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.
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
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.
Peter Finn (right) v Ethan Pang
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.
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.
