Played at All Saints Church, Kingston, 30 March 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Past 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

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.

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.

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)

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Social Chess at All Saints on Wednesdays

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

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 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

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.

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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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)

Past winners

1. Tony Hughes (Wimbledon) January 2024
2. Tony Hughes (Wimbledon) February 2024
3. David Rowson (Kingston) March 2024
4. Tony Hughes (Wimbledon) April 2024
5. Robin Haldane (Streatham) May 2024
6. Alan Hayward (Pimlico) September 2024
7. Peter Large (Kingston) October 2024

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.

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!”

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.

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.

Past winners

1. Tony Hughes (Wimbledon)
2. Tony Hughes (Wimbledon)
3. David Rowson (Kingston)
4. Tony Hughes (Wimbledon)
5. Robin Haldane (Streatham)
6. Alan Hayward (Pimlico)

John Foley

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.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain