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.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain

Epsom 1 v Kingston 1, Surrey League division 1 match played at Epsom Christian Fellowship Hall on 17 February 2025

Photograph above by John Foley: front David Maycock (left) v Graeme Buckley; second game is Peter Lalić v Susan Lalić

Home advantage has been a notable factor in Surrey League division 1 this season, so a visit to defending champions Epsom promised a tough match. We were missing our two IMs, Peter Large representing England at an international seniors event and John Hawksworth ill, but were still formidably strong, with the captain able to play a watching brief after driving half the team down. Epsom were missing a likely future IM in Zain Patel, at another overseas tournament (if the Solent counts as overseas).

The absence of Peter Large resulted in an intriguing mother v son clash between the Lalićs on board 2. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this ended in a quick draw. The players played some friendly moves afterwards in which mother established an advantage over son, and before I noticed that the clocks had stopped and the result sheet filled in, I was concerned, but I was soon able to move on.  

Peter Hasson could make little headway on board 5 against the solid Chris Wright, with exchanges down to a bishop ending in which neither side could penetrate the other’s position. On board 6 Jasper Tambini quickly established a winning advantage against Epsom president Marcus Gosling, a pawn up and having wrecked the white kingside, albeit with some damage to his structure. Marcus then sensibly decided to sacrifice a piece for two pawns to take the initiative and pose concrete threats. The sacrifice was not sound for a machine, but for a human chess player it wasn’t easy to find an accurate defence, and the game quickly went downhill for Jasper.

David Rowson v James Pooler on board 7 was also looking good for some time, but also went downhill after an opportunity had been missed. David’s effort to break through with a pawn advance left holes around his king, which his opponent belied his relatively modest rating to exploit. 

Thankfully Mike Healey almost immediately hit back on board 3 against Robin Haldane. The queens were exchanged early on, and Mike backed his bishop against Robin’s knight, together with a lead in development and central pawn mass. His judgement was right, and the queenless middle game was a smooth squash with no big tactics. According to Stockfish, White was 95% accurate.

So with three games left in play, Kingston were 3-2 down. We had been slightly better in all three for much of the game, but by the closing stages all looked objectively drawn, and with all six players short of time, anything could happen. 

Board 4 was a clash between the oldest player in the match, the former British champion Peter Lee, and the youngest, Luca Buanne. Luca exploited a classic Sicilian pin down the c-file to win a pawn. 

On board 8, John Foley dodged a bullet when his opponent declined to make a very promising piece sacrifice.

So scores were level and the match would be decided by board 1, Maycock v Buckley, who were predictably in a time scramble – David had been playing on the increment for some time. Although he had an advantage out of the opening, he missed several chances to cash in. The one he regretted most, although it required great visualisation in several lines, occurred at move 20.

This was a fantastically complicated game for which we owe the players thanks. The match finished 4-4, leaving both sides feeling rightly that they could have done better, and Epsom feeling justifiably that they had outperformed the ratings.

The result of this match means that if both Kingston and Guildford win their other matches (by no means a certainty), Kingston may need another 4-4 draw at Guildford to be sure of the title, although the game points may be sufficiently in our favour that a narrow loss would suffice.   

Peter Andrews, Kingston captain in Surrey League division 1

* See also match report from Epsom.

The first and second teams played at the Holiday Inn, Coventry. The third team played in Peterborough on the third 4NCL weekend 15/16 February 2025

From left: front: Nia Videnova, David Maycock, Ash Stewart; back: Viviana Galvan Cipriani, Ulysse Bottazzi, Peter Finn, Liwia Jarocka, Vladyslav Larkin (Photograph: John Foley)

The 4NCL is the national chess league which is played one game per day over five weekends at hotels in central England. Divisions 1 and 2 comprise 12 teams – eight players in division 1, six in division 2. Division 3 is split into two groups of 12 teams, with six players in each. Division 4 has 32 many teams of six players. Kingston has teams in Divisions 1, 3 and 4. The team is called CSC/Kingston to reflect the aspiration that we provide a pipeline for those learning under the Chess in Schools and Communities project.

