Kingston 4 v Epsom 6, Surrey League division 5 match played at the Richard Mayo Centre, United Reformed Church, Kingston on 10 November 2025

You have to hand it to Epsom – even their sixth (!) team plays a mean match. On paper this looked like a strong Kingston 4 team, playing in the Minor Trophy (effectively the fifth division of the Surrey League). But it wasn’t strong enough for the solid and experienced team Epsom brought to the Richard Mayo Centre, with the visitors prevailing 4-2.

First the positives. New Kingston members Martyn Jones and Alexander Chmelev recorded excellent wins on the top boards. They will no doubt soon be appearing in higher teams. Martyn was a strong junior who has recently returned to chess; Alex is a great enthusiast, a strong player and a qualified arbiter. Both are becoming important presences at the club.

Things did not go quite so well on the lower boards. On board 4, Jaden Mistry lost with Black to Sammy Hedges in a Queen’s Gambit Declined; on board 6, Sam Wilcox was defeated by the capable Robert Fairhall in a Danish Gambit; on board 3, Epsom veteran Michael Wickham had too much nous for promising Kingston youngster Ethan Kim; and on board 5 David Bickerstaff (pictured above, right) lost to Venkatash Subramoniam. Kingston captain Edward Mospan described the latter game as “ping-pong chess”, and said David had good chances before eventually succumbing.

Well done to Ed, who, as well as captaining Kingston in this match, ran a large number of rated friendlies and looked after the social chess while several of his regular co-organisers were playing in an away match at Hounslow. And congratulations to Epsom on running a large number of teams in the Surrey League and making them all so competitive. The sign of a very healthy and dynamic club.

Stephen Moss

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

Photograph: Stephen Moss (right, seated) sets a puzzle for Leon Fincham, while David White (left) and Jasper Tambini (right) look on. David Rowson (centre) is keeping the club updated on WhatsApp

Even though Kingston did not field our strongest side, we still outrated Hounslow by an average of 160 elo per board. Hence the final result of 5-1 was no surprise. As holders of the Thames Valley Knockout Cup, Kingston had a solid launch to the 2025/26 campaign.

The first to finish was David Rowson with a nothing-much-happened draw with Black in the Italian. Next up was Jasper Tambini, who, with White against David J White, executed a classical queen sacrifice against the castled king.

Next to finish was Genc Tasbasi, who exchanged pieces to reach a drawn endgame. I got a neat attack against Vibhush Pusapadi and was well ahead on the clock. My opponent resigned in a hopeless position just before his flag fell. So 3-1 to Kingston with two games remaining. On board 1, Peter Large was squeezing Mateusz Dydak in the endgame such that Mateusz froze with indecision and lost on time, to make it 4-1.

This left Stephen Moss, who had carelessly lost a pawn in the opening – he would argue it was an intuitive gambit – after which he played dynamically and rudely threw away another couple of pawns against Leon Fincham. In the crucial position below, Leon’s queen is under attack and he decided to capture the e3 bishop counter-attacking White’s queen (the counter-intuitive Qb6 is the best move). However, after the rook recaptured, not only was the queen still under attack but so was the bishop on e5, so Black had to lose a piece. The resultant complications ended in yet another frozen-by-indecision flag fall, though Black was lost on the board when his time ran out. That made the score a convincing 5-1.

We look forward to the next round, but discovered that this may not be played until next summer because Richmond and Harrow have busy schedules. Surely a league knockout should be held during the main season. We await developments, with our fixtures secretary on standby.

John Foley

Wallington v Kingston, Lauder Trophy quarter-final match played at Wallington United Reformed Church on 5 November 2025

There was a scary moment before the start of this match when the Kingston players entered the playing room and found our very own Peter Lalić chilling with the Wallington players. Fortunately – for me at least – he was only there to watch the opening stages at his most local club. For Kingston second-team players to face him for  a fourth time in six weeks would have been tough. There would have been room for him within the rating limit of 10,500 for the Wallington team, which had no one over 1700.

