Kingston B v Hounslow B, Thames Valley League division 2 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 17 March 2025
Kingston B have been going surprisingly well in Thames Valley division 2, winning seven and drawing one of their eight matches before this encounter. Helped by a Hounslow default on bottom board, they kept their unbeaten record with a 5-1 victory and now have a very good chance of being promoted, which would give Kingston two teams in Thames Valley division 1.
Seth Warren was making his second-team debut for Kingston and won a hard-fought game with Black against Steve Hall. This was the sequence which paved the way for Seth’s win:
Alicia Mason kept up her great season with a win with White on board 4 against Ritesh Tendulkar. It was a Sicilian Dragon in which Black decided on an imaginative – but ultimately fruitless – piece-for-two-pawns sac in the position below:
Black plays Bxg4 here, reckoning that after fxg4 and recapture by one of the knights, the pair of knights will make merry. It’s not the worst idea in the world, but just too optimistic. Black did almost get back into the game when White’s e-pawn fell, but a further piece-winning tactic quickly quashed the revival and that was that, though Black played on and on hoping for a miracle.
John Bussmann on board 1 and Jon Eckert on 3 both had draws, while Zubair Froogh, who is also having an immensely promising debut season for Kingston, won in good style with White against the very capable JJ Padam on board 2. Zubair’s win completed an emphatic victory which keeps Kingston B on top of Thames Valley division 2, though with five matches still to play in a protracted season which will last into June.
Kingston 1 v Ashtead 1, Surrey League division 1 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 10 March 2025
Going into this match, Kingston knew that a win here and a draw at Guildford at the end of the month would win the Surrey Trophy. But a loss at Guildford, who have turned out some very strong sides at home, where they are unbeaten, would mean that they could catch us on match points. So it was important to achieve a big win against Ashtead, in case the season’s honours are decided on game points.
That incentivised us to field a stronger team than would normally be necessary against the bottom club, while it was clear when team sheets were exchanged that Ashtead had struggled to raise a team. There were rating differences of over 500 points on some of the boards, suggesting that a big win should be achievable. Nevertheless, several of the games went the distance, with the visitors showing their fighting spirit.
First to finish was Mike Healey (pictured above right, sitting beside Peter Lalić). Mike had Black on board 4 against Ashtead captain Bertie Barlow, and the game crystallised with White objectively holding but in practice under some pressure.
Board 7, where Jasper Tambini had White against young (and probably significantly underrated) Tom Vinall, was less straightforward. Jasper tried a gambit against the Caro-Kann, and at one stage I relayed to the crowds in the bar anxiously waiting for news that it looked dodgy. A few minutes later I returned to the arena to find that Jasper had won!
Board 8 was more relaxing for the captain, although no doubt less exciting for other viewers. Julian Way, with Black against Peter Grabaskey, accumulated material and won risklessly.
John Hawksworth’s win with Black against Chris Perks on board 6 was similar: advantages accumulated, and then some classy play to force the decision.
On board 5 Ash Stewart, with White, had to decide what to do with a big advantage in space against Daniel Richmond.
So we had a clean sweep of boards 4 to 8. But boards 1 to 3 were still in progress with time running short. On board 3, playing Black against Tom Barton, David Maycock was in the uncharacteristic role of sacrifice acceptor.
Then came our first frustration. On board 1 Peter Large, with White, and Phil Brooks played an accurate – 98% on each side, according to Stockfish – but uneventful game in which the evaluation never reached 0.5 in either direction. We give the concluding position.
A draw was agreed here. It is not clear why now rather than on move 39, when the last chance for a pawn break or king penetration disappeared. Perhaps it was influenced by the decision to limit the new Kingston Chess Club scoresheets to 50 moves; neither side wanted to consume a second sheet unnecessarily.
On board 3 Peter Lalić, with White, had a winning kingside attack for a long time, but his opponent was difficult to nail down.
The game continued, with Peter steadily developing his advantage. He was, though, very short of time by now, so built time with a little shuffling in order to visualise the winning idea.
Thus the match finished 7.5-0.5. A 4-4 draw at Guildford would seal the Surrey title for us, and a narrow defeat would set them a very demanding target when they play at Coulsdon before Easter. Not that we can afford to go to Guildford envisaging a narrow defeat. We go there hoping to overturn their proud home record this season.
Peter Andrews, Kingston captain in Surrey League division 1
Epsom 4 v Kingston 3, Surrey League division 4 match played at Epsom Christian Fellowship, Epsom on 10 March 2025
This was another great result for Kingston 3, led by Ed Mospan. Epsom were seriously strong for a fourth team – what great strength in depth they have – but Kingston countered everything Epsom threw at them and came away with a deserved 3-3 draw.
I wasn’t at the match, so rely on the summary provided by Epsom’s non-playing captain, Alistair Mackenzie. “This was Epsom 4’s strongest team,” Alistair emailed Ed after the match, “so your team did fantastically well. I was confident of victory, but in reality we were very lucky to get a draw, as we could have been well beaten.”
Alistair said that Oliver Kuzmanoski was fortunate to get a draw on board 6, and that Lev Razhnou had to show good technique to save the game against new Kingston recruit Seth Warren on board 1 – a promising result for Seth with Black against a highly rated player.
“I didn’t understand the game between Maya Keen and David Shalom,” added Alistair. “Maya was behind in material but had pressure, and David slipped up with a simple error. David Bickerstaff, with White on board 4, was comfortable for the whole game. James [Pooler] managed to close the gap somehow, but it was not enough. It was a great win for Adam [Nakar], pulling those moves off at the end – he is always good fun to watch.” Adam, who was ecstatic with his victory, is on a tremendous run, and his live rating is climbing fast.
Aziz Sannie had the better of the early exchanges against Epsom veteran Michael Wickham (see Marcus Gosling’s photograph of their encounter above), but the latter was able to turn the game around and grab the point that ensured the two teams would share the spoils. All four decisive games in the match ended with a win for White. It really does make a difference, you know.
Ed took an additional four players along to Epsom to play rated friendlies – a great innovation this season at Kingston, where we are trying to offer rated chess outside the traditional league structure so more players get games. This has been a terrific innovation by Ed, who has made a huge difference since returning as a team captain and club officer, and we hope it will be a template for the club’s development.
Surbiton 3 v Kingston 4, Surrey League division 5 match played at Fircroft, Surbiton on 5 March 2025
This was another stunning victory for Ed Mospan’s merry band against a higher-rated team. I arrived to see Adam Nakar beaming with pleasure, having just downed John Polanyk on board 1. Jaden Mistry had already triumphed on board 5, and Rob Tayor, who is on a good run, was a piece up and close to winning against Surbiton captain David Morant. Add three solid draws against Surbiton stalwarts for Paul Seymour, David Shalom and Ed Mospan himself, and you have an unexpected 4.5-1.5 victory and a recipe for the perfect evening.
Kingston A v Maidenhead A, Thames Valley League division 2 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 3 March 2025
In the end the emphatic 5.5-0.5 score may have flattered us a little – Maidenhead had good chances at different points on at least two of the boards – but this was nevertheless an important win which demonstrated the all-round strength of Kingston’s first-team squad as it continued its relentless pursuit of a third Thames Valley title in a row.
Luca Buanne was on the scoreboard first with a win with White over Stephen James on board 4.
Board 5 between John Hawksworth and Maidenhead captain Nigel Smith was a cagey Catalan in which Nigel, with White, opted for a risk-free line and duly secured a draw. But on board 6 Alan Scrimgour, with the advantage of the white pieces and back from a very solid tournament at the World Senior Team Championships in Prague (seven draws in seven games, three against titled players), was having a good tussle with Simon Foster until the kingside attack he had been preparing reaped sudden and devastating rewards.
On board 3 Peter Lalić (pictured), playing Black, appeared to be in a spot of bother against Ishan Wiratunga – he was playing on the increment in what looked a tricky position, while his opponent had oodles of time. But Peter is a remarkable player when he is in time trouble and was able to simplify the position down to a winning endgame.
David Maycock, with White, was up against the young Ukrainian Bohdan Terler on board 2, and quite a game they made of it – as we expected from two such talented young players. The crunch comes in the position below:
I congratulated David on taking his youthful opponent out of his comfort zone with some typically energetic and enterprising play. “In order to confuse your opponents, you need to confuse yourself,” he replied, which sounds like the sort of aphorism Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu might have produced, alongside “the opportunity to secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself”. Thinking about it, Sun Tzu On Chess could be a bestseller.
