Kingston A v Richmond A, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at the Richard Mayo Centre, United Reformed Church, Kingston on 22 December 2025
This match was played three days before Christmas, but a very strong Kingston team were not in the mood to show any seasonal goodwill to the visitors from Richmond, and the latter were (to use tennis parlance) bagelled, losing 6-0 despite showing plenty of fight. The result meant that Kingston A would be top of the Thames Valley division 1 table over Christmas and New Year.
The Kingston team had three IMs, two FMs and what team captain Peter Large jokingly referred to as a “lowly CM”. The lowly CM, Peter Lalić, was actually playing board 3 and is FM strength – for various reasons, his Fide rating lags behind his true strength. It was a formidable team, and remarkable to think that three other titled Kingston players – GM Ameet Ghasi and FMs Supratit Banerjee and Vladimir Li – were not involved in the match. The club is surely stronger now than at any point in its history, even the fabled 1930s (the era of Blake and Michell) and 1970s (John Nunn) when it swept all before it.
The first game to end – a lot of moves were made but at great speed – was on board 6, where FM Julian Way with White got the better of Bertie Barlow in a bishop v knight endgame. Julian is a master of endgames and once again proved it here. The position below is level, but Bertie makes some tiny slips and Julian pounces on them.
On board 2, IM Graeme Buckley had White against Alastair Armstrong, a returner to chess who has rapidly re-established his 2000-plus credentials. Alastair played Alekhine’s Defence, resulting in the position below where White has several moves of roughly similar strength.
IM John Hawksworth soon made it 3-0 with a smooth win with Black over Sampson Low. John felt he was winning out of the opening, though it would probably take an IM to know that.
Kingston captain Peter Large was next to win, and that victory ensured the match would be Kingston’s. Peter had White against Richmond president Richard James – a meeting of two south-west London chess legends (pictured below as their game reaches its conclusion). Richard was kind enough after the match to post a report that sang the praises of what we are trying to build at Kingston. Coming from so distinguished a source, this made us feel we must be getting something right, though we know we have a very long way to go to secure a sustainable future for the club.
Richard played the Modern Defence and Peter opted for all-out attack, signalling his intent with the move he played in the position below.
Kingston were 4-0 up, with the time-honoured duo of Maycock and Lalić still playing. Richmond captain Maks Gajowniczek played the English against Peter, but Black essayed an early f5, creating a pawn storm, achieving domination of the centre and neutering White’s dark-squared bishop. This was the discouraging position facing Maks by move 20.
Peter’s win left David Maycock and John Burke (pictured at the top of the report) throwing pieces (metaphorically speaking) at each other on board 1. I recall an exciting game these two played at Richmond a while back and they repeated the drama here, with John, who had the white pieces, giving as good as he got against David’s unflagging invention.
That completed the 6-0 win and gave us time to finish off Ed Mospan’s mince pies, happy in the knowledge that Kingston A would be top of the Thames Valley division 1 table at Christmas (see current table at foot of report). The defeat early in December against Hammersmith reminded us that our bid for a fourth successive Thames Valley title would not be a cakewalk, and the always difficult trip to Maidenhead beckons on 12 January, but for the moment we are riding high.
Stephen Moss is Kingston club captain
Thames Valley division 1 table at New Year
