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

Kingston A v Kingston B, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at the Richard Mayo Centre, United Reformed Church, Kingston on 29 September 2025

Photograph: Front table, from left: Peter Large v David Rowson; John Hawksworth v Alan Scrimgour; Rear table, from left: Jasper Tambini v Stephen Lovell; Stephen Moss v William Lin (credit: John Foley)

It is a new season, and Kingston A began the defence of their Thames Valley League division 1 title at a new venue – the Richard Mayo Centre (part of the United Reformed Church) in central Kingston – and with a new captain. Kingston B also have a new captain, and are in a new division for them. Nothing stays the same.

With two teams now in division 1, the rules require that we play our opening matches against each other, to get them out of the way and presumably to discourage any temptation to “fix” results later in the season (not that we would do that). Kingston A were notionally at home for the first match and will be “away” at the same venue for the return encounter.

Almost by definition, an A team should beat a B team, but it is not always so easy in practice. This was demonstrated early on by John Hawksworth, who obtained an advantage out of the opening on board 4 against Alan Scrimgour’s Benoni Defence, but miscalculated on move 20 in a much better position and lost a pawn for little or no compensation. At that point Alan offered a draw, whether from fear, magnanimity, a desire to gain some rating points, or perhaps a feeling that as club secretary he shouldn’t stand in the way of Kingston A winning the league. Either way, John accepted. 0.5/0.5

Peter Lalić though, on board 2 with White against John Foley, began the new season where he left off the last one (he scored 11.5/12 in the Thames Valley League last season), being the first to finish despite arriving late, and winning with an overwhelming kingside attack in only 19 moves. The game began life as a Caro-Kann, but soon transposed into an Advance French. Whether you play the Caro-Kann or the Sicilian or the French against Peter, you will always end up defending against the Advance French. (“I essayed the Keith Arkell line in the Caro-Kann as played by Peter’s mother, Susan, hoping to spook him,” said John afterwards, “but Peter was unfazed.”)

On board 1, David Maycock, with Black against Peter Andrews, was a pawn down after nine moves. If David were not such an incredibly strong player, I would suggest he blundered – at any rate, I was unable to detect much in the way of compensation. But be it blunder or gambit, he carried on playing as if nothing had happened, soon obtained an advantage despite the material deficit, and reached this position on move 23, with Black to play:

I had Black against David Rowson on board 3. David is a strong positional player who loves to play the King’s Indian Attack against the French Defence. I know that now; I wish I had known before the game. David played 1. Nf3, but tricked me by transposition into playing a French Defence against his King’s Indian Attack. By playing simple but strong moves he built up a significant advantage, but fortunately for me he chose the wrong way to cash in, and allowed my cramped position to come to life. 0-1

Perhaps the most interesting game for spectators was on board 6, where the venerable Stephen Moss faced William Lin, under-10 British champion at classical, rapidplay and blitz, who already has a rating of 1745. By move 3 Stephen was a pawn down, having chosen for some reason to handicap himself by playing the Morra Gambit. I was impressed to see the young one play the book refutation, but Stephen retained the usual Morra compensation (a couple of open files), and the position remained balanced. Stephen had a fleeting opportunity to win on move 20, but the moment passed and the game ended shortly afterwards in an honourable draw by repetition of moves. 0.5/0.5

The last game to finish was Stephen Lovell v Jasper Tambini on board 5. This was a tense game where both players may have had an advantage at some point, but it culminated in a queen ending where Stephen had a far advanced pawn and Jasper had a lot of checks. We were obliged to step in and stop the game at the three-hour cut-off point, when it was clear that the computer evaluation would either be +14 or 0.0, depending on whether White had a way of avoiding the checks. It proved to be 0.0, so a draw was agreed. 0.5/0.5

Ultimately it was 4.5/1.5 to Kingston A. Perhaps there is one thing that stays the same after all. Kingston A’s results.

Touch wood.

