A tale of "what might have been": Burton & Lichfield 'D' held by Rolls Royce

Derbyshire Chess Association League Division 3

Burton & Lichfield ‘D’ hosted Rolls Royce ‘E’ on Monday at The Burton Bridge, with both teams searching for their first win of the season. The home side, with an average rating of 1536 and bringing in John Moughtin-Leay on Board 1 (only his second game in over two years), hoped tonight would be their night, playing a side averaging 100 points less.

Board 4 was first to finish, with Mark Grubb overcoming a regular Rolls-Royce Junior, Hugo Dickenson. The pair had recently met in the Derbyshire Plate, with Mark coming out on top. Hugo almost had his revenge as an inaccurate opening from Mark with the White pieces led to a dominant middle-game for Black. White, however, with a timely f5 pawn push, managed to dismantle the Black King’s defence, and Hugo resigned in view of the inevitable checkmate that White’s encroaching pieces threatened.

Captain Terry Knight, as Black on Board 3, finished shortly afterwards. In a tightly contested game against Shish Ganapathi, Terry eventually failed to prevent a white pawn from threatening promotion and duly resigned.

Joe Parker on Board 2, playing White against Michael Boreham, faced the French Defence. After a typical opening sequence, the black Queen found itself in the middle of the board being attacked by developing bishops, and could have been sent to an early grave had Joe not missed a simple tactical sequence on move 8. White, however, continued to develop and attack, trying to take advantage of the exposed and uncastled black King. Despite successfully corralling the King into the centre of the board, Joe once again missed the correct tactical sequence to trap the black Queen, and after sacrificing material, was forced to secure a draw by repetition.

Soon afterwards on Board 1, John Moughtin-Leay’s game against Jon Jenson came to its conclusion. In the opening, Jon Jenson as White played passively, allowing Black to control the centre with pawns on e5 and d5. A queen trade on d1 left White unable to castle, and after further trades, Black possessed a bishop for White’s knight in a pawn endgame. However, due to an isolated pawn, John was unable to press the advantage, and the game fizzled out into a draw.

There was a palpable sense of disappointment in the room from both sides, who felt close to achieving their first victory of the season. Terry will lead the 'D' team on the 10th of November against Clay Cross ‘B’ - another side without a win in 3 games - and hopes will be high that they can secure the points to start climbing the league.

(Match played: 26th October)