Kingston A v Surbiton A, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 14 April 2025

We confirmed our retention of the Thames Valley League division 1 title in mid-March with three matches still to play; paradoxically, could it be said that we had won the league too soon? What I’m trying to say is, how would the team find the motivation to win the remaining three “dead rubber” matches?

Fortunately, chess is only partially a team game. Even when people are members of a team, they are still playing as individuals, keen to get a result in every game for their own satisfaction, as well as for their club. This was demonstrated in our home match against Surbiton. Lacking several of their top players, our opponents still put up a fight, but in the end the rating differences and the determination of the Kingston players told.

On board 1 Kingston’s Julian Way was representing Surbiton. An early error by Julian in the English Opening led to David Maycock winning the exchange and getting a grip on the position which was hard to shake. The two players castled on opposite sides and David’s attack crashed through quite quickly.

The results on boards 5 and 6 (two draws) were disappointing for Peter Andrews (playing Black) and myself (White), given our advantages in rating and on the boards themselves, though we should acknowledge that our opponents didn’t make it easy for us. The outcome of Peter’s game against David Cole was especially frustrating for him, as he discovered afterwards that in the final position he was actually clearly winning:

Peter explained: “With time starting to press, I saw some imaginary demons. The main problem was that after 17… Nxd4 18. Bxd4 Bxd4 19. Rxd4 I had intended 19…Qax4. But then 20. Rxd8+ Kxd8 21. Qxb7 is uncomfortable with my king exposed. I had thought when I played c5 that 21….Qa1+ would win the rook on h1, but now noticed that it was still defended by the queen on b7. 17…Bd5 is good, forcing e4. Now my calculations muddled whether or not White still had the d4 pawn, in which case Bc6 could be met by d5. And I had to take into account whether g5, opening the line of the bishop on h3 against the black queen, could upset things. In fact, the d4 pawn has long gone, and 18. e4 can be met by 18…Nxd4 19. Bxd4 Bxe4 (I missed this trick) 20. Qxe4 Bxd4 and Black is two pawns up with a strong grip. 20. Bxg7 is no good after 20…Bxf3 21. Rxd7 Rxd7, threatening mate on d1, so after 22. O-O Rb8 Black is the exchange and two pawns up.”

With White against Alexey Markov on board 6, I won a pawn early on almost by accident, but then failed to find the right way to exploit this. It’s probably not a good idea to arrange your pawns in such a way that the extra one is backward on an open file, as in the position where we agreed a draw:

John Hawksworth’s opponent, Paul Durrant, played the Benoni Defence to John’s d4, but made a strategic error the move before the position below was reached. Here he has just moved 13…Rb8, which John countered with 14. Nb5! The point is that White is threatening both a7 and d6, so Black has to exchange knights, but after 14…Nxb5 15. axb5 White has a permanent bind on the queenside and the a7 pawn is weak.

Later, John used his pawn majority to break through in the centre, giving this position with White to play:

The board 2 game was atypical for Peter Lalić, playing with the white pieces against David Scott, as the queens remained in play until the end. It opened with the Caro-Kann Defence, against which Peter played the Panov Attack. In the following position Black already looks to be in difficulties due to his problems with development, the awkward situation of the bishop on e6 and the weakness of the b6 square.

With Kingston already 4-1 ahead, the last game to finish was the board 3 contest between Ash Stewart and Surbiton captain Graham Alcock, which began as an unusual kind of Closed Sicilian Defence, with White’s king’s bishop developed to c4 but his central pawns cautiously held back. This resulted in a slow positional battle. Ash advanced on the queenside, but Graham managed to post his bishop on b5 and in the following position he could have cemented it there with the move 25. c4.

