Derby Derby Drama as B Team Take the Spoils
Again the view of the “Derby Derby” match is presented from the perspective of both captains
The wheel of fortune turned in favour of the B team on the evening of Tuesday 13 January, as we recorded a fine 3½–½ home victory against Derby A — without doubt our best result of the season so far.
On board one, Skott faced John, who adopted a Queen’s Gambit and gradually took control of the centre. Skott’s position always felt solid, but without pawn breaks his space and attacking chances were limited and he had to wait for John to open the position. This finally happened late in the game with both players short of time. Although Skott was a pawn down, the presence of opposite-coloured bishops meant a draw was the fair outcome in the last game to finish.
On board two, Justin emerged a pawn up from the opening, though the position initially appeared dynamically balanced, with Kevin holding the bishop pair and exerting pressure along the diagonals that made development awkward. As the position became more closed, Justin felt he had stabilised his extra pawn. With the B team now leading the match, Kevin attempted to complicate matters with a bishop sacrifice, but this only exposed his king. Forced exchanges followed, leaving Justin with a winning endgame which he converted confidently.
My own game on board three began with Steve advancing a broad pawn front against my King’s Indian Defence. Counterplay in the centre resulted in Steve obtaining an advanced passed queen’s pawn, and I then misplayed the move order while trying to generate queenside play, allowing him to support it with a second pawn. Under pressure, I looked to complicate the position and gradually gained a significant advantage on the clock. As pieces were exchanged, Steve began to overpress, allowing me to infiltrate first with a rook and then with my queen into his king’s position, after which checkmate became inevitable.
On board four, Stuart played the King’s Indian Attack and felt he obtained a promising attacking position from the opening. A miscalculation allowed Dave to capture Stuart’s advanced e-pawn and reach a comfortable position, but Stuart pressed on with an h-pawn attack that perhaps went underestimated. He boldly sacrificed a knight on e6, creating a dangerous pin on a rook defending the king and introducing the threat of back-rank mate with his pawn on h6. The position was tactically complex and required careful calculation, but Stuart kept his nerve and maintained the pressure. Although Dave defended resourcefully for some time, he eventually ran out of options and resigned when major material loss became inevitable. Stuart described the game as high risk, high reward — and thoroughly enjoyable, if a little nerve-wracking.
I think the rest of the B team would readily agree with Stuart’s assessment. This was a highly enjoyable match and a deserved result, reflecting our best collective performance of the season to date.
David Smith (B Team Captain) 25/09/25
They say the form book goes out of the window in a local derby — and so it proved, as three winning positions slipped from our grasp and the bullish B team inflicted our first defeat of the season.
George was on holiday and could only watch on in horror as Kevin’s digital-board matrix projected engine ping-pong shenanigans to the world. George’s total number of face-palms comfortably outnumbered his points tally so far this season.
Dave won a clean pawn out of the opening after engineering French-Defence-style counterplay in the centre, but one moment of complacency proved costly. With the prophylaxis radar switched off, Stuart crashed through with a knight sacrifice and won in style.
Steve, guesting on board three, played a very nice game, creating connected queenside passed pawns against his opponent’s King’s Indian. However, dogged defence from David, combined with a touch of Retout rustiness, led to time trouble. The evaluation bar finally flipped when a costly queen check resulted in the loss of a piece.
Kevin had earlier sacrificed a pawn with Black in a Closed Sicilian-type position, hoping for compensation via the bishop pair. His opponent defended solidly, and the material advantage gradually began to tell, despite queens and bishops remaining on the board and slightly less time on the clock. With the team already 2–0 down and needing wins on the top two boards to draw the match, Kevin panicked with an ill-fated bishop sacrifice. Justin promptly ended matters with a deadly back-rank check, forcing exchanges into a lost endgame.
My own game followed a similar arc to Steve’s. I engineered a tight grip on the position, leaving my opponent with very few meaningful options. While Skott shuffled pieces, drained cups of coffee, and mentally organised his to-do list for the following day, I struggled to find the knockout blow. When I finally broke through with a pawn push and a promising bishop sacrifice, time trouble struck. Some precise defensive moves from Skott made things awkward, and two winning ideas I’d spotted — but via the wrong move order — slipped away. In the end, I was reduced to offering a grovelling draw, which I was relieved to see Skott accept.
John Tompson (A Team Captain) 24/09/25
| Derby B | 3½ - ½ | Derby A | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | May, Skott K | 1793 | ½ - ½ | Tompson, John C | 2097 |
| 2 | Smith, Justin | 1807 | 1 - 0 | Dalley, Kevin J | 1869 |
| 3 | Smith, David | 1841 | 1 - 0 | Retout, Steve P | 1868 |
| 4 | Marshall, Stuart | 1699 | 1 - 0 | Williams, David | 1834 |
The games from the match can be found here:
https://lichess.org/broadcast/derbyshire-league-division-1-derby-b-v-derby-a/main/OMJpcHji#boards