This was the third weekend and marks the halfway point of the season. It was make or break this weekend, and we proved ourselves up to the challenge. We were short-handed because some of our players were on international duty for England at the World Senior Team championships in Prague. Peter Large is in the 65+ first team, Clive Frostick is in the 50+ second team, and his wife Helen is in the women’s team. We were also missing players from our second team – Chris Fegan for England and Alan Scrimgour for Scotland. Nonetheless, we have a strong squad and others were drafted in.

The Kingston team is newly promoted and battling to survive at the top flight of British chess. During the first two weekends, we had won just one out of four matches. However, most of these opponents were from the “elite” group of first-division teams. We won against Alba which, although the top Scottish team, was not quite at the elite level. So we had not given up hope of survival.

Division 1 Round 5

The first match this third weekend was against the formidable Wood Green, a sponsored team which has won the title on many occasions. They outrated us on every board and the final defeat by 3-5 was within our expectations. Six of the games were drawn and we lost only two. This proved that we were able to slug it out with the elite.

One factor in our favour for the longer term is that the average age of our team is only 19 years old. We are much younger than the soi-disant “Wood Green Youth” team, whose teeth are getting long. Past players for our CSC/Kingston team (the fluctuating history of the team will be told one day) were the then teenagers Matthew Wadsworth and Harry Grieve, both of whom have now graduated to bigger teams.

Division 1 Round 6

After the loss, the team repaired to the Hungry Horse to lift our spirits. This had the desired effect because the next morning the team arrived fresh and creative to face the strong Barnet Knights A team. Barnet Knights have been a mainstay of junior coaching in north London and their talented protégés were participating, including the Badacsonyi brothers. We were delighted to see Stanley, who was a joint winner of the Kingston Invitational last summer.

This result marked the “coming of age” of the Kingston team according to an exultant tweet from Kingston club captain Stephen Moss, who had decamped to Florida. He loyally left aside the attractions of sun, sea and beach and hung on the live results feed from 4NCL. We were a shade outrated but by less than in the previous round. The first game to finish was from Ulysse Bottazzi, who made short work of his international master opponent as if in compensation for his quick loss the previous day. Peter Finn had two extra pawns against Ethan Pang, but both sides had two rooks which made progress very slow but he got there in the end.

The league table shows we are now fourth from the bottom, which crucially is just above the cut-off point for demotion back down to the second division. A decade ago, I captained a team which had just been promoted to the first division, and my policy was to reward the players who had won promotion for their loyalty and devotion by retaining them in the team. They had the pleasure of playing some of the best players in the country, if not Europe. Whilst this policy had ethical merits, it led to our immediate demotion. The competitive reality is that to survive after promotion it is necessary to strengthen the team, which is what we have done this season.

Division 3 Round 5

Turning now to our second team, which was on 3/4 after two weekends, our only loss being to Sussex Martlets 1, which is the strongest team in the division and top of the table. As mentioned, we were shorthanded as some of our players were on international duties. To make matters worse, at the very last minute, after the pairings against The Rookies, one of our players pulled out due to illness. Defaulting a game is a serious matter in the 4NCL, losing not just the game, but also suffering a penalty point and possibly a financial penalty. Fortunately, Gerhard Bezuidenhout, the father of one of our first-team players, stepped into the breach and, although he lost quickly, he saved the penalties.

This was an excellent victory 4-2 against a slightly higher-rated team. I wondered if they were members of the Stephen Moss fan club named eponymously for The Rookie, his book ruminating on the chess world. Alas, he could not be present to give a speech. After the match, the team tracked to the Hungry Horse for dinner with the first team. The social aspects of team morale cannot be underestimated.

