Kingston 2 v Surbiton 1, Surrey League division 2 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 22 April 2024
There was nothing (except local pride) riding on this match – Surbiton could not catch divisional champions Ashtead and we were safe from relegation – but our neighbours in the borough of Kingston nevertheless brought a strong first team to the Willoughby and were too good for our seconds, running out 5-2 winners. We were nonetheless happy with our four draws, and the other three games were all very well contested, so it was a satisfying evening given the rating disparity between the two teams.
Performance of the night for Kingston came from Jon Eckert, who played with typical élan with Black on board 4 to hold Liam Bayly, despite the latter being rated 250 points above him. Alan Scrimgour drew with the dangerous Altaf Chaudhry on board 3, and David Shalom also secured an excellent draw against Graham Alcock on board 7. Indeed, in the bar afterwards when I congratulated him on the draw against an opponent rated 100 points above him, he looked a little crestfallen at not having pressed home his advantage. I must learn not to seek to limit my players’ expectations. Ratings are only numbers after all.
Our other draw came from David Rowson in the battle of the Davids – his opponent was the highly rated David Scott – on board 1. David R played a Caro-Kann to which David S responded with a very solid set-up, and after some complicated middlegame jostling a draw was agreed in the position below, where White has a small edge because of Black’s pawn islands.
“I think I should have played on as I had a bit of an advantage,” David said later with typical honesty, “but I was getting tired after trying to work out what was going on previously. Neither of us completely understood what was going on.”
There was a fascinating clash of the captains on board 5 – Kingston skipper Gregor Smith with White against his opposite number Nick Faulks. Gregor played the Smith-Morra Gambit (how could a Smith play anything else?) against Nick’s Sicilian and really went for it. We will show the game in full.
The other two games also resulted in losses, but both were extremely tight encounters. Nick Grey was beaten by Andrew Boughen on board 6, extra pawns in a minor piece endgame deciding the issue, and Surbiton’s ever creative Jasper Tambini got the better of Julian Way in a high-level match-up on board 2. Julian played a sharp response to Jasper’s Ruy Lopez, and after 11 moves he had a slight edge in the position below.
But Jasper is a fine tactician and made imaginative use of his knights on the kingside while threatening a pawn storm on the queenside. He built up a solid advantage and eventually found a winning tactic to seal the deal. That gave Surbiton a well-deserved 5-2 victory in a match played in an excellent spirit between two clubs who have mastered the art of friendly local rivalry.
Stephen Moss, Kingston captain in Surrey League division 2
Kingston B v Hounslow A, Thames Valley division 2 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston, on 18 April 2024
This was a remarkably professional win by Kingston B over Hounslow A, and it suddenly (and rather surprisingly) puts the Bs in a good position to win promotion and join the A team in division 1 of the Thames Valley League. Whether we really want two teams in the top division is another matter, but we probably have to go for it and see if we can cope next season if we do get there.
In this match everyone played their part, even me! I managed a quick draw against Hounslow captain (and Thames Valley chair) David White on board 3, finally abandoning my hopeless Scandinavian in favour of the Caro-Kann, which at least appears to have the virtue of solidity. We shall see.
Charlie Cooke drew on board 6 against promising junior Vibhush Pusapadi, and Gregor Smith got the third draw of the night against JJ Padam, though the Kingston captain looked slightly disappointed at not being able to convert his pawn advantage in a blocked position. Meanwhile on board 5, Nick Grey continued his excellent recent run with a well-controlled win with Black over Eugene Gregorio, who always seems to play at blitz speed and may, Nick thought, have missed a chance to win the exchange in his desire to crack on with the game.
The encounters on the two top boards were interesting struggles, both eventually going Kingston’s way to make the final score in the match an emphatic 4.5-1.5. Peter Andrews provided a helpful summary of his game against Hounslow veteran Leon Fincham: “I retained an edge through a typically tense opening, and my opponent’s thematic opening of the position was unsound. There was a flurry of tactics, at the end of which I had a material advantage and the safer king, so could mop up safely even with little time on my clock.”
