Played on 7 August 2025 in round 6 of the 111th British Chess Championship held in Liverpool

Kingston junior Supratit Banerjee made an impression at the 2025 British Chess Championship by finishing with 6/9, just one point behind the winner Michael Adams. He played four grandmasters, beating GM Mark Hebden and GM Simon Williams (game below), drawing with Kingston’s GM Ameet Ghasi, with his only loss to former Russian chess champion GM Nikita Vitiugov in the first round. He also drew with two IMs: Marcus Harvey and Yichen Han.

Tim Wall wrote up the game against Simon Williams, the “Ginger GM” in his daily report from the tournament. Under the heading “Super Supratit”, he noted that Supratit was 11 years old and switched his affiliation from Scotland to England after his family moved to London. “Banerjee displayed excellent endgame skills to outplay ‘Ginger GM’ Simon Williams in an engrossing French Defence struggle.” In truth, this summary does not do full justice to Supratit’s mature play, which also comprised a well-researched opening and a well-judged pawn sacrifice to gain space on the queenside.

Rated classical game played at the Richard Mayo Centre, United Reformed Church, Kingston 13 October 2025

Photograph: Seth Warren (top right); Genc Tasbasi (bottom left) playing against Ye Kyaw

Having moved to a new venue, the spacious Richard Mayo Centre at the United Reformed Church in Kingston, the club is able to provide people with the opportunity to play a rated game at a classical time control, 75 minutes per game plus 10 seconds increment per move. Having more time on the clock should mean that one has more time to analyse the position. However, perhaps due to the rise of online chess at much faster time controls, not everyone takes full advantage of this opportunity.

This game was remarkable because Kingston player Seth Warren managed to obtain a draw from being a queen behind against Rohan Gadre. He said afterwards “I still don’t quite believe it! He was winning right until the very end”, describing the game as a swindle. Genc Tasbasi, who was playing next to Seth, enjoyed the encounter saying that his own game took longer because both he and his opponent were following Seth’s.

Seth was psychologically prepared to resign at two points in game, but his resilience and curiosity drove him to play one more move each time. Seth said afterwards “I was very surprised he didn’t just calmly recapture my pawn [on move 23] – it would’ve been far more practical. And again [on move 29] – shifting his rook along the sixth rank, I would’ve just resigned.” He added ” I think I managed to get to him a little; he was blitzing out his moves right up until the end when he realised it was drawn. He finished with about 55 minutes on the clock. Perhaps he should’ve used some of those spare minutes.”

This game is about the consequence of relaxing in a winning position, the need to use up all your time and the necessity of continuing to play precautionary moves.

Simultaneous display 15 September 2025 at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston

The Kingston club’s grandmaster Ameet Ghasi gave an impressive simultaneous display as the last event of our 2025 summer programme at the Willoughby Arms. Ameet was well up to the task and scored 23-1, with John Foley being the only player to beat Ameet. Jasper Tambini also performed well, stretching Ameet in both his games.

The simul, organised by FM Julian Way and Greg Heath, had an unusual format: two playing sessions of 12 players each, at 7.30pm and 9pm. The time control was the same for Ameet as for the participants: 25 minutes plus 10 seconds per move. This meant that, as Julian Way noted in his report on the event, Ameet had to play 12 times faster than his opponents, comprising some of Kingston’s finest. A number of members played in both sessions, including Peter Andrews, Jon Eckert, Peter Roche, Sam Wilcox and Jasper Tambini.

I normally write down my moves as I play them, but on this occasion I felt I ought to concentrate. I could save a few precious seconds looking at the board rather than my messed-up scoresheet. On the other hand, after the game it took no little effort to recreate the moves. I cannot guarantee that the moves shown below are entirely accurate, although Ameet kindly acknowledged that they were a reasonable record.

I shall of course be dining out on this victory for a long time to come.

Played in 1969 at Richmond

Primrose Westcombe (1926 – 2024) was a member of Kingston Chess Club covering at least the period between 1969 and 1973. We only became reacquainted with this fact following the recent discovery of a 1973 newspaper article which profiled the club and mentioned Primrose as the only female member of the club. She was from the Knight’s Park area of Kingston.

