The New Year started with our TVA team visiting Kingston B and hoping for some much needed points. We were outrated on all but the top boards, but John and Alastair scored excellent wins to enable us to share the spoils.

Alastair has annotated his game for us.

Alastair Armstrong  1955 (Richmond) vs Peter Andrews 2009 (Kingston)

Notes from Alastair.

1. e4 c5 2. c3 Nf6 3. e5 Nd5 4. Nf3 d6 5. Bb5+ Bd7

This is the Sicilian (Alapin variation) that I learnt from the videos of the late great Daniel Naroditsky. Shame I misremembered it almost from the start! I saw a game with this Bb5+ and thought it was the main move. In fact, 5. Bc4 is the recommended line. It did, however, put off my opponent which benefited me since after 6. Bc4 Nb6, it leads to wild complications that he didn’t like after 7. Bxf7+ Kxf7 8. e6+ Bxe6 (or Kxe6) 9. Ng5+ – e.g. 8. e6+ Bxe6 9. Ng5+ Kf6 10. Qf3+ Bf5 (actually forced since Kxg5 leads to Black being mated after h4+) 11. g4 where White regains the piece with a very unclear situation.

6. Bc4 Nc7 – Black avoids this theory but Black has a horrible knight which must work hard to liberate itself. A simple e6 was much better where White has no advantage.

7. d4 d5 8. Bd3 e6  – This is too passive. Black is getting a French defence but with a knight on c7. Better was 8. Bd3 Bg4. Now White has a decent advantage.

9. O-O Be7 10. dxc5 Bxc5 11. b4 Be7 12. a4 O-O – White’s plan is clear. Constrict Black’s pieces especially his knights and push his queenside.

13. Ba3  – A move which gives away almost all of White’s advantage as Black can just play b5 and the Bishop is worse than uselessly placed but Black fails to find this move. Even so, the Bishop is poorly placed on a3. A much better plan would be for White to play Bc2, Re1, Qd3 with pressure on both wings.

13 …Be8 14. Qc2 h6 15. Rd1 f5 16. c4 Bh5 – Black hits back with this great move. The bad bishop can now be exchanged for the Knight. White should have avoided the exchange by playing Re1 and Nd4.

17. Be2 Nd7 18. Nd4 Bxe2 – Black lost his chance to take the Knight and has to settle for the Bishop instead. White’s advantage is very slight however as his pieces need better squares.

19. Qxe2 Nb6 – This is not a great move. Better to take on c4 and stop what comes next.

20. c5 Nc4 – Better than Na4 where Black wins a pawn, but the Knight will be stranded at the edge of the board even worse than White’s Bishop.

21. c6 Rb8 – Nasty threats loom with a knight coming to c6. The computer recommends b6 but after b5 White has a protected passed pawn on the sixth rank!

22. b5 Nxa3 23. Nxa3 Bc5 24. Nac2 Qe8  – White has this monster pawn but actually the computer recommends for White to now take on b7 to grab the c-file and pressure the paralyzed knight on c7.

25. Nb3 Be7 26. Ncd4 g5  – This looks desperate. Black is not going to breakthrough. The computer gives 27. cxb7 Rxb7 28. Na5 Rb6 29. Rdc1 Qd7 with massive pressure on c6.

27. Na5 b6 – But no, White forces Black to play the move the computer has been recommending for a while. Still much better for White and Black was getting very short on time.

28. Nb7 Qg6 29. a5 g4 30. Kh1 f4 31. f3 h5 – After some not-totally necessary defensive moves, White should now go 32. Nd6 with the threat of axb6 axb6 Ra7.

32. h3 Kh8 33. fxg4 hxg4 34. Qxg4 Qxg4 35. hxg4 Rg8 – White can now get the Queens off the board and does so. Unfortunately, Rg8 ignores the major threats on the Queenside. 35…Bc5 was vital to maintain any chance.

36. axb6 axb6 37. Ra7 Ra8 38. Rda1 Rxa7 39. Rxa7 Rxg4 40. Nd6 1-0 – With less than 2 minutes on the clock, Black is completely lost and resigned.

You can play through the game here (click on any move for a pop-up window).

On the same evening our Fred Manning Trophy team were out of luck against Ealing, with only Michael L managing to get on the scoreboard.

On Thursday our London League team had its first match of the year against Metropolitan, where we welcomed Declan to our team.

What a great result: we overpowered our opponents on the middle boards to score a critical point. Well done everyone!

Thanks to all for playing, and, as always, thanks especially to our match captains.

Let’s hope for some more great results in 2026.