Jon Eckert, Rob Taylor and Robin Kerremans on boards 4 to 6 all won fairly quickly. Jon soon went a piece up, and Rob’s classical play with Black squashed his opponent with a big centre which left no room for the white knights to get out of the way of the rest of the army. Robin Kerremans played the English, despite which his opponent had a slight edge for a while. But Black’s advantage was short-lived, and Robin quickly turned the tables to win the black queen in the course of a mating attack.

John Foley (pictured above) had sacrificed an exchange in the style of Tigran Petrosian in Monday’s league game against Ashtead 1, and now sacrificed another one, this time in the style of Paul Morphy in the famous Opera House game against the Duke of Brunswick and Count Isouard.

I had a much less clear-cut game with Black against Robert Davies on board 1. I had a slight edge almost throughout, but the engine reveals that the advantage was much less than I had thought until my opponent slipped up in the tactics.

Xavier Cowan, who made his Kingston debut only on Monday, was last to finish, with Black against Daniel Luck on board 3. Daniel must be one of the younger club officials in the Surrey League, and is already the Wallington fixture secretary and their match captain for the Lauder and two Surrey league teams, so he has taken on a lot and we wish him well. Xavier has not taken long to figure out that exchange sacrifices are the club trademark.

So the result was what tennis followers would call a bagel (6-0), not surprising given the rating difference, but we have already seen this season, for instance in the recent first-team match against Wimbledon, that in games with a high tactical element almost anyone can go wrong. The Lauder Trophy semi-final will be an away match against the winner of Chessington v Epsom, and must be played by the end of February.

Peter Andrews is Kingston captain in the Lauder Trophy

Kingston 2 v Ashtead 1, Surrey League division 2 match played at the Richard Mayo Centre, United Reformed Church, Kingston on 3 November 2025

Ashtead are the “yo-yo team” in division 2 of the Surrey League, having been relegated from division 1 last season and promoted the season before. So on paper this was one of our toughest matches. Ashtead substantially outrated us on boards 1 to 3, thanks to Kingston’s own Peter Lalić making his third appearance of the season against the second-team squad (the other two in the Thames Valley League for our own first team). However, Ashtead were missing some of their middle-order batting, so we had the rating advantage on the lower boards.

First to finish was David Rowson on board 5. David has previously had several draws with White against Bertie Barlow, so he was pleased to outplay him with Black from a level position.

David’s win enabled me to agree a draw with White against Phil Brooks on board 2 in a position where there was still plenty of play but which was unclear and where we were both a little uncomfortable. And soon afterwards Jasper Tambini drew with Black on board 3 against Dan Rosen in a game that had more clearly run its course. He was never worse, and indeed had had a fleeting opportunity to be better – a solid effort.

Xavier Cowan was making his debut for Kingston, although he is a familiar opponent for several of us in the Thames Valley League, where he captains the Ealing second team. With Black against Platon Razis on board 7, Xavier had a strange-looking pawn structure more reminiscent of a rugby scrum than a free-flowing set of threequarters, but as so often it was piece activity which was decisive.

Alan Scrimgour agreed a draw with White against Chris Perks on board 6, standing better but short of time, which ensured that we could not lose the match. And John Foley (pictured above, left) brought home the bacon with a win with White against Tom Barton on board 4 which reminded us of former world champion Tigran Petrosian.

Meanwhile, on board 1 Julian Way with Black had fended off Peter Lalić’s initiative to reach an equal late middle game in which one slip under mutual time pressure cost the game.

Disappointing for Julian, but a good effort against a player who is currently in excellent form and moving through the 2300s in the ECF rating list.

So after two matches Kingston 2 are top of the division 2 table. We are unlikely to be able to turn out teams regularly as strong as we have for these early matches, but it is very encouraging that already the usual struggle against relegation seems unlikely to materialise. And longer-standing members will remember that it is only a few years since we were pleased when Kingston 1 seemed secure in Surrey division 2. 

