Surbiton D v Kingston C, Thames Valley League division X match played at Fircroft, Surbiton on 4 December 2024

Thames Valley Division X is meant to be a training division – something we took literally in this away match against Surbiton D. Nick Powell on board 4 was playing his first ever rated game – welcome to the wacky world of competitive chess, Nick – and Zhixing Bai was playing only his second game for the club. Junior Jaden Mistry and Mark Sheridan (still limping after a fall earlier in the week and bravely playing through the pain) were veterans by comparison.

Jaden played extremely well to win on board 1 – against a new face at Surbiton who I suspect is fairly strong. Jaden played confidently and had a slight edge throughout. The pressure he applied told in the end, and he was able to pick up a loose rook in a queen-and-rook v queen-and-rook endgame with a tactic which he saw instantly.

Nick Powell and the affable Kim Cross got into a similar endgame, but it was Kim who came out on top, marshalling his forces to deliver mate. It had, though, been a protracted and keenly fought struggle, and Nick acquitted himself extremely well on his league debut.

Zhixing Bai, a nine-year-old with considerable potential, offered an earlyish draw in his game with Harry Roberts, which the latter eagerly accepted. Where do youngsters learn to make these grandmasterly draw offers? “Just play” I advised Zhixing later. “Don’t offer middlegame draws. Rating points are of no consequence.” I was echoing American grandmaster Ben Finegold, who once told me: “Never take a draw. No one ever learned any chess by taking a draw.”

The last game to finish was the encounter between Surbiton captain Phil Goodings and injured hero Mark Sheridan. They have had close battles before and this one was no exception, but in the end it was Goodings who prevailed. Admirably, Mark refused to blame his leg injury for his loss.

An excellent match played amid Christmas decorations, which added a welcome festive sparkle to proceedings. What a well-appointed venue Surbiton have. They are well on the way back to the top of the tree after a post-pandemic slump saw them lose their status as top dogs in south-west London. We fear them. But there again we fear everyone. Everywhere we look our rivals are making progress. 2025 is going to be a hard slog.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain

Kingston 2 v Guildford 2, Surrey League division 2 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 2 December 2024

On the same night that Mark Sheridan slipped, fell and ended up in A&E, missing the match at Epsom, the Kingston 2 team did the same thing collectively (metaphorically speaking) against Guildford 2. There is no other word for our performance but debacle, and I would say the Kingston 2 captain’s place is now in serious jeopardy. (I would say that except the Kingston captain is me.) This loss drags us into the Div 2 relegation mire and might even make us favourites for the drop. It was very ugly.

We had lost two strong players in the 24 hours before the match – one to illness, the other to a bereavement – but the news that Guildford were defaulting bottom board seemed to make our task easier and we still had a rating advantage. But we just didn’t gel.

John Foley, kindly replacing one of the indisposed players at short notice, rushed from a teaching stint at the Kingston Chess Academy, but was exhausted and happy to play out a fairly anaemic draw with White against Guildford captain Malcolm Twigger-Ross. At the time, that result seemed OK, but what followed made it look anything but.

Jon Eckert would be the first to admit he has been struggling for form so far this season, and things went badly for him with Black against Richard Duncalfe on board 5. They played out an interesting line of the French Defence, but the Guildford player did well to accumulate a succession of small advantages and, faced with a losing endgame, Jon resigned. It was a similar story on board 6, where Tony Garrood’s killer bishops – working in perfect harmony – overwhelmed Ye Kyaw’s defences.

The high spot of the evening – the sole bright light in fact – was John Bussmann’s smooth win against Anton Barysenko’s Grünfeld Defence. John is having an excellent season so far and is now pressing for a first-team place – watch this space! It’s really important to have him back and firing, after a long-term injury kept him out for most of last season.

Peter Andrews was up against old foe Seb Galer on board 2 – a critical battle with Peter playing White. Lose this and we really were in trouble. Seb went on the attack in the opening, and by move 10 Peter was already up against it. Peter takes up the story from the position below (one of the nice things about him is that, win or lose, he will cheerfully annotate the game and try to learn from it – a lesson to us all!)

This defeat – surely the result of being under attack for a prolonged period, surviving it, relaxing and then blundering because the worst seemed to have passed – made it 3.5-2.5 to Guildford. They could not lose the match, but we could still draw it – if we could win on board 1, where the estimable Will Taylor had Black against Matthew Dishman.

Matthew had sac’d a pawn for what he hoped was an initiative, but his kingside assault had come to nothing and now Will had queen and four pawns against queen and three. Will was pushing and pushing for the win, but he was also playing on the 10-second increment, whereas his opponent had five minutes left. This imbalance proved fatal.

At one point Will was down to a single second, but he punched his clock just in time. When he went down to the minimum again, however, he was less fortunate and his clock ticked down to zero before he made his umpteenth queen move. A horrible moment. Poor Will had lost a game in which he deserved at least a draw and we had lost the match 4.5-2.5. Now an attritional winter trying to fight off relegation from Surrey Div 2 awaits.

But perhaps I should not despair too much. Worried that Will would be losing sleep over the disaster and keen to send him my commiserations, I sent a supportive email soon after the conclusion the match. “Thanks for asking,” he responded, “but I’m fine. It’s just a game of chess.” Am eminently sensible and rational attitude, and one we sleep-deprived obsessives would do well to replicate. Whatever legendary Liverpool manager Bill Shankly might have said, it really is a game – and not a matter of life and death.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain

Epsom 4 v Kingston 6, Surrey League division 5 match played at the Epsom Christian Fellowship, Epsom on 2 December 2024

This was one of those unfortunate evenings that one prefers to forget. Mark Sheridan, who was due to play for the Kingston team, slipped, injured his leg and was in A&E when he should have been battling it out on board 6. Apologies to Epsom for the default.

Losing a board to a default was critical in a well-contested match. David Bickerstaff and Sean Tay lost on boards 2 and 3, but Jaden Mistry (pictured above, in red top, playing in an earlier match) won well on board 4; captain Ed Mospan continued his run of good form with a solid draw; and it was reassuring to see Adam Nakar back playing again and drawing with wily Epsom veteran Michael Wickham on top board.

The best news of all was that Mark was discharged sore but with no broken bones and planned to make an immediate return to the fray. Thanks as ever to the players for making the long trek to Epsom on a chilly December evening.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain

Kingston 1 v Guildford 1, Surrey League division 1 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 25 November 2024

To judge by the teams Guildford have been able to field this season, they will be close rivals in this season’s Surrey competitions. Kingston had a rating advantage on seven of the eight boards, but many of the differences were small and easily offset by the advantage of playing White. I was under too much pressure in my own game to see much of the others. Spectators reported a tense match, and in each of the games on boards 4 to 7 we had losing positions at one point. We eventually scored 2.5 points from those four games, so the final result gave a rather misleading impression of the course of the match.

When title contenders meet, the first goal is often crucial, and Peter Large scored it against FM Jon Ady, recently returned to England from Hong Kong. As the game emerged into the endgame, Peter had a useful initiative. That may have induced Jon to grab a hot pawn, leading quickly to his knight become trapped on one side of the board and his king on the other.

Luca Buanne, with Black on board 5, came under pressure out of the opening. His opponent missed a sequence which would have transitioned to a winning ending, and Luca needed no second invitation to activate and equalise.

Next to finish was Mike Healey on board 4 against Guildford’s new captain James Toon. Mike came out of the opening two pawns down and objectively lost, but with the kind of wild position in which a game can turn quickly. That is what happened in this position after White’s 23^rd move.

In the rare moments I could spare from my own game, I had followed some of the twists and turns of John Foley’s game on board 8, next to me. With kings castled on opposite sides, John had built a strong attack using the open h-file. But Black had sacrificed a pawn to block that, and then changed the nature of the game by giving up two rooks for queen and pawn.  Both sides had attacking chances after White had played move 38, but Black’s response led to defeat.

On board 7, the computer evaluation of my position proved later to be roughly equal most of the way through, but I had been short of space, which usually makes it harder to play. In the position below, my opponent missed an opportunity. We both missed that White could have played 22. Ng6, with a big advantage; to save the exchange, Black must play 22 …fxg6 after which 23. Qxe6+ regains the piece with Black’s kingside wrecked. I am sure we would both have seen that had Ng6 captured a pawn against a kingside fianchetto rather than being a sacrifice on an empty square. Then, just before a draw was agreed, it was my turn to miss a winning opportunity, after White’s 29th move, when Re4 would give Black a big advantage.

That gave Kingston a 4-1 lead, or “dormie three” in golf parlance. But it was hard to assess the remaining games. Julian Way’s game on board 6 probably had the most reversals. Julian had come out much worse from the opening. Facing a kingside attack on his castled king, he responded with a kingside attack on Black’s castled king. At one point, both sides could have lost a piece to pins down the g-file in quick succession. After Black’s 31st move, this was the position.

