Category Archives: Events

Kingston are London champions

4th SCCU/London Club Championship held at St Luke’s Church, Hampstead on Sunday 21 June 2025

Photograph: John Foley (captain), John Bussmann, Vladimir Li, Supratit Banerjee and Peter Lalić

Kingston capped, or should that be cherried, an extraordinary season by winning the London Team Championships organised by the Southern Counties Chess Union. This unique event brings together teams from London and the Home Counties which normally compete in different leagues. Kingston played in the top section of three, which was limited to an average rating of less than 2200 ECF. It was the hottest day of the year with temperatures over 30C, which affected some players more than others.

Each team comprised four players with an optional reserve. In our case, the team was 1) Supratit Banerjee 2) Peter Lalić 3) Vladimir Li 4) John Bussmann with me as captain/reserve. The line-up conformed with the average rating provided that John Bussmann played in each round, which meant there was a lot of pressure on John.

The tournament was supposed to be a Swiss format. However, one of the teams dropped out late and the organisers modified the format so that no player would miss a game. Although well-intentioned, the practical consequences of a triangular format embedded into the Swiss format left us wondering if it is worth avoiding byes. Under this arrangement, three teams play each other wherein each round boards 1 and 2 play different opponents from boards 3 and 4. The players were confused as to whom they would play, and online followers were confused about the match results. There was a delay after each round to sort out pairings. The tournament director David Gilbert reassured everyone that matters were under control as the laptop master Michael Flatt grappled with the pairings.

In round 1, Supratit won, as did Vladimir, against Ian Snape (see start of game below).

Kingston won in the first four rounds but could only draw against Pimlico in round 5. Vladimir’s game in that match is shown in the Games section. In a fitting finale, Kingston faced Richmond & Twickenham in the final round. R&T are formidable opponents well known to Kingston. They had won the event on each of the previous three occasions it was held. On top board, Supratit drew with occasional Kingstonian Michael Healey. Peter accepted a draw offer from Gavin Wall in what was shown afterwards to be a winning position.Vladimir beat Maks Gajowniczek.

Final Round: Peter Lalić v Gavin Wall, Mike Healey v Supratit Banerjee on Board 1

In the final game to finish, John Bussmann decided to play aggressively against Martin Benjamin as the best way to obtain a draw. He sacrificed a piece and was rewarded with perpetual check. The game was a draw, the match was won, the London Team Championship was won and so was the historic octuple of victories.

Maks Gajowniczek v Vladimir Li on Board 3, John Bussmann v Benjamin Martin

Supratit had a tremendous result undefeated on board one with 5/6. The prize for the best performance at the event went to Vladimir Li who scored 6/6. These two were the engine room of the team.

In the final ranking, the Dummy entries are there on account of the triangular match. We are unable to provide any explanation of their purpose.

Vladimir Li receiving a prize for the best performance from David Flewellen, deputy president of SCCU

Supratit Banerjee receiving an individual trophy of the SCCU London team prize

We celebrated by repairing the famous Old Bull and Bush in Hampstead for a liquid refreshment.

John Foley, Kingston Chess Club president

Bridge for Beginners – evening taster

Held on 3 July 2025 at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston

During our summer recess, the club is experimenting with various activities. It may seem sacrilege to bring another game into the hallowed playing room of Kingston Chess Club, but bridge and chess have lot in common and many chess players play bridge, or could play bridge with a bit of help and encouragement. We advertised the event to members, to other local chess clubs and even grabbed a couple of people from the bar.

We were delighted to be able to fill four tables for this one-off event. With four people on each table, we had 16 enthusiastic players for the evening. We were privileged to have as our instructor Rosie White from the famous Young Chelsea Bridge Club which is now based at the MindSports Centre in Hammersmith. Rosie has coached a generation of bridge players and was happy to try to convert inveterate chess players to the pleasures of a classic new game.

