Combined team whitewash Derby B

Derby League Division 1

Following a defeat in their first match of the season, the newly-promoted Burton and Lichfield ‘A’ side kickstarted their campaign in Derby League Division 1 with a 4-0 whitewash of Derby ‘B’.

Playing Black on Board 4, Vinod Fernando was a bishop up within six moves following a simple blunder from his opponent. He neatly converted his advantage by engineering exchanges into a won ending.

Turan Asgarova, making her Derby and District League debut as White on Board 1, outmanoeuvred her opponent in the Alapin Sicilian, winning a pawn and stranding Black’s king in the centre of the board. In trying to untangle his pieces, Black lost the exchange, and Turan converted her advantage efficiently to win.

Mircea Mesesan on Board 2, emerged from the opening with a slight disadvantage with Black. He calmly improved the position of his pieces to equalise, and then caught his opponent in a tricky trap in which White was misled into thinking he could attack and win a key pawn. Mircea had calculated further, and his opponent’s position collapsed.

The final game to finish was on Board 3. Following a tense middlegame, Richard Anderson, playing White, had a structural advantage of doubled isolated pawns in his opponent’s position, but with lots of pieces and possible tactical ideas still in the air for both sides. His opponent missed a tactic that led to the Queens coming off, and a position in which Black was forced to give up the exchange to avoid the loss of a knight. Richard converted his advantage to win.

The combined Burton and Lichfield ‘A’ side seem to enjoy playing Derby ‘B’. Since the start of the last season, they have played three times, twice in Division 2, and now in Division 1. The combined score from those matches is 11.5 – 0.5. (Match played 14th October)