David Rowson, Kingston A captain in Thames Valley division 1

CSC/KIngston’s first team record a remarkable victory over the formidable Sharks 1 and the second team win both their matches to give themselves a shot at promotion on a riveting fourth weekend at 4NCL

In the late afternoon on Saturday 5 April, something remarkable happened: CSC/Kingston 1, new to division 1 this season and among the favourites to be relegated, beat Sharks 1, who for the past few seasons have been vying to win the 4NCL title. It was a remarkable victory and a mighty tribute to captain Kate Cooke and her vibrant and youthful team (members of which are seen in the photograph above playing late-night blitz after their triumph). This is the scorecard of the success:

Vlad Larkin and Ulysse Bottazzi overcame significant rating disadvantages to draw on the top two boards; David Maycock (who spurned a draw offer) and Zain Patel lost with Black on boards 4 and 8; but we were carried over the line by wins from Roland Bezuidenhout (against grandmaster Daniel Fernandez!), Supratit Banerjee, Peter Finn and German WFM Luisa Bashylina, who enjoyed a fantastic debut weekend for the team winning both her games. This weekend’s games have not yet been posted on the 4NCL website, but we will catch up with them when they are.

On the following day, the first team lost 5-3 (nothing to do with the late-night blitz, honestly) to a strong Chessable White Rose 1 team (see scorecard below), but even that was a close-run thing. Vlad Larkin felt he had a winning chance against top GM Gawain Jones, but it came close to the first time control when he had only seconds to calculate. Peter Finn also had excellent drawing chances against Harry Li, but blundered in the endgame.

There was, however, no crying over opportunities lost. Overall, this was a great weekend which gives CSC/Kingston 1 a good chance of surviving in the division 1 sharkpool. The final weekend, in Daventry on 3/4/5 May, promises to be fascinating one, with make-or-break matches against Cheddleton, Barbican and Sharks 2.

The weekend after CSC/Kingston 1’s great achievement, it was CSC/Kingston 2’s turn to trek to Peterborough for rounds 7 and 8 of division 3 (knights). The team won convincingly by 4.5-1.5 against Celtic Tigers 2 on Saturday (see scorecard below), but had a scare against Sussex Martlets 2 on Sunday, coming back from 2-1 down to win a nailbiter. Clive Frostick, who had been unwell coming into the weekend, heroically secured a crucial draw in the final game to finish to take the team to victory. Props also to Tom Ferrand and Chris Fegan for winning both their games over the weekend.

CSC/Kingston 2 now have a chance of winning promotion to division 2 on the concluding three-match weekend in Daventry on 3/4/5 May (when division 1 and division 3 knights will be played at the same venue, allowing the first and second teams to play alongside each other). The round 11 match against promotion rivals To Be Decided on the last day of the competition is likely to be decisive (as the name of our rivals, currently ahead of us in the table by a single game point, handily suggests).

CSC/Kingston 3, who head to Coventry for the final weekend on 3/4/5 May, also had a productive weekend, beating Ashfield 2 on Saturday before losing a hard-fought match to Apprentice Woodpushers on Sunday to leave them eighth in the table. Promotion is still possible, but they would have to win all three of their matches on the final weekend and others results would also have to go their way.

Here are the tables as they currently stand for the divisions in which the three CSC/Kingston teams play:

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain

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

Surbiton 1 brought a surprisingly weak team to the Willoughby for this Surrey division 2 match against Kingston 2, and were duly despatched 6-1. Both teams are safe in this division, so perhaps their attention was elsewhere. They defaulted on board 3 and had a very young junior on board 7 who did not last long against Homayoon Froogh, so were 2-0 down very early on and never thereafter looked like mounting a challenge.

Will Taylor, with Black, and Surbiton captain David Scott had a hard-fought draw on board 1, and Surbiton’s Alexey Markov secured an excellent draw with Black against Alan Scrimgour on board 4. “I made a couple of inaccurate moves early on in the c3 Sicilian that I have been playing for decades,” Alan said afterwards. “This allowed my opponent to initiate a series of exchanges leaving the position completely level.”

That was as good as it got for Surbiton. John Foley (pictured above, head in hands) showed his usual masterly control in beating Graham Alcock, securing a small advantage in the middlegame and remorselessly hammering it home in the endgame, and Alicia Mason got the better of Paul McCauley’s Sicilian on board 6. Paul had a slight edge in the opening, but made an error in the middle game that cost him a bishop and, hard though he tried, could never claw his way back, with Alicia forcing resignation with a tactic that won more material

Peter Andrews, whose board 3 opponent defaulted, hailed John Bussmann’s board 5 win over John Rennocks as the game of the match, so we will concentrate on that one.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain

Kingston 4 v Chessington 2, Surrey League division 5 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 7 April 2025

Kingston 4 concluded their Surrey division 5 campaign with an emphatic 5-1 win over bottom-of-the-table Chessington 2 to end with four wins and three losses during the season. That meant Ed Mospan’s team finished in a comfortable mid-table position.

