, you might even win.
Peter makes the point that Dutch grandmaster and acclaimed writer and aphorist Jan Hein Donner was on to this more than half a century ago. “Play aggressively,” Donner advised. “Ninety-five percent of all victims in simultaneous displays usually owe their defeat to their own passivity. The simul-giver lacks the time to work out variations, but doing so is more important when defending than in an attack. On psychological grounds, too, aggressively approaching the simul-giver is a sound and very effective strategy.”
Peter is now looking forward to the simuls which will be given at Kingston by his friends and team-mates Vladimir Li and David Maycock in the next month. It would surely be too cynical to suggest that he is offering this advice to their potential opponents in order to make life harder for them. Peter just doesn’t think in that Gore Vidal-type way. (Vidal’s famous quip was “It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail.”) At Kingston we value togetherness, and such oneupmanship simply doesn’t enter our leading players’ calculations. At least I don’t think it does….
The opening blitz tournament of the summer was a cracker, with Peter Large, Vladimir Li and Peter Lalić tie-ing on 4/5
They say quality will out, and that was certainly the case at the first Kingston Blitz tournament of the summer at the Willoughby Arms. The three titled players in the field – FM Vladimir Li, CM Peter Lalić and IM Peter Large (pictured above, left to right) – could in the end not be separated, each finishing on 4.5.
The three took games off each other: Vladimir beat Peter Large in an exciting duel; Peter Lalić was at his mesmerising best in overcoming Vladimir; and in the final round Peter Large toppled his namesake, who was leading the tournament at that point, with a beautifully played game (complete with neat exchange sac) as Black.
Expertly organised by Kingston’s new secretary, David Bickerstaff, the event included a host of good performances from lesser-ranked players: Dominic Fogg’s 3/5 demonstrated his great promise; Robin Kerremans. following on from his fine performance at the London Clubs Championship the previous week, again showed that he is ludicrously underrated; and new member Ye Kwaw and welcome returner Aziz Sanni also performed well.
Further down the list Mark Sheridan, Homayoom Froogh (another newbie), Alicia Mason (back from the US) and Jaden Mistry also had their moments, and it was great to see some of the club’s new juniors getting involved against expert players. An excellent event played in the garden of the Willoughby in the warmest weather of the summer so far. Well played everyone and thanks to David for organising so brilliantly. The second summer Blitz is scheduled for Monday 15 July.
Final standings – top 7
Peter Large 4/5 Vladimir Li 4/5 Peter Lalić 4/5 Dominic Fogg 3/5 Robin Kerremans 3/5 Aziz Sannie 3/5
