B Team Battle to Excellent Breadsall Win

On Monday (23/02/26), the B team achieved an excellent 2½–1½ victory against Breadsall. Although our opponents were unable to field their strongest side, they still outpointed us on overall grading, making the result all the more satisfying.

On board one, Skott met the Dutch Defence with the Staunton Gambit and quickly obtained a very promising position. A complex middlegame eventually simplified into a rook, knight and pawn ending where all three results were possible. With Derby already leading the match by two wins at that stage, Skott sensibly accepted a draw when it was offered.

On board two, Justin replied to 1.e4 with the Caro-Kann, entering a line featuring pawns on f7 and f6. He launched an attack with his h-pawn, but his opponent countered energetically with an advancing f-pawn that restricted Justin’s pieces. The resulting pressure against his castled king eventually broke through, and Justin was forced to resign.

On board three, I adopted a queen’s pawn opening and established a strong knight on e5 supported by an advanced f-pawn. When the knight was captured, the resulting open f-file allowed him to build sustained pressure against f7 with his bishops and queen. The mounting attack led to a decisive error, and his opponent resigned after losing material.

On board four, Stuart answered a queen’s pawn opening with his favoured Modern Benoni. As exchanges took place, he gained control of the long h8–a1 diagonal and exerted dominance over the dark squares. An advance of his queenside majority opened the a-file, where Stuart’s rooks took control and eventually trapped his opponent’s queen to secure the point.

	Breadsall		1½ - 2½	Derby B
1	Madden, Paul	2055	½ - ½	May, Skott K	1795
2	Jarvis, Derek A	1939	1 - 0	Smith, Justin	1819
3	Burke, Steven J	1903	0 - 1	Smith, David	1838
4	Graham, Neil	1715	0 - 1	Marshall, Stuart	1732

David 27/02/26