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 his long-suffering victim was his 75-year-old Kingston clubmate Alan Scrimgour. With friends like that...

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...

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.

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...

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?

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.

GM Daniel King presents the best game prize to Bob Eames.

Tournament Preview

Day 1 Report: Rounds 1 and 2

Day 2 Report: Rounds 3 and 4

Day 3 Report: Rounds 5 and 6

Day 4 Report: Rounds 7 and 8

Day 5 Report: Round 9 and Prizegiving

2025 Kingston Invitational: Index to Posts

The 4th Kingston Invitational Chess Tournament took place 12-16 August 2025.

This is an index to the various posts reporting it.

Tournament Preview

Day 1 Report: Rounds 1 and 2

Day 2 Report: Rounds 3 and 4

Day 3 Report: Rounds 5 and 6

Day 4 Report: Rounds 7 and 8

Day 5 Report: Round 9 and Prizegiving

Best Game Prize: R Eames 1-0 E Wilson

2025 Kingston Invitational: Day 5 (Round 9, Playoffs and Prizegiving)

John Saunders reports: the 4th Kingston Invitational, held 12-16 August 2025 at the Richard Mayo Centre, Eden Street, Kingston-upon-Thames, drew to its conclusion on Saturday 16th. GM Jakub Kosakowski of Poland, who had already made sure of first place in the previous round, stretched his margin of victory to two points with a last-round win, while IM Ivan Valles Moreno (Spain) and FM-elect David Maycock Bates (Mexico) shared the second and third prizes.

Winner of the all-play-all, GM Jakub Kosakowski (centre), flanked by the players who shared second place, David Maycock Bates (left) and Ivan Valles Moreno.

The nine-round Open Swiss held alongside resulted in a tie for first between the two Norwegian FMs, Jacob Templen Grave and Gunnar Lund. They shared the money but played a two-game blitz play-off for the honour of lifting the trophy, which resulted in a 1½-½ victory for Jacob Templen Grave. WGM Michalina Rudzinska of Poland secured the third prize.

n.b. the complete crosstable for this event is available from chess-results.com via this link

Jacob Templen Grave (1st on tie-break), John Foley (Kingston CC President), Gunnar Lund (right)

WGM Michalina Rudzinska (Poland) receives her prize for finishing 3rd in the Open Swiss

Jai Kothari (left) and Shlok Verma made the best score (5½/9) by under-18 players in the Open Swiss. The blitz play-off to decide the destination of the Barden Cup was won by Jai Kothari, seen here receiving it from guest of honour GM Daniel King

GM Daniel King awarded the best game prize to Bob Eames for his last-round win in the Open event.

There was a second play-off between the highest scoring under-18 players for the honour of lifting the Barden Cup. The two players were Jai Kothari of Hampton School and Shlok Verma of Petts Wood & Orpington. Jai Kothari won the blitz play-off by 2-0.

All-Play-All, Round 9 (16 August 2025)

Despite the fact that first place had already been decided and with no norm chances at stake, the final round was as well contested as the eight previous ones. If you consult the crosstable above, you can see that only 16 of the 45 games ended in a draw, with just two bloodless encounters on the final day.

Ivan Valles Moreno vs Supratit Banerjee lasted 14 moves. The Spanish employed another theory-light queen's pawn opening, this time developing his dark-squared bishop outside the pawn chain in a Torre Attack. 

11-year-old Supratit Banerjee finished on a 50% score, gaining 13 rating points.

The game between the Polish FM Liwia Jarocka and CM Peter Lalic wasn't actually as 'bloodless' as I billed it above. It lasted only 20 moves but it packed quite a lot of incident into a short space, with both players having opportunities to establish an advantage. Black was still a bit better at the end but had only five minutes left to reach the time control.

Liwia Jarocka vs Peter Lalic

The game between the tournament winner Jakub Kosakowski and Graeme Buckley opened with a Rossolimo variation against the Sicilian and was a known line to around move 15. Black was doing fine until move 23 when he allowed White to get in a powerful e6 thrust which gave White a big advantage. A couple more inaccuracies was all it took for White to break through and deliver mate.

