Derby Teams Clash in Season Opener
In the tradition of previous matches between Derby teams I have presented both captains reports together - to compare and contrast!
We kicked off the new season (on Tuesday 23/9/25), against our fellow club members in the B team. Playing on our renowned “Candidates-style” wooden sets, we had the bonus of some fancy new digital clocks!
A close match ensued, with my completely abstract and most likely useless pep talk of ‘play the long game’ surprisingly bearing fruit – except for Kevin on board two, who ignored it, and won quite swiftly, after finding an instructive positional pawn sacrifice that carved open his opponent’s kingside light-squared weaknesses.
The other games lasted the distance. Skott threw multiple sacrifices at me on board one, but they weren’t sound, and I managed to avoid tricks and liquidate into a won ending. Dave grinded out a well-worked win on board four, staying patient and pouncing on a mistake.
George couldn’t complete the whitewash. Caught out by some excellent prep from his opponent Justin, he was in deep trouble and borderline lost just out of the opening, and his opponent converted impressively.
John Tompson (A Team Captain) 24/09/25
The B team began its campaign in the top division with an “away” match against our colleagues in the Derby A team.
Skott on first board was determined to take the game to John and opened in gambit style pushing to make a breakthrough in the centre and following up with a sac to open lines to John's king. He was met with a determined and effective defence however and in the end the material imbalance told
On board two, I went for a strategically imbalanced position against Kevin aiming for a result and gaining some measure of black square control but Kevin developed a precise attack on the white squares against my king which led to a nice checkmate
Justin caught George in the opening and won a key central pawn. George developed some tactical threats which Justin navigated leading to a winning position for him
Stuart miscalculated early in the game and had to concede a pawn to Dave. He fought hard in an interesting and double edged middle game equalising material but entered the ending with a slightly inferior position and then blundered under pressure
David Smith (B Team Captain) 25/09/25
| Derby A | 3 - 1 | Derby B | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tompson, John C | 2078 | 1 - 0 | May, Skot K | 1799 |
| 2 | Dalley, Kevin J | 1856 | 1 - 0 | Smith, David | 1853 |
| 3 | Burdell, George | 1811 | 0 - 1 | Smith, Justin | 1763 |
| 4 | Williams, David | 1845 | 1 - 0 | Marshall, Stuart | 1706 |