Derby A Finish Season with a Loss

Our final game of the season was at home to Belper A (on Tuesday 8/4/25). We had drawn our first match against them but now Belper needed a win to give themselves a strong chance of becoming champions.

John’s game was a Vienna Game that saw him gain a solid edge with black out of the opening and pressing with more space and better development. A Karpovian-style bishop move would have helped to tie up white’s pieces and close in on chances to breakthrough, but John said it was more Kargroanian as he lost the thread and allowed his opponent to neutralise. In fact, it was his rival who emerged with winning chances in an endgame with the two bishops, but, to help Belper seal the points following Steve’s and Kev’s games finishing, he killed the game into an opposite-coloured bishops stand-off, forcing the draw.

Steve faced the Slav Defence with the English opening. There was an early exchange of queens, but White  lost the exchange early after an ambitious f4 pawn push. However there was some compensation and White was still in the game for a long time until Black simplified. The engine later showed there was a way to put black under a lot of pressure but it was difficult to find in a complex tactical situation.

Kevin’s opponent was relatively unambitious in the opening and while Kevin equalised there was no good way to destabilise the position. The game soon burned out and a draw was agreed.

I played the London (surprise) and had a couple of chances to be better but failed to take them. A pawn down, I tried unsuccessfully to prevent the trade of material, and resigned on move 34.

	Derby A		1 - 3	Belper A
1	Tompson, John C	2076	½ - ½	Potter, John M	2178
2	Retout, Steve P	1867	0 - 1	Gilmore, Simon N	2035
3	Dalley, Kevin J	1856	½ - ½	Alderson, Michael J	1929
4	Williams, David	1829	0 - 1	Tilston, Jamie D	1958

Dave Williams 11/04/25