Kingston are London champions for second year in a row
Kingston again won the major prize at this year’s London Team Championships organised by the Southern Counties Chess Association. The Major tournament comprised six rounds for teams of four, constrained to a team average rating of 2100 or less. We were sporting a slightly diminished team compared to last year’s stars (Supratit Banerjee, Peter Lalić, Vladimir Li, John Bussmann), but Kingston secretary Alan Scrimgour did well to put together two teams, using his calculator for some fine tuning in team selection.
Ye Kyaw turns the tables on mighty Maycock
The latest event in Kingston Chess Club’s summer programme was a simultaneous display by FM David Maycock. David was Kingston’s most successful player in league chess in the 2025-26 season.
Julian Ward wins well-attended Rapid
The latest event in Kingston Chess Club’s summer series was a five-round rapid tournament, 10 minutes for all moves with five-second increments. Thirty two players took part, among which we were happy to welcome 12 visitors, including a few new faces as well as returning friends.
Jones wins Kingston Fischer Random
The latest event in Kingston Chess Club’s summer programme was a “Fischer Random” tournament – so called because the late world champion, like Magnus Carlsen in more recent times, advocated the variant, in which the starting line-up of the pieces for each game is more or less randomised, as a means of getting away from opening preparation.
Pirgon wins opening Kingston summer Blitz
The Kingston summer programme kicked off on 1 June with a six-round blitz, won by Joshua Pirgon on tie-break from Julian Ward in a well-contested tournament Photograph (above): William Lin v Robin Haldane playing out a tense endgame Kingston Chess Club, now fully installed in its new venue at the United Reformed Church in the
Kingston win Thames Valley Knockout – without actually playing
In what may be a first for the Thames Valley League, Kingston have been crowned champions of the knockout cup without having to take on a rival in the final. Harrow and Richmond had been due to contest a semi-final to determine who would meet us in the final, but communications seem to have broken down between the clubs and the match never took place.