Peter pinpoints this as the key position and the moment on which the game turned. Black has just played 16…f5, the expected move in a King’s Indian-type position:
Julian Way also won a very nice game on board 1, demonstrating once again what a top-class endgame player he is. We join the game after White’s 28th move – coincidentally another f5!? White’s attack looks somewhat scary, but Black has it all under control.
A very encouraging evening and a fine result for Kingston and for Gregor, who will be giving up the captaincy when he decamps to Oxfordshire in the summer. He will be sorely missed at Kingston as organiser, assistant secretary, captain and all-round good guy, but one hopes he will stay in touch from afar. Maybe he could even play in Maidenhead!
Whether his legacy will be getting Kingston B into division 1 of the Thames Valley League will depend on his team’s final match of the season – the crunch derby with Surbiton B on 29 April. As the league table (see below under the match scorecard) shows, that really will be a zero-sum clash. With Richmond B almost certain to beat bottom-of-the-table Staines in their last match, whoever wins the Kingston-Surbiton encounter will get promotion while the loser is likely to be squeezed into third place (with just two teams promoted). It should be quite a night as we mark Gregor’s departure.
Ashtead 1 v Kingston 2, Surrey League division 2 match played at Ashtead Peace Memorial Hall on 16 April 2024
We are safe! From relegation in division 2 of the Surrey League that is. In fact, we were already before this match because South Norwood 1 beat Coulsdon 2 on the previous evening to leave Coulsdon stranded in bottom place. But getting a 3.5-3.5 draw with Ashtead, runaway winners in the division and on course to take their place in division 1 next season, emphatically made the point that we deserved to stay up.
It was a very solid performance from a team of Kingston stalwarts. The president, John Foley, got an early draw with Black against the highly rated Dan Rosen on board 2, and the also outrated Jon Eckert drew with Bertie Barlow on board 5. Jon compromised his pawn structure to build a very promising attack, but Bertie neutralised it well and peace was eventually declared.
Peter Andrews had White against Phil Brooks on board 1 and, conscious of the disparity in ratings and the way the match might pan out, played a very solid English opening which led to a draw in the position below. He was ahead on the clock, which may have influenced his opponent’s decision, and on his part was conscious that he had two other important matches later in the week, so preserving energy was important. Peter called it a “cynical” draw, but let’s call it a canny and very useful one against a strong player.
John Bussmann was in early trouble against the experienced Jonathan Hinton on board 4. The Ashtead player sacrificed the exchange for a big attack, and it proved well-judged, with his pieces combining irresistibly to overwhelm John’s king. John is making his way back into competitive chess after a long layoff and this was a tough outing.
At this point Ashtead had the advantage, though Nick Grey on board 7 with White against Adrian Waldock had established a passed c-pawn and had good chances in what was shaping up to be a tricky endgame. I thought I was drawing against Tom Barton on board 6, but as so often my poor endgame technique was letting me down and a few imprecise moves, not helped by time trouble, left me struggling to hold the position.
The key game was the board 3 encounter between Kingston chair Alan Scrimgour and Seb Galer. The two are old adversaries, and Galer was determined to avenge a previous defeat – perhaps too determined because it may be that he overreached himself. Seb played a Pirc – and played it perkily. This key early position was reached:
Alan’s win made it 2.5-2.5 and left me and Nick struggling with our respective endgames. I lost mine rather miserably – back, for the umpteenth time, to the drawing board – but Nick was well ahead on the clock and playing confidently. Eventually his opponent cracked, and Nick had a memorable win to draw the match. As we left, the vanquished Adrian Waldock and his Ashtead team-mates were still poring over the final few moves of his game and looking for ways to save it. Too late, I’m afraid. We are on the way home, happy to share the spoils against the division two champions.
Stephen Moss, Kingston captain in Surrey League division 2
Surbiton D v Kingston C, Thames Valley division X match played at Fircroft, Surbiton on 8 April 2024
The whooshing continues. Two days after beating Richmond E, the Kingston third team put Surbiton D to the sword in an away match at the refurbished Fircroft, where Surbiton have happily been reinstalled this season after a couple of years’ absence during the restoration. It was a very professional 2.5-1.5 win, with Kingston C captain Stephen Daines on this occasion putting himself in the team and enjoying an important victory on board 4.