Jakub Kosakowski vs Graeme Buckley

Roland Bezuidenhout vs Adam A Taylor began with a Kalashnikov Sicilian and followed a known line where Black gives up a pawn for some Benkö-Gambit-like counterplay. White consolidated his extra pawn and for a while looked to have a significant advantage, but in the run-up to the time control it became fairly clear that a win was unlikely. But then, calamity - White committed a horrendous blunder and had to resign immediately after Black's obvious reply. This unexpected stroke of luck enabled Adam A Taylor to leapfrog his opponent into fourth place in the tournament.

Roland Bezuidenhout vs Adam A Taylor

The last game to finish was IM Peter Large vs FM-elect David Maycock Bates. The other day on Twitter/X, Peter Large expressed his sentiments about the tournament...

Point 2 is of course entirely correct but I must take issue with point 1. Peter Large is not, and never has been in my memory span, a very weak player. However, he is the oldest player in the field by some margin, turning 70 next spring, and anno domini is the most pitiless opponent of them all. Perhaps playing two games a day is too strenuous, particularly during the recent spell of oppressive weather we've (not) been enjoying. As one of the other players pointed out after the round, Peter's team chess record for Kingston CC in the past season has been outstanding. It's one area of chess where a retired player can perhaps retain an edge, coming fresh to an evening game after a relaxing day at home, whereas younger players who still have to work for a living may arrive a little jaded from their daytime responsibilities. 

The clash of Kingston Chess Club regulars, IM Peter Large and FM-elect David Maycock Bates, began with a Siesta variation of the Ruy Lopez, which, as a gazillion annotators before me have quipped, is far from sleepy. (Far be it for me to write anything original.) The game proceeded down a strange line with which I am unfamiliar. As it may have been to Peter Large, as he went wrong on move ten. It will be no consolation to him to know that I would have fallen for the same trick, which I looked up in an ancient opening book (Modern Chess Openings, 1965 edition) and found it was known back then. To rid himself of the bishop and pawn uncomfortably embedded in the heart of his position, he was obliged to surrender the exchange for a pawn. It took Black a while to unravel his position but once the queens were off the board, Black's advantage had become substantial. Thereafter David Maycock Bates found an accurate way to exploit his material advantage and lift himself into a tie for second place in the tournament, which was an excellent result for him.

Peter Large vs David Maycock Bates

The Congress Team

It would be remiss of me to close without some words of praise for the Kingston congress team who have done a splendid job in organising this event.

Firstly, tournament organiser Stephen Moss, who has been the driving force behind the congress these past four years. He deserves an award for his part in proceedings: I have in mind the Victoria Cross, for valour over and above the call of duty, or some such military-style award, rather than a mere civilian decoration such as an O.B.E. I can't remember who is credited with the saying "chess is war" but he got it slightly wrong. It should be "chess organising is war" and it should be recognised as the military undertaking that it undoubtedly is. Before the last round Stephen was presented with a small gift as a token of gratitude from his fellow officials and players. It was a copy of Peter Doggers' book The Chess Revolution. Hopefully it will inspire our beloved leader to write a follow-up to his excellent The Rookie, to be titled The Kingston Chess Revolution, telling the story of Kingston Chess Club's inexorable rise to eminence and success in recent years.

Kudos also to Paul McKeown for his excellent debut as the congress's Chief Arbiter. His ebullience and competence have ensured that the congress has gone without a hitch. He was ably and cheerfully supported by assistant arbiters John Bowley and Ed Mospan, both of whom earned arbiting title norms during the event.

Chief Arbiter IA Paul McKeown

John Bowley receives his arbiting norm certificate

Ed Mospan (right) also received an arbiting norm certificate for his work at the congress.

End Notes...

The Kingston Congress had a few nice touches that you don't get at every chess tournament. For example, there were plenty of refreshments on offer and they were all free. Take a look at the refreshments table at start of play each day...

... doughnuts, chocolate biscuits, even a chocolate cake...

... freshly squeezed orange juice and other good quality soft drinks...

... let's take another look at that cake.

... and of course I'm telling you this now, after the event, in case any freeloaders were tempted to come along and do a Homer Simpson on the doughnuts. Spectators, incidentally, were not encouraged in the playing area (where the refreshments were located) as there wasn't room to accommodate them. But, come next August, and (hopefully) another Kingston Congress, make a note in your diary - "free doughnuts" - and bear it in mind when deciding which tournament you want to play in.

I think that's a wrap. Hope you've enjoyed reading the reports as much as I have enjoyed writing them. (I may add a further post or two about the tournament in the coming week - watch this space)

Tournament Preview

Day 1 Report: Rounds 1 and 2

Day 2 Report: Rounds 3 and 4

Day 3 Report: Rounds 5 and 6

Day 4 Report: Rounds 7 and 8

Best Game Prize: R Eames 1-0 E Wilson

Useful Links

Lichess Live Play

Chess-Results

Twitter @johnchess (that's me)

English Chess Forum

Kingston Chess Club (there will be more reports there after the event)

2025 Kingston Invitational: Day 4 (Rounds 7 and 8)

John Saunders reports: the fourth day of the 4th Kingston Invitational (15 August 2025) saw the winner of the IM norm event decided as Polish GM Jakub Kosakowski secured a 1½ point lead going into Saturday's final round which means he can no longer be caught. He has 6½/8 and in sole second place is now Spanish IM Ivan Valles Moreno with 5. Sharing third place are South African FM Roland Bezuidenhout and Mexican FM-elect David Maycock Bates on 4½, which means that they are both out of range of IM norms.

Jakub Kosakowski, winner of the 2025 Kingston All-Play-All tournament with a round to spare.

The two Norwegian FMs are dominating the Open Swiss tournament.

FM Gunnar Lund (Norway) leads the Open Swiss on 6½/8 with one round to go.

All-Play-All Tournament, Round 7 (15 August)

Another lively round saw three decisive games, with GM Jakub Kosakowski once again extending his lead over the field to 1½ points. 

The quickest game in terms of moves played was Supratit Banerjee's win with White against Adam A Taylor. Scarcely out of the opening Black blundered away a pawn. Black responded by whipping up a snap attack against castled king. It was quite potent and would surely have downed many a lesser player but not Supratit Banerjee, who found a series of accurate moves to clinch the win. His 21 Bc5 move was very classy.

Supratit Banerjee

Adam A Taylor

GM Jakub Kosakowski restored his substantial lead by defeating fellow Pole FM Liwia Jarocka in 31 moves. The opening was a Giuoco Pianissimo which became less 'piano', when Black changed her mind and captured on e3, thereby opening the game up. White's initial attack was rebuffed but Black failed to find the most solid defence to the second wave.

Jakub Kosakowski vs Liwia Jarocka

Roland Bezuidenhout vs David Maycock Bates started life as a Botvinnik Nimzo-Indian and was fairly level until Black retreated his knight to c8 on move 23. White shaped up to take advantage of this lapse but then unaccountably relocated his bishop to a worse diagonal when he could have applied a strong squeeze. Black then gifted him a promising endgame opportunity but White chose an inferior way of winning a pawn, reaching a rook and pawn ending with only a minimal hope of success. The game went on to 63 moves before a draw was agreed. 

Roland Bezuidenhout vs David Maycock Bates

Ivan Valles Moreno played another non-theoretical queen's pawn opening against Graeme Buckley. The downside of these all-purpose, one-size-fits-all systems is that they lack bite. By move 13 Black had comfortably equalised. White tried to mount some sort of kingside attack but by the time he had got his pieces into position, Black had defended adequately and started to harass his pieces on the queenside. Black won a pawn and then beat off an attack spearheaded by the g-pawn. White gave up two rooks for the queen but the position continued to worsen. Then, just for a fleeting moment, White had a chance to hold but the chance went begging and Black managed to win.

The longest game of the round featured Peter Lalic - a name to strike terror into the hearts of arbiters the length and breadth of London and Surrey, not to mention annotators. And, would you believe it, it happened in the same round of the tournament and the same day of the year as 2024 when he perpetrated his record-breaking 272-move atrocity here in Kingston. However, this year's marathon move-fest was less than half the 2024 record at 131 moves.

