After our defeat against Telepost, Shrewsbury A team appeared firmly rooted to the bottom of the table. However, we were clearly in with a chance of making amends when we faced fellow respite-from-relegation-seekers, Telford A. Having won the away fixture earlier in the season, we knew we could beat them. Furthermore, we had the services of Matt Best – just as well, as our B team was up against Church Stretton (see Ian Davies’ write up of that match below), so we might have struggled to field a full team, otherwise.
In my game, I faced David Gostelow’s habitual London System. I missed a neat tactic by David, which netted him a Rook and three Pawns for two pieces. The White Queenside pawns were advancing menacingly, although I was managing to delay them to some extent. However, just at the key moment, David hesitated, allowing me to blockade the position. As we were both running down to our last couple of minutes, David offered me a draw, which I was pleased to accept. For an overview of the rest of the match, here is a run-down in Matt’s inimitable style:
“My game started off fairly slowly. I was facing the ever-dangerous Stefan Tennant for the first time in a long-play game and he went for a 3…Qa5 Scandinavian, and I emerged with a slight spatial advantage in a closed position where we had both castled Queenside. A few swaps ensued, meaning Stefan was able to de-clutter his position and negate some of my pieces’ extra legroom. This, however, came at the cost of a weak, backwards e-Pawn, which I pinned on both his King and Queen from different angles. Although the cost for me of this pressure was a weak Pawn of my own – on the f-file, I felt as though I had a slight edge (although the computer may well tell me differently!) with the pressure likely to result in some hefty swapping off and simplification down to an ending either with level material but more activity for my rook, or an extra pawn for me. Stefan evidently didn’t fancy that, and he chose to sacrifice the exchange for a Pawn, swapping off Queens and attempting to create a fortress to hold the draw. However, with the pawns over on the Queenside mostly still on the second rank, I was able to throw them forward and open up lines to attack with my Rook (although Stefan’s Knight almost picked up my rook on more than one occasion). Some sub-optimal choices by me allowed Stefan a passed Pawn and some dangerous counterplay, but I had just enough time to round them up with my Rook and Queen my own passed Pawn.
Dan on board 2 started with a massive time advantage due to Nazif being unable to locate the venue, and an uncharacteristically passive opening allowed Dan to seize the initiative and control the game from start to finish, culminating with Nazif overlooking a Knight fork (I think) which secured a comfortable material advantage for Dan and a won position, at which point Nazif resigned. David’s game against Richard Thompson involved, funnily enough, some aggressive Pawn pushes and a piece sacrifice by David. Early on, he looked to have judged them well as his attack looked very strong, but Richard evidently defended well as the next time I looked at the game, it had boiled down to an ending in which Richard had two pieces for David’s Rook. With both players running short on time, however, a neat Pawn move from David meant that Richard had to sacrifice his Bishop in order to avoid checkmate and the time pressure told as Richard overlooked the impending danger and retreated his Bishop. On board 5, Peter was facing Windsor Peck and put in a lovely, controlled performance as Black in a standard Queen’s Pawn game, grabbing space, securing more active placements for his pieces and slowly cranking up the pressure, eventually winning Pawns and simplifying down to a winning endgame, which he duly converted.”
So, at the end of the evening, we ended up as winners 4½-½. This propelled us to fifth position, above Oswestry and Telford, albeit with just the single match point advantage. Our next fixture is against Oswestry who, like us, will be seeking to secure a couple of points to keep them safe. With the winning spot almost certainly a foregone conclusion in favour of Priorslee Lions, the three of us involved in the relegation battle are currently providing the most drama in the first division!
Francis Best