Charlie Cooke was first to finish, winning smoothly against James Lawrence. Stephen made it 2-0 with a controlled victory against Shelia Siu, rook domination allowing him to drive home a passed pawn. But Sean Tay, having played an ambitious (but completely sound) early sacrifice against Kim Cross, then miscalculated in a key position, missed forced mate and went down to a 49-move defeat which he said as he left would guarantee him a sleepless night. The opening and Sean’s marvellous missed opportunity is worth looking at (though not necessarily worth endlessly replaying in your mind in the early hours of the morning!).
Sean’s defeat left securing victory in the hands of the reliable Ergo Nobel on board 2, and he did not disappoint, fending off Phil Goodings’ queen-and-knight attack (often a fatal combination) and earning the draw which gave Kingston the match by 2.5-1.5. Another excellent performance by a well-marshalled and highly motivated team.
Kingston C v Richmond E, Thames Valley division X match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 8 April 2024
“We are whooshing!,” said triumphant Kingston captain Stephen Daines after this 3-1 win against Richmond E, which backed up last week’s victory by Kingston 4 away to South Norwood. What he meant was that the players in our third and fourth teams, many of whom have been introduced to competitive over-the-board chess this season, are now finding their feet and starting to produce excellent results.
Stephen, seen in the photograph above watching his players in their four-board match, sees his role as nurturing new talent, and has done a great job this season juggling three teams across almost 30 matches. Three of the four Kingston players in this match are new to the club this season, and the team did well to beat some match-hardened opponents.
Leon Mellor-Sewell with Black lost to the highly rated Alex Shard on board 1, losing the thread as his Sicilian Defence moved into the middlegame. But his three team-mates all won. Robin Kerremans and Greg Heath beat Richmond veterans Laurie Catling and Julian Bedale, and David Bickerstaff defeated the higher-rated Thomas Brand. Truly a result to send Captain Daines to the bar in a happy frame of mind.
South Norwood 3 v Kingston 4, Surrey League division 5 match played at West Thornton Community Centre, Thornton Heath on 4 April 2024
On the same night that the old soaks of Kingston 2 lost to South Norwood 1, a (mostly) young, boundlessly enthusiastic Kingston 4 team led by acting captain Ed Mospan strolled to a 4.5-1.5 victory against South Norwood 3. After our all-conquering season in 2022-23, we have had some setbacks this year, but here was hope for the future: the inspiring Mospan, who initiated the Kingston Rapidplays a few years ago, has returned to the club after a three-year absence, and four of the other five players are new to Kingston this season. Clubs have constantly to renew themselves, and here was renewal in action.
Ed himself, perhaps weighed down by the burden of the acting captaincy (the usual third- and fourth-team captain, Stephen Daines, was indisposed), lost a quickfire game to John Ganev on board 2, both players blitzing out their moves as if they were competing in one of Ed’s much-missed rapidplays (time for a revival surely). That gave South Norwood 3 an early 1-0 lead, but it was to be the only reverse of the night.
A succession of wins for Kingston’s new “fab four”, none of whom has played more than a handful of rated games for us or indeed anybody else, followed. David Bickerstaff (pictured above, right, alongside Captain Mospan) beat the very experienced South Norwood captain David Howes on board 3; Leon Mellor-Sewell, brimming with confidence, won well on board 4; Ergo Nobel, continuing a fine run of form, won on board 5; and Rob Taylor triumphed in a chaotic game on board 6.
Sean Tay, a veteran in this Kingston team having been at the club for a couple of seasons, then rounded off a very satisfying evening with a draw against super-solid South Norwood stalwart Ken Chamberlain after a three-hour struggle on board 1.
Kingston may have had more glamorous team victories this season, but there has been none that gave me this much pleasure: a group of players relatively new to chess bonding as a team and bringing home the spoils after the sort of lengthy journey that only members who are really enthusiastic about playing for the club are willing to make. That all-important renewal is in safe hands.