Division 3 Round 6

The morning train from London to Coventry brought our Sunday substitute, Giampiero Amato, who eschewed the offer of a lift to take the No 9 bus from the station. One has to admire his faith in public transport, but it doesn’t do much for the captain’s blood pressure. We swapped the bottom board from the first team and the top board of our second team partly to keep our opponents MK Phoenix guessing.

The team cruised to another victory. Giampiero won a piece in the early middle game and could get the next train back. Ewan Wilson notched up his second point of the weekend. Zain Patel obtained a draw on board 1, as did Viviana Galvan Cipriani on board 2. Tom Farrand was under attack for most of the game, but when the smoke cleared he was the exchange up in the endgame and won.

The games have yet to be published on the 4NCL website at the time of writing so I will mention mine. I had overreached, losing a pawn. I was on the wrong side of a R+P v R ending. It looked ominous, but the game ended curiously. I had been continually checking my opponent’s king from the rear, not allowing any time for the pawn to be promoted. I offered a draw and, to my surprise, my opponent accepted, which was quite a relief. The scoresheets were signed. Our team-mates on both sides subsequently queried whether the position was really drawn. They were right of course – the position was lost.

The second team’s hopes of promotion were greatly increased this weekend with two victories. We are third in the table. Our match against second-placed ToBeDecided will be critical.

Division 4

The third team were playing a Peterborough, which meant that I was unable to learn much more than the match results. The vibe was very positive, with match wins on both days. Chris Rice and Harry Evans both scored a brace.

Division 4 Round 5

Division 4 Round 6

It was an excellent weekend, with five match victories out ofsix. Kingston are definitely contenders for promotion from Divisions 3 and 4 and to avoid demotion from Division 1. Most of the credit should be given to Kate Cooke, who organises the entire squad and was there for all the crucial moments such as dropouts and replacements, logistics and transfers. It really is a team effort.

John Foley

Kingston 3 v Wallington, Surrey League division 4 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 17 February 2025

This was another solid performance by Ed Mospan’s team – a 3-3 draw against a club first team constitutes a very good result. The veteran Nick Edwards outmanoeuvred Alicia Mason on top board, but David Shalom and Adam Nakar drew against higher-rated opponents, new recruit Paul Seymour and the ever reliable Mark Sheridan drew on boards 4 and 5, and Rob Taylor (pictured), who is really finding his feet this season, netted the equaliser on board 6. A very satisfactory evening.

Stephen Moss. Kingston club captain

Hammersmith A v Kingston A, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at the London MindSports Centre, London W6 on Thursday 13 February

The Thames Valley fixture list this season determined that our home and away matches with the club most likely to be our main rivals, Hammersmith, took place one after the other. Having beaten Hammersmith 4-2 at home on 27 January, we visited the London MindSports Centre just two and a bit weeks later.

Both teams were missing one player due to illness, but Kingston were very fortunate to have as a late sub Peter Finn, making his debut in this competition. The addition of Peter to the team meant it had four players with the same first name, always a good augury. Peter Finn did not take long to get on the scoreboard as White against Cian Ward. In an opening which might be categorised as a Queen’s Gambit Semi-Slav or possibly a Queen’s Indian Defence, this position was reached:

On board 4, Will Taylor (who had selflessly offered to change his first name to Peter in the interests of the Peter-ish team) was Black facing the experienced Carsten Pedersen, who had drawn with Supratit Banerjee in the corresponding match at the Willoughby. Will commented, “I made a big effort to play quickly and was 35 minutes up on the clock at some point (almost unprecedented for me). Alas, I didn’t manage to convert the time advantage into anything serious on the board.” However, he was never in any trouble against Carsten’s Vienna Opening and a draw was agreed in this position:

Black has just played 37…Nxh3. White has a choice between Nxh5, gxh5 and Ne4, but none of these moves would give him an advantage.