Counting Tricks — *Counting tricks: Rosie White demonstrates the fundamentals of bridge to newcomers*

The evening focused on playing the cards where each pair was given a target number of tricks to win. A trick is won by the player with highest card in each round. We started with no trumps and then moved on to trumps. Each hand was provided from a wallet placed on the table in front of the players. There was no shuffling of cards. Each hand had a specific learning point. Whether the players managed to grasp the point is beside the point – we were having too much fun playing out the cards.

What made the event particularly sociable was the presence of bridge partners: wives, girlfriends and a daughter. The chess community is male-dominated, whereas bridge has a mixed gender profile. There was a lot of laughter on each table, so we knew it was going well irrespective of the quality of the play. A lot of younger people are taking up bridge as part of the movement away from digital games towards social games. Maybe Kingston Chess Club will have a bridge section one day.

*Full house: There was a welcome mix of ages and sexes, and the evening was filled with laughter*

We are grateful to Rosie White for having controlled this successful event and bringing the tablecloths and bridge equipment. We will canvass the views of those who attended and the wider membership to see if anybody would like to repeat the event or join a regular bridge class which could be held at the club.

If you are interested in how it went, you can talk to one of those people who attended, who included Peter Andrews, Marek Chmiest, Peter Finn, John Foley, Phil Goodings, Stephen Moss, Alan Scrimgour, Paul Seymour and Rob Taylor.

John Foley

Sisters shine at All Saints Blitz XIII

The largest ever All Saints Blitz, held on 28 May 2025, ended in a dramatic three-way tie between WFMs Emma and Eunice Hng and IM Peter Large, with Eunice awarded first prize on tie-break

The friendly monthly blitz at All Saints has now turned into an Event with a capital E. We had 30 participants on Wednesday 28 May at the wonderful All Saints Church in the centre of Kingston. Given that we had twice the number of usual attendees, we added one more round to the format – so six rounds rather than the usual five. This surge of interest was due to the rare coincidence that the last Wednesday of the month was on a half term. Hence we had a lot of juniors who decided to occupy their time constructively.

We were delighted to be joined by the Hng sisters, Emma and Eunice, who are both women Fide masters from Singapore and have previously represented Epsom Chess Club. They played brilliantly and tied for first place, along with the ever-present Peter Large, on 5/6. Eunice beat IM Large, the first time he has lost at All Saints, in their crucial round 5 clash – he has previously won the tournament outright on five occasions. But Emma then got the better of her sister in a magnificent final game, in which a lengthy endgame captivated the watching audience (see photograph above).

In the end, tournament controller John Foley awarded Eunice first prize on tie-break. Eunice deserved to win as she beat Peter Large. It was good to see the sisters fight out the last round rather than agree a soft draw. Even though Emma beat Eunice, Eunice had played stronger opponents and picked up first prize, a book on the World’s Greatest Chess games, while Emma received a box of chocolates.

*Eunice Hng took first place on tie-break*

Peter was happy to receive only a modest chocolate bar, having overdosed on large chocolate boxes from his previous wins.

The prize for the top junior went to William Lin, who scored 3/6. William beat the second-placed Emma in the first round. This was a fine week for William, who also picked up the junior prize on the May Bank Holiday Blitz at the club on Monday.

The prize presenter was Alan Scrimgour, the club chair. Alan found himself in the awkward situation of having to present the prize to himself with his fourth place (using the Sonneborn-Berger tie-break for those who had not already won a prize) with 4/6. After some ungainly arm movements from Alan, club captain Stephen Moss stepped up to present yet another chocolate bar to Alan. Moss also managed 4/6, so may have been trying to grab the chocolate for himself. A memorable end to a memorable event. If the tournament gets any bigger, we may have to upgrade to a cathedral.