Peter Andrews captains Kingston’s first and second teams in the Surrey League

Kingston 1 v Wimbledon 1, Surrey League division 1 match played at the Richard Mayo Centre, United Reformed Church, Kingston on 27 October 2025

David Rowson was kind enough to captain this match, as I was returning from Paris and could not guarantee reaching the venue before the start time. Happily Eurostar was on time, and I was able to attend. Indeed, with David Maycock struggling to arrive before the default time, I was nearly required to substitute on board 1. Had I done so, I would have outrated the Wimbledon board 1, an illustration of the huge disparity between the ratings of the two teams, an average of over 300 points a board. The story of the night was that Wimbledon, depleted by the absence of several players at a tournament in Guernsey, nearly overcame that difference.

The early skirmishes favoured Kingston. On board 1, David Maycock with White overcame his initial deficit on the clock to win decisive material on move 17, upon which Marcus Baker immediately resigned. Then Zain Patel, also with White on board 3, exploited Tony Hughes’ inaccurate implementation of a correct idea.

Then things went off track. Stephen Carpenter sacrificed a piece unsoundly against Jasper Tambini, who had Black, on board 6, but Jasper moved his king to the wrong square allowing the white queen a crucial check, depriving the defence of a critical tempo and leading to mate. Next, Peter Hasson, with Black on board 4, chose the wrong capture in complications against Gordon Rennie and lost a piece.

Meanwhile, John Foley was in increasing difficulty with White on board 7.  When the match line-ups were circulated, George Lin had warned on WhatsaApp that Djan Sennaroglu was a dangerous junior, having been one of William Lin’s main rivals for the recent British Under-10 championship – they had drawn their individual game. But by then John had switched off his phone, and perhaps underestimated an opponent ostensibly 300 rating points below him.  The youngster had an edge from early on, despite apparently not needing to spend much time at the board. He eventually reached a minor piece ending two pawns up and duly converted it. The match was decidedly not going according to plan.

On board 8, David Rowson with Black faced Omar Selim’s drawish Scotch, but David got on top after the queens were exchanged:

That made the score 3-3. Both board 2 (Neil Cannon v Peter Lalić, who had Black) and board 5 (Julian Way with White against John Polanyk) looked around equal, although unbalanced. Could at least one of our players make their higher ratings count? In the event, they both did. With both players running short of time, Neil Cannon made several slips which allowed Peter to win material, eventually a queen. So a draw from Julian would be sufficient. He is a highly experienced endgame player, and duly delivered, although we have no record of the last 20-plus moves.

So we had won after all, albeit with a sharp reminder that it may take only one mistake to lose a game, even if one is the higher-rated player. Wimbledon should be applauded for a gutsy effort despite being below strength, and clearly Djan is an extremely promising junior who will appear on higher boards in future seasons. Wimbledon captain Gordon Rennie claimed a “moral” victory, and we grant him that. Happily we take the actual victory, though it was a worrisome evening.

Peter Andrews captains Kingston’s first and second teams in the Surrey League

Guildford 2 v Kingston 2, Surrey League division 2 match played at the Guildford Institute on 20 October 2025

Two very solid-looking teams lined up for this one, with Guildford 2 having the rating advantage on the top four boards and Kingston 2 on boards 5 to 7. I lost the toss, a significant advantage for Guildford in a closely balanced match with an odd number of boards.

Most of the games were long battles, so the outcome was unclear until Guildford’s impressive crop of juniors had gone home. The relatively early finishes were draws. On board 5, David Rowson (with Black) and his opponent Malcolm Twigger-Ross both missed a tactic which would have won a pawn for White, but David was soon able to stabilise for a draw. On board 4, the game between John Foley, who had White, and Adrian Wallace lacked the mistakes that make for excitement, and soon reached a drawn rook and pawn ending.

On board 1, Peter Hasson and Clive Frostick have faced each other several times before, and were perhaps drained after their successful efforts for Kingston/CSC’s second team at the 4NCL over the weekend. Peter lost a pawn but got some major piece activity and the white advantage dwindled away in time trouble to a drawn rook ending. 