Hammersmith soon equalised the score by winning on board 5. From an English Opening, Peter Andrews reached this position against Aryaman Ganguly:

Thus scores were level with boards 1, 2 and 6 still in play. If Kingston members following events on WhatsApp were feeling the tension, for the players at the venue it must have been agonising, especially given the way each of the remaining games veered from favouring one side to the other.

On board 6, John Foley faced the same opponent, Greg Billenness, as in the corresponding match last year. John again deployed the Caro-Kann Defence, but this time forearmed, instead of the Fantasy Variation, Greg chose a line which chess.com tells me is called the Von Hennig Gambit. The opening moves were: 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Bc4 Nf6 5. f3 e3. With this move, John explained, he was “trying to move the game into uncharted waters”. The book move is 5…b5. After both players castled queenside, the following position was reached, White having just played 22. f5.

Kingston were now a point ahead, with the top two boards still in play. Peter Large’s game against Ali Hill was on a knife edge. In accordance with one of his New Year Resolutions, Peter had played the Trompowsky Opening for the first time. After 16 moves, this was the position, Peter having just played 16. Bb5:

The last game to finish, perhaps not unexpectedly, was Peter Lalić’s – he was Black against Thomas Bonn (see photograph at top of page). It might have ended with a threefold repetition as early as move 15, but Peter varied from his previous moves to avoid this. A long ending of rooks and knights followed, with the advantage veering from one side to the other. Thomas queened first, and Peter had to give up his rook for the queen, resulting in the unusual balance of forces shown in this position, with Black to play:

This made the final result 4-2 to Kingston, the same result as in our home match against Hammersmith. This puts Kingston in a dominant position in the league at the halfway stage.

David Rowson, Kingston captain in Thames Valley League division 1

Wallington v Kingston, Lauder Trophy semi-final played at Wallington United Reformed Church on 12 February 2025

This match was always going to be tense. It goes with the territory in the Lauder Trophy, where the collective rating of the team cannot exceed 10,500. How do you divide up the rating cake: two strong players and four weaker players; six mid-rated players? The puzzle always takes a lot of solving.

Wallington and Kingston went for very similar teams – two strong players and four very decent players in the 1500-1750 bracket. A close match was guaranteed and so it proved, with Kingston squeezing home by 3.5-2.5 after an evening of high drama.

On top board, veterans David Rowson of Kingston and Nick Edwards of Wallington (and indeed Coulsdon) faced each other – amazingly, so David says, the first time they have ever met in a classical game despite both being an integral part of the Surrey chess scene for more than half a century.

Nick is a very principled, positional player and opened with d4, to which David replied with an unusual King’s Indian-type line. “Nick and I had a great set-to,” says David, “which we both enjoyed, with some rather unusual positions arising from what I think is called the KID Kramer System. After the game we spent a long time analysing it, but putting it through Stockfish it seems we assessed a lot of the positions wrongly.”

This was a key position. Should Black take the pawn on h4? “Maybe I should have taken,” says David, “but it looked very risky to me.”

Alan Scrimgour had White and a hefty rating advantage on board 2, and his assured win against the very solid David Jones was vital to the Kingston cause. This was how Alan succinctly summed up the game afterwards: “Careful manoeuvring around the queenside majority combined with pressure on the IQP [isolated queen’s pawn] led to win of the exchange. My opponent, despite his time shortage, responded with a kingside sortie that White had under control.” This was the game’s denouement. White is on top, so Black decides to go for broke.

Meanwhile on board 3, Jon Eckert was defending an Exchange French. He felt it was drawish from an early stage, but there were some late complications and he had winning chances. But Jon also recognised that we probably had our noses in front in the match – with good positions with White on boards 2 and 4 – and offered his opponent a draw, which was accepted. The fact that Kingston’s players were all taking stock of the match situation was one of the great positives of this win. Chess is a very individual game, good players are often egoists, and the match context can sometimes be forgotten.