Peter Large is Kingston A captain in Thames Valley League division 1

Thames Valley Knockout final played at Harrow High School, Harrow on Thursday 19 June

It felt a little strange to play a major chess match on the longest and hottest day of the year so far, with several players in shorts and complaints that the air conditioning was too effective. But two strong teams, albeit missing the prodigious Bodhana Sivanandan on the Harrow side and the infectious Peter Lalic on ours, contested a tense match containing some high-quality chess. Kingston had a rating advantage on all boards except board 1.

First to finish was Will Taylor, with Black on board 6 against Jagdeep Dhemrait. In a Four Knights Opening, White had played Nc3 and Bc4, allowing a classic Nxe4 idea, ready to fork with d5 if White plays Nxe4. Instead White played Bxf7+ to dislodge the black king before recapturing on e4. In my youth, that was regarded as unclear, but modern computer assessments suggest the two bishops outweigh the loss of castling. Will seemed to have an edge for much of the game, based on more centralised major pieces, but his attempts at a winning attack were frustrated by back-row mate threats and a shortage of time, so a draw made sense.     

The game on board 2 between Manmay Chopra and David Maycock (pictured above) quickly exploded.

Our other Black game, Ash Stewart on board 4 v Nigel Alldritt, went less well. Ash’s pawn structure was seriously damaged in the early middle game. He got some activity for it, but after the queens were exchanged it was soon clear that the ending was hopeless.

On board 1, two FMs were in combat. To this spectator’s eye it was not quite clear that Supratit Banerjee’s kingside attack would outweigh the queenside initiative of Tanmay Chopra, but Supratit is familiar with the line and was confident that he had it all in hand. He was never worse, and after a less-than-obvious error by Black he outplayed his opponent, proving that the division of Black’s army – with his king’s rook unable to assist the battle on the queenside – was crucial.

2.5-1.5 up and with board count in our favour, things looked good. John Hawksworth on board 5 had not been able to break through against Harrow captain Nevil Chan, but in the major piece ending he seemed to have a space advantage. He found afterwards that the computer assessment was level – no breakthrough was available. And the downside of the space advantage was that his pawns were a little more extended. Nevil found a tactic, winning a pawn and coming down to a rook ending in which he controlled the only open file, so one pawn soon became two, which was fatal.

So the score was level at 2.5-2.5 and it was all up to Peter Large on board 3 against Steven Coles. Peter had allowed his c-pawns to be doubled, but in compensation had pressure down the half-open b-file against Black’s queenside-castled king, which looked promising even with the queens off. He “mislaid” the pawn on c3, and then temporarily sacrificed a rook, exploiting the position of the black king to win the material back and come down to an ending with rook and knight v rook and bishop, with one extra pawn but with his passed a pawn harder to defend than Black’s passed d-pawn.

With both players very short of time, the decisive phase of the game was not recorded, which was probably just as well for those of a nervous disposition. Peter had thought we were winning board 5 so could try to win this game without risk to the overall result, and he turned down at least one draw by repetition. But from being a little better, his position deteriorated to be level and then probably losing.

However, to deal with the white a-pawn the black king had gone over to the queenside and was therefore out of reach when the game crystallised to rook and one pawn each on the kingside. Even though Peter’s pawn was the h-pawn, he managed to place his rook behind his king on the g-file, and the black rook could not stop the pawn unaided, forcing Black to resign.

A 3.5-2.5 win for Kingston gave us our seventh trophy of the season, although given the difference in ratings the closeness of the match also reflects well on the home side.

Peter Andrews, acting Kingston TVKO captain

Richmond B v Kingston B, Thames Valley League division 2 match played at the Adelaide pub Teddington on 3 June 2025

Richmond wanted to prove a point in this match – that their B team could live with our title-winning side – and they proved it emphatically, running out winners by 5.5-0.5. We are champions of the division, but we were humbled by this result – the second team’s first defeat of the season in its final match. Indeed, the club’s final match of the season. All that remains is the Thames Valley Knockout final away to Harrow on 19 June – a tough assignment.

Richmond B, under their determined and resourceful captain Alastair Armstrong, put out an extremely strong team, spearheaded by the 2200-plus Maxim Dunn. We competed for a large part of the evening, but in the end as time pressure kicked in – Richmond use a tight control of 65 minutes plus 10-second increment – we crumbled.