The first decisive result came on board 2, where Guildford’s Tim Foster made several aggressive decisions and I was conscious of needing to use the white pieces even though a draw would have been a useful result judging from the ratings. The outcome was a slugfest which did not lack the mistakes which make for excitement.

One up with three to play was looking good. Stephen Moss on board 7, with Black against Anton Barysenka, had struggled to find a plan in a game where he had the worst of the minor pieces, a bishop on b7 whose only role in life was to defend isolated pawns on d5 and a6. Understandably he fell short of time, and to add to the psychological pressure, his board was nearest to the café, where the post-mortems were sufficiently loud to impinge on the playing area. But after he relieved his feelings on the chess pathologists, and finding that losing a pawn resulted in the exchange of the bad bishop, he was able to simplify to a draw with a neat little tactic.

Soon after this, Alan Scrimgour on board 6, with White against Ian Deswarte, notched the decisive point by converting an advantage which had evolved from positional superiority out of the opening to material superiority in the endgame. There was just one moment when this progression could have come unstuck.

With Jasper Tambini on board 3 having come through a turbulent middle game with Black against Matthew Dishman to go into a much better endgame, a Whatsapp message informed our distant fans that we were going to win 5-2. That turned out to be an overstatement.

And after the excitement, Black has a much better endgame, a pawn up and with White having three isolated pawns to worry about. This, though, was not the end of the story and the resourceful Guildford player was not going to make it easy for Jasper.

Nevertheless a draw with Black against Matthew Dishman is a good result, and 4.5-2.5, with everyone contributing, an excellent win in a match we lost comfortably last season. Our morale survived even the frustration of the night closures on the A3 on the consequently prolonged return journey.

Peter Andrews captains Kingston’s first and second teams in the Surrey League

Kingston C v Hounslow C, Thames Valley League division X match played at the Richard Mayo Centre, United Reformed Church, Kingston on 20 October 2025

Kingston C were outrated by Hounslow C in their opening Div X match of the season, so to emerge as 3-1 victors was quite an achievement. The team had been assembled by Jon Eckert, but was captained on the night by Genc Tasbasi, as Jon had to leave once the preliminaries had been conducted.

Genc (pictured above), who has had a tremendous start to the season after returning to chess earlier this year, defeated the veteran David White on board 1. Genc was a pawn down and under pressure early in the game, but he stayed calm and, with time trouble in this 65+10 game starting to kick in, he turned it round to beat his very capable opponent. The fact he had Black, in line with the rule that the away team in Thames Valley matches always take White on board 1, made the victory all the sweeter.

On board 2, Rob Taylor, with White, downed his higher-rated opponent Steve Hall. Anqi Yang lost on board 3 to another Hounslow veteran, Barry Fraser, whose Ruy Lopez prevailed against Anqi’s stern resistance. But on board 4 Nette Robinson made sure Kingston took the spoils with victory against Andrew Cleminson. A top-notch start to the season for Jon Eckert’s team.

Stephen Moss

Kingston 1 v Coulsdon 1, Surrey League division 1 match played at the Richard Mayo Centre, United Reformed Church, Kingston on 13 October 2025

Coulsdon were severely handicapped in this match by a train stoppage in the Waterloo and Clapham Junction area. Their board 7 defaulted, and several other players lost time which might have proved valuable later, although we made a concession to the circumstances by agreeing to start 10 minutes late. On paper, they were significantly weaker than Kingston below board 1, and weaker than we would expect them to be at home. Nevertheless, halfway through the evening the match could easily have been close, but Kingston pulled away in the closing stages.

The first to finish was Zain Patel, making his very welcome debut for us in local league chess with White against Ishan Ramdewar, and this one was crushing from an early stage.

The Surrey League is privileged to have young entertainers of national status like David Maycock and Supratit Banerjee (pictured at the top of the report) turning out on Monday evenings, and they did not disappoint.

