On Tuesday (27/10/26), fresh from our defeat to Belper B, Derby C hosted another of the Division 2 promotion favourites, Rolls Royce B. This time we held our own, drawing 2 - 2 and finally getting a point on the board.
Stuart was the first to finish, drawing on board two against Edward Bromilow. "I played another b3 opening and my opponent set up defensively in reply," he said. "The opening transposed to a Colle system, where I felt I had good attacking chances, but my opponent then attempted to trade dark-squared bishops. I refused to exchange as I felt my bishop was superior, but my opponent would not abandon the exchange, and an early draw was agreed after a threefold repetition."
By then I was in trouble on board one. Playing Black against Andrew Robins, I had left a big hole for a knight to land on d6, and the position was beyond saving. I eventually resigned on move 33.
That made it 1½ -½ to them, but Shah had other ideas on board three. He played the Caro-Kann with Black, and Ran went for the Advance Variation. "I moved my c-pawn to attack the central pawn," Shah explained. "I exchanged the pawn and then he let me have the other pawn as well! From then on we exchanged most of our pieces. We both castled, and then on move 15 I made an illegal move by moving my queen to a3, but he didn't notice and neither did I, as I was concentrating on attacking his central pawn." Ran went on to blunder his queen on move 21 and resigned, levelling the match.
(Note:
We only spotted the illegal move after the end of the match when I was checking the DGT board output. There are some relevant rules of chess here:
7.5.1 ….. If during a game it is found that an illegal move has been completed, the position immediately before the irregularity shall be reinstated….
8.7 At the conclusion of the game both players shall indicate the result of the game …... Even if incorrect, this result shall stand, ……
In this game the …Qa3 illegality was never spotted during play, so 7.5.1 never came into force. His opponent’s resignation ended the game, and under 8.7 the result stands.
- Kevin)
That left the result hinging on Matt, White on board four against Paul Rutland. "We went into a Closed Sicilian Defence," he said. "I seemed to come out better from the opening, with strong pressure on Black's kingside and a powerful bishop on a2 which stayed there for most of the game, hitting the kingside. The result was that Black was unable to castle and the king was stuck in the middle for the rest of the game." Matt had also built up a substantial time advantage, and anyone who knows him will appreciate how unusual that is: at one point he had an extra half hour on his clock. "Unfortunately I was unable to capitalise on my advantage," he admitted. "An unwise move enabled Black to put some pressure on one of my pawns, and the only way I could save it was to swap off my powerful bishop. After that the game was much more even, with Black probably a bit better off." With about 12 minutes left for Matt and 6 for his opponent, and plenty of game still to be played, both players were wary of the clock, and a draw was agreed.
An excellent result compared with our previous performances, and our first point of the season. Onwards and upwards.
- David 29/10/26
The games of the match can be found here:
https://lichess.org/broadcast/derby-c-team-2026-2027-season/derby-c-v-rolls-royce-b/clp7IL9V
(Please note that on board three 15…Qb5 was actually 15…Qa3 (the illegal move) - it sorts itself out after 17…Qa6)
| Derby C | 2 - 2 | Rolls Royce B | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Williams, David | 1825 | 0 - 1 | Robins, Andrew | 1854 |
| 2 | Marshall, Stuart | 1768 | ½ - ½ | Bromilow, Edward T | 1783 |
| 3 | Hussain, Shah | 1631 | 1 - 0 | Nath, Ranjit | 1747 |
| 4 | Caswell, Matthew | 1597 | ½ - ½ | Rutland, Paul | 1743 |
(Match played on Tue 27 Oct 26)
Dave 15/10/26