Adam Nakar continued his fine season with a victory over the very capable Murugan Kanagasapay, and David Bickerstaff and Sean Tay also extended their excellent winning runs. Genc Tasbasi drew a game he felt he should have won – he was bishop and pawn to the good, but it was an h-pawn and the bishop was the wrong colour for the queening square, so his opponent was able to hold out.

“Lesson learned” said Genc, who recently returned to competitive chess, after the game. Nette Robinson also drew on board 5, and Chessington defaulted board 6. Well done to Ed and his team on both this victory and an excellent season.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain

Guildford 1 v Kingston 1, Surrey League division 1 match played at the Guildford Institute, Guildford on 31 March 2025

This match had looked for some months likely to be critical in our effort to regain the league title. A draw or win for Kingston would seal the deal. A loss would mean that Guildford would have the chance to catch us on match points when they visited Coulsdon in Easter week, although they would have to win both matches by large margins to catch us on game points.

Home advantage has been a major factor in Surrey League division 1 this season. This is probably not the effect of the “Ninth man” crowd support or pressure on referees or VAR officials, but the more pragmatic fact that all the clubs find it more difficult to field their strongest team when travel time and difficulty is involved. So although this looked likely to be our toughest match of the season, it was encouraging that we could field a fully representative side, with five players over ECF 2200, and all four of the regulars [Maycock, Large, Lalić, Healey] whose high scoring had carried us this far.

Much would depend on the strength of the side Guildford had available. We were relieved to see no Goldings; FM Alex, at close to 2400, is a handful for anyone. But they were solid enough to outrate us on the bottom three boards, even with captain James Toon resting himself.

Unless the spectator has a compendious knowledge of opening theory (and after all, if my knowledge was that extensive I would probably have been playing myself), it is often difficult to assess the early stages. The most obvious difference was on the clocks, where for example David Maycock and Guildford’s Gwilym Price had rattled off 14 moves each in the same time which Peter Lalić and Mark Josse had used for four.

The only position clear to me was on board 6, where Will Taylor had arrived a few minutes late after a difficult journey. He soon fell into a trap in the Jobava London System (in which White plays d4 and Bf4 as in the mainline London, but also an early Nc3), the viciousness of which belied the appearance of its junior author, Adam Sefton. White’s Nb5 threatened Nc7+, winning the rook on a8, and Will realised to his horror that Rc8 was no defence because Nd6+ would still win the exchange because his e-pawn was pinned. The only way to defend both threats was Kd7, after which it was difficult to develop and of course illegal to castle. Will wriggled stoically, but it wasn’t much fun to play or watch from a Kingston perspective and Guildford were on the scoreboard.

The first Kingston win came from board 1, where David Maycock had White against Gwilym Price.

Soon afterwards, Luca Buanne on board 5 gave us the lead by defeating the strong Guildford junior Zac Welling, known to several of us through his appearances for the Surrey U2050 team. Suffice it to say that this should be Zac’s last season of rating-limited county chess and we wish him well as he moves on to higher things.

From the early middle game, Luca had had a grip on the position and an extra pawn, and from that stage I had counted on the game as our most likely win (partly because Luca has been such a reliable performer once he gets on top). Superficially this looked like a smooth conversion, but, as you’ll see, appearances can be deceptive.   

Peter Lalić, with White against Mark Josse on board 3, extended the lead in what was from the Kingston side the game which flowed most continuously to its logical conclusion.

Unfortunately around this time Jasper Tambini, with White, went down on board 7 against Luke Nelson. Fortunes fluctuated, and both sides landed blows, until Jasper lost a piece to a skewer down the a1-h8 diagonal when a rook got stuck in mid-board. That defeat meant we were just 3-2 up.

