Covid-19 stopped all UK over the board chess back in March 2020. Borehamwood Chess Club could not complete its fixtures in the Hertfordshire League and things went quiet for many weeks. Over the Summer, more and more tournaments went on line as existing and new leagues started online versions.

Online team chess is not the same as face to face. It lacks camaraderie, though zoom chats going through games can help restore this to some extent. Borehamwood were invited to join the Herts online league which runs every other Tuesday evening. Only two of us signed-up because online chess is not to everybody’s taste, and there are other Tuesday chess (or non-chess) alternatives. We have joined up with Stevenage to form a Lonely Herts team.

Dan Marcos https://lichess.org/@/dbmchess

Anthony Kent https://lichess.org/@/Chessbore

Dan has had some good games. Here is his win against Andrew du Boulay (Dubzwang) of Hertford Chess Club. https://lichess.org/kVJZslkI/black Dan is worse off worse off with black, and has just played 19..Qb6?! leaving has Knight unprotected on Q7. White sees the ‘free’ knight and takes it….

But 20 QxN check is met with 20…Rf7. The white queen must retreat (back to Q2 in the game), but black has Qg1 check winning the h2 rook. With hindsight, 20. 0-0-0 was strong for white. Dan went on to win. Anthony’s most recent game on Tuesday 10th November was against Terry Douse (Roysturdee) of St Albans Chess Club. https://lichess.org/wmLWhRryfMfv As Black, Anthony was a bit worse off after playing 23….. Ng6-d5?? which allows 24 Bxb5! However white chose to play 24. Nd4 ??

which allowed 24…NxN 25. exN e3! and now white has problems, He cannot take the e pawn, and f4 and Bf5 are threatened. Black went on to win comfortably.

More games and news to follow. New online members welcome.