Ben Beardall wins 2025 Kingston Championship, 5.5/6!

[Frank Dixon]

Yesterday was indeed a banner day for Ben Beardall of Kingston!!! It was his first day at a new full-time job, after he had recently completed an internship with that Kingston firm; he also successfully finished his course work at St. Lawrence College, Kingston campus.

Now for the chess part: Ben won his last-round game in the 2025 Kingston Championship, to claim the City title, his first, with a powerful score of 5.5/6. Congratulations, Ben!!

Ben finished ahead of four former champions: defender Dr. Bassel Hakim, Jake Van Rooy, Frank Dixon, and Brian Profit. Together, those four past winners cover these four decades: 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s (with several other champions across that time, of course).

Ben allowed only one draw, to Hakim, who claimed clear second with 5/6, also unbeaten. Two of Ben's wins were sharp miniatures; he was never in danger of losing at any juncture.

Ben has developed at the Kingston Chess Club from his teens, with especially rapid improvement in the last year. He is now playing more out-of-town events as well, with his CFC rating starting to climb. He also plays a major role with the KCC youth instruction program.

The event was directed by the team of head TD Jake Van Rooy and assistant TD NTD Frank Dixon, with no appeals or disputes; our Appeals Committee never had to meet!

Players from the event will be posting some games soon.

[Ben Beardall]

Thank you for the post, Frank. It was truly an enjoyable tournament with some memorable games from everyone. As Frank has mentioned, I am looking to play more classical events and gain experience as a fairly new tournament player.
I'll give some brief background about my journey in chess: I've been playing chess casually since I was very young, but never took it very seriously until I started playing classical games. In 2018-19 I started to develop as I played at the Kingston Chess Club, but school soon took more of my time. I still improved from playing online in my free time, but it has only been in the last year that I have the chance to play in more classical events.

I have annotated my round 3 game against Jake, which involved a swift attack on white's king.


Jake Van Rooy (2091) - Ben Beardall (1682)
Kingston Chess Club Championship, 2025
March 31
Round 3
TC: 60+30

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d3
{It's not the first time my opponent has played this against me. The idea is to play a sort of Philidor type of setup with a tempo up.}
3... Nf6 4. Nc3 d5 5. exd5 Nxd5 6. Bd2?!
{This move seems to be aimed at reinforcing the knight in case of Nxc3, but it ends up being in the way later in the game.}
6... Be7
{At this point I wasn't sure if I wanted to castle short or long, but Be6 immediately allows Ng5.}
7. Be2 Be6 8. O-O Qd7 9. Re1 O-O-O 10. Bf1 f6 11. a3 g5
{I realized around here that my attack would come much faster than white. I am already threatening to play g4, which would almost trap white's knight and allow further gains of tempi.}
12. Kh1?
{Instead of this, 12. Nxd5 Bxd5 13. c4 was white's best way to slow down the attack.}
12... h5 13. b4 g4 14. Ng1?!
{White again should have opted for 14. Nxd5! Bxd5 15. Nh4... Now since h5 was played, f5 no longer wins for black because of Ng6. Black is better, but white has some counterplay based on moves like Qa4 and c4}
14... h4 15. Nge2 Rdg8?
{A more straightforward win would have been 15... g3! 16. fxg3 hxg3 17. Nxg3 Rdg8 With the threat of Rxg3 and the semi-open h and g files spelling disaster for white.}
16. Nxd5! Bxd5 17. b5??
{White needed to start with 17. c4! to force black's dangerous light-squared bishop back}
17... h3!
{I spent a long time on this move. Even after calculating, I didn't see a clear checkmate after bxc6 hxg2+ Bxg2, but my opponent had calculated it out until mate. Nonetheless, I was confident that I had enough pieces to make it work. A beautiful line that I only discovered afterwards was 17... g3!! 18. bxc6?? (18. f3 h3 -+) Qh3! And checkmate is unstoppable.}
18. Ng3
{The line spotted by my opponent in the game was 18. bxc6 hxg2+ 19. Bxg2 Bxg2+ 20. Kxg2 Qxc6+ 21. Kg1 Rxh2 22. Kxh2 Rh8+ 23. Kg1 Rh1#. The correct order of the sacrifices had eluded me in my own calculations.}
18... Nd4
{With this move I am setting up hxg2+ followed by a trade of bishops and Nf3, to gang up on the h2 pawn.}
19. Ne4 f5 20. c4 fxe4 21. cxd5 hxg2+ 22. Bxg2 Nf3 23. h3
{Another possible line was 23. Bxf3 gxf3 24. dxe4 Rg2 25. Qxf3 Rhxh2#}
23... g3!
{The h3 square cannot be defended by white!}
24. Bxf3 Qxh3+ 25. Kg1 Qh2+ 26. Kf1 Qxf2# 0-1

I look forward to seeing other games from this tournament posted.

[Hans Jung]

Welcome to chesstalk Ben! As a true tournament player on your first post you provided an annotated game and a nice attack as a bonus. I enjoyed the game. Thanks.