Playing through the game I almost fell asleep at move four as the players started with the toothless 1 d4 d5 2 Bf4 Bf5 3 e3 c6 4 Nd2 Nd7. Peter Large, playing White, seemed but a walking shadow of the young firebrand I recall playing for my beloved Mitcham CC 30-40 years ago. "We have heard the chimes at midnight, Master Large... that we have... that we have", etc, etc. Large played a weird rook lift to a3 and then across to c3 where it soon got trapped. It looked dreadful and I wouldn't have given tuppence for his chances thereabouts, but Lalic allowed him to shore his position up and he staged an improbable recovery. A whole slew of material then disappeared from the board, leaving White with QB+5P vs QR+2P, which was probably about equal. At move 55 the queens came off and it suddenly became horribly complicated, with White passing up a chance to win, albeit of engine-level difficulty. Later White missed another winning chance before fortune swung round yet again and there were three winning opportunities for Black before the game finally settled into a dead draw around move 76. The subsequent 55 moves were inconsequential. The game went on so long that the start time for the next round had to be set back half an hour.

For the masochists among the readership, here is the score of the game with bare notes.

___________________________________________________________________

All-Play-All Tournament, Round 8 (15 August)

The game between Peter Lalic and Jakub Kosakowski was a Caro-Kann, Advance Variation, and lasted just 15 moves, which probably suited both of them. Peter Lalic had just finished his marathon seventh-round game, for which reason the game had been postponed one hour. For the Polish GM it made fairly sure of his first place in the event as he already had a 1½ point lead.

Adam A Taylor vs Liwia Jarocka started life as an English Opening, but White adopted a rather bizarre strategy which cost him a piece on move 20. It looked hopeless but Black followed it up ineffectively and her advantage dwindled to the point that she was probably glad to agree a draw only nine moves later.

Adam A Taylor v Liwia Jarocka

Peter Large tried a Nimzowitsch Defence (1 e4 Nc6) against Graeme Buckley but White emerged from the opening with a substantial edge. We've seen a number of games in this tournament where the advantage has swing back and forth between the colours but this wasn't one of them. White generated some play on the kingside which wasn't matched by counterplay on the other wing where his opponent's pieces remained cramped and his queen and rook out of play. Soon a pawn fell followed by a general implosion of the white position. A good win for Buckley to reach a 50% score. Large finds himself languishing in last place.

Graeme Buckley vs Peter Large

Supratit Banerjee was well beaten playing White against Roland Bezuidenhout. He countered Black's Sicilian with 3 Bb5 but then seemed to mix systems after developing with 8 Nc3 and 9 d4. The resultant position was rather insipid, allowing Black easy equality, which soon evolved into a positional plus. In desperation White tried 17 Bg5 but it cost him the exchange and two pawns by move 20 and the rest of the game was easy for Black. 

Supratit Banerjee vs Roland Bezuidenhout

David Maycock Bates had a chance of an IM norm if he could score 2/2 but a calamitous loss to the Spanish IM Ivan Valles Moreno put an end to that ambition. Playing White the Mexican FM-elect played a long slab of Ruy Lopez theory with an optimistic 13 g4 at the end of it, where my chosen adjective is probably a euphemism. Valles Moreno countered with an immediate 13...h5 and it was apparent that White was on the defensive from that point forward. However, the lapse wasn't fatal and White gradually fought his way to at least near equality. However, another example of misplaced optimism on move 43 cost him the game.

Tournament Preview

Day 1 Report: Rounds 1 and 2

Day 2 Report: Rounds 3 and 4

Day 3 Report: Rounds 5 and 6

Day 5 Report: Round 9 and Prizegiving

Best Game Prize: R Eames 1-0 E Wilson

Useful Links

Lichess Live Play

Chess-Results

Twitter @johnchess (that's me)

English Chess Forum

Kingston Chess Club (probably nothing during the event but there will be more reports there after the event)