Peter Andrews, with White against Maxim on board 1, was level (indeed felt he was slightly better when Maxim rebuffed his draw offer), but was outmanoeuvred as time took its toll. “Maxim found a plan and I didn’t,” was Peter’s succinct summing up. The litany of our woes on the other boards is almost too painful to recount. On board 2 Will Taylor, with Black, had fought valiantly against the Richmond captain and had a draw for the taking, but he had to find the correct move in the position below:

Homayoon Froogh, with White against the durable Sampson Low on board 5 (the two are pictured above, with Homayoon on the left), also blundered in time trouble in a position that was probably winning, and John Foley let at least a draw slip with White against John Burke on board 3. This really wasn’t our night. Jon Eckert, Black on board 6, lost the exchange against Pablo Soriano, and the Richmond man was in the box seat thereafter, smoothly converting in a well-played game.

Zubair Froogh, with Black on board 4 against the accomplished John Bass, saved us from the humiliation of a whitewash, getting a draw to cap an excellent first season for the club. The arrival of father Homayoon and son Zubair at Kingston this season has been one reason why we have ended up as champions of division 2 (see the final division 2 table at the foot of this report). It has been a truly fantastic season for Kingston B, and once we get over the pain of this defeat we will celebrate winning the title in appropriate style. For the club to win both Thames Valley division 1 and 2 is a truly remarkable achievement and surely a first in Kingston’s history.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain

Final Thames Valley division 2 table

Kingston B v Richmond B, Thames Valley League division 2 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 2 June 2025

In the penultimate league match of the season, Kingston B held on to their unbeaten record with a reasonably comfortable victory against a battle-hardened Richmond B side, who were in with a chance of promotion if they could beat us in the final two back-to-back matches of the season.

Jon Eckert recorded a rapid victory against Richmond newcomer Polina Popovtseva on board 6, when White rounded on Black’s uncastled king in a French Defence that went badly wrong. Alan Scrimgour, playing White, took an early draw against distinguished Richmond veteran Richard James on board 2, while Stephen Lovell (Black on board 3) and Zubair Froogh (White on board 4) had rather more extended and exhausting draws against Sampson Low and Bertie Barlow, two tough opponents. Indeed, Stephen’s game did not finish until 10.30pm after three hours of hard-fought struggle.

On board 5, Homayoon Froogh had Black against Simon Illsley. Homayoon was always well ahead on the clock, but he was the exchange down and it looked like the Richmond player had at least a draw. Indeed, if the match had not been swinging Kingston’s way, he might well have offered one. But he played on and, with time short, blundered when under attack by queen and bishop, and was mated.

On board 1, in a high-class struggle between Richmond captain Alastair Armstrong, with White, and Kingston stalwart Peter Andrews, this was the complicated and double-edged position after Black’s 27th move, with time trouble already looming:

A satisfying win for Peter and a fine victory for Kingston B by 4.5-1.5, setting up the return match away to Richmond B due the very next day and with many of the same personnel likely to be involved.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain

Kingston A v Ealing A, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 12 May 2025

After contesting 11 matches crammed into just five months of play, we arrived at our final Thames Valley division 1 encounter on Monday 12 May. I say “we arrived”, but I was actually abroad for this last match and was grateful to Peter Large for taking on the captaincy duties.

Kingston effectively made a winning start before any of the players had sat down, as Ealing’s captain, Andrew Harley, considerately informed us in advance that their board 6 had had to drop out due to pressure of work.

The first game to finish was that on board 3, where Jonathan White had moved 1. f4, Bird’s Opening, against Vladimir Li. A complicated set of exchanges took place in the centre of the board, leading, eventually, to a level position. Despite the players still having four pieces and six pawns each, neither of them saw a reason to continue.