*Stephen Moss (left) presenting Alan Scrimgour with his prize for fourth place*

Final results

Hng, Mei-En Eunice 5/6
Hng, Mei-Xian Emmanuelle 5/6
Large, Peter G 5/6
Scrimgour, Alan 4
Haldane, Robin W 4
Kumaresan, Darshan 4
Gosling, Marcus 4
Rowson, David J 4
Moss, Stephen 4
Pirgon, Joshua 3.5
Hayward, Alan 3.5

Previous winners

Tony Hughes (Wimbledon) January 2024
Tony Hughes (Wimbledon) February 2024
David Rowson (Kingston) March 2024
Tony Hughes (Wimbledon) April 2024
Robin Haldane (Streatham) May 2024
Alan Hayward (Pimlico) September 2024
Peter Large (Kingston) October 2024
Peter Large (Kingston) November 2024
Peter Large (Kingston) January 2025
John Hawksworth (Kingston) February 2025
Peter Large (Kingston) March 2025
Peter Large (Kingston) April 2025

Tenacious Maycock wins Bank Holiday Blitz

David Maycock scored a perfect 6/6 to win the Kingston Bank Holiday Blitz, but young Zain Patel ran him close on an evening when the juniors shone

You have to be in it to win it. Quite a few of the Kingston big guns chose to sit out the Kingston Bank Holiday Blitz, held at the Willoughby Arms on Monday 26 May, but candidate master David Maycock put his reputation (and rating points – the event was ECF rated) on the line, and he triumphed in style, winning all six of his games.

The time control was the novel three minutes plus a seven-second increment – something we have come to think of as the “Kingston control” (we first used it in the monthly All Saints blitzes). Some young players mock it as blitz chess for oldies, preferring the high-pressure 3+2, but we reckon it makes for a better game, giving players more thinking time and having fewer games decided on time alone.

The key encounter of the tournament came in round 4 when David faced Zain Patel, the eventual runner-up with 5/6. Zain, with Black, was better in the middle game and had excellent drawing chances in an endgame with bishops of opposite colours, but David, with an extra pawn, was remorseless and Zain let it slip.

*Zubair Froogh (left) v David Rowson on board 2 (foreground), with Zain Patel and David Maycock behind them*

Both won their remaining games to secure first and second spots. Youngster William Lin was third with 4.5, gaining a whopping 61 blitz rating points in the process. Kingston president John Foley, Zubair Froogh, Peter Roche and Richmond’s Maks Gajowniczek tied for fourth with 4 points, and David Rowson, Surbiton’s Graham Alcock and 11-year-old Ethan Kim came next with 3.5/6 – a brilliant result for the talented Kim. The full final table can be found on Chess Results.

Twenty-eight players took part – the capacity for the playing room at the Willoughby – including nine from other local clubs. As we develop a roster of tournaments, we hope to make this inclusivity a feature. It increases the level of interest, ups the pitch of competition and changes the dynamic, allowing players who usually only meet fleetingly to get to know each other better. Summer plans include two more blitzes, a FischerRandom tournament and a Saturday rapidplay. Thanks to Julian Way and Edward Mospan for organising a very successful evening and pointing the way forward for future events.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain

Large dominates All Saints Blitz XII

Played at All Saints Church, Kingston, 30 April 2025

Peter Large won the 12th edition of the All Saints Blitz with a perfect score of 5/5. He has won the event each of the five times he has entered. There were 16 entrants spanning a range of expertise from beginner to international master.

Peter is at the peak of his career, having been a key member of the England over-65 team which this season won both the World and the European titles. He enjoys playing chess and it is a credit to the All Saints Blitz that he is participating.

Chris Briscoe (white) v Robin Haldane — *Round 3: Chris Briscoe (White) v Robin Haldane*

For the first time, we played not in silence but to the accompaniment of the organ where we were treated to a practice session of church music written by the blind French composer Jean Langlais. Some players were able to screen out the music, others found it uplifting, whilst a minority found it interfered with their concentration. One person compared it favourably with the Irish folk music at the Willoughby Arms.

Peter Large said that none of the games was easy. Even in the first round, when his opponent turned up late, Peter was happy to be paired with FM Julian Way, who had turned up to observe the first round and departed for his volunteering duties at Oxfam afterwards.