Kingston’s one reverse came on board 6, where Aziz Sannie lost to the promising Wallington junior Mohamed Nasrudeen Meeran. Aziz went the exchange (rook for knight) down and, try though he might, couldn’t generate much counterplay as his opponent liquidated to a won endgame.

On board 5 Kingston captain Ed Mospan was facing Luke Glinton in another match-up between players with almost identical ratings. Neither could establish a significant edge in a series of blocked positions and a draw was agreed. Another important result with Black for Kingston.

That left David Bickerstaff (pictured above on the right of the picture, with Ed Mospan beside him, in a previous match at South Norwood), to put the ball in the back of the net, which is exactly what he did. David had White on board 4 against the slightly higher-rated Robert Davies, but he never gave his opponent a chance with a perfect pawn storm against Black’s KIng’s Indian Defence. Here is the game which took Kingston into the Lauder Trophy final, where we will face Coulsdon, with annotations by David.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain

Maidenhead B v Kingston B, Thames Valley League division 2 match played at St Luke’s Community Hall, Maidenhead on 10 February 2025

“And we will get you back for the away trip to Maidenhead.” Words uttered by Stephen Moss at the 2024 end-of-season celebration as he presented me with a special signed copy of his book The Rookie as a farewell gift before I departed for pastures new in Oxfordshire. 

Fast forward eight months, and true to Stephen’s word here I was at Maidenhead’s St Luke’s Community Hall, making my return to action. Also granted the captain’s armband to marshal the team I had captained for the past two seasons in the Thames Valley league. It was great to be back.

On paper, it looked like quite an even match-up. However, Maidenhead’s captain Simon Foster had a decision to make when at 7.45pm his top board Steve James hadn’t arrived and wasn’t answering his calls. Simon boldly decided to sub himself in, only for Steve to walk in the room at 7.46pm, with two moves already on the board. Simon, though, managed to back up his brave decision by defeating the estimable Peter Andrews.

Peter had exchanged his queen for two rooks in what was a complicated middlegame, but unfortunately missed a crucial move that would have resulted in pinning his opponent’s queen. “I saw it the moment I had a made my move,” Peter said later, “and then made several more bad moves while the balance of my mind was disturbed and as time ran out.” A case of not just missing the winning move but knowing you have missed it – the worst of all worlds. Simon appeared very relieved after the game after making a potentially hasty decision to sub himself in, and credit to him for getting the victory. 

On board 2, the ever dependable Alan Scrimgour (pictured above) was facing Charles Bullock in his penultimate game before flying out to Prague at the weekend to represent the Scottish team in the World Senior Team Chess Championship. Alan played an excellent game with Black, his two bishops synchronising menacingly from distance to home in on his opponent’s castled king. The key moment in the game occurred in the position below:

I had the pleasure of meeting Zubair and Homayoon Froogh (Zubair is Homayoon’s son) – promising new members who have made excellent starts to their Kingston careers. However, it wasn’t to be their night as they succumbed to the very experienced Tony Milnes and Nigel Smith respectively.

Zubair works as a doctor and dashed from his day job in London to Maidenhead for the match – a long drive is far from ideal preparation for a tough encounter like this. Playing with White on board 3, he felt he made a mess of the opening but outplayed his opponent in the middlegame to equalise. He then had an opportunity to liquidate to a draw but decided to push for victory, which in hindsight was perhaps over-zealous as he got trapped in a neat mating net on the edge of the board. On board 4, Homayoon found himself a couple of early pawns down and couldn’t regain them. The extra pawns proved the difference in a tense rook and pawn endgame, with both players playing on the increment. 

I had the white pieces on board 5 against William Castaneda and managed what I thought at the time was quite a smooth victory in the Scotch Gambit. I felt my opponent played too passively in the opening, from which he emerged with a very cramped position. I provoked a pawn break that allowed me to pick up a pawn, and from there I exchanged off pieces, winning another pawn. My opponent resigned as I was about to promote. However, the computer shows my opponent missed a chance to equalise when I sloppily misplayed the move order in an exchange sequence, demonstrating the importance of thorough calculation, something that my rusty chess brain wasn’t up to computing.