As an interesting psychological footnote, we are indebted to Supratit for the score of this game. The final moves were played more or less on the increment by both players, and David’s score ran out a few moves before the end. Supratit’s was neat and complete, despite the time shortage, the complexity of the game, and even though he had been close to lost for several moves. Some of us barely ever have a complete score of a game that goes the distance. Moral – the best players do not allow their emotions to override their ability to think.

The spectators had expected an early conclusion on board 8, where Jasper Tambini had opened up White’s kingside. But Stockfish actually gave Coulsdon’s Paul Jackson the advantage at this point, and Jasper needed a second round of tactics to win:

On board 3, Peter Large with White survived a moment of real danger against Mark Smith:

On board 6, with Black, Peter Hasson blocked the kingside against Martin Faulkner’s numerical superiority on that side, and was able to spare his queen for a raid which snaffled the a-pawn. It didn’t look like much, but after over 70 moves, it turned out to be enough to win the rook and pawn ending.

John Hawksworth was less fortunate with Black on board 4. He achieved a slight edge against Ian Calvert’s notorious 1. b3, and went into the rook and pawn ending a pawn up. But with both players down to around a minute, he missed a fleeting opportunity to penetrate with his king, and the endgame resolved into a textbook draw with R+P v R with the defending king in front of the pawn, so Black’s extra pawn could not be forced home.  As an aside, this is an ending which comes up often enough to be worth looking up in a book – anyone can draw it against an experienced IM if they know the right plan.

Peter Lalić on board 2, with Black against Evaldas Baltrunas, also reached what looked like a drawn ending, this time with a knight each. But I had experienced his skill with knights in the ending at first hand last week, so had not given up on the win. Peter’s endgame play has been compared to Capablanca’s.* That may be an overstatement, but he does find chances others do not see.

And so a long and well-contested match finished with a rather flattering 7-1 scoreline to Kingston, which may be useful if the battle for the league title is tight at the end of the season. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

* My batting has been compared to Don Bradman’s, ie “it’s not as good”, but I don’t think that was meant in Peter’s case.

Peter Andrews is chair of Kingston and captains the club’s first and second teams in the Surrey League

Chessington 2 v Kingston 4, Surrey League division 5 match played at the North Star, Chessington on 8 October 2025

A silent disco was taking place at Surbiton station on my evening journey to the North Star pub in Chessington. “Yes sir, I can boogie.” But could we? Kingston’s players – all but one of them anyway – arrived well ahead of the 7.30pm start time and enjoyed the music (more soft rock than disco) and drink (in moderation) at the pub. But there was no sign of the opposition and we started thinking “Right venue, wrong day, darts match anyone?”

The match eventually started at 7.50pm after waiting for the digital clocks to arrive. The joys of pub chess! Kingston’s board 6 Sam Wilcox was running 30 minutes late and risking a forfeit, but in the spirit of the match I explained to his opponent that besides having a time advantage it’s always better to play a nice game of chess then win by default.

On board 1 Stephen Moss, with Black, got a slightly better position out of the opening against Malcolm Bovey’s Queen’s Gambit Declined and went a pawn up. But the engine suggests it was a strangely illusory pawn. Black had gone for a swift counter-attack to win the pawn and omitted to castle, an oversight that allowed White compensation once the queens had come off. Stephen, realising his hoped-for win was disappearing, spent 15 minutes pondering one move, the pub table straining under the rocking generated by his elbows. The winning move wasn’t there and White forced a repetition. Stephen was very irritated – but then he is easily irritated.

Seth Warren played against the unflappable Murugan Kanagasapay in a cat-and-mouse encounter on board 2 which was the last game to finish on the night. Seth was two pawns up, but Muragan continued to eat away at Seth’s advantage and ended with knight and pawn against Seth’s four pawns, leading to a draw once Seth’s defenceless army had been mopped up and Muragan’s dangerous pawn eliminated.

On board 3 Genc Tasbasi, who has had a very good start to the season on his return to regular competitive chess, was up against Tomas Kubin, who has a 1475 ECF rating but a worryingly high Fide of 1947, though Tomas insists the latter is a doppelganger. Tomas, who did appear to be the ECF-rated player and not the Fide one, gave Genc a good run for his money, but Genc built a formidable pawn chain, went a piece up and won the game – Kingston’s sole victor on the night.