Round 1 Julian Way v Peter Large — *Round 1: Julian Way (White) v Peter Large*

If this were a rated event, then Peter’s rating would have jumped from the modest ECF 2053 to a still underrated ECF 2080. Top players usually play in Fide-rated tournaments and do not pay much attention to their ECF rating, especially for rapid and blitz. In Peter’s case, his Fide rapid rating is 2250, which is more realistic. It is a pity that the ECF does not try to achieve a better alignment between their domestic ratings and the international ratings. The forthcoming SCCU London Team Championships is based on ECF rapid ratings and team selection takes advantage of this discrepancy.

Round 5 Alan Hayward v John Hawksworth — *Round 5: Alan Hayward (White) v John Hawksworth*

Alan Hayward from the Pimlico club came second on 4/5, with a fine kingside attack in the final round against IM John Hawksworth. Had there been a sixth round, Peter and Alan would have played each other. Five rounds is usually enough to generate a winner and there is no plan to change the current format, which allows the participants to have a chat between rounds and patronise the café.

Foreground Hawksworth v Large; Background Scrimgour v Briscoe — *Foreground: John Hawksworth (White) v Peter Large; background: Alan Scrimgour (White) v Chris Briscoe*

Alan Scrimgour played all three titled players IM Peter Large, IM John Hawksworth and CM Chris Briscoe and ended with a creditable 3/5. (The other titled player, FM Julian Way, only played the first round as a filler.) The most improved player was John Hawes, who scored 0/5 in the last blitz and jumped to 3/5 this time, far outstripping his estimated rating of ECF 1200.

Foreground: Stephen Moss v David Shalom; Background: John Hawes v Genc Tabasi — *Foreground: Stephen Moss (White) v David Shalom; Background: John Hawes (White) v Genc Tasbasi*

Results

1st IM Peter Large 5/5
2nd Alan Hayward 4/5
3rd Robin Haldane 3½/5
4th-8th IM John Hawksworth, Alan Scrimgour, John Hawes, Peter Roche, Genc Tasbasi 3/5
9th-13th Stephen Moss, CM Chris Briscoe, Robin Kerremans, John Cattermole, David Shalom 2/5
14th Kevin Bowyer 1½/5

Peter Large wins ASBXII — *Peter Large (right) receives the winner’s traditional box of chocolates from tournament controller John Foley*

Past winners

Magical Maycock wins Easter Blitz with perfect score

Kingston’s Mexican star scores 6/6 to win the club’s Easter Bank Holiday Blitz. Stephen Moss reports

As the league season becomes a little less full on, we can start to turn our attention to internal club activities such as the blitz run on Bank Holiday Monday. Organised by Julian Way, John Foley and David Bickerstaff, this was an enjoyable 26-player event won by CM David Maycock with 6/6, closely pursued by FM Vladimir Li and Zain Patel (pictured above, front right, playing Tony Hughes) with 5/6. That’s a very classy trio to have at the top of the leaderboard in what proved a highly successful event.

In a first for the club, the tournament was posted on the Chess Results server with the results updated in real time. That allowed members to follow what was happening remotely and is also great publicity for the club. More of our internal tournaments will be publicised in this way.

The key match-up came in round 4 when David, with White, got the better of Vladimir Li in a closely contested game. Vladimir felt he had an advantage in the early part of the game, but then erred as time started to press. The time control was three minutes with a seven-second increment – relatively generous for blitz but still testing against a player like David, who is forever setting problems and adding layers of complexity.

*Friends and rivals: David Maycock (left) prepares to play Vladimir Li in their crucial fourth-round encounter*

Zain Patel’s only loss had come against Vladimir in round 3. Zain had come fresh from playing in the Southend Chess Congress, which had concluded earlier that day, so to play in the Kingston Blitz a few hours later showed a remarkable degree of commitment. His enthusiasm is infectious and he was still at the club playing friendly blitz 45 minutes after the main event had ended.

