It has been a busy week at Shrewsbury Chess Club despite the league season finishing, as the both the A and B teams were involved as hosts in cup semi-finals either side of the annual Quickplay event organised by Toby Neal at the Wrekin Housing Trust. For simplicity’s sake I’ll deal with them one at a time and chronologically, which means starting with the A team’s encounter with Priorslee Lions A in the Cox trophy, battling for the right to face Newport in the final.
The first game to finish in that one was a surprisingly quick draw between David Everington and William Bates on board 2. The pair were meeting for a third time this season, with both player having won one of the previous two games, both with White. The fact that captain Francis Best won the toss meant that David was Black, but the record between the pair stayed at 50% as the position quickly fizzled out, in contrast the the two explosive encounters prior to this one. It wasn’t long after that when Ivor Salter claimed a creditable win over Glyn Pugh on board 3, trapping Glyn’s Queen. The scores were levelled, though, when Francis went wrong on top board against Adrian Zdanowski, levelling the match and meaning Norman O’Connor had to beat Steve Tarr on board 4 to avoid losing on board count. Unfortunately for Norman, it was a dead drawn opposite-coloured Bishops ending, and trying too hard to win inevitably meant that his position collapsed and he fell to defeat.
Onto the rapidplay event, then. Shrewsbury turned up with a squad of seven players but shortages in other teams meant that Norman O’Connor and Tony Purser were loaned out to Priorslee Lions and Wellington respectively. Shrewsbury’s first game was a rematch against Priorslee – although Francis gained his revenge over Adrian on top board, the other 4 boards all ended in defeat (including a win for Norman, the traitor!). After that, however, Shrewsbury bounced back to finish second in the group stage, thus setting up a semi-final against Telford A thanks to a dramatic late win over town rivals Telepost in the last group game. They scraped past Telford 3-2 to set up a final against Newport, who had thrashed Shrewsbury 4½-½ in the group game and came into the match with a 100% record. Although Shrewsbury gave it a better go than last time, this time only losing 3½-1½, Newport claimed the crown and were undoubtedly worthy winners.
The final outstanding matter, then, was an encounter between Shrewsbury B and Telepost B in the semi-final of the Minor Knockout trophy. First game to finish was on bottom board where Mark Smith was playing Quentin Mills. After winning a Pawn from the opening, Mark gradually consolidated his position and saw off the counter attack, holding on for the win and putting Shrewsbury one up, although board count rules now meant they had to win the match. Shortly after, Norman O’Connor’s game with Alisdair Benjamin on board 3 finished. It was a pretty hectic encounter, with Norman hitting back after losing a piece by winning 3 Pawns for it and finding himself in what should have been a winning ending, only for his shortage of time to cost him as he ended up on the losing side.
That meant that 1½ points were required from the top 2 boards for Shrewsbury. A topsy-turvy game between Matt Best and John Bashall on top board – now published on the interesting games page – eventually finished in Shrewsbury’s favour, solely down to the time advantage that Matt had managed to accrue by the ending. All that was required from board 2 was a draw, then, where Dan Lockett had the exchange for a Pawn against Peter Crean. Peter’s two passed Pawns were sufficiently dangerous to mean that Dan had to give his Rook up for them, though, which left a completely drawn Rook’s Pawn and Bishop ending on the board. Unfortunately for the heart rate of those watching, Dan didn’t claim the draw as soon as he dropped below 2 minutes under the 10.2 rule, and it looked for a while as though he might lose on time as he dropped below a minute while Peter had over 10 left. Ironically, though, Peter ran out of time first – Dan having just a King meaning it was drawn – although Dan said afterwards he was planning on claiming the draw, just not until he was down to his last second or two.
Shrewsbury A 1½-2½ Priorslee Lions A
- F. Best 0-1 A. Zdanowski
- D. Everington ½-½ W. Bates
- I. Salter 1-0 G. Pugh
- N. O’Connor 0-1 S. Tarr
Shrewsbury B 2½-1½ Telepost B
- M. Best 1-0 J. Bashall
- D. Lockett ½-½ P. Crean
- N. O’Connor 0-1 A. Benjamin
- M. Smith 1-0 Q. Mills