Stephen Moss, tournament director

This is the fourth year of the Kingston Invitational. Both the 2022 and 2023 editions were all-play-alls: a 10-player all-play-all in 2022 and two 10-player all-play-all groups in 2023, the higher-rated of which offered IM norms. The third Kingston Invitational was held in August 2024 and took the form of a highly competitive Swiss.

The plan for 2025 is to combine the two formats, so we will have a strong 10-player all-play-all event (again with norms on offer) and a 50-player Swiss aimed at players with an ECF rating of 1800-plus. There are no entry fees for either event. It is by invitation only, though we warmly invite expressions of interest from those who would like to take part. We strive for a competitive but friendly tournament, a true festival of chess, and even supply free cream doughnuts. 

This year we are celebrating the 150th anniversary of Kingston Chess Club, and the Invitational will form a central part of those celebrations. The event will run from Tuesday 12 to Saturday 16 August, and will take place at the Richard Mayo Centre, United Reformed Church in central Kingston. Full details are given on the Chess Results server: the IM norm event can be found here and the Swiss here. Fields will be updated as they are assembled.

Both tournaments will be Fide-rated and over nine rounds. The organiser and chief arbiter of the event – both norm tournament and Swiss – is Paul McKeown, who will be supported by deputy chief arbiter John Gordon Bowley and by Edward Mospan from Kingston Chess Club. The event is being run in association with Kingston Chess Club as part of its 150th anniversary celebrations, which will run throughout the summer.

IM norm tournament

GM Jakub Kosakowski [Fide 2530]
IM Peter Large [2335]
CM Supratit Banerjee [2312]
FM Roland Bezuidenhout [2295]
IM Raúl Claverie [Fide 2283]
CM David Maycock [2274]
IM Graeme Buckley [2259]
Adam A Taylor [2258]
WIM/FM Liwia Jarocka [2251]
CM Peter Lalić [2144]

Swiss

Alongside the norm tournament, we will run a Swiss for around 50 players. Ideally they should have an ECF rating of 1800 or above, though we may make some exceptions. The Swiss will have the same time control as the norm tournament – 90 minutes + 30-second increment. There will be two rounds on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and a single round on Saturday morning, with a blitz play-off for the trophy in the event of a tie. The play-off will only determine who receives the winner’s trophy; the prize money will be split according to final placing in the event of a tie.

Anyone interested in playing in the Swiss is invited to email me at [email protected], but we would ask that if you are accepted for the event you make every effort to play. It is frequently pointed out that the flaw with an Invitational is that players have not made an upfront payment to play, so have nothing to lose by not showing up. If you are accepted, please play, because your acceptance of a place may have denied someone else a chance to play. Do please let me know if you want like to play in the tournament. This is the field as it currently stands:

IM John Hawksworth [Fide 2355] [ECF 2136]
FM Jacob T Grave [Fide 2350]
FM Gunnar Lund [Fide 2322]
IM Gavin Wall [Fide 2248] [ECF 2337]
IM Jack Rudd [Fide 2247] [ECF 2369]
WGM Michalina Rudzinska [Fide 2223]
IM Susan Lalić [Fide 2214] [ECF 2233]
Shlok Verma [Fide 2169] [ECF 2282]
CM Thomas Villiers [Fide 2158] [ECF 2215]
CM Robert Willmoth [Fide 2139] [ECF 2248]
Graham Keane [Fide 2146] [ECF 2146]
Marcus Osborne [Fide 2143] [ECF 2137]
FM Robert Eames [Fide 2151] [ECF 2217]
Michael Healey [Fide 2135] [ECF 2268]
FM Richard McMichael [Fide 2118]
Mohamed Anis Achour [Fide 2111]
CM Mark Josse [Fide 2136] [ECF 2155]
Clive Frostick [Fide 2114] [ECF 2131]
Rock Yu [Fide 2048] [ECF 2147]
WFM Luisa Bashylina [Fide 2150]
Aditya Verma [Fide 2091] [ECF 2202]
Remy Rushbrooke [Fide 2090] [ECF 2234]
Tom Farrand [Fide 2063] [ECF 2149]
FM Cristian Camilo Soto [Fide 2070]
Qixiang Han [Fide 2070]
Philip Makepeace [Fide 2061] [ECF 2185]
Jai Kothari [Fide 2026] [ECF 2160]
Shivam Agrawal [Fide 2047] [ECF 2202]
Alastair Armstrong [Fide 2024] [ECF 2039]
Ewan Wilson [Fide 2020] [ECF 2177]
Edmond Andal [Fide 2011] [ECF 2203]
Caspar Bates [Fide 2010] [ECF 2110]
Chris Fegan [Fide 2019] [ECF 2066]
Maxim Dunn [Fide 1961] [ECF 2225]
William Taylor [Fide 1985] [ECF 2065]
FM Michael Waddington [Fide 1989] [ECF 2074]
James Stevenson [Fide 1969] [ECF 2047]
Nicolas Skettos [Fide 1983] [ECF 2061]
Daniel Young [Fide 1975] [ECF 2065]
Edvin Morell [Fide 1944]
CM Anthony Hughes [Fide 1911] [ECF 1920]
Chris Rice [Fide 1911] [ECF 2018]
Marcus Gosling [Fide 1909]
Qixuan Han [Fide 1896]
Xavier Cowan [Fide 1838] [ECF 1891]
Joshua Pirgon [Fide 1849] [ECF 1969]
Maks Gajowniczek [Fide 1812] [ECF 1911]
Sachin Kumar [Fide 1815] [ECF 1869]
Arnav Kumar [Fide 1811] [ECF 1945]
Maya Keen [Fide 1805] [ECF 1884]
Jaden Mistry [Fide 1772] [ECF 1610]
Jon Eckert [Fide 1770] [ECF 1754]
William Lin [ECF 1697]