In Vladimir’s case this was probably partly due to his disappointment at not having taken some chances to gain an advantage earlier.  Vladimir has played little recently and he said afterwards, with typical self-criticism, “I think I am simply in bad form for a variety of reasons. The main one is being rusty.” To the average observer the chances not taken were far from obvious. In the position below White has just played 11. Qa4? attacking two pawns but potentially reducing the co-ordination of his pieces.

The board 4 game opened with Peter Lalić, with White, choosing the Austrian Attack against Tony Wells’s Modern Defence. His opponent advanced his kingside pawns but neglected his piece development. This was the position after White’s 13th move:

This game is a good example of the perils of underdevelopment. Tony Wells only brought out his king’s knight on the 34^th move, upon which Peter immediately chopped it off.

Board 5 saw Ealing’s Xavier Cowan, with White, opting for the Sämisch Variation against Ash Stewart’s King’s Indian Defence. After the queens were exchanged a position with asymmetrical pawn structures was reached, in which chances were roughly even, but Black had to keep an eye on White’s c4 and d5 pawn pair:

On board 2, against Alan Perkins’ Sicilian Defence Peter Large played a kind of Closed line with Bb5. His bishops were soon pointing menacingly at Black’s king’s position:

The remaining game saw the debut of Supratit Banerjee (pictured above) on board 1 for Kingston, an acknowledgement of the remarkable fact that at just 11 years of age he has reached an ECF rating of 2401. With Supratit Black, the opening was a classical French Defence (1.e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 dxe4). White won a pawn on the queenside, but Supratit played resourcefully to set his opponent problems. This was the position after White’s move 26:

Thus Kingston not only won the match 4.5-1.5, but also completed an historic 100%-winning Thames Valley division 1 season (see final table below). As captain, I want to thank all our players for making our progress so smooth and relatively undramatic. We have an incredibly strong squad, but results don’t always follow ratings, and what was impressive was the determination and consistency with which our top players won game after game.

Special mention must be made of Peter Lalić’s remarkable record of 10 wins and one draw from 11 games, and also the fact that both Peter Large and David Maycock had ECF rating performances of 2441 for their Thames Valley League seasons. John Hawksworth and Ash Stewart were great additions to the squad, and our very talented young players Supratit Banerjee and Luca Buanne made significant contributions. At different times different clubs looked capable of challenging us, but none of them managed to maintain such a level of consistency.

Thanks are also due to Peter Andrews and Peter Large for stepping in to captain in my absence, to Stephen Moss for all his support and advice, and to Greg Heath and Ed Mospan for unfailingly being available to set things up in the Willoughby.

That makes it three Thames Valley League titles in a row. Can we do it again next season?

David Rowson, Kingston A captain in Thames Valley League division 1

Kingston B v Richmond C, Thames Valley League division 2 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 12 May 2025

I was abroad when this match took place, so can give only the sketchiest second-hand account of what happened. Alan Scrimgour kindly deputised for me as captain and played board 1, winning the match 4-2 but being thwarted with Black in his own game, held to a draw by the solid and almost certainly underrated Peter Kasprowicz.

Kingston veteran Peter Roche (pictured above, left, at a recent All Saints blitz tournament), who has returned to the fray this season after a long break, won well with White on board 2 against the capable George Milligan; Adam Nakar and Genc Tasbasi maintained their excellent form with wins with White on boards 4 and 6; and David Bickerstaff drew with Black on board 5 against Richmond C captain Michael Robinson-Chui.

Seth Warren, who has had an encouraging debut season, lost with Black to Barry Sutton on board 3, but Seth was feeling unwell and should be commended for playing at all in the circumstances, saving us from a default. A loyal service medal will be awarded.

An excellent performance by the team, which had undergone several enforced changes in the run-up to the match. With two matches left this season, Kingston B have been crowned as division 2 champions and remain unbeaten. That record will, though, be tested in those final matches, which are against Richmond B, who are themselves vying for promotion and are sure to put out a strong team. The two fixtures will be played back to back, home and away, on 2 and 3 June.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain

The final weekend of the 4NCL season saw CSC/Kingston 1 survive in the first division, while the second team were pipped for promotion from Div 3 and the third team finished a creditable sixth in Div 4

The final weekend of the 4NCL season, on the bank holiday weekend of 3-5 May, saw all three CSC/Kingston teams in action, though at different locations – the first and second teams in Daventry, the third team in Coventry. As ever, squad manager Kate Cooke handled the logistical complications with calm efficiency.

