Kingston entered two teams in the Thorpe Trophy, played at Cheam on 14 March 2026. The A team retained the title and the B team came joint second, but there were a few alarms along the way

The Surrey League revived the long-dormant Thorpe Trophy – a four-round team rapidplay – in 2025, when a Kingston A team spearheaded by Peters Lalić and Large won it. The 2026 edition had the same result, but for much of the afternoon that conclusion was far from guaranteed.

The neat feature of the Thorpe is that the four-person teams have to have two players of unspecified rating – naturally teams select the strongest players they can muster – and two with a rapidplay rating below ECF 1750. It’s an excellent opportunity for players who usually play for different league teams to play alongside each other and in this case celebrate success together.

We had the tried-and-trusted pair of Lalić and Large back in harness for Kingston A, this time joined by Alexander Chmelev and Seth Warren (the winning team is pictured above, with left to right: Warren, Lalić, Chmelev and Large). Kingston A had FM Vladimir Li, making a welcome return to competitive chess, on board 1; Jasper Tambini on board 2; er, me on board 3; and Genc Tasbasi on board 4.

The Peters, well supported by Alex and Seth, both scored 3.5/4 to guide Kingston A to a tournament-winning 11.5/16 – the event is decided on game points – but the role of Vladimir in deciding the title must be emphasised. He scored a perfect 4/4, thus both propelling Kingston B into second place alongside South Norwood and also denying the main rivals of both the Kingston teams from garnering vital points. Jasper also performed well, scoring 3/4, and missed a mate in the game he did lose in round 2 to Graham Keane.

The event had started relatively poorly for Kingston A, who managed to win by just 2.5-1.5 against Streatham B, with Streatham veteran Martin Smith getting a commendable draw against IM Peter Large. But they made up for that in round 2, thrashing Wimbledon 4-0, despite a surprise appearance for Wimbledon by Kingston chair Peter Andrews, filling in for an absent Wimbledon player. (The tournament is serious but also social, and we were happy to help out to fill the gap.)

Seth got an important win in this match and Alex Chmelev, who scored 3/4 across the four rounds, was proving rock-like. Kingston B were also performing well, though my loss on time when a rook up in round 2 against Streatham A was crucial in the final tally of game points (sorry team-mates).

Epsom A and Richmond A were always likely to be the main dangers to a repeat Kingston title victory, though South Norwood had also brought a strong team, headed by Marcus Osborne (who scored an excellent 3.5/4 on top board) and Paul Dupré, and were going well. Indeed, but for a surprise loss on board 3 to Streatham B in the final round, they would have won the trophy.

A key match-up came in round 3, when Kingston A took on the Epsom A. Despite being heavily outrated, Epsom A got a 2-2 draw to ensure that the last round would be a nail-biter. Peter Large beat James Allison, who has been a thorn in Kingston sides this year, but young Ethan Bogerd (who scored 4/4 in the tournament) beat Alex Chmelev to boost Epsom’s cause. Another Epsom youngster, Arnav Kumar, drew with Peter Lalić.

Kingston B beat Epsom B 4-0 in round 3 and were leading going into the final round, but vertigo may have kicked in – on my part at least. I played the all-conquering Ethan Bogerd with Black and, after surviving an early onslaught, had a winning endgame. Ethan offered me a draw, which I turned down, sure I had a simple win. But, playing on the increment – Ethan uses virtually no time and wanders round the playing room looking at other games – I blundered and lost. Moral: never play juniors at rapidplay.

My defeat gave Kingston A an opening in their match against Richmond A. Peter Large defeated Alastair Armstrong, Alex Chmelev completed an impressive afternoon with a win with Black over the very capable Raghu Kamath, and on board 1 Peter Lalić scored a crucial win with Black against the highly rated Caspar Bates. Peter has kindly reconstructed the game (few players record rapidplay games, but Peter has almost total recall).

As well as avoiding juniors in rapidplays, you should avoid Peter Lalic, whose accuracy levels remain remarkably high even at a time control of 20 minutes plus five-second increment.

All that was needed now for Kingston A to retain the trophy was for Kingston B to inflict sufficient damage on Epsom A to stop them coming through to pinch the title. Vladimir Li duly beat Arnav Kumar with Black on board 1 to record his fourth win of the afternoon, and Jasper Tambini then got a crucial point on board 2 against James Allison to ensure that Kingston A won the trophy and Kingston B came joint second.

Afterwards, Peter Large reminded us that it the denouement was remarkably similar to last year. “In 2025 Kingston A were a half-point behind Kingston B and a full point behind Epsom A going into the last round,” he pointed out. “In the last round Kingston B were paired with Epsom A and Kingston A played Richmond. Kingston A won the title because Kingston B obtained a 2-2 draw with Epsom. Jasper Tambini won the crucial game for Kingston B on board 2.” Groundhog Day indeed.

Thanks to tournament controller Graham Alcock for running the tournament, to Peter Andrews for bringing the trophy – happily, to be re-presented back to Kingston A – and to Genc Tasbasi for finding the time to take the excellent photographs in this report while doing his bit to secure joint second place for Kingston B. Multi-tasking which proved to be beyond me. I guess we will do it all again next March. Can we make it a hat-trick of wins?

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain