Only time for a quick update, I’m afraid. Our most recent match was against Telford A on bonfire night. There were a few fireworks on the board too, with nice victories from Daniel Lockett against Stuart Ross, and David Everington against Stefan Tennant. I drew against Dave Gostelow and was able to watch Ivor Salter’s game against Windsor Peck, Peter Kitchen having drawn with Richard Thompson by this stage. Ivor was a pawn up against Windsor in a rook and pawn ending. Although “All rook and pawn endings are drawn” is the quip often applied to these endings, this one certainly had winning prospects for Ivor. After a while, though, Windsor was able to bring his king in front of Ivor’s last remaining pawn and a draw was agreed.
For those interested in these things (and shouldn’t that be all of us?), Chess magazine is currently running a series of articles on the basics of rook and pawn endings. I also lent Ivor my copy of Jonathan Hawkins’ book, “Amateur to IM,” which has an excellent chapter on the basics of rook and pawn endings in it.
Anyway, a draw was fine to clinch the result for us, which was enough to move us to the top half of the league table for the first time this season.
| Telford A | Shrewsbury A | |
| David Gostelow | ½-½ | Francis Best |
| Stuart Ross | 0-1 | Daniel Lockett |
| Stefan Tennant | 0-1 | David Everington |
| Richard Thompson | ½-½ | Peter Kitchen |
| Windsor Peck | ½-½ | Ivor Salter |
| 1½-3½ |
Francis Best, A Team Captain