Primrose Westcombe was the daughter of a military officer Captain Lawrence Haynes Adams. She married her first husband Alexander Douglas Frederick Campbell (1927-2004) in 1950 in Thanet with whom she had three children: Alex, Katie and Niall. Her second husband was Norman George Westcombe (1912-79). In 1984, she married her third husband, Sir Lawrence Monck Middleton (1912-1999) the 10th Baronet Middleton, of Belsay Castle, Northumberland. On his death, his baronetcy became extinct. She died peacefully in Somerton in Somerset on Saturday 10th February 2024, aged 97 years.

Obituary notices (21 Feb 2024): Daily Telegraph and Western Gazette (Glastonbury)
Online funeral notice.

We are grateful to Richard James for having provided us with this game from his records.

Game played in Round 5 of the 4th SCCU London Teams Championships, St Luke’s Church, Hampstead 21 June 2025 Kingston v Pimlico

This was the first time that Kingston had entered a team into the Major (top) section of the London RapidPlay Team Championships organised by the Southern Counties Chess Union – the regional branch of the English Chess Federation. Kingston won the first four rounds and now faced a tough team from Pimlico. Vladimir Li faced Robert Stern on board 3 and the result of this game was vital. The moves were reconstructed a few days after the event from memory. The moves were not recorded as they were played. In the next, and final, round Kingston defeated Richmond and Twickenham to become London team champions. Vladimir received the prize for the top performing player with 6/6.

Kingston 2 v Surbiton 1, Surrey League division 2 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 7 April 2025

John Bussmann (pictured) has been playing a lot more for Kingston this season and has made important contributions to both the first and second teams. This was a very fine victory playing for Kingston 2 against Surbiton 1, contributing to an emphatic 6-1 win against our neighbours. The game, which hinges on a lovely sacrifice for long-term positional advantage, shows John’s great tactical flair.

Kingston v Epsom, Alexander Cup semi-final played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 5 February 2025

Mike Healey is playing adjacent to the radiator on the left (photograph courtesy of John Saunders)

This game on board 4 finished at 9pm having lasted 100 minutes. It was another hour before any other game produced a result. The briefness of the game is explained by White neglecting to castle in a reversed Sicilian. This allowed Black to exploit the position of the homeless king with some tactical tricks. Winning a queen on an open board is rare and brings the game to a satisfyingly early conclusion.

South Norwood 1 v Kingston 2, Surrey League division 2 match played at West Thornton Community Centre on 16 January 2025

This was the board 1 game in a crucial Surrey division 2 match between South Norwood and Kingston. The loser of the match was likely to face the threat of relegation, so we were mightily relieved to emerge as 5.5-1.5 winners. This proved a fascinating game and was the last one to be concluded. Marcus made all the early running and put IM John Hawksworth, who recently returned to chess after a long absence, under severe pressure, both positionally and in terms of time. But John held his nerve, Marcus missed a tactical coup, and the game turned around, with John eventually running out the winner while playing on the 10-second increment.

Ealing A v Kingston A, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at Actonians Sports Club, London W5 on 16 December 2024

This was the board 3 game in a crucial match between Ealing A and Kingston A. Ealing were top of Thames Valley division 1 when this match was played, and our 4-2 away victory put down a marker that we intend to make a vigorous defence of our Thames Valley title. Ash’s victory over distinguished veteran Alan Perkins was a key part of our success. Ash only joined Kingston this year, and this was a welcome first league win by him for the club, especially coming in such a significant and closely fought encounter between two very strong teams.

Guildford 4 v Kingston 3, Surrey League division 2 match played at the Guildford Institute, Guildford on 9 December 2024

This game was played in a match between Guildford 4 and Kingston 3. Guildford had home advantage and a very experienced side, but Kingston scored a memorable victory, with Aziz Sannie (pictured) winning this game on board 4. Aziz is rated around 1550 ECF, though his true strength is probably a bit more than that. He was very pleased with this game and eager to showcase it. It is not perfect – he repeatedly overlooks the killer move g3 towards the end of the game and hands his beleaguered opponent a lifeline – but what is impressive is the control he exercises throughout. White has very little play and is reduced to shuffling queens and rooks on the back two ranks. It is a recipe for disaster, and that disaster does indeed eventually come to pass.