On board 6, Adam Nakar got a tremendous victory against the higher-rated John Snead. Adam had felt a big win was just around the corner, and looked delighted (and relieved!) with his result after he had forced home his pawn advantage in the endgame. So the match ended in a 3-3 draw. It is always a good point on the road to Maidenhead, and it was a pleasure to return to the fold alongside some familiar faces. I’ll maybe see you next year in Maidenhead.

Gregor Smith

Kingston 4 v Epsom 5, Surrey League division 5 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 10 February 2025

On paper this promised to be a very close match. In reality, Kingston 4 were swept aside by Epsom 5, showing just how much strength in depth dynamic president Marcus Gosling’s club are developing. The saving grace for Kingston was a fine win for Nette Robinson (pictured above – she is a singer and artist, as well as a chess player), who was making her Kingston debut. That at least saved us from the ignominy of a whitewash.

We shall be brief with the obsequies. David Shalom was defeated by the highly rated James Pooler on board 1; Paul Seymour, a new recruit to Kingston, lost with Black to Pietro Silke Balerna on board 2; Sean Tay had winning, then drawing, chances on board 3 against Robert Fairhall but both evaded him; Mark Sheridan on board 4 was well in the game against the experienced Alistair Mackenzie but fell at the final fence and was checkmated; and on board 6 Anqi Yang was quickly in difficulties against the officially unrated Gary Allen.

We live to fight another day, but are impressed by Epsom’s large cohort of 1600-rated players. The Surrey League’s “Minor” division – the official name of Div 5 – is not really so minor after all. It’s a shark pool!

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain

Kingston v Epsom, Alexander Cup semi-final 10-board match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 5 February 2025

Photographs from John Saunders unless captioned otherwise

Match report from Kingston match captain John Foley

See also match report from Marcus Gosling of Epsom Chess Club

Kingston, the clear favourites, won the semi-final of the Alexander Cup, the Surrey team knockout championship, by a wide margin but were full of admiration for the youthful Epsom team. At one point during the evening, the balance of the match was evenly poised. The 8½–1½ result flatters Kingston because the games were much closer.

The match started with a one-minute silence following the sad news of the death of Stewart Reuben. Most of those present would not have known Stewart, so I have posted a short blog about his enormous contribution to chess.

Board 4: Chris Wright (Epsom) v Mike Healey (Kingston) [1-0]

The first game to finish was at 9pm when Mike Healey trapped the queen of Chris Wright, a former Kingstonian. Sometimes it is easier to capture an unsuspecting queen rather than a well-defended king. The full brevity may may have some instructional value.

The final position

Board 10: Alan Bates (Epsom) v David Rowson (Kingston) [2-0]

As the match progressed, the game positions became harder to judge and the ratings advantage of Kingston seemed to count for naught. It was not until 10pm that the next result came from David Rowson. His opponent, Alan Bates, even though massively outrated, held the advantage for most of the game. Unfortunately, the game ended suddenly when Alan retreated his threatened knight to the wrong square.

The white knight under attack moved to the middle of the board 30. Ne4? but this lost to 30. Nd3 attacking the white queen whilst revealing an attack on the Ne4. White resigned immediately. The saving move would have been 30. Na6!, which goes against the usual advice that knights should not be placed on the edge of the board. However, the Na6 cannot be captured because White has counterplay, eg pin and win the black knight or else give the knight an escape on c7 with Qg3.

A quarter of an hour later came a flurry of results with Ash Stewart, Luca Buanne, Peter Andrews and Peter Lalić all winning and Will Taylor settling for a draw. Kingston had won the match.

Board 5: Ash Stewart (Kingston) v Marcus Gosling (Epsom) [3-0]

Ash Stewart played White against Epsom team captain Marcus Gosling in a Classical Catalan and accurately built up the pressure. Marcus, a man of action not content with a defensive posture, boldly opened the position – unfortunately to his own detriment and soon Ash had doubled rooks on the seventh rank.