The first team survived their debut season in the very tough division 1 and live to fight another day. At the beginning of the season, I put our chances of survival at 50-50, or perhaps in my more pessimistic moments 60-40 against. Clearly we were identified by the rest of the league as likely relegation contenders – one rival captain told me that explicitly. Our first weekend did not go well, with defeats to eventual title winners Manx Liberty and to the very experienced Blackthorne. But we got stronger and the incredible victory against Sharks 1 on Weekend 4 paved the way for survival.

On the Saturday of the final weekend, we played the strong Cheddleton team – just the three GMs! We had brought in young Turkish IM Eray Kilic as a wildcard as a hedge against possible relegation – we were still not mathematically safe, though by now we were fairly confident of surviving. Eray, who played superbly all weekend, defeated GM Keith Arkell on board 1 to set up a drawn match in which Polish WIM Liwia Jarocka also scored a fine win against Nina Pert (the first of Liwia’s three victories across the weekend).

The crunch match came on Sunday against Barbican, who needed to beat us to have a chance of avoiding relegation. It was an extremely tense encounter, with victories for IM Vladyslav Larkin and Supratit Banerjee (newly confirmed as an FM at the age of just 11) offset by losses for IM Malcolm Pein and CM Peter Finn. It all came down to the board 5 game between David Maycock (pictured above) and IM John Pigott. The Barbican player held the advantage in a minor-piece endgame, but David would not relent, time started to worry his opponent and the IM blundered and eventually lost on time. We were finally safe. On Monday we defeated Sharks 2, who were already doomed to relegation, to secure seventh place in the table – a terrific result after our travails in the early part of the season.

Div 1 – Round 9

Div 1 – Round 10

Div 1 – Round 11

Div 1 – final table

We had hoped that the second team would win promotion from Div 3 (Knights) into division 2. It would certainly have been team planning easier as the top two divisions always play alongside each other at the same venue. But it was not to be. The team won well on the Saturday, but lost to a strong Brown Jack team on Sunday and went down to the excellent To Be Decided in the promotion decider on Monday.

We needed to beat To be Decided 5-1 to win promotion, but in truth that never looked likely. To Be Decided ran out 4-2 winners and go up with Sussex Martlets 1, who had a perfect season – 11 wins in 11 matches – to win the division. Many congratulations to both the promoted sides. CSC/Kingston 2 finished in fourth place, tied on match points with the Rookies. In the end a slight disappointment when we had been vying for the second promotion spot all season.

Div 3 (Knights) – Round 9

Div 3 (Knights) – Round 10

Div 3 (Knights) – Round 11

Div 3 (Knights) – final table

In division 4, CSC/KIngston 3 have enjoyed an extremely successful season and finished sixth in the 32-team league. This division is structured as a Swiss rather than an all-play-all, and sixth spot was a good deal higher than we have been in previous seasons. The drawn match on Sunday against Div 4 title winners Barnet Knights C was particularly notable, as was Petr Vachtfeidl’s performance in winning all three of his games (two of them against 2000-strength players) across the weekend. Chris Rice, too, had a tremendous weekend, scoring 2.5/3.

Div 4 – Round 9

Div 4 – Round 10

Div 4 – Round 11

Div 4 – final table

Well done to everyone who played for the CSC/Kingston teams through the season, and thank you all for trekking to motorway hotels across the Midlands in all sorts of weather (who can forget the biblical downpour at Daventry last November?) to keep the flag flying. Despite stumbling in Div 3 in the final two matches, it has been an amazingly successful season, and the way we have competed with GM-packed teams in division 1 has been remarkable. Thanks above all to Kate and Charlie Cooke, who have made all this possible. Now at last Kate can get some rest after seven months spent juggling three teams and a squad of 40 players at three different venues. A truly fantastic effort.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain