John Saunders' Chess Blog

Tuesday, 18 August 2026

5th Kingston Invitational: Round 3 (18 August 2026)

The 5th Kingston Invitational is now at the point when it is perhaps worthwhile discussing who is in the lead.

Round 3 of the 5th Kingston Invitational in progress

After two rounds, seven players remained on 2/2: Adam Taylor, Sanjit Kumar, Daniel Johnson, Saahil Bansal, Jai Kothari, Balahari Bharat Kumar and Peter Sowray. In round three six of them were paired against each other, while Peter Sowray received a downfloat to Danny Gormally.

The Swedish player Daniel Johnson, making his second visit to a Kingston Invitational event (he played here in 2023) wasted little time in increasing his score to 3/3. He was the beneficiary of a simple oversight by Saahil Bansal on move 9 which cost the Hampshire player two pawns. He limped on for a few more moves but resigned on move 20 when it was clear there was nothing to be done. Link to Johnson-Bansal. As it turned out, none of the other round two leaders were able to win, leaving Daniel Johnson in glorious isolation on 3/3.

Early leader in the clubhouse: Daniel Johnson was gifted two pawns on move 9.

Another of the 100%-ers followed Bansal to defeat not too long after when Peter Sowray went down against Danny Gormally. The GM chose to defend a King's Indian Defence but Sowray played some indecisive moves, allowing Black to work up a kingside counter. Worse was to follow for Sowray as he weakened his dark squares around the king and the black pieces swarmed in to occupy them. It seems Gormally has put his first-round wobble behind him and is now breathing down the neck of the leaders. Link to Sowray-Gormally.

Danny Gormally moves to 2½/3 after defeating Peter Sowray.

The game between Jai Kothari and Balahari Bharat Kumar ended in a draw after 35 moves. It became lively around move 20 when White was obliged to give up two knights for a rook and two pawns but Black was ultimately unable to make anything of it.

Jai Kothari and Balahari Bharat Kumar drew and are amongst those on 2½/3.

The game between Adam A Taylor and Sanjit Kumar also ended in a draw despite running to 85 moves. Taylor gained a pawn but it was doubled, with little prospect of undoubling, and all the pawns were on one flank. White had a fleeting chance to win on move 72. It was difficult but he might have found it on a good day with a bit more time left on his clock.

Adam Taylor pressed for 85 moves but Sanjit Kumar held comfortably.

After yesterday's 172-move marathon between Peter Lalic and Alan Scrimgour it will have been noted that both players decided to take a bye in this morning's second round, with Scrimgour later deciding to withdraw altogether. Peter Lalic returned to the fray in round three and drew with Rick McMichael in 21 moves.

Peter Lalic

Rick McMichael

Those were the boards involving the leaders but there was a fair bit of fun amongst the next batch of boards. Fun for the younger players, anyway: the older ones would probably disagree. Mike Healey discovered that, though life is said to begin at 40, the same can't necessarily be said of chess life. Playing the black side of what LiChess labels the French variation of the Sicilian Defence (about which I know nothing), he played an injudicious 21...Rc4 after which he found himself in a world of pain as Alfie Onslow conjured up some horrid threats down the e-file. Link to Onslow-Healey.

Mike Healey fell victim to an Onslow onslaught along the e-file.

Only a few hours ago I was congratulating Peter Large on his remarkable escape from defeat in round two, but he succumbed to defeat in the afternoon round against 16-year-old Gabriel Sherwood from Oxford. Hence none of our three resident IMs have made it beyond round three with their virtue unsullied. Large played the black side of an ancient line, a sort of Bishop's Opening-cum-Vienna-cum King's Gambit, but one which some of the stars of the present day have been known to try. But Large pushed his luck a bit too far, snatching Sherwood's opponent's e-pawn with a knight which promptly retreated whence it came. This bore a striking resemblance to a similarly outrageous piece of larceny which I wrote about only the other day for my forthcoming September column in CHESS Magazine, though in an entirely different opening. It received the same condign punishment that the pawn snatch written up in my soon-to-be-published column suffered, as Sherwood ripped open his opponent's kingside defences and delivered mate on the 23rd move. Link to Sherwood-Large. If you've only got time to play through one game, this is probably the one to go for. It's like one of those games found in old-time anthologies such as Tartakower and du Mont's 500 Master Games of Chess.

Gabriel Sherwood, 16, Oxford, mated IM Peter Large in just 23 moves.

Leaders after three rounds: Daniel Johnson (SWE) is alone on 3/3, while 12 players are on 2½, including GM Danny Gormally and Adam Taylor.

Complete Round 3 Rankings

Round 3 Game Scores (LiChess)

Round four begins at 10.00 UK time on Wednesday 19 August 2026.

5th Kingston Invitational: Round 2 (18 August 2026)

Round 2 of the 2026 Kingston Invitational tournament, played on the morning of 18 August 2026, provided more entertainment after the surprises and long-play controversy of Monday's opening round.

Adam Taylor (left) arrived 20 minutes but still managed to overcome Rock Yu

Now occupying board one as top seed, with GM Danny Gormally relegated to the middle of the pairing list after conceding a first-round draw, was Adam A Taylor, rated 2269 but as yet untitled. That said, he didn't occupy the board until some 20 minutes into the round, which is risky given the briskness of the time control. His opponent, Rock Yu, worked up a very decent plus (in analysis engine terms) of around +2 and was threatening to up it to +3 when he committed a positional blunder on move 32, allowing Taylor's dismal light-squared bishop to escape imprisonment with 32...e5! There were some more inexplicable blunders to come, making me wonder whether the score might be at fault, culminating in White's 43 e6??.

On board two Thomas Villiers' double-fianchetto system for White didn't make much impression on his opponent as Peter Sowray gradually got on top. White did eventually manage to occupy the centre but it proved a rickety structure which Black expertly dismantled. GM Peter Wells commented on the finish on X...

The early rounds of the Kingston Invitational showing how tough Open tournaments are these days. Rating favourites on the top boards struggling and not only against young, hungry theoreticians! Nice finish from my good friend today - not hard, but still study-like. Black to play. pic.twitter.com/gg2aSUaIpd
— Peter Wells (@GMPeteWells) August 18, 2026

I'll leave you to figure out how Black won. If you want to see the full game score, it's here.

Peter Sowray's win against Thomas Villiers made it 2/2 for Black on the top two boards

Another a third set-back for the white pieces on the higher boards was Mark Josse's loss to Daniel Johnson of Sweden after a failed combination cost him a piece.

Overview of the top boards in round two of the Kingston Invitational

Further down the pairings, Keatan Patel seemed to be on the brink of a second IM scalp in the space of two rounds when he won Peter Large's queen for a rook and a minor piece but White's king managed to sneak away from its appointed place of execution to the queenside. It looked to be only a stay of execution but White then managed to conjure up a perpetual check with his remaining pieces.

"They seek him here, they seek him there..." Peter Large staged a Pimpernel-like escape from defeat.

Round 2 games at lichess

5th Kingston Invitational: Round 1 (17 August 2026)

There were a few surprises in store as the 5th Kingston Invitational Swiss Tournament got underway on 17 August at the Richard Mayo Centre, United Reformed Church, Eden Street, Kingston KT1 1HZ.

Councillor Thay Thayalan, the 192nd Mayor of Kingston-upon-Thames, paid us the compliment of opening the fifth edition of this popular event. He made the first move on the top board and enjoyed a bit of badinage with Danny Gormally, the one grandmaster in the field, as you can see from the smiling faces in the photo...

Danny Gormally persuaded Mayor Thay Thayalan to make the move 1 Na3 for his opponent

Once the game started in earnest, Phil Horspool was allowed to replace 1 Na3 with the rather more orthodox 1 e4. Despite being nearly 400 points below his formidable opponent, the Leicester man played a great game and was suddenly looking favourite when Gormally gave away the exchange on move 23. That said, it wasn't easy to see how to exploit his advantage but he was still a good deal better when a draw was agreed on move 55.

As well as the one grandmaster, there were three other IMs in the competition but two of them bit the dust at the first hurdle. Graeme Buckley was Black against Keatan Patel but in a typically complicated position he too went horribly wrong, coincidentally with the same bad move, Qb6, as had nearly been Gormally's undoing (in a completely different position). There were still some complications but the 19-year-old from Kenilworth navigated his way to a win.

Keatan Patel defeated IM Graeme Buckley in a complicated struggle.

Jack Rudd was the 2nd IM casualty of the afternoon, losing to Balahari Bharat Kumar. The game came down to a rook and pawns endgame the like of which I can't recall seeing before. I won't claim to have made sense of it in the short time available to appraise it but it became apparent that the titled player's extra pawn(s) were no match for the 17-year-old's menacing pair of passers. Anyone who thinks rook and pawn endings are dull should play through this game and be royally entertained.

Balahari Bharat Kumar overcame Jack Rudd in a terrific rook and pawns endgame.

This was a round of long games, the top five boards going to 55, 78, 65, 51 and 44 moves respectively. But nothing came close to the board six which went to an eye-watering, bottom-aching 172 moves. Care to guess one of the players involved? Those familiar with earlier Kingston tournaments will recall local man Peter Lalic and his predilection for ludicrously long drawn-out games. This time the long-suffering victim was his 75-year-old Kingston clubmate Alan Scrimgour.

Peter Lalic

Alan Scrimgour

It really is time this sort of thing is outlawed by the rules. Open-ended playing sessions are a travesty of a sham of a fiasco of a mockery of two shams of a travesty, particularly for the young or the old. Maybe anyone aged under 15 or over 65 should be allowed to call a halt unilaterally after five hours' elapsed time and demand the game be adjourned or adjudicated. Yes, I know, everyone abominates adjudication but is it any worse than this?

More fun (and elderly spleen) tomorrow...

Round 1 Results

Round 1 games at LiChess

Monday, 17 August 2026

5th Kingston Invitational Swiss, 17-21 August 2026

The 5th Kingston Invitational Swiss (17-21 August 2026) begins at 3.30pm this afternoon at the Richard Mayo Centre, United Reformed Church, Eden Street, Kingston KT1 1HZ, which is also the HQ of Kingston Chess Club.

The first round pairings are here: https://s3.chess-results.com/tnr1422361 ... 1&SNode=S0

Play may be followed at lichess: https://lichess.org/broadcast/5th-kings ... 1/ogiwoQpX

There are nine rounds (one round today and two on each of the next four days at 10.00am and 3.30pm). The rate of play is 90 min + 30 sec / move.

The winner of the tournament will receive the Kingston Invitational Cup and £500, with £250 to second and £100 to third. The leading junior (17 or under) will receive the Barden Cup (named in honour of Guardian chess correspondent Leonard Barden) and £100. If players’ scores are level at the end of the tournament, a tie-break designated by the arbiters will be used. There will be no play-off.

Top seed is GM Danny Gormally and there are three IMs in the field (Graeme Buckley, Jack Rudd and Peter Large).

I shall be taking photos and posting reports here on my blog.

Tuesday, 26 August 2025

Double Dutch Game Score

Every now and then I come across a game score that has me completely foxed. The following is an example. It is the game Rudolf Loman v Lucien Serraillier, played on 23 May 1902 at the Kent Congress in Tunbridge Wells. Rudolf Loman (1861-1932) was a master strength player who won a number of unofficial Dutch championships in the 1890s. His opponent, Lucien Serraillier (1866-1919) was a lesser player but still quite strong and good enough not to finish last in this ten-player all-play-all which Loman won with 7/9. (I'll be posting more details of the tournament on BritBase in due course.)

Here's the score, initially frozen at the point where the game seems to veer off into insanity...

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I keyed the game in from the source, which was the Western Morning News, 27 June 1902. I don't usually spend much time looking at the game while I'm entering the moves, but when I saw 17 Ne4 it set my chess player's antenna twitching. The instant I entered the move, I saw the whole story flash before my eyes. (And, note, I did not have an engine switched on.) My thoughts could be translated into words, thus: "wow, can he do that? Hang on, take the knight, White plays Bxb5+ and then grabs the queen next move - but surely Black will have more than enough material for the queen? Rook and two minor pieces. What am I missing?"

I stopped entering moves and looked harder. Nope, I still didn't get it. After checking the input moves against the printed score - they seemed correct - I finished entering the moves and saved the game. I looked again at the printed score...

Western Morning News, 27 June 1902

As you can see, the newspaper has printed a diagram of the position after 21 Bxg6, which tallies with the one in the digitised game score. So that would appear to rule out input error. The above clip constitutes the entire report of the game given in the paper. There were no other comments made about it.

So what to make of it? Obviously, like any other game inputter, I sometimes spot errors in games found in newspapers, but they are usually perpetrated by much weaker players than Loman and Serraillier. Of course, strong players make mistakes too but I usually only spot these when going through the game later with an engine. What amazed me here was the fact that something I spotted instantly, which I would expect any self-respecting player rated 2000+ to see quickly, was apparently overlooked by the players.

Of course, it is still possible that the score was wrong. But what? A pair of moves missing somewhere?

There was just one comment made elsewhere which might have a bearing on what happened. Leopold Hoffer, in his column in The Field on 31 May 1902, said this of Loman's performance in the tournament: "Mr Loman's performance is excellent, although (on dit) not entirely unattended by a favourable element of chance." So was it a massive bluff which came off?

Monday, 18 August 2025

2025 Kingston Invitational: Best Game

John Saunders reports: the 4th Kingston Invitational tournament was honoured to have GM Daniel King judge the best game of the event. He came along to the prizegiving to announce his decision. He complimented the players on their play and told us there were so many decisive results that he had had to look at every game. He cited several games from earlier rounds as worthy contenders but they were ultimately displaced by a game played in the last round of the Open event, which he thought had the necessary 'sparkle' that a best game prize-winner needs. Well done, Bob Eames, for this splendid effort against Ewan Wilson, who also deserves great credit for a spirited counterattack which just fell short. Annotations are by me.