With around 2½ hours gone, I found the other games hard to assess. On board 4 Mike Healey, with Black against Clive Frostick, looked a little worse, but he sacrificed a pawn for some activity. Clive was very short of time and offered a draw, which Mike, who has had no draws this season, declined. Julian Way on board 8, with Black against Matthew Dishman, had been a little cramped out of the opening, but then won material. Who would score the decisive point? In fact the two games finished simultaneously. We turn first to board 4.

On board 8, Julian Way had an initial space disadvantage but turned things round with tactics.

So 5-2 in front we had won the match and the league, and with no single individual having definitively scored the decisive point all could celebrate equally. But there was still a game going on, board 2, Nigel Povah (White) v Peter Large, who both played for England senior teams in their highly successful visit to Prague recently, but were now in combat.

Kingston were thus champions of the Surrey League, having won six out of eight matches, with two drawn. In the league table, the margin of victory looks convincing, but all the away matches were a struggle. There was a narrow 4.5-3.5 win at Ashtead, two 4-4 draws, and some of the time scrambles at Guildford could easily have gone wrong. At home we proved we were the strongest side.

The backbone of the championship success was the very high percentages logged by our most regular players: Peter Lalić 7 out of 8, Peter Large 5.5/7, Mike Healey 6/6 and David Maycock 4.5/6, a result taking him in the ECF April rating list to 2400 for the first time – many congratulations. They enabled others coming in on the lower boards to play without too much pressure to score heavily. Several of these players achieved strong results: Julian Way 3.5/4, Luca Buanne 3 out of 4, and I was pleased with my own 2.5/3.

This is not, of course, the end of the Surrey season. There remain the Alexander Cup and Lauder Trophy finals, against Guildford and Coulsdon respectively, both of which will be played at Ashtead Chess Club on Tuesday 29 April. Then perhaps we can have a rest.

Peter Andrews, Kingston captain in Surrey League division 1

Kingston 3 v Guildford 4, Surrey League division 4 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 31 March 2025

This was an immensely impressive win by Kingston 3 against a very experienced Guildford team. The hero of the hour was Kingston newbie Seth Warren, who defeated Guildford veteran Trevor Jones in a ding-dong game (pictured above, Seth Warren on right) that saw each player carefully watching results on other boards to see if they should push for a win. In the end Trevor overpressed and paid the penalty, losing on time.

Elsewhere, Jon Eckert had an excellent win on board 1 against Richard Duncalfe; Jaden Mistry, who is on a terrific run, beat Mike Gunn, another Guildford stalwart; and Alan Charevicius got a crucial half-point in his first ever league game for Kingston.

Adam Nakar’s recent winning streak came to an end against Anthony Garrood, but he wasn’t too downhearted, attributing the loss to attacking over-exuberance. Also, the defeat came too late to affect his April ECF rating, which has gone above 1700. Paul Seymour lost to Peter Horlock – yet another Guildford lifer – making the final score 3.5-2.5 to Kingston. A memorable win for Ed Mospan’s team.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain

Guildford 2 v Kingston 2, Surrey League division 2 match played at the Guildford Institute, Guildford on 24 March 2025

Perhaps this was a match too far for Kingston 2 in the Surrey League. We were safe from relegation in division 2, had little but pride to play for and were up against a strong team still vying with Wimbledon 1 for promotion to the top flight. We were outrated but, in truth, we should have done better than losing 5-2. We did well to draw on boards 1 to 3, and on 7, but were outgunned in the middle order.

Let’s get the bad news out of the way first. Zubair Froogh, who is a doctor, had been working nights. He was knackered frankly, hallucinated in an opening line he knew well, and dropped a piece with Black on board 5 against Guildford captain Malcolm Twigger-Ross. He fought on, playing quickly and seeking counterplay, but in vain. One of those nights.

Jon Eckert fought valiantly with White against Anton Barysenka, sac-ing a pawn for an attack. But Black neutralised the assault and that extra pawn then became critical in a rook and pawn endgame, especially once the rooks had come off, with Black expertly converting. Not all rook and pawn endgames are drawn!

