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.

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.

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 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….

Stephen Moss, club captain, Kingston Chess Club

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

Played at St Luke’s Church, Kidderpore Avenue, London NW3 7SU, 22 June 2024

by Jameel Jameel with contributions from the team

This was Kingston’s first time competing in the SCCU/London Clubs RapidPlay Championship, and I was elated when Kingston president John Foley kindly offered me the captaincy. The Southern Counties Chess Union, which represents the counties around London, set up a team championship two years ago which has filled the gap left by the demise of the National Club Championships. There were three sections: Minor, Intermediate and Major. We dipped our toe into the water by entering the Minor, where the average team rating cannot exceed 1600.

My team-mates were David Shalom, Edward Mospan and Robin Kerremans. I would like to express my gratitude to them for committing their Saturday at such short notice. We were notified a few days ahead of the event that a place had become available due to another club having dropped out.  

Team tournaments are great fun but you only get out of them what you put in. The SCCU Rapidplay tournament was enjoyable on all levels. One must have a positive attitude and keep that attitude throughout the day. Team camaraderie was high and an important factor in our experience. Even though this was Kingston’s first time in this SCCU event, we were among familiar faces and could put faces to familiar names. The event was as social as it was competitive, and we enjoyed the off-board chats. 

Playing in the Minor section was the right choice: not too much pressure but enough of a challenge to make every game enjoyable. This was my first tournament and, I must say, I underestimated the psychological aspect involved in remaining dogged. There were six rounds with a time control of 25min+5sec.

Games

Edward Mospan: I was resolved not to be pressured into playing hastily just because my opponent does. I have experienced more than once the mutually bad move theme when in an equal or winning position. In the words of Svetozar Gligorić, I play against pieces and not the opponent. Here is my second-round win against a player rated 1680. After this, I was on a high.

Robin Kerremans: In one of my games I got to try out a variation of the Caro-Kann that John Foley showed me [Tartakower Variation – JF], where you trade off knights on f6 and double a pawn. I got my opponent to lose his rook early on. My most memorable game was in round 2 against Gero Tona (Beckenham and Bromley) when I played the English against a King’s Indian-like set-up. At some point, my opponent thought that his time in minutes on the clock was actually in seconds, and he started playing more erratically. But up to that point, I was already pressing an advantage – here is the position.

Jameel Jameel: I have been accused of being a somewhat obstinate individual when faced with matters requiring objectivity, and chess is certainly one of those matters. However, chess is dynamic and can be very volatile – one second you’re winning and the next you blunder the position entirely. Certainly, in my final game, a combination of over-confidence (being a rook up against three passed pawns) and mental fatigue (feeling relieved I was going to end the tournament with an easy win) led to my demise.

I found myself in a position whereby a rook and advanced passed pawn, versus a knight defending the queening square, was seemingly a sure win. At face value, the heuristic I had in mind was to queen, let him capture, and simply be up a rook against three pawns. Had I exerted even the slightest cognitive effort, I would have realised that I could have pinned his knight to his king and been up a queen. Unfortunately, that didn’t occur to me, and in only a few moves I found myself having to trade off my rook for one of his passed pawns and ultimately losing a game I had no business losing (after a barrage of mindless checks).

I felt that I took out the heavyweights (1900s) effectively, but got overconfident in winning positions against lower-rated players and ultimately lost those games. I was happy to have won against Paul Jeffrey and Marcus Gosling – the top and third highest-rated players respectively in our division. I was not acquainted with Marcus, the President of the Epsom Chess Club, although Ed recognised him. I managed to chase his king until checkmate was unstoppable:

Whilst the tournament could have (and frankly, in my case, should have) gone better, it was a great effort individually and collectively. I recall side-eyeing the adjacent boards thinking “We’ve got this in the bag” only to return being told that we lost the round. We came tenth and trounced the team that came fourth. Considering our team was formed at less than 24 hours’ notice, I think we should consider that a success.

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Robin and I achieved 4/6. Ed and David looked in their elements – both guiding us in the right direction when we didn’t know where to go. Teams from south-west London did well: Epsom won the Minor and Richmond won the Major. Congratulations to them. Here are their prizewinners.

Robin Haldane wins All Saints Blitz V on Wednesday 30 May 2024 

Photograph: One of the most beautiful places to play chess.

We had our strongest line-up yet for the fifth All Saints Blitz with 14 players. School half-term meant that, freed from teaching duties, Robin Haldane (Streatham) and Marcus Gosling (Epsom) joined us for the first time and proved formidable competitors alongside three-time winner Tony Hughes (Wimbledon) and the hardy perennials Peter Roche and David Rowson from Kingston. Other Kingston first-timers were Aziz Sannie and junior Jaden Mistry. Derek Bruce, who volunteers teaching chess at the Tudor Drive library, used to play for Kingston in the 1970s.

Despite of the numbers being higher, the tournament controller John Foley kept to a leisurely five rounds with a break between rounds 2 and 3 for the players to patronise the café.

The two favourites, Robin Haldane and Tony Hughes, were jointly in the lead with 2/2 when they met in round 3 and obtained a draw when Robin went for a perpetual check. They both won in round 4, so it came down to the last round. Robin held his nerve against David Shalom whereas Peter Roche threw a spanner in Tony’s works. Peter found some strong moves in a complex tactical position, thereby kicking Tony’s hopes of a fourth victory into touch.

