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.