Kingston A v Richmond A, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 9 December 2024

All good things come to those who wait, perhaps. At least, Kingston A’s long-anticipated first Thames Valley League match of the season proved worth the wait when we defeated a slightly understrength Richmond team 5.5-0.5. Richmond were missing Mike Healey and were significantly outrated on every board except the top one, but, as everyone knows, such matches don’t always follow form so clearly.

The first result was a deceptively smooth win by David Maycock (pictured) on board 2. Deceptively smooth like a Capablanca win, in the words of IM Peter Large. David commented that his opponent, Maxim Dunn, slightly confused the theory, playing 12…Bb7 instead of Rb7 in this position:

Kingston won their second game on board 4 when Luca Buanne defeated Bertie Barlow. From a Scandinavian Defence, the players reached this position, in which an exchange sacrifice on f6 is more than promising.

My own game interrupted Kingston’s triumphal progress by finishing in an early draw. The game transposed from a Bishop’s Opening to a King’s Gambit Declined. Alastair Armstrong surprised me by playing an early Na4 in this position, securing the two bishops but losing tempi.

In this connection, I should mention that in our last match against Richmond, back in May, I sat at the board brooding on how I had allowed a winning position against Alastair to become a dead-drawn endgame, until he suddenly pointed out that my time had run out, and I’d managed to turn a draw into a loss. On Monday I decided it was better not to tempt fate.

On board 6, from an English Opening, Peter Andrews was two pawns down against Richmond captain Maks Gajowniczek (one an accident, he admitted, the other a genuine sacrifice) but with a great deal of positional compensation, as can be seen in the diagram. Black is unable to defend the d6 pawn.

A lead of 3.5-0.5 soon became 4.5-0.5 as Peter Lalić won the exchange by a clever tactic and then simplified into a winning ending against John Burke. This was the key position:

Fittingly, the last game to finish – with most of the rest of the players looking on – was the heavyweight one on board 1 between international masters Gavin Wall and Peter Large.

Playing the French Defence, Peter gave up a pawn for positional compensation. Peter analyses a fascinating game in detail below, though, because of mutual time trouble, the final moves were not recorded.

Playing on little more than the increment, Peter showed toughness to refuse a draw and press home his advantage to eventually force his opponent’s resignation and make the final score in the match an emphatic 5.5-0.5. Kingston thus got off to a delayed but very satisfying start in the quest to retain our Thames Valley division 1 title. After the long wait, the matches will now come thick and fast, so we will need to keep up the momentum.

David Rowson, Kingston A captain in the Thames Valley League