John Bussmann has had a terrific season, but this was not to be his night either and he was disappointed with his play with White against the youthful Sebastian Twisk, who is fast homing in on an ECF rating of 2000. John thought the game was lost in the opening when he played too passively against his opponent’s Slav Defence. He was forced to sac the exchange and reached this unpleasant position after 26 moves:

John battled on for another 30 moves, but to no avail. A joyless way to spend an evening, trying to conjure counterplay out of a position like this.

The disasters on boards 4 to 6 were offset by significant pluses elsewhere. On board 7, Homayoon Froogh, an excellent recent recruit to the club along with his son Zubair, drew with Black against the solid Ian Deswarte. The game was very enterprising on both sides, but once the queens and a pair of rooks had been exchanged, it all became very blocked and peace was declared in the position below after much shuffling of white rook and black knight and bishop.

Alan Scrimgour also drew with Black on board 3 against Guildford veteran Julian Shepley, and on board 2 Julian Way, with the white pieces, halved with the dangerous Matthew Dishman, agreeing a draw in the level endgame shown below.

The main excitement was on board 1, where Peter Andrews had Black against the up-and-coming Luke Nelson. Peter has kindly supplied some thoughts on the game, starting with what he considered a fascinating position on move 29.

So a disappointing result despite four good draws, but the positives have certainly outweighed the negatives in Surrey division 2 this season. We have a tough match left – against Surbiton 1 in a couple of weeks – but for once we can enjoy it and not worry about the spectre of relegation, which has hung over us for the past three seasons. This year, despite this blip at Guildford, we have proved we can hold our own in Surrey division 2. Long may that continue to be the case. The club needs a strong second team.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain

Kingston C v Surbiton D, Thames Valley League division X match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 24 March 2025

Kingston fielded an all-junior team in the final TVX match of the season and were rewarded with a 2-2 draw against a more experienced Surbiton team. Anqi Yang beat Harry Roberts on board 2; Zhixing Bai fought hard before succumbing to Surbiton captain Phil Goodings on board 1; and the Chmiest twins, Piotr and Robert, made encouraging debuts on boards 3 and 4, Piotr beating Surbiton junior Dominic Tang on 3 and Robert losing to the wily Kim Cross on 4.

Well done to the team. Thanks to Ed Mospan for captaining on the night, while regular skipper Jon Eckert was with the second team in Guildford. Ed also organised half a dozen internal rated games, which ran alongside the match (see photograph of playing room above showing both match and rated games). Thanks of course to Jon for steering his team through the season, helping Kingston’s newer players get experience of classical controls and the rigours of playing league matches.

We ended the TVX season in mid-table (see below), with four wins, three losses and a draw. This is a training division and what matters is the chance to compete, but it is also good that our young and relatively inexperienced players demonstrated they can win matches. It bodes well for the seasons ahead as the new generation get match-fit.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain

Kingston entered three teams in the Thorp Trophy and the A team came up trumps, lifting the prize ahead of Epsom and Richmond at Cheam on 22 March 2025

The Thorp Trophy – a four-board team rapidplay played on a single afternoon – hasn’t been held for 20 years, but this season the Surrey Association enterprisingly revived it, and last weekend 16 teams from across Surrey gathered at the Parochial Hall in Cheam to do battle for the trophy. (Well, the trophy has actually been lost, so let’s say for the honour of being the first Thorp champions since South Norwood in the 2003/04 season.)

To my great pleasure and surprise, the Kingston A team (comprising Peter Large, Peter Lalić, Homayoon Froogh and Ye Kyaw – pictured above) came first with 12 game points across the four rounds. The games were played at a time control of 20 minutes plus a five-second increment, with total game points rather than match points determining the winners. All four of the A team scored well, but special mention should be made of Ye Kyaw, who chalked up a perfect 4/4 on board 4.

What makes the tournament distinctive is that two of the players in each four-person team must have an ECF rapid rating of less than 1750, which makes putting teams together tricky. Players must follow strict rating order. The great plus of the competition is that, unusually, first-team players such as the two Peters are competing alongside players from lower teams, which is great for fostering club spirit.

