On Thursday (05/11/26), Derby B travelled to Lichfield to take on Burton & Lichfield A, and came home with nothing to show for a fighting performance, losing 1½–2½. I'm writing this in place of David Smith, who was unavailable, and we had Dave Williams stepping up to play on board four.
The evening began with a slight scare. Justin phoned to check the venue, having understood it to be the Burton Bridge Inn; it was in fact the Guild House in Lichfield. A near miss, and one that could have made for a very different match report! Then came the drive down the A38, with fireworks going off on either side of the road. It felt like an appropriate way to approach a Bonfire Night fixture. On paper we were outgraded on every board.
Dave was the first to finish, and with a win. He played the Modern against an e4, d4 and c3 set-up, a fairly insipid opening in which both sets of bishops came off early. His knights were the more active pieces, which meant his opponent spent much of the game defending. The evaluation swung from clearly better, to level, and back to clearly better again, and in the end a mistake under time pressure gave Dave the point.
I was next, drawing with Black against the English on board two, which left us 1½–½ up and with every chance of taking something from the match. My game was a tense one. I reached a position where my b-pawn was under pressure and my queen's bishop was tied to c8 in its defence. I spotted the tactics to break out of the bind and began to carry them out, only for my opponent to play a move I hadn't seen, exploiting a back-rank weakness. I thought I had blown it, until I realised I could escape into a passive but survivable position. The relief was palpable.
Afterwards I was horrified to find a refutation of that surprise move. I had even seen the sequence, but missed that a capture at the end would come with check, because the pawns were in the way in the starting position. The surprise, and a good dose of fear, stopped me analysing cleanly and punishing it. The game petered out into an opposite-coloured bishop ending, and a draw was inevitable.
When I finished, Skott was under some pressure but looked as if he might hold. He had met the Jobava London, and his opponent Ben played ...a6 and ...c5. Skott chose a line that weakened Black's king but couldn't find the pawn break needed to open the game. Ben kept the pressure on the queenside and Skott's position ultimately collapsed, even though Ben was in severe time trouble. Skott just couldn't hold on.
That left Justin. He was a pawn up, with two rooks and a knight plus three pawns against two rooks and a bishop plus two pawns, but his king was exposed in the open and harassed by the opposing rooks. It looked as if he might extricate himself, but it wasn't to be.
It was a slight let-down. Perhaps we shouldn't have expected anything, but we came so close, and can be pleased with the fighting spirit shown on all four boards.
| Burton & Lichfield A | 2½ - 1½ | Derby B | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nevett-Farman, Benjamin I | 2001 | 1 - 0 | May, Skott K | 1827 |
| 2 | Mesesan, Mircea-Marius | 1982 | ½ - ½ | Dalley, Kevin J | 1834 |
| 3 | Anderson, Richard | 1917 | 1 - 0 | Smith, Justin | 1830 |
| 4 | Routledge, Adam | 1875 | 0 - 1 | Williams, David | 1790 |
(Match played on Thu 5 Nov 26)
Kevin 9/11/26