South Norwood 1 v Kingston 2, Surrey League division 2 match played at West Thornton Community Centre, Thornton Heath on 4 April 2024
South Norwood are usually a very different proposition at home compared with when they travel, and so it proved here. Threatened by relegation from Surrey division 2, they put out their strongest possible team against Kingston 2 and ran out winners by 5-2. But we had some hard luck stories, and on another night we might have come away with a 3.5-3.5 draw.
The first game to finish was a gloriously violent struggle between South Norwood’s Ronald Harris and Kingston’s Jon Eckert on board 4. Forty years ago, Ron was a 2200-level player and, now 80, has retained a great deal of his strength. He plays at rapid speed, loves to attack, will seize the initiative at every opportunity, and has probably forgotten more about chess than most of us will ever know.
Jon Eckert is now slouch either and is always up for an over-the-board punch-up. The two of them fashioned a game which, sitting next to them, I could barely take my eyes off. This was raw, kill-or-be-killed chess and is worth looking at in full – a glorious French Winawer in which both sides play with the zero regard for defence.
That made it 1-0 to South Norwood, but Kingston were soon on the board after a draw between old rivals Alan Scrimgour and Paul Dupré on board 3. Alan had made most of the running against Paul’s Alekhine’s Defence, but with time starting to become a factor he allowed his advantage to slip and by the end Black had not just equalised but established a small plus in the position below:
Peter Andrews got a good draw with Black against South Norwood’s highly rated Tariq Oozeerally on board 2 to make it 2-1 to South Norwood. Both players played with commendable accuracy in an Alapin Sicilian and peace was declared after 30 cagey moves in the dead-level position below:
Kingston’s Charlie Cooke lost a well-contested game with the higher-rated Michael Livesey on board 7 to put South Norwood 3-1 up, but I managed to win my game with White against Oliver Weiss on board 5 to narrow the gap to 3-2. I had also faced an Alekhine’s Defence, but unlike Alan did not have the courage to challenge it and played a rather anaemic opening. My opponent had a plus (at one point threateningly healthy) for most of the game, but as a messy middlegame developed he allowed me some counterplay and missed a forced mate in two in a position where with best play he had good drawing chances.
Beating a higher-rated player has been such a rarity for me this season that I have analysed the encounter in the Games section, though as others have pointed out the computer-heavy nature of the annotation does hint at the somewhat threadbare nature of my mid-game analysis. I really was guessing at key moments. But it was all fine in the end thanks to my opponent losing the thread in this position:
Black played 28… Be6 here, which allows an unstoppable mate after 29. Qc1. Instead he should play 28…Qf4, which gives good (if complicated) drawing chances. The lines which might ensue are shown in my annotation of the game in the Games section.
So 3-2 to South Norwood with two games to go. David Rowson stood better against the very strong Marcus Osborne on board 1 (their game is pictured above, alongside the Oozeerally-Andrews encounter). Another Kingston stalwart, Nick Grey, was battling hard on board 6 against South Norwood captain Simon Lea, and certainly didn’t look to be worse. At that stage, a drawn match looked perfectly plausible.
It was not to be, however. Nick went wrong in the endgame as time started to take its toll. “I was playing for a win ,” he explained afterwards, “and missed the fact that liquidating both h-pawns would have been drawing.” Even worse was David Rowson’s fate on board 1, where it was the familiar story of first the win going west and then the draw slipping away as well.
David’s game with Marcus Osborne was a very classy one up to the moment when the Kingston board 1 blundered. Marcus played a Sicilian Defence, to which David responded imaginatively, leading to this position after 15 moves:
The engine has a slight preference for Black here, but the white pawn lodged on e6 is potentially awkward for Black, and David made the running hereafter, winning the exchange after a slip by Marcus and having this objectively “won” position after 28 moves:
Of course the notion of an objectively won middlegame position is ludicrous, as the Dutch grandmaster Hein Donner noted in a famous remark: “I love all positions. Give me a difficult positional game, I’ll play it. Give me a bad position, I’ll defend it. Openings, endgames, complicated positions, and dull, drawn positions, I love them all and will give my best efforts. But totally winning positions I cannot stand.”