The B team (David Maycock, Jasper Tambini, Aziz Sannie and Jaden Mistry) came fourth, and crucially in the final round got a 2-2 draw with leaders Epsom A, allowing Kingston A to leapfrog Epsom with a 4-0 victory over Richmond A. Good squad-work! Kingston C (the venerable team of John Foley, Stephen Moss, Ed Mospan and Rob Taylor) came a creditable joint tenth. Full scores with the results of individual match-ups can be found on the Surrey Association website on the Competitions page under Thorp Trophy. https://www.scca.co.uk/comps/comps_index.html

This is Peter Lalić’s first-round game against Streatham’s Robin Haldane. Peter is proud of having achieved a 98% accuracy rating in this game.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain

Final table

Richmond A v Kingston A, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at The Adelaide, Teddington on 18 March 2025

Those of us who fancy ourselves as arithmeticians had worked out, prior to this match, that a win or even a draw would be enough to give us the Thames Valley Division 1 title. However, we were missing several of our leading players, so we anticipated a close match. In general, this season we’ve been fortunate enough to field very strong teams, thanks to the willingness of our top players, and have often found that opposing clubs, in contrast, have not been at full strength. This was indeed the case at Richmond, as they were missing both Gavin Wall and Mike Healey.

Another surprise was Richmond’s time control of 65 minutes plus 10 second increments, making for a shorter evening than usual. This seemed to disadvantage their own players, as some of them quite quickly found themselves in time trouble.

My own game was the first to finish. I had got a bind as White in the Italian Game, and in this position Chris Baker clearly decided that he wasn’t going to die wondering:

We had been fortunate that Stephen Lovell and John Bussmann both stepped in to play when some of our usual squad were unavailable. John’s opening against George Milligan was reminiscent of Peter Lalić’s favoured defence, with Black forgoing castling for a queenless middlegame in which he hoped to outplay his opponent. In this position White should keep his bishop pair, but he exchanged off, giving Black play on the open g-file:

If the two games described above were relatively smooth wins for Kingston, the John Burke v David Maycock encounter on board 2 (pictured above) was anything but. White started with 1. d4, but the opening transposed into the Exchange Variation of the Caro-Kann. In this position David went wrong, as he admitted afterwards:

Alan Scrimgour has had an excellent season so far for Kingston, but things did not go right for him in his game with Black on board 4 against Richmond captain Maks Gajowniczek. (Maks has produced his own report on the match and his victory.) He played the double-edged Benoni Defence and commented afterwards, “It’s bad enough losing your first Kingston game of the season but worse when you make a mistake as early as move 10 in an opening you think you know. Another bad choice a few moves later lost an exchange and left my opponent in a dominating position. I managed to stay in the game, but also fell behind on the clock. In the end I couldn’t stop his passed a-pawn and resigned on move 42.”

The board 5 game between Stephen Lovell, with White, and Victor Bluett had started as an English Opening. When the queens were exchanged, Stephen commented: “I thought I emerged with a pleasant positional advantage (two bishops, chances of a minority attack). I grouped my pieces on the queenside in what seemed the right way and was looking for the right time for the b5 break.” As Stephen said, the position after move 24 could have been a good moment for this:

The board 1 game was a quiet positional Sicilian Defence, in which play was level until a time scramble put pressure on the players. Peter Large, with White, had an outside passed pawn while Maxim Dunn had an extra pawn in the centre:

Thus Kingston A have won the Thames Valley Division 1 title with three matches to spare. Following our victories in 2023 and 2024, this is the first time in our history that Kingston have won three TVL titles in a row. As Kingston club captain Stephen Moss reported, “We won it in 1949 and again in 1950, so twice in a row, and recorded single wins in 1978 and 1984. Pinner did the treble in 1993, 1994 and 1995. Richmond have, remarkably, done the treble five times and the quadruple once (1974, 1975, 1976, 1977).” So there is our next target! Meanwhile, I wish to thank all the players who have contributed so much to this historic achievement, and to Stephen, Peter Andrews, Greg Heath, Ed Mospan and others for their hard work in supporting the team.

David Rowson, Kingston captain in Thames Valley League division 1