Other strong performers were Surbiton’s young star Joseph Morrison, Kingston junior William Lin and Wimbledon’s ever competitive Tony Hughes, a three-time winner of the monthly All Saints Blitz. Edmond Andal was also having a good tournament until he blundered against Vladimir in the final round in a winning position.

David, a noted chocoholic, took the first prize of a box of Lindt chocolates (this is not a desperate bid for sponsorship, by the way); juniors Zain Patel and William Lin received prizes for their high placings; and Zain’s younger sister, Parisa Patel, who also had a tremendous tournament, won the giantkilling prize for her victory on time over Kingston club president John Foley. Reports that John will be retiring from chess in the wake of the tournament are, we are told, entirely without foundation.

*David Maycock (right) receiving his prize from tournament controller Julian Way*

Top six

First: David Maycock (6/6)
Joint second: Vladimir Li and Zain Patel (5/6)
Joint fourth: Joseph Morrison, William Lin and Tony Hughes (4/6)

Resilient Large wins All Saints Blitz XI

Played at All Saints Church, Kingston, 26 March 2025

The 11th All Saints Blitz tournament was the most well-attended so far with 16 players convening at the central Kingston church. Three-time winner IM Peter Large, the favourite on form and rating, left it until the fifth and last round game against former winner Robin Haldane from Streatham to secure first place. Peter had dropped a half-point against Surbiton’s Chris Briscoe in round 3, whereas Robin had breezed through the tournament, including disposing of Chris in the fourth round.

During the midway break, Robin Kerremans invited us to visit his new boardgames café in Teddington, Drinks and Dice. It offers all sorts of board games and is open every day except Sunday. We encourage chess players to go along and discover some other wonderful games.

Robin Kerremans Talk — *Robin Kerremans presenting his board games café in Teddington*

The game between Peter Large and the young Surbiton player Joshua Pirgon in the fourth round had an unusual ending. In an even heavy pieces endgame, the players were moving their rooks backwards and forwards on the same file and it seemed a draw by threefold repetition was imminent. However, Peter deviated by moving his h-pawn thus avoiding the draw. There followed a quick succession of moves which disturbed the former equilibrium. Under time pressure, Joshua blundered against his more experienced opponent. As he realised that he had just lost his queen, Joshua threw his head back dejectedly becoming frozen in space and time. At this point, I stepped forward prematurely with my iPad to confirm the result. However, Peter Large correctly pointed out, Joshua had not pressed his clock and the game was not over. We waited sympathetically until the time ran out, Joshua still frozen. At least he had held his own against the international master until the sudden end.

Kingston’s John Bussmann did exceptionally well in winning four games on the trot, losing only to Chris Briscoe in the last round. This is not reflected in the results because John registered too late to be automatically paired in the first round and was given a null bye. However, he managed to arrive before play began and was given an opponent. Hence all 16 players obtained five games.

Top Table Final round Large v Haldane, Bussmann v Briscoe — *Top table final round Large v Haldane, Bussmann v Briscoe*

The decider between Robin Haldane and Peter Large was a tricky knight and pawns endgame where there was no time to calculate and intuition was critical. It was a knife-edge position whereby the players had to decide whether to grab an extra pawn at the expense of losing a pawn. Robin explained afterwards that he was torn between seeking a draw and seeking a win. It didn’t help that he couldn’t read the timer properly: he had picked up his glasses case which contained not his reading glasses but his sunglasses. He could make out that he had less than a minute left but was uncertain of the number of seconds. There is a lesson there about checking the contents of your glasses case before setting out to play a chess game.

Final Decider — *Deciding final-round game between Robin Haldane (left) and IM Peter Large*

Peter Large presented with prize by John Foley — *Reward for egg-xelence: Peter Large presented with the prize by John Foley*

To celebrate Peter’s fourth All Saints victory, the prize was a larger chocolate confection than usual. Indeed, it was so large, that I felt obliged to issue a cholesterol warning when presenting the giant Easter egg.

