On Wednesday (04/11/26) it was double trouble as Derby A fell to a frustrating 2½–1½ defeat away to defending champions Belper.
Two defeats on the top two boards sealed our fate as the holders claimed an early scalp in their title defence.
An excellent victory from Leonid with the black pieces on board four would have likely secured us at least a match draw on most battlegrounds, but as a team we were unable to capitalise.
Owen, fresh from an impressive 2400 performance in the nine-round English Championship the prior week, cruised into a +3 advantage against John Potter on top board with white in a French Winawer.
But a tired-looking lapse blundered a pawn and an exchange to boot. Despite this, a misjudgment to exchange queens had Owen back into an equal endgame with bright prospects - but another slip handed his rival a passed b pawn and that proved enough to convert.
With black against Belper Club Champion Jamie Tilston on board two, I mixed up my opening theory in a Queen’s Gambit Declined but managed to equalise and was on the verge of some promising piece activity. But clock pressure told as I missed a key defensive resource and my opponent converted comfortably.
Leonid appeared positionally worse for much of his game on the black side of a Caro-Kann against Andy Townsend on board four, but his trademark resilience snatched a great win.
George was last to finish but after a nice space advantage in his Barry Attack was eventually neutralised, his opponent Simon Gilmore emerged with a strong position and was happy to all-but force the draw to seal his team the match victory.
| Belper A | 2½ - 1½ | Derby A | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Potter, John M | 2200 | 1 - 0 | Crawford, Owen | 2373 |
| 2 | Tilston, Jamie D | 2103 | 1 - 0 | Tompson, John C | 2141 |
| 3 | Gilmore, Simon N | 1960 | ½ - ½ | Burdell, George | 1877 |
| 4 | Townsend, Andy | 1862 | 0 - 1 | Siedielnikov, Leonid | 1825 |
(Match played on Wed 4 Nov 26)
John Tompson 7/11/26