Semi Final Surrey Alexander Cup, Coulsdon v Kingston board 10, played at Coulsdon (84-90 Chipstead Valley Road) on 9th February 2026

Image: Coulsdon Chess Club

Kingston Chess Club has been riding the crest of a wave. We won the Alexander Cup, Surrey’s premier team knockout competition, for the last four seasons, equalling the longest sequence ever achieved by any club. Now the imperative is to supersede that record and become the first club to win five in a row.

We faced Coulsdon in the semi-final. This was a repeat the 2022 semi-final where I sensibly acted as non-playing captain. This time I performed three roles: chauffeur, team captain and player. I do not recommend this level of commitment because it multiplies the stress levels. At least I was only driving one passenger through dark, rainy Surrey in the rush hour. Club captain Stephen Moss had taken on the task of organising team logistics. Stephen’s role was to be a driver, provide moral support and be the relaxed if excitable match commentator on the club’s WhatsApp feed. He announced he would never have the guts to play in such an important match – what if he messed up in the final critical game? In a twist of fate, Stephen nevertheless was obliged to join the team when one of our top players was caught somewhere between Croydon and Hades on the railway network. So my own misgivings about taking on multiple roles must pale compared to what Stephen must have felt as described in his match report.

Club chair Peter Andrews invited me to publish this game reflecting that not all rook endings are the same. I have something of a reputation for my endgame technique – sometimes managing to squeeze out an advantage or avoid a loss. No doubt this is in comparison to my narrow opening repertoire and my preference of avoiding tactical mêlées in the middle game. I was white against Nick Edwards who had been in good form lately having drawn with Jasper Tambini the previous week and having won his previous three games against Peter Lee, (the former British champion), Paul Dupré (the Surrey ratings officer who beat Chris Briscoe a few weeks ago) and the rising junior Ashwin Gopikrishna. I didn’t know about this run until afterwards so it didn’t affect my choice of opening. After my customary London System opening, we reached a level endgame which is when it got interesting. I was determined to play a strategic no-risk rook endgame.

Maidenhead A v Kingston A, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at St Luke’s Community Hall, Maidenhead on 12 January 2026

This game was played between Kingston board 1 David Maycock, who is an FM, and Maidenhead board 1, Matthew Wadworth, a GM. David had lost both his games playing for CSC/Kingston 1 at 4NCL on the previous two days and had been left disconsolate by the experience. Now he had to trek to Maidenhead from south-west London to face grandmaster Matthew Wadsworth, who had got the better of him in their two previous encounters. David was delayed on a train and arrived at the board 20 minutes late for the game. The auguries were not good, but he proceeded to win, playing, in the words of fellow Kingston FM Vladimir Li, “like a machine” once GM Wadsworth had made a critical slip. John Saunders, associate editor of Chess Magazine and a former Welsh international player, has kindly annotated the game.

Evening Standard 10th Islington Open, played at the Islington Green Youth Centre, Prebend Street, London N1 on 20 December 1974

We don’t have many games of our long-time top Kingston board Ken Inwood. This is a notable game where Ken succumbed to the dynamic Four Pawns Attack of Alekhine’s Defence. The game was originally published in Chess magazine in January 1975. It is sourced from John Saunders’ historic database resource for chess in Britain. The winner Stuart Fancy later moved to Papua New Guinea, where he became a member of their Olympiad team.

Source: CHESS, January 1975, p110

Hounslow v Kingston, Thames Valley Knockout match played at the Royal British Legion, Hounslow on 10 November 2025

Photograph: Jasper Tambini (top right), having won his game, watches the Moss-Fincham finale

This game was the best of the match between Hounslow and Kingston in the Thames Valley Knockout. It answers the question about the difference between a strong player (over 2000 rating) and a regular club player. Jasper deploys an opening – the Grand Prix Attack – which is full of danger for his unsuspecting opponent. Black allows White to drive a stake at f6 into the king’s position, after which the mating attack is inevitable.

The final of the Wernick Cup, played at Surbiton Chess Club on 17 September 2025

The Wernick Cup is tier 4 of the Surrey League individual championship, which takes place each summer. Fourteen-year-old Jaden Mistry, a promising Kingston junior, had swept through his qualifying pool, winning all eight of his games . He then defeated another of the four pool winners, Qutbuddin Syed, to reach the final against Epsom junior Maalav Chhaya. This is the game which secured Jaden his well-deserved title. The photograph above shows him receiving the (slightly battered) Wernick Cup from Ashtead captain and south-west London chess stalwart Bertie Barlow at the Richard Mayo Centre, United Reformed Church, Kingston on 3 November. Many thanks to Bertie for bringing the trophy over to Kingston and making the presentation to Jaden.

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.