Here Marcus played 26…b4 forking the rook and knight. Ash gratefully grabbed the Bc7. Black had no further counterplay after capturing the knight on a3. I glanced at the board at this point and wondered if Black could give up the c7 bishop 26…Bxf4 prior to playing the b4 fork on the desperado principle. Although White still has the advantage, at least Black would have an extra pawn compared to the game.

Board 7: Luca Buanne (Kingston) v Lev Razhnou (Epsom) [4-0]

This game always looked positive for Kingston. Lev doubled his rooks on the g-file hoping for a breakthrough. Meanwhile Luca had a free hand on the other side of the board and grabbed some pawns. Eventually Lev had to give up the exchange resulting in a RR v NR ending which Luca successfully navigated.

Board 6: Arnav Kumar (Epsom) v John Hawksworth (Kingston) [4½-½]

The best Epsom result of the evening was achieved by Arnav Kumar, who drew against an international master. His brother Sachin also drew on board 8. These two brothers are a formidable addition to the Epsom squad. John Hawksworth was disappointed with the result, but credited his opponent for a very resourceful tactical defence.

Board 9: Peter Andrews (Kingston) v Maya Keen (Epsom) [5½-½]

Peter Andrews essayed the English against Maya Keen who replied with the Agincourt Defence. Maya came out of the opening with a solid position, but ambitiously sacrificed a knight and a bishop for a rook and a pawn – an exchange which is usually regarded as disadvantageous. Peter entered the endgame with his two bishops dominating Maya’s rook. Maya, with her mother sitting behind lending moral support, put up a good fight in the ending time scramble. Peter visibly suffers from nerves under time pressure but managed to steer the game to a successful conclusion. One interesting point about the game is that although the sacrifice was unsound, so was Peter’s reply.

After 18…Bxf2+, White played 19. Rxf2 automatically but should instead have played 19. Kh1! This quiet retreat wins a piece for two pawns because Black cannot save both the Ne4 and the Bf2. Peter expressed some embarrassment afterwards at missing this elementary tactic. It underlines the point that a won game is not exempt from error. Indeed, the dictum that one learns from one’s losses should be replaced by the dictum that one learns from all one’s games.

Board 3: Peter Lalić (Kingston) v Robin Haldane (Epsom) [6½-½]

Peter Lalić is a chess magician: his openings are passive: he tries to exchange queens early and he doesn’t mind losing tempi as his knights retreat to their starting square. Yet, all of a sudden, through a mysterious sequence of pointless moves, he is suddenly in a winning position. The reader will be pleased to know that this did not happen on this occasion – Robin Haldane did not allow Peter’s Mieses Opening to mesmerise him. Robin, a veteran of the Surrey league, played positionally gaining the upper hand. This is where the second part of Peter’s strategy comes into play – his opponents take so long to figure out what’s going on that their clock runs down. In the diagram below, Robin is a good pawn ahead and his rooks are actively placed. However, by now he was playing on the 10-second increment, which is no friend of accuracy.

Black saw a chance to simplify the game and exchange knights and so played 37…Nf5?? Unfortunately this knight had been doing a vital defensive job protecting the d5 square. Peter instantly lashed out 38. Rd5+ forking the king and rook. Game over.

Board 8: Sachin Kumar (Epsom) v Will Taylor (Kingston) [7–1]

Will Taylor seemed to be cruising towards victory when he was tempted to place his rook in the heart of enemy territory. It looked crushing but he had overlooked a tactic which his young opponent found. We join the game at the critical moment.

As usual, the top two boards were still slugging it out. Zain Patel had an advantage over David Maycock, who was playing on the increment in the endgame. However, David’s accuracy proved decisive. The final game to finish was the IM encounter on board 1 between the old adversaries Peter Large and Graeme Buckley. Peter played 1. d4 for the first time in 40 years and a defensive game drifted into an insipid rook endgame and an agreed draw.