That half-point got us over the line. Could David Maycock or Peter Lalić (pictured above) add the extra point? David, playing Black against 2340-rated Gwilym Price and suffering the after-effects of a cold (though he would be the last person to make excuses), liked his position from the opening. The key position arose after White’s 18^th move.

In the encounter between Clive Frostick v Peter Lalić on board 3, unlike the other games in the match, there were no significant fluctuations in the advantage until after Black’s 31st move.

So we took the chequered flag, the spectators got their money’s worth, and Kingston have a good chance of being top of the Surrey League division 1 table at Christmas. But all the top teams, including ourselves, are stronger at home than away, so the trips to Epsom and Guildford in the spring will be serious challenges.

Peter Andrews, Kingston 1 captain in the Surrey League

Hounslow B v Kingston B, Thames Valley League division 2 match played at the Royal British Legion, Hounslow on 25 November 2024

Kingston B made it 4/4 so far this season with a convincing 4.5-1.5 victory away to Hounslow B. The two young Hounslow players on the top boards did well to get draws against the experienced and highly rated pair of David Rowson and Alan Scrimgour, and Hounslow’s JJ Padam drew on board 4 with Jon Eckert, but the other three games were wins for Kingston.

John Bussmann continued his winning return to competitive action, winning on time against Frank Zurstiege (although the game was already positionally won); Alicia Mason (pictured in action earlier in the season) continued her rich vein of form with a well-played refutation of Barry Fraser’s French Defence; and I (making a thankfully rare appearance) won against Steve Hall, despite an odd incident when I thought my opponent had resigned after he expressed disgust at what looked the losing move, and held out my hand to mark the end of the game, only to be told that he had not actually quit. On we played, but only for a few more rapidly executed moves – I was very short of time and Hounslow use non-incremental clocks! – before I forced mate.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain

CSC/Kingston 1 lose their opening matches on the first weekend of the 4NCL season, but the second and third teams both get off the mark

We knew it was going to be tough on our first weekend in division 1 of the 4NCL – the UK’s national chess league – and so it proved. Played 2, lost 2, though on Sunday against Blackthorne we came within a whisker not just of drawing the match but even winning it. Lessons learned, positives taken, we will come back stronger in January!

On Saturday we were up against the massed GMs of Manx Liberty and a loss by 6.5-15 was about as good as we could expect on rating. The high spot was a draw for 14-year-old Zain Patel (pictured above) against Hungarian grandmaster Miklos Galyas, though 10-year-old Supratit Banerjee almost went one better than that. He had a winning position against Polish GM Lukasz Cyborowski and even turned down a draw to press for the win, but then blundered in the position below.

The match on Sunday against Blackthorn was much closer: seven games were drawn – though Zain, who again played extremely well, and David Maycock had excellent winning chances – and the only win was by FM Dave Ledger against Supratit, a skilfully played positional game by Ledger from which Supratit will again have learned a great deal. We have a young team and hope that this experience of playing against the best in division 1 stands them in good stead for their future chess careers. Though that does not mean we have given up hope of surviving in Div 1. We will come out fighting at Peterborough in January.

These division 1 matches were played on the weekend of 23/34 November in Daventry. CSC/Kingston 2 and 3 had made their seasonal reappearance two weeks earlier in Peterborough, both winning on the Saturday and losing on the Sunday. The personal high spots were Peter Finn’s two wins from two games in Div 3, debutant Sanjit Kumar’s draw against the very strong Sussex Martlets player Russell Granat (also in Div 3), and a truly tremendous weekend for Petr Vachtfeidl, who beat Adam Cranston to secure the match win for the third team against Celtic Tigers on Saturday and then drew with the 2213-rated Ethan Norris in Sunday’s match in Div 4. A wonderful effort by Petr, who is a talisman for the CSC/Kingston team.

Thanks to all the players who took part in both weekends – these matches involve long treks to motorway hotels in the Midlands and east of England – and to Kate and Charlie Cooke for organising the teams with their usual calm efficiency. Now for 2025 and weekend 2! You ain’t seen nothing yet.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain

CSC/Kingston 1

CSC/Kingston 2

CSC/Kingston 3

Wimbledon 1 v Kingston 2, Surrey League division 2 match played at St Winefride’s Church Hall, Wimbledon on 21 November 2024

If we had been offered a 4-3 loss at the start of this match, we would have thought that perfectly acceptable. Wimbledon are a first-division team who find themselves stuck (almost certainly only for this season) in division 2 of the Surrey League. We were heavily outrated, yet came tantalisingly close to at least drawing the match. With a fair wind, we might even have won it. So in the end a 4-3 defeat actually came as a disappointment.