It is when they have “won” positions that many chess players (at club level at least) start feeling queasy, while the player with the “lost” position has nothing to lose, can throw caution to the wind and will draw on all sorts of resources to try to equalise. Marcus is just such a player and he showed his resilience in the rest of the game.
David, perhaps subconsciously relaxing in that “won position”, blundered to give back the exchange and lead to a level position, but after that, as David later, said Marcus showed his ability and played the final part of the game well. Here is the denouement from move 34.
A desperate finish for David who, behind his brave facade, was very disappointed by the result. Chess is cruel – a conclusion we could draw after pretty much every match we play. But we fight on. We are not quite clear of the relegation mire yet (see table below, under the match scorecard), but once our relegation rivals South Norwood 1 and Coulsdon 2 have played on 15 April we will know exactly what we have to do against Ashtead 1 and Surbiton 1, the two strongest teams in the division. A narrow win for Coulsdon 2 would leave us having to accumulate a handful of game points to survive. We can surely manage that … can’t we?
Stephen Moss, Kingston 2 captain in Surrey division 2
Guildford 4 v Kingston 3, Surrey League division 4 match played at the Guildford Institute on 25 March 2024
Guildford are a large club with considerable strength in depth, as they proved in this Surrey Centenary Trophy match, running out 5-1 winners against a competitive Kingston 3 side. Ergo Nobel, on board 6, deserves a prize for getting our solitary point and avoiding a whitewash, though all the Kingston players fought hard.
On board 1 Charlie Cooke lost to Neil Crosswell, who has an ECF rating of 1748, pretty handy for a fourth team! On board 2 Sean Tay faced the veteran Peter Horlock, and it was even well into the middlegame. Sean then missed a tactic and dropped the exchange, but he had a big time advantage and offered a draw, which Peter (who is not unused to time scrambles) rejected. Sean sought to complicate to exploit Peter’s time crisis, but Peter negotiated the endgame well and forced resignation.
On board 4 Mark Sheridan faced Richard Duncalfe and it proved an evenly matched, carefully played game in which Mark defended adroitly. But gradually Mark’s opponent began to exert pressure, and after almost three hours’ play Mark, having just made an illegal move (pointed out by a bystander, which is not actually permitted under the rules), chose to resign.
Now for the good news. On board 6 Ergo Nobel had Black against Stephen Taylor. It was a highly tactical game encounter, but Ergo played a well-controlled game and always maintained a time advantage. As he exerted pressure down the h-file, the main site of the battle for much of the game, his opponent’s position became more difficult and in the end he ran out of time. Ergo, who joined the Kingston club at the start of the season, is proving a huge asset and is really on a roll.
I was facing Tony Garrood on board 3, and tried to attack on the kingside against Tony’s Sicilian, but I blundered the exchange (rook for bishop), missed several opportunities for counterplay and in the end succumbed to Tony’s attack. We defaulted board 5, the club’s first default for several years – our player is still missing somewhere in darkest Surrey – so the final score was 5-1. We live and, hopefully, learn.
Kingston B v Staines A, Thames Valley division 2 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 25 March 2024
Staines, missing several players because of illness, brought only half a team to the Willoughby, so we started 3-0 up, which was reassuring. Nick Grey drew with Ye Kyaw on board 1 to ensure victory; newcomer Leon Mellor-Sewell lost with Black to the experienced David Beam; and David Shalom made sure the margin of victory was a comfortable 4.5-1.5 by beating Clive Lawrence after a long struggle when the Staines player went wrong in a drawish endgame.
Kingston B continue to more than hold their own in division 2 of the Thames Valley League and some optimists are even contemplating the possibility of promotion, though Hounslow A and Surbiton B, whom we will face in our two remaining fixtures in this division, will no doubt have other ideas.
Kingston A v Surbiton A, Thames Valley division 1 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 21 March 2024
Surbiton came to Kingston with a much-weakened team and had not been helped when their top board dropped out on the morning of the match because of illness. We needed to win well to keep up the pressure on Hammersmith at the top of Thames Valley division 1; we expected to win well because we outrated Surbiton by an average of 250 points a board; and we did indeed win well, with a final score of 5-1.
But those ratings averages can be deceptive. Surbiton still brought six very good chess players. Sean Butler and Graham Alcock got draws against strong opponents on boards 5 and 6; Paul Dupré blundered when ahead against Kingston captain David Rowson on board 4; rising Surbiton star Joshua Pirgon gave Peter Lalić a tough fight on board 2 and their endgame, with both players on the increment, went on late into the night; and stand-in board 1 Nick Faulks threw everything he could muster at Kingston’s Vladimir Li in their encounter.
The big news for Kingston was the league debut for the club of 10-year-old superstar Supratit Banerjee (pictured above), who was playing on board 3. He was up against Surbiton captain Angus James and played the Rubinstein Variation of the French Defence. Supratit played disconcertingly quickly and established a big time advantage, even though the players had barely entered the middle game. Angus, perhaps a little shellshocked at the speed and precision of Supratit’s play (he said afterwards it felt like a prepared line), resigned in the position below after Black had played 18. Rd5, attacking queen and bishop.
Julian Way and Sean Butler had a fascinating battle on board 5. Sean has returned to chess after a spell away, is playing a lot for Surbiton – I had seen him in action the previous night playing at home against Dorking when he drew with a 1950-rated player – and his strength is clearly returning. A draw was agreed in the position below.
This is one of those remarkable positions where everything is hanging and, with kings horribly exposed, both sides look in imminent danger of collapse, yet the probable outcome is a draw by repetition after 37…Rxf2 38. Qg3+. Julian was starting to run short of time and Sean would probably have settled for a draw against a player rated 300 points above him, so a draw it was. But this is a game that will demand a great deal of further analysis.
Peter Andrews and Graham Alcock also settled on a draw on board 6, and again time was a factor, with Peter down to three minutes and starting to fret. “For once it has been morale-building to stick the game in the machine,” Peter said a few days after the match. “It seems my play was reasonably accurate, that I had built a decent edge, and that even the final position was still better, although trying to win from +0.8 with three minutes against 50 would have been reckless.” This was the position in which peace was declared.
Nick Faulks opted for his usual English Opening against Vladimir Li on board 2 and played quickly and aggressively, attacking on the kingside while castling queenside and allowing his own king to be assaulted. It was kill or be killed, and after a 27-move slugfest this was the position.
Here Vladimir forced resignation on the spot with 27…Rxe4+ . The rook cannot be taken because of mate after the queen recaptures, so the king is forced to f1. White can play on, but Nick clearly decided that a player of Vladimir’s calibre was not going to blow an advantage of at least +3. That made it 3-1 to Kingston. Almost game, set and match.
Next to finish was the board 4 match-up between David Rowson, with White, and Paul Dupré. Paul played an enterprising French Defence and went the exchange (bishop for rook) up after David overlooked that his rook on h1 would be trapped by the raking bishop on b7. But David had some compensation in the shape of a dangerous e-pawn, and this position was reached with Black to play on move 40.
David’s win made it 4-1 to secure the match. That left Peter Lalić v Joshua Pirgon on board 2, and this was a battle royal. Peter had an edge in the middle game, but Joshua fought back well and by move 40, in the position below with Black to play, had all but equalised.
But Black makes a mistake here, playing 40…Ke7 when f6 would win the g-pawn and lead to an equal position. Peter, who had only a few minutes left on his clock and had already stopped notating (under the five-minute rule), is brilliant in these situations and never looked back after his opponent’s misjudgement. It took another 30 moves, with both players operating on the increment in a frantic denouement, but Peter was not to be denied and Joshua was forced to concede.
That made it 5-1 and allowed us to edge ahead of Hammersmith in the division 1 table (see below, beneath the match score). But with a match in hand and a superior game difference (the chess equivalent of goal difference) they remain favourites to win the title. Nevertheless, we have had a good run of late, and are at least making the Hammers work to take our crown.