Board 2: Zain Patel (Epsom) v David Maycock (Kingston) [8-1]

Zain knows Kingston well, playing for us in the 4NCL and having played against us previously. He had the confidence of managing to draw with David Maycock the previous week although he had lost to him last year in the final of the Lauder Cup. Zain played the solid Colle System, which led to an equal game. David thought too hard about finding a way to punish such a dull opening and ended up having to play on the increment from move 18. By the end, both players were playing within 10 seconds each. Inevitably mistakes were made. Zain had chances to reduce the position to a theoretical draw.

Board 1: Peter Large (Kingston) v Graeme Buckley (Epsom) [8½-1½ ]

The encounter on top board between two international masters was a dull affair, with neither side conceding an inch. In the end, each player had a rook and three pawns on the same side. A draw could have been agreed at almost any point during the game.

The final

Kingston march on to our fourth final in as many years. Epsom last reached the final of the Alexander Cup in 1939. Only two teams have won four in a row – Mitcham and Redhill. Will Kingston share in this illustrious honour? The final against Guildford (to be played at Ashtead on Tuesday 29 April) should be a very competitive match.

John Foley, Kingston Alexander Cup captain

CSC/Kingston 1 beat Scottish flagbearers Alba to get on the scoreboard in the first division and raise hopes that we might after all survive in this shark pool

Well, we will not be whitewashed. After a tough opening weekend when we lost both matches in the very testing 4NCL division 1, we finally got on the scoreboard on the second weekend in Peterborough. We were beaten 6.5-1.5 by Guildford Youth on the Saturday, but on Sunday we defeated the Scottish side Alba 5-2. We were helped by a weather-induced default, but even without that we would have won the match.

French FM Ulysse Bottazzi made an excellent debut for CSC/Kingston against Wood Green Youth, drawing with the very strong Polish-born FM (surely soon to be IM) Maciej Czopor, winner of the 2024 Kingston Invitational. The prodigious Supratit Banerjee went one better even than that, beating Polish player Tomasz Sygnowski on board 8. Supratit’s game was highly tactical, and it hinged on the position shown below. Sygnowski playing Black is actually on top at this point, but goes wrong in an exchange of pieces and Supratit emerges with a winning advantage.

We had three winners against Alba on Sunday – David Maycock, Roland Bezuidenhout and Supratit again, though this time by default (an Alba player had failed to get down to Peterborough because of a storm on Saturday which disrupted rail links). David’s game against Declan Shafi was brief and brutal, courtesy of two killer bishops.

Roland enjoyed a tremendous win with Black against IM and eight-times Scottish champion Roddy McKay. After positional skirmishing, it suddenly becomes very tactical and White’s position collapses.

CSC/Kingston 2 had a terrific weekend in division 3 (Knights), winning both their matches to put themselves into early promotion contention. On board 1, Peter Finn again won both his games to make him 4/4 so far this season. CSC/Kingston 2 dispatched a strong North West Eagles team with surprising ease on Saturday, but had more difficulty on Sunday, narrowly defeating a Coventry side who on paper were a good deal weaker than their opponents the previous day.

CSC/Kingston 3 had a familiar weekend in division 4, which is a Swiss tournament whereas divisions 1, 2 and 3 (divided into Knights and Bishops) are 12-team all-play-alls. CSC/Kingston 3 won against heavily outrated Barnet Knights D on Saturday, but that propelled them up the table and into a tough match with Iceni 2 on Sunday. CSC/Kingston and Iceni had identical average ratings of 1903, but in a well-contested encounter Iceni squeezed out a win by 3.5-2.5 to leave CSC/Kingston 3 in joint 14th place in the 32-team division.

The next 4NCL weekend is on 15/16 February, with the first and second teams playing in Coventry and the third team back in action in Peterborough.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain