The largest ever All Saints Blitz, held on 28 May 2025, ended in a dramatic three-way tie between WFMs Emma and Eunice Hng and IM Peter Large, with Emma awarded first prize on tie-break
The friendly monthly blitz at All Saints has now turned into an Event with a capital E. We had 30 participants on Wednesday 28 May at the wonderful All Saints Church in the centre of Kingston. Given that we had twice the number of usual attendees, we added one more round to the format – so six rounds rather than the usual five. This surge of interest was due to the rare coincidence that the last Wednesday of the month was on a half term. Hence we had a lot of juniors who decided to occupy their time constructively.
We were delighted to be joined by the Hng sisters, Emma and Eunice, who are both women Fide masters from Singapore and have previously represented Epsom Chess Club. They played brilliantly and tied for first place, along with the ever-present Peter Large, on 5/6. Eunice beat IM Large, the first time he has lost at All Saints, in their crucial round 5 clash – he has previously won the tournament outright on five occasions. But Emma then got the better of her sister in a magnificent final game, in which a lengthy endgame captivated the watching audience (see photograph above).
In the end, tournament controller John Foley awarded Emma first prize on tie-break using direct encounter: Eunice beat Peter and Emma beat Eunice. Emma’s prize was a chess book, while Eunice received a box of chocolates.
Peter was happy to receive only a modest chocolate bar, having overdosed on large chocolate boxes from his previous wins.
The prize for the top junior went to William Lin, who scored 3/6. William beat the eventual winner Emma in the first round. This was a fine week for William, who also picked up the junior prize on the May Bank Holiday Blitz at the club on Monday.
The prize presenter was Alan Scrimgour, the club chair. Alan found himself in the awkward situation of having to present the prize to himself with his fourth place (using the Sonneborn-Berger tie-break for those who had not already won a prize) with 4/6. After some ungainly arm movements from Alan, club captain Stephen Moss stepped up to present yet another chocolate bar to Alan. Moss also managed 4/6, so may have been trying to grab the chocolate for himself. A memorable end to a memorable event. If the tournament gets any bigger, we may have to upgrade to a cathedral.
Final Results
Hng, Mei-En Emmanuelle 5/6
Hng, Mei-Xian Eunice 5/6
Large, Peter G 5/6
Scrimgour, Alan 4
Haldane, Robin W 4
Kumaresan, Darshan 4
Gosling, Marcus 4
Rowson, David J 4
Moss, Stephen 4
Pirgon, Joshua 3.5
Hayward, Alan 3.5
Previous Winners
Tony Hughes (Wimbledon) January 2024
Tony Hughes (Wimbledon) February 2024
David Rowson (Kingston) March 2024
Tony Hughes (Wimbledon) April 2024
Robin Haldane (Streatham) May 2024
Alan Hayward (Pimlico) September 2024
Peter Large (Kingston) October 2024
Peter Large (Kingston) November 2024
Peter Large (Kingston) January 2025
John Hawksworth (Kingston) February 2025
Peter Large (Kingston) March 2025
Peter Large (Kingston) April 2025
