Peter Kitchen writes.
Shrewsbury A enjoyed their most emphatic win of the season with a 4-0 online town derby triumph over Telepost A.
On a night when Shrewsbury Town FC enjoyed their biggest win of the season – a 5-0 League One win over Morecambe – the town’s namesake chess team also showed no mercy to their admittedly under-strength opponents to complete a welcome online league double over their rivals.
Tuesday’s convincing victory was a fine way for the A’s to finish their Shropshire Online Chess League division one campaign – and has also given them a chance of finishing second in the table. They will finish runners up if Oswestry B lose their final match against Oswestry A in early April by 3-1 or worse, while a 2.5-1.5 defeat for Oswestry B would leave the two teams tied with identical records.
Telepost A – who won the online league last season – have been mathematically consigned to finishing bottom of the four-team table.
Shrewsbury made one change for the match, with Stephen Priestley replacing Mark Smith and Dan Lockett moving up to board three. Telepost brought in John Casewell and Martin Ayres to replace Rob Nield and Keith Tabner.
Shrewsbury were quickly out of the blocks, winning both of their whites within the first 90 minutes of play.
Priestley put Shrewsbury ahead by defeating Ayres on bottom board. Ayres was initially solid on the black side of a Colle System, but an ill-advised pawn capture away from the centre on move 11 weakened his pawn structure and led to the loss of his e6-pawn. Priestley kept up the pressure in the centre and forced further errors from his opponent, who resigned two pieces down on move 26.
On board two, a theoretical duel in the Gallagher Variation of the King’s Indian Defence went Peter Kitchen’s way as he defeated Telepost captain Matthew Clark. Kitchen enjoyed a stable edge thanks to his space advantage in the centre, and a mistimed …b5 push by Clark led to the loss of a pawn.
As he broke through in the centre, Kitchen actually missed a neat tactical trick that would have won a rook.
But he retained a winning position thanks to the strength of his passed d-pawn on d6 supported by a rook and a bishop raking along the h1-a8 diagonal – a far stronger piece than Clark’s knight marooned on h7.
Clark was eventually forced to give up the knight for the passed d-pawn, and resigned on move 39 a full piece down.
But Telepost put up a strong fight on the remaining boards. John Casewell was heavily outgraded by Dan Lockett, but retained a solid position on the white side of an English Opening.
Lockett kept building the pressure on the kingside, and broke through around move 30, winning a piece and with it the game.
On top board, Shrewsbury captain Francis Best appeared on the road to victory when he took a pawn advantage into a knight ending against old foe and former Shrewsbury player Steve Rooney. But Rooney put up a huge fight and continued to cause problems for Best, despite having very little time left in the clock.
Best eventually forced Rooney’s surrender on move 73 to put the gloss on a fine night’s work for his team.
The first teams of both clubs won’t have to wait long to meet again. They are due to face each other at Nerdy Café on Friday (March 25) on the opening night of this season’s Shropshire Rapidplay League, before a big over-the-board derby in division one of Shropshire Chess League just three days later.
Final scores:
Shrewsbury A 2.5-1.5 Telepost A (Shrewsbury colours in brackets)
1.Francis Best (b) 1-0 Steve Rooney
2.Peter Kitchen (w) 1-0 Matthew Clark
3.Dan Lockett (b) 1-0 John Casewell
4.Stephen Priestley (w) 1-0 Martin Ayres