David Shalom, with White, faced Jonathan Holbrook on board 4 in a stodgy game which was looking drawish until David lost two pawns. The endgame was still complicated and David had drawing chances, but it was very hard to play in a time scramble and needed a succession of perfectly judged knight moves to neutralise Black’s two connected passed pawns. The knight eventually got itself offside and Holbrook manoeuvred a pawn home to win the game.

Dieter McDougall was Kingston’s board 5 against Chessington’s canny supremo Meena Santhosh. It was another tight game, but Meena has a good eye for tactics, struck some telling blows and gained a victory which put her side within sight of the finishing line. The triumph for Chessington was cemented by success on board 6. Sam Wilcox had arrived just in time, and a hard-fought struggle ensued in which he whittled away at his opponent Graham Legg’s advantage on the clock – Graham later congratulated Sam on playing so well in trying circumstances. But it was all to no avail: Sam went down fighting and Chessington took the match 4-2. We will certainly boogie and possibly all night long – next time!

Edward Mospan is Kingston captain in the Surrey Minor Trophy

Kingston B v Kingston A, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at the Richard Mayo Centre, United Reformed Church, Kingston on 6 October 2025

On Monday 6 October Kingston B (nominally the home team) and Kingston A did battle again in Thames Valley League division 1. Clearly shaken by their relatively narrow 4.5-1.5 win in the first encounter, Kingston A felt impelled to draft in yet another titled player, Supratit Banerjee, to their team, which already contained two international masters and one Fide master. Plucky Kingston B were strengthened by the welcome additions of Peter Hasson and FM Julian Way.

For the second week running I found myself playing an international master, this time on board 5. Wishing to avoid being bested by John Hawksworth’s positional skills, I chose a double-edged line of the Old Indian. It turned out that both of us were improvising from move 6, and I managed to get a promising position. However, a few moves later John made a tactical offer of a draw, which I cravenly accepted, fearing that for the second week running I might throw away a good position against a very strong player.

Shortly afterwards the board 6 players also agreed to share the point. The opening had been a Ruy Lopez, Morphy Defence, and Alan Scrimgour probably had some advantage over Jasper Tambini in the final position, though there was still plenty of play. So Kingston B were all square with Kingston A after the first two results, but unfortunately for the Bs there would be no further early draws on the remaining boards.

The next game to finish was the battle of the FMs on board 2. Julian Way chose the Rossolimo Variation against David Maycock’s Sicilian Defence, and the game was level during a lengthy manoeuvring phase. This was the crucial position:

Kingston B were now a game down. On board 1 there was another close contest in a Sicilian. Eventually Supratit’s queenside pawn majority overcame Peter Hasson’s resistance, as Black could only prevent White promoting to a queen by giving up material.

This result meant that Kingston A were sure of another victory unless the remaining two games went the B team’s way. The board 4 game might be described as relatively uneventful, but IM Peter Large succeeded in making his pieces more active than John Foley’s, and when White made a slight mis-step with his rook Black forced the win of the a pawn, which eventually moved on to a7, leaving John with no choice but to give up a piece for it. Thus Kingston A, 4-1 ahead, were assured of victory.

The last game to finish, between two of the four Peters involved in the match, was closely fought and went down to a time scramble. Peter Andrews played yet another Sicilian Defence and Peter Lalić chose to counter it with an aggressive form of the Closed Variation, boldly advancing his kingside pawns. In this position he sacrificed a pawn to force Black to move his king:

Thus the match ended in an anticipated, but I think not entirely easy, victory for the extremely strong A team, by a margin of 5-1. The B team wish them success in their task of achieving a fourth straight Thames Valley League title. Our own goal is more modest, to see if we can avoid relegation back to the second division. At least we have now got our matches against the strongest squad in the league out of the way.

David Rowson is Kingston B captain in Thames Valley League division 1