Thames Valley League division 1 match played at Fircroft, Long Ditton, Surbiton on 13 December 2023

Surbiton have returned to their old venue of Fircroft in Ditton Road, which has been very nicely redecorated. The pristine white walls may have aided clarity of thought among some of the Kingston players, but sadly this was not my case, as will be explained.

Both teams were at full, or nearly full, strength, so a competitive match was promised and delivered, even if Kingston outrated Surbiton on every board. The first result came on board 3. After some lengthy manoeuvres in a Sicilian Defence, David Maycock, realising that Altaf Chaudhry’s pieces were mainly committed to the queenside, probed on the kingside with h4, inspired, David said, by AlphaZero. Altaf allowed the pawn to advance to h6, then captured it, but in exchange White gained Black’s d-pawn and, more importantly, Black had a weakened kingside. In the position below David found a nice finish.

He played 39. Nf6+ Kf7 40. Qxg7+ winning back the queen (and being a piece up) by the fork on h5. Black resigned.

Meanwhile, on board 1 an intriguing battle between Vladimir Li and Mark Josse was unfolding. In the position below Vladimir played 13. e6.

If Black accepts the pawn sacrifice with 13…fxe6 White can play 14. Nf4 with the idea of Ng6, preventing Black castling. In the game there followed 13…Ne5 14. exf7+ Kxf7 when Black can’t castle anyway. His king looks vulnerable in view of the weakened white squares around it, but it is not so easy to take advantage of this.

After 15. Bc2 (it’s important to keep this bishop) Rf8, Vladimir attacked with 16. f4, but, as he said, this creates a long-term weakness on e3. He added the interesting comment “I played ‘faster’ than the position demanded.” Black replied 16…Nc4 and then Vladimir played 17. Qd3. The queen and bishop battery along the b1-h7 diagonal looks very dangerous, but Black’s king would actually have been safe on f8 if he had played Re8, increasing the pressure on e3. Vladimir remarked “Thankfully, it is not easy psychologically to play …Re8 when he had just played …Rf8 – especially given the king on f7.”

Instead, Black played 17… Bf6 and after 18. b3 Nxe3 (18…Nd6 was even better, because 19. Qg6+ can be met with 19…Ke7! when the black king is safe due to Black’s dominance on dark squares), giving this position:

There followed 19. Qxe3 d4 20. Qe4 dxc3 21. Rd1 Qb6 22. Qc4+  “a cute trap (White has already secured the perpetual)”, comments Vladimir, as 22…Be6 23. Rd7+ Be7 24. Bg6+ Kf6 25. Qxc3+ Kxg6 26. Rxe7 is good. As it was, Black played 22…Ke7 and the game finished with a repetition after 23. Qe4+ Kf7 24. Qc4+ Ke7 25. Qe4+.

On Board 4 Silverio Abasolo and Jasper Tambini contested a Closed Sicilian by transposition. Tambini sacrificed a pawn on f5, but his hoped-for kingside attack did not fire at that point and he lost another pawn. Possibly in desperation, he sacrificed a knight on h7 and this position was reached:

Play continued 26. Be4 Kh6 27. Bf3 Bd4 (preventing Rg1) 28. Re1 e6 29. Rf4 b3! This either leads to a promotion on a1 or wins the d3 pawn.

White tried 30. c3, but Silverio countered 30…Bxd3! 31. cxd4 b2 32. Rg1 (threatening mate on h4) 33. Bg6, giving the king a retreat square on g7. Black resigned as the b2 pawn is about to promote and win a rook.

Thus Kingston were ahead 2.5-0.5, and we were very hopeful that Will Taylor, playing Black on board 6, would get us over the line. He had got some good opening preparation in, resulting in an objectively winning position as well as a lead of more than 40 minutes on the clock.

In a position with a choice of promising continuations, Will thought for 44 minutes, which is an especially long think when you only have 80 minutes plus 10-second increments for the whole game. He said that at the time it reminded him of Ding Liren’s freeze on move 32 of game 7 of his world championship match against Ian Nepomniachtchi. He didn’t choose the most incisive path, and a mistake a few moves later returned the game to approximate equality, with a draw agreed soon thereafter.

Still, this result made it 3-1, and the prospects were looking good for Kingston until my board 5 game entered a very double-edged phase. In the position below my king is very hemmed-in, but I’m a pawn up and threatening to force a queen exchange with Qd5.

Liam prevented this by 24…Nf6, allowing 25. Nc7 Qd7 26. Nxa8 Rxa8.

The exchange up, but worried about my king’s safety, I played 27. Re3? in order to eliminate the black pawn on f3, but overlooked the counter 27…g4, after which my position is very problematic, especially under time pressure. We were both down to our last minute (excuses, excuses), and following 28. Qf1 Rf8 29. hxg4 Qxg4 (threatening Qg2 and mate) 30. Nxf3 Nxf3 I resigned. Even after 31. Qg2, forcing the queens off, my position is lost.

So Surbiton had got within a point of us, at 3-2, and all would hang on the final game, Peter Lalić’s, as so often. This was a fascinating game from the opening on. Peter sacrificed his h-pawn on move 6 and gained space on the kingside. In this position David Scott has just played 15. e4 to contest the centre:

Peter continued 15…f4!, threatening f3, and after 16. gxf4 Nh4 17. Rg1 exf4 18. Nexf4 Bxd5 19. Nxd5 Nd4 Black controls the f3 square. Curiously, a few moves later an exchange of knights on b4 gave Peter control of the mirror square to f3, c3:

Although Stockfish assesses this as only slightly better for Black, it looks very difficult for White, as his king is stuck in the centre, Black’s king’s bishop is a monster, and he can use the half-open a-file. Both players were soon in time trouble, but Peter strengthened his position step-by-step and by move 43 White could no longer defend against the threats:

There followed 43. Rb2 Bxb2. 44. Qxb2 Rxa2. 45. Qxe5 Ra1+ 46. Resigns. It’s remarkable that Black began by attacking on the h-file and finished by sweeping down the a-file.

Peter’s win gave Kingston the match by the score of 4-2. We have now won three and drawn two matches in Thames Valley League Division 1, which means we lead the table from Hammersmith (who have a match in hand), but we face many challenges in the new year if we are to retain our title.

David Rowson, Kingston captain in Thames Valley division 1