John Saunders' Chess Blog: 2025 Kingston Invitational: Day 1, Rounds 1 and 2

John Saunders reports: After the first day's play of the 4th Kingston Invitational Chess Tournament on 12 August 2025, the leader of the round-robin tournament is the top seed and sole grandmaster Jakub Kosakowski (Poland) with 2/2, while six players - IM Raul Claverie (Argentina), FMs Jacob Templen and Gunnar Lund (both Norway) and untitled home players Shlok Verma, Ewan Wilson and Will Taylor - all have 2/2 after the first two rounds of the open tournament running alongside.

David Maycock Bates (of Mexico & Kingston CC) vs GM Jakub Kosakowski (POL)

Round 1 (12 August 2025)

From a British perspective, all eyes were on Supratit Banerjee as play commenced in the round robin event. Though the second lowest rated player of the ten starters at 2242, the impact the 11-year-old had made at the British Championship in Liverpool could scarcely have been more impressive. There he had scored an impressive 6/9 to record an IM norm and finish in a tie for 7th place. After losing to the tournament's top-rated super-GM Nikita Vitiupov, he had remained unbeaten thereafter over the subsequent eight rounds and taken the scalps of GMs Mark Hebden and Simon Williams along the way.

Supratit Banerjee vs IM Peter Large

Here Supratit Banerjee found himself paired with Kingston CC club mate IM Peter Large, now back playing a lot of chess after retiring from a busy professional career.The IM tested the breadth of the younger player's opening repertoire by opting to defend a less well-travelled line of the Ruy Lopez and reaching a queenless middlegame in which Black gave up a pawn for active piece play. A game of careful manoeuvring ensued in which the black bishop pair maintained sufficient compensation for the sacrificed pawn. But on move 45 Peter Large offered to sacrifice an exchange in order to regain the pawn. At first sight this looked to have merit though Stockfish thought otherwise... as did Supratit. The youngster grabbed the material and played a killing intermezzo check which proved the sacrifice had been more of a blunder.

The first round was a bloody affair, with just one draw from the five games. Mexican CM David Maycock, now well-established as a local player, also flew the flag for Kingston Chess Club against top seed GM Jakub Kosakowski of Poland. He tried a more sedate line against the Najdorf Sicilian and the game continued with theory until move 16. White's attempt to drum up a kingside attack soon foundered against careful defence from the Polish GM, who mopped up efficiently.

The Buckley/Lalic family enjoyed a good morning's play. Firstly, IM Graeme Buckley, husband of IM Susan Lalic and step-father of FM Peter Lalic, played the white side of a Ruy Lopez with 4...Nge7 and 5...f6 against Polish FM Liwia Jarocka. A position arose which reminded me of the Ponziani Opening, which I used to play for White when I was an active player. Actually I was more of a passive player myself but that description doesn't fit Graeme Buckley who is one of the most active and aggressive players around. That said, his pawn sacrifice looked unconvincing and Black stood better for a while. White's queenside play seemed to have little merit but an injudicious bishop move on move 21 made all the difference. After that White's attack crashed through.

Peter Lalic opened with a Morra Gambit against Adam Taylor. It's a well-known gambit line but doesn't enjoy much of a reputation with top-level players. However, for anyone rated below, say, 2300, it can be a hard job to find a convincing way to meet it. Black committed a positional blunder on move 11 after which White's well-calculated reply left little doubt as to how the game would turn out.

Bezuidenhout-Valles Moreno opened with the Modern Defence, with a slightly Ruy Lopez after ...e5 was played and a white bishop relocated to b5. White maintained a steady Spanish torturer's grip and the analysis engine still preferred his chances when a draw was finally agreed. By then White had secured a passed a-pawn in a level heavy piece endgame but it was blockaded and not at all obvious how to make progress.

Round 2 (12 August 2025)

Round 2: Jakub Kosakowski vs Supratit Banerjee

The star pairing of the afternoon was undoubtedly Kosakowski-Banerjee, with the top-rated GM facing the boy wonder who was on a remarkable run of nine games without defeat comprising eight games in Liverpool, including 2½/3 against GMs. However, I hope his GM opponents of Liverpool will forgive me for comparing their somewhat mature years to that of 23-year-old, newly-minted, fresh-out-of-the-box GM Jakub Kosakowski whose title was confirmed earlier this year. Supratit chose to defend a Taimanov Sicilian, but he opened up the position too soon at moves 10 and 11 and thereafter the Polish GM found it a relatively straightforward task to convert.

Once again, in this round, Peter Lalic astonished us all with the length of his game. No, I'm actually messing with your heads a bit here, readers, it wasn't another double century epic to rival last year's record-breaking seventh-round epic of 272 moves. It lasted just 10 moves, against his stepfather Graeme Buckley. I expect the arbiters breathed a sigh of relief. In the 2024 Kingston Invitational Peter's nine games lasted 34, 77, 49, 83, 19, 40, 272, 28 and 61, totalling 663 moves at an average of 73.66. This year so far he's played 47 and 10 moves.

Liwia Jarocka vs David Maycock Bates

Liwia Jarocka vs David Maycock Bates started with a Neo-Catalan and went into a middlegame with all the pawns locked in a line across the board. It was hard to judge who stood better until Black launched a speculative g-pawn sacrifice, which White opted not take. It might have been better if she had as her position became problematic as her king was menaced by threats along the h-file and the long light diagonal.

Adam Taylor (England)

Ivan Valles Moreno (Spain)

Adam Taylor vs Ivan Valles Moreno started with a Leningrad Dutch with overtones of (very good) King's Indian. White's attempts to climb back into the game in the face of Black's KID-style kingside advance nearly came off but Black, despite a couple of missteps, finally emerged from the complications to win.

Large-Bezuidenhout was the longest game of the round, at 66 moves. The English IM opened with a Réti Opening and lots of careful manoeuvring ensued. There was a strange interlude featuring a mutual oversight where Black might have won a piece, probably explained by the complexity of the position and the unusual nature of the theme. Eventually White emerged from a Q+R+N endgame with an extra pawn but with pawns all on the one side suggesting it probably could be drawn. However, Black committed rather a simple error ceding a second pawn and after that there was no doubt.