Two Endgames, Two Heroes: Derby Dig Deep for Draw
It was a case of ‘bishop bash bosh’ and two clutch endgame victories as we salvaged a 2-2 draw at Chesterfield to keep our title hopes alive.
Following this, the third of three successive away-day match draws against higher-rated opposition, we are one point behind defending champions Belper, with each of us having three matches to play. Had we lost, the league crown would have been all-but Belper’s due to their hugely superior ‘goal difference’.
The evening kicked off promisingly when, at 70mph on the A38, George happened to notice his petrol light flashing profusely. We eventually arrived to find a slightly unexpected board order and a full-strength Chesterfield team.
Kevin missed an early trick against FM-titled Hubert Mossong and was soon under positional pressure when he was forced into pawn pushes that weakened his dark squares. Leonid was also feeling the heat as black against Martin Howard, holding firm but at the cost of time.
My opening was objectively okay but felt dicey over the board as Peter Ackley developed quickly to brew a scary-looking attack on my queenside, where I was forced to castle. George was fairing much better with white against David Latham, building a strong space advantage.
The first key moment came when my opponent, despite huge tension on the board, offered me a draw. At the cost of too much time, I struggled to balance finite calculation with match-play probability – but when Kevin was rocked by a back-rank trick, from which he soon had to resign, my hand was forced to play on, at the expense of only having about 15 minutes left to my rival’s 40.
As Leonid continued to be under pressure and defended doggedly, George progressed to be on the cusp of victory. Fortunes changed in my game as major pieces were exchanged and I emerged into an endgame with the bishop pair and capitalised on my opponent’s weak pawns to win one of them.
With Kevin pacing around the room and somehow avoiding the temptation to visit the bar to calm nerves, momentum shifted again as George’s 2000-rated opponent shifted gears in the endgame and battled to a drawn opposite-coloured bishops ending – or so it would seem.
Strangely, after doing the hard work, Latham lost his way, pushing a pawn to a square his bishop couldn’t protect. George, who had kept his composure despite knowing his previous advantage had slipped away and being short on time, found a nifty blockade and won a decisive extra pawn to clinch victory.
Leonid was still fighting and had cancelled out his opponent’s significant time advantage – but just as the game entered ‘blitz mode’, which he’s usually comfortable in, he rushed with the piece activity and harshly paid the price. An intermezzo check cost him a piece and ended the game.
That left me with my own bishops endgame but one in which I was on top, albeit down to a few minutes on the clock. After securing a passed pawn on the kingside, my opponent dived forward with his king, but it became offside on the edge of the board. After I clinched a second pawn and centralised my king, my opponent resigned to give me the clutch win I needed for us to draw the overall match.
We now need favours from other teams to stop Belper wrapping up the title before our final three league games – but, with only one defeat so far this season, we remain in control of an opportunity to achieve our best league campaign for many years.
| Chesterfield A | 2 - 2 | Derby A | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ackley, Peter | 2033 | 0 - 1 | Tompson, John C | 2116 |
| 2 | Mossong, Hubert | 2008 | 1 - 0 | Dalley, Kevin J | 1855 |
| 3 | Latham, David | 2038 | 0 - 1 | Burdell, George | 1831 |
| 4 | Howard, D Martin | 1979 | 1 - 0 | Siedielnikov, Leonid | 1898 |
John Tompson 27/03/26