Results (>50%)

4½/5 IM Peter Large
4/5 Robin Haldane
3½/5 CM Chris Briscoe
3/5 Joshua Pirgon, John Bussmann, CM Anthony Hughes

Past winners

Social Chess at All Saints on Wednesdays

There is social chess every Wednesday morning open to all, as described in this short video.

Hawksworth takes first place at 10th All Saints Blitz

Played at All Saints Church, Kingston, 26 February 2025

The 10th All Saints Blitz tournament saw victory go to IM John Hawksworth, who swept away the competition with wins in all five games. He finished a full point ahead of Epsom’s Marcus Gosling, while Alan Hayward and Peter Roche came equal third on 3/5.

Hawksworth v Gosling — *Marcus Gosling (right) smiles, having just messed it up against tournament winner John Hawksworth*

I was the tournament controller for a second time, allowing our regular controller, John Foley, to participate for the first time. It was convenient to run the event using ChessManager on my mobile phone. When one player arrived late after two rounds, I joined in for the final three rounds to even out the numbers to twelve players. After suffering an opening disaster against Alan Hayward (thank you for introducing me to the Balogh Defence, Alan!), I rallied with wins over John Foley (smothered mate) and John Hawes. In a tournament dominated by five Johns (Messrs Hawksworth, Foley, Cogger, Cattermole and Hawes), we also saw appearances from regulars David Shalom and Tony Hughes, the latter claiming an impressive scalp by defeating Chris Briscoe in Round 4.

*Round 1: the tournament gets under way in the usual beautiful setting*

Top four

5/5 John Hawksworth
4/5 Marcus Gosling
3/5 Alan Hayward and Peter Roche

John Hawksworth walks away with the customary box of Lindor – can he repeat the feat at the next All Saints Blitz on 26 March, or will there be another winner? Peter Large, who was away winning gold for England at the World Senior Team Championships this month, may fancy his chances.

Past winners

Alicia Mason

Large wins his third All Saints Blitz

Peter Large is once again unbeaten at the All Saints Blitz in a high-class renewal of the event, overseen for the first time by Alicia Mason

The ninth edition of the All Saints Blitz was won comfortably by IM Peter Large, who completed his third victory in a row. He finished a clear point ahead of a strong field, including IM John Hawksworth and CM Chris Briscoe. Chris coached me when I was a junior at Surbiton 20 years ago, and his delight in sharing the joy of chess was on full display here as he treated an eager spectator to a game between rounds.

This was my first time running a chess event, as I took charge of the tournament in John Foley’s absence, and I was relieved that things went smoothly. Much of this was thanks to a comprehensive tutorial with John over Zoom the previous week and the spirit of friendly competition that prevailed – chocoholic that I am, I’m not sure I would have been so relaxed with a giant box of Lindor on the line!

*The key final-round clash between IMs John Hawksworth (left) and Peter Large ended in a draw*

The heroic efforts of club captain Stephen Moss, who dragged a suitcase full of chess supplies over from the Willoughby Arms despite battling a cold, also deserve special mention. Stephen took part in the blitz along with several other Kingston stalwarts, including Peter Roche, David Shalom and Rob Taylor. We were also joined by Wimbledon’s Tony Hughes, a three-time winner of the event, taking the total to 10 players.

Peter Large has now equalled Tony’s winning record. Here are the final standings for those who scored more than 50%:

1 Peter Large 4.5/5

2/3 John Hawksworth and Chris Briscoe 3.5/5

4 Stephen Lovell 3/5

Peter won his first four games, conceding a draw only to John Hawksworth in the final round. Perhaps he will be hoping to continue unbeaten and clinch the tournament for a fourth time at All Saints Blitz X on Wednesday 26 February.

Alicia Mason

*Truffles come not as single spies: Peter Large collects yet another box of chocolates for winning the All Saints Blitz*

IM Peter Large wins All Saints Blitz for second time

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.

Peter Large v Robin Haldane Round 4 All Saints Blitz VIII — *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.