The final standings were:

1. Robin Haldane (4½/5)

2. Peter Roche (4/5)

3. Tony Hughes (3½/5)

We celebrated the conjunction of Easter Monday and April Fool’s Day with a Blitz tournament in which each player’s opening move was randomly selected and castling was banned

April Fool’s Day landing on an Easter Monday club night at the Willoughby Arms called for something a bit different. So inspired by an invigorating talk by the late IM Michael Basman in 2022, where he made players roll a 20-sided dice to randomise their opening moves, this Easter blitz tournament had a bit of a twist. Before a game each player drew their first move by random, and, just to ensure general opening theory was completely blown out of the water, players were also not allowed to castle. Crazy openings and exposed kings – what fun ahead!

There were 23 participants, with friends from neighbouring Surbiton Chess Club joining us for six rounds of 7+3 blitz. Despite the first opening combination drawn out the hat being the “not in the spirit of things” 1. e4 e5, this was quickly followed by the moans and groans of the recipients of a4, Nh6 etc. As tournament controller, I noticed without fail that about one minute into each round at least one player would exasperatedly gasp “Oh ****, I forgot I can’t castle!”

It was interesting to see how people dealt with this change to usual chess principles. Many would leave the king in the middle and go for the kill. Others would try to create a safe square for the king on their third rank, the younger players inspired by the Bongcloud! Manual castling was also attempted, but often felt too slow, while many tried to create a fortress – I was impressed by Ben Hambridge’s attempt below.

Interesting games proceeded throughout the evening, with many kings mated in the middle of the board, but all the players agreed it was a fun night of blitz with lots of strategic lessons to be learned. Kingston’s David Maycock prevailed, with a perfect score of 6/6, closely followed by Surbiton’s Chris Briscoe and our very own Peter Lalić. All notably strong players of course. Which proves that no matter how you tamper with the rules, quality will out.

Gregor Smith

Prize winners

1st: David Maycock (6/6)
2nd: Chris Briscoe (5/6)
3rd: Peter Lalić (4.5/6)

U2000 grading prize: Ernest Robinson (4/6)

U1600 grading prize: Ben Hambridge (3.5/6)
U1400 grading prize: Leon Mellor-Sewell (3/6)
Top junior: Joe Inch (3/6)

All Saints Blitz III held at All Saints Church, Kingston on 27 March 2024 over five rounds with a 3+7 time control.

David Rowson (right) receiving his prize from former Kingston Chess Club chair Peter Roche

David Rowson from Kingston Chess Club won the third edition of the All Saints Blitz in a play-off against Stephen Carpenter from Wimbledon Chess Club. The winner of the first two blitzes, Tony Hughes, was unavailable to participate citing “errands”. David and Stephen were running neck and neck throughout the tournament and drew their fourth-round encounter to end up on 4½/5 each. The prize was a large chocolate Easter egg, which David happily declared would be a present for his grand-daughter.

As part of the pastoral activities of the club, we invited Olga Champ, a urology nurse from Kingston Hospital, to talk on prostate cancer. Her talk took place after round one. Most of those playing on a Wednesday morning fall into the demographic where we must pay attention to men’s health. The talk explained what the prostate does, how it enlarges with age and how to test for malignancy with a PSA test and/or a biopsy. Olga stayed awhile to discuss the issue one-on-one. She was accompanied by Archana Sood, the Macmillan information and support manager at Kingston Hospital. The talk was well received and could be model for talks to other gatherings of chess players. The tournament concluded on schedule, despite including a talk. The play sped up; as Peter Roche put it with dark humour, “We know we don’t have much time left.”

Third place was shared by Kingstonians Ben Hambridge, Peter Roche and Nick Grey. Ben’s score of 3/5 was creditable given that he is a new player to the club with an estimated rating of 1600. Thirteen-year-old Joe Inch also did well, coming in with 50% in what we believe was his first over-the-board tournament.

This was the first time that we had an odd number of participants at 11. However, this turned out to be a bonus because the spare player was able to speak to the health visitor or was deployed to act as a chess instructor for one of the learners. The regular Wednesday-morning chess slot continues at the church, enlivened once a month by the Blitz.

The next Blitz tournament is scheduled for 24 April, running from 10.15am until 12.30pm

John Foley

All Saints Blitz II played at All Saints Church, Kingston upon Thames, 28 February 2024

Above image: Third-place Peter Roche (left) v second-place John Bussmann

Tony Hughes repeated his victory in the first All Saints Blitz by coming ahead of a field of 10 with 4½/5 in the second All Saints Blitz, dropping only half a point to Nick Grey. The Wimbledon Chess Club player was awarded a box of Lindor chocolate truffles for his achievement. In second place with 4/5 was John Bussmann from Kingston Chess Club, who defeated four other Kingston players.

Three players had not played over the board for many years. We welcomed back former Kingston Chess Club chair Peter Roche, who had not played since 2019. Marcus Baker had taken a 30-year break before some recent games for Wimbledon. Ian Swann had not played since his school days in Gillingham.

We were joined by a handful of spectators, some who had been former club players and some who liked to watch the chess spectacle in the splendid surroundings of the church. John Saunders, the chess journalist, came along and took the photographs shown here.

Final placings

4½ Tony Hughes
4 John Bussmann
3 Peter Roche, Marcus Baker
2½ Nick Grey

Tournament controller: John Foley

The All Saints Blitz takes place on the last Wednesday of each month in the morning. It is free to enter and open to all. If you would like to enter please complete the entry form. Places are limited.