Ye Kyaw, in his debut season for Kingston, had a tremendous draw on board 6, where he was outrated by 270 points by Owen Phillips. Charlie Cooke also had a good draw against Anik Fonseka on board 7. Alan Scrimgour and Ian Heppell reached an early draw on board 4, and Kingston president John Foley also made a draw on board 3 with White against promising Wimbledon junior Shahvez Ali, though when he analysed the game later he realised he had had a winning opportunity, as he explains in the annotation below.

So 2-2, with three games in progress. Luca Buanne (pictured above) was better against Peter Lalić, our first-division bulwark moonlighting for Wimbledon in Div 2, on board 1; Will Taylor a little worse against Russell Picot on board 2; Jon Eckert certainly no worse and possibly with a slight edge against Neil Cannon on board 5. Against all the odds, we really thought we were going to get away with this.

Luca played superbly and converted the better position he had out of the opening in excellent style, thwarting all Peter’s trickery.

Luca’s victory was countered by Russell Picot’s win with White for Wimbledon on board 2 against Will Taylor. Will had the better of the opening against Russell’s Catalan and established a small plus, but Russell equalised and then pounced on a tiny slip by Will to win a pawn. That was enough. Russell made the pawn count in an endgame with bishops of the same colour.

That left the score at 3-3, with Jon Eckert seemingly having good chances to draw the match by holding on board 5, but he was in time trouble and went wrong in the position below.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain

Kingston C v Richmond E, Thames Valley League division X match played at the Adelaide, Teddington on 19 November 2024

This was a terrific night for captain Jon Eckert’s Kingston C team. Jaden Mistry fell into an early trap and lost to Richmond veteran Barry Sutton on board 2, but Sean Tay smoothly converted his advantage with White on board 1, Rob Taylor had a much-needed win (after a runs of losses) on board 3 and junior Zhixing Bai, on his Kingston league debut, drew by threefold repetition with Richmond captain Karl Stand to complete an encouraging 2.5-1.5 win for Kingston.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain

Kingston B v Ealing B, Thames Valley League division 2 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 18 November 2024

This was one of those matches which felt closer than the scoreline suggests. Jon Eckert drew on board 4 without any alarms, but Jameel Jameel let slip a very promising position on board 6 and went down to defeat as both kings came under threat from queens and rooks. Alan Scrimgour was well placed on board 2, but the other three games looked less clear-cut. We had a rating advantage of 100 points a board, so should have felt confident, but there are statistics and there is chess.

Alan castled queenside and went for the jugular with a kingside attack while his opponent tried to mount his own offensive operation against the White king. Alan’s assault was faster and he brought matters to a swift conclusion with a nicely judged combination. “White gained space on the kingside against Black’s Philidor Defence by advancing his g-pawn,” Alan said later. “A couple of minor errors allowed White to create threats on the light squares, with the game ending suddenly after a bishop sacrifice on g6.”

John Bussmann felt he always had an edge on board 3, but nerves were not calmed by a clock malfunction which led to a delay and a resetting of the times. But he did in the end prevail. John’s return to chess action is important to the club, as we have surprisingly few players in the 1850-1900 ECF bracket. Alicia Mason, who has had a good start to her Kingston career, will soon be in that bracket at her current rate of progress. Here she squeezed out a win with Black from a level knight v knight endgame position.

Top board was a match-up between Kingston veteran Peter Andrews and Ealing B’s immensely likeable young captain Xavier Cowan (both pictured in action above at a relatively calm early stage of their battle). It was a thrilling game, here annotated by Peter – at least to the point where both players were in a time scramble.

An excellent victory for Peter over a talented young player. The wins by Peter, John and Alicia came in the last half hour of the match to complete a 4.5-1.5 victory which had not looked on the cards earlier – a victory, moreover, which leaves us flying high in division 2 of the Thames Valley League. For the moment at least.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain

Kingston 3 v Epsom 4, Surrey League division 4 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 18 November 2024

Epsom showed their strength in depth by bringing a very strong fourth team to Kingston, and proved more than a match for Kingston 3. Greg Heath got a solid draw against the higher-rated Robert Fairhall on board 4, and captain Ed Mospan showed how it is done with a cool victory over Oliver Kuzmanoski on board 3, but the other four players went down to defeat against opponents rated on average more than 180 points higher. We will mark this one down to experience.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain