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 morerecent times, advocated the variant, in which the starting line-up of the pieces for eachgame is more or less randomised 1 , as a means of getting away from opening
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.
Hawksworth digs deep to win his third All Saints Blitz
At the beginning of the 21st edition of the All Saints Blitz, IM John Hawksworth seemed a bit doubtful about signing up to play. It was another hot day in the middle of a very hot spell, and John had recorded an important victory for Kingston the previous evening in the Alexander Cup final against Guildford, played at Ashtead, when Kingston secured their fifth title in a row, winning the match by 6.5-3.5.
Kingston wins Alexander Cup for fifth time in a row to break historic record
Kingston overpowered Guildford last night 6½ – 3½ to win the Alexander Cup, the Surrey team championships, for an unprecented five times in a row. Guildford put up a good fight and at one point there was panic in the Kingston operations room that the match might go down to tie-break. In the end however the higher rated Kingston team pulled through to win by a comfortable margin.
Fighting draw for Kingston B consigns Ealing A to relegation
This, the last match of Kingston B’s TVL season, coincided with Kingston A playing Maidenhead A, also at home. As a result of the extra demand on the pool of players, and with some people unavailable for either team, I was grateful to Tom Mayers and Seth Warren for agreeing to play. Kingston B were already safe from relegation, but the match was crucial for Ealing A, who needed to win to avoid last place and the drop to Division 2.