David’s win made it 4.5-0.5 and left IM Peter Large and FM Andrew Smith as the last players standing – OK sitting. The evening had started with Alan Scrimgour saying a few words in honour of Peter Large’s gold medal-winning performance at the Prague Seniors tournament, where England’s 65+ team, of which Peter was part, became world champions. Andrew Smith had played for Ireland in the same event in Prague, so both were primed for what promised to be a close encounter.
So it proved and, after much middlegame jockeying for position, there was little in it as the witching hour – and mutual time trouble – approached. This was the position when Peter (as he is allowed to do once his clock time falls below five minutes) stopped recording:
Peter, with Black, has an edge by virtue of the bishop pair, but it is by no means conclusive. There were many more moves – sadly lost to posterity – and eventually Andrew stumbled into an unusual mate, executed by a rook and a couple of doubled pawns on the h-file. An unsatisfactory conclusion to so classy a match-up, but such is evening club chess, where a game has to be shoehorned into three hours.
That made it 5.5-0.5 and left Kingston sitting pretty atop Thames Valley division 1 (see current table below, beneath match score). If we beat Richmond away on 18 March, the title will be ours for the third year in succession – a feat the club has never achieved in its history. It would also mean we had won the league with three matches to spare. But of course we mustn’t get ahead of ourselves. Let’s actually finish the job before we start the celebrations.
Kingston B v Surbiton A, Thames Valley League division 2 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 3 March 2025
This was an unexpected victory against a strong Surbiton B team. We suffered an early blow when Jon Eckert was forced to pull out half an hour before the start. That meant I had to play: a disaster at the best of times, but a complete catastrophe on this occasion because, up against the in-form Graham Alcock’s time-honoured Scandinavian on board 4, I hung a rook on move 10 and it went downhill from there. The game was over mercifully quickly.
I thought that would be decisive in terms of the match, but how wrong I was. On board 1 John Foley (pictured foreground, left, above) outfoxed old adversary Liam Bayly in a rook and pawn endgame, winning a pawn and forcing it home for victory. A few moments later came a crunch result – John Bussmann beating the dangerous Paul Dupré on board 2 to give Kingston a 2-1 advantage and suddenly convince me we could get something from the match.
John B played a very imaginative and powerful game which we pick up on move 17 with White, who has an edge, to play.
The other key turnround was on board 3, where Surbiton’s experienced captain Nick Faulks was playing Kingston newcomer Zubair Froogh. NIck had been well on top in the opening and middle game, with Zubair’s queenside rook and knight horribly restricted. But Zubair has great resilience, fought back, equalised and even had chances to win in the endgame. The game ended in a draw, which felt to me like a win after the early horror show, though Zubair – nothing if not a perfectionist – was bemoaning his failure to convert his endgame advantage late into the night.
On board 5, Froogh Senior was up against the doughty Andrew Boughen. It was a good scrap decided by a middlegame error by Andrew in the position below:
On board 6 Alicia Mason, who is having an excellent first season for the club, had White against another Surbiton stalwart, David Cole. Some neat tactical play by Alicia in the middlegame settled the issue.
Kingston had won 4.5-1.5 – a victory that took us back to the top of Thames Valley division 2. Well played to the team (with the exception of that dozy board 4). The win showed great fighting spirit and the team’s (if not my) confidence appears to be rising as we sustain a slightly surprising promotion push. Soon we might have to start asking the perennial question: could we cope with two teams in Thames Valley Div 1?
Surbiton A v Kingston A, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at Fircroft, Surbiton on 26 February 2025
We faced familiar opponents in this local derby. The Surbiton team was quite strong, though missing Mark Josse and Chris Briscoe. Kingston outrated them significantly, but as we know, it’s not the rating difference which wins the game but the better play on the evening.
The first game to finish was on board 1, where David Maycock (pictured) had been developing a ferocious attack against Altaf Chaudhury’s Sicilian Defence. In this position Black needs to be very careful about how he protects his kingside, especially as his king is still in the centre.
John Hawksworth’s game with Black on board 4 was more sedate. Joshua Pirgon played a line against John’s Sicilian which I have favoured for years – not necessarily a recommendation – the King’s Indian Attack. Joshua missed his chance to develop an attack in this position:
On board 3 Ash Stewart and David Scott reached this position from Ash’s English Opening:
The Jasper Tambini–Peter Lalić game was more or less level until this position was reached:
My own game, with White against Joseph Morrison on board 5, was strangely uneventful – so uneventful, in fact, that I think the only moment of any (very relative) interest was probably at move 9:
The last game to finish, with the score 5-0 to Kingston, was on board 6, where Nick Faulks had opened with the English. Pieces were exchanged two-by-two until a king and pawn ending was reached. John Foley showed great ambition in trying to win this, but it turned out that it was White who held the trumps, and after many moves of a queen and pawn ending (following promotions by both players) John was finally forced to resign, giving Surbiton a compensatory point.
Thus Kingston A won their seventh Thames Valley League division 1 match out of seven. Our results so far have been 5.5-0.5, 4-2, 6-0, 5-1, 4-2, 4-2 and now 5-1. I have to give the usual warning that we shouldn’t get ahead of things, but we can at least feel that we are in a situation where we will only have ourselves to blame if we don’t win the title for the third year in succession.
David Rowson, Kingston captain in Thames Valley League division 1
Kingston 2 v Wimbledon 1, Surrey League division 2 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 24 February 2025
Kingston white on the odd numbered boards
I really ought to go away more often. I captain Kingston 2 and we have been chugging along happily enough this season in division 2 of the Surrey League, just about doing enough to avoid relegation. I was, though, abroad when this match was played, and my absence seems to have inspired the team. Captained by Will Taylor (pictured), they pulled off one of the results of the season, with a 4.5-2.5 victory over table-topping Wimbledon 1.
Will himself got an excellent draw as white against the highly rated Russell Picot, who had beaten him in the reverse fixture earlier in the season. Julian Way drew with black against Dan Rosen on board 3, and John Bussmann also halved with Sean Ingle on board 6. The key result, though, was board 4, where Stephen Lovell, who is happily playing a good deal more for us this season, enjoyed a tremendous win over Ian Heppell.
“He surprised me with a pawn sacrifice in the opening that looked pretty good,” says Stephen. “Very understandably, he then went after the pawn on f2. What neither of us appreciated at the time was that a well-timed Na5 could have caused White a lot of bother. My pieces would have remained in a tangle on the kingside, and it’s hard to defend c4 without creating weaknesses. After he took on f2, my pieces sprang into action and his position unravelled remarkably quickly. The resignation felt a touch early, but really there isn’t too much hope for Black by that stage.”
We pick up the game, which was decidedly short, at the point where Black should consider Na5.
Stephen’s win set the scene for what followed. On board 1, our very own Peter Lalić (turning out for Wimbledon in this division because he is nominated as a Div 1-only player for Kingston) got the better of Luca Buanne and thus gained revenge for his defeat in the away match at Wimbledon. Peter played one of his more bamboozling openings and this was the resulting position:
Peter’s renegade win for a moment put the result of the match in doubt, but Kingston’s new father and son double act – Homayoon and Zubair Froogh – secured the vital points with wins against strong opponents on boards 6 and 7. Peter Lalić reckoned Froogh Senior’s win was a “swindle”, but we will ignore this remark and celebrate a triumph which doesn’t just free us from any threat of relegation but propels us into the top half of the table.
Maidenhead D v Kingston C, Thames Valley League division X match played at St Luke’s Community Hall, Maidenhead on 24 February 2025
No one relishes the long trek to Maidenhead on a dark, wintry evening, but Kingston’s team in Div X of the Thames Valley League made light of it and came home with the spoils.
Sean Tay (pictured) maintained his good form with a win on top board; Mark Sheridan and Rob Taylor won smoothly on 2 and 3; and the only reverse was on board 4, where recent Kingston arrival Nette Robinson came unstuck against the highest-rated player in the Maidenhead line-up (why playing down on board 4, I wonder?). An excellent 3-1 victory, which always makes the long journey home more bearable.
Hounslow v Kingston, Thames Valley Knockout first round, due to be played at Hounslow on Thursday 20 February
There is sadly nothing to say about this match as it never took place. Hounslow had kindly agreed to Kingston’s earlier request for a deferment of the match, but when the time came to play – on a Thursday, an unusual playing day for both clubs – they were unable to raise a team they considered to be of sufficient strength and defaulted. A very unsatisfactory outcome, especially after Hounslow’s sporting gesture in allowing the match due to be played before Christmas to be postponed.
Kingston now proceed to the semi-final, where TVKO captain Alan Scrimgour (pictured) will need a powerful team against Epsom. A potentially even greater challenge would lie in the final, where Harrow – specialists in this competition and with a very strong line-up – already await.
