A re-jig of the line-up helped Shrewsbury C beat Oswestry C 2-1 to close the gap between the two sides in Shropshire Online Chess League division two.
Robert Green celebrated being promoted to top board with a smooth victory over Steve Tulett, while captain Richard Vernon built on getting his first over-the-board result last week by defeating Alf Evans on board three – his first classical online win since June.
Tony Purser lost to Jonathan Smith with the black pieces in a see-saw battle on board two, writes Peter Kitchen.
Thanks to Newport A’s surprise win over leaders Telford A, Shrewsbury’s win wasn’t enough to move them off the foot of the table. But they are now level on points with both Newport A and Oswestry C.
Shrewsbury came into the match bottom of the four-team division with three defeats from their opening four matches. But Vernon made use of his players’ proximity in grading – he moved the in-form Green from board three to one with everyone else shuffling down a board.
Playing on the white side of a Modern Defence, Green won two central pawns in the early middlegame. He soon had advanced and connected passed d and e pawns, which proved the spearhead for his pieces to advance. A cute tactic clinched the exchange on move 29 shortly after a third pawn had been won. Tulett resigned on move 43 as he was set to lose a further piece.
On board two, Purser uncharacteristically gambited a pawn on the opening move, but quickly gained play. He missed an opportunity to win a piece on move 14 but did regain his lost pawn and continued to hold the initiative.
However, an ill-advised decision to allow Smith to swap off the final minor pieces led to a level double rook ending, but one where Smith had a passed e-pawn and more prospects to play for a win.
Purser was unable to halt the march of his opponent’s king, and although both players made errors in a complicated position, it was Smith who prevailed. Purser resigned on move 40 before Smith could turn his e7 pawn into a queen.
But there was happier news for Vernon on bottom board as he won his first online match for seven months.
The Shrewsbury skipper had enjoyed a pleasant position out of the opening – a Sicilian Alapin – but his opponent started to drum up dangerous play on the queenside in the middlegame, with a centralised queen on d4 and a rook in charge of the open c-file. But Evans didn’t find the most accurate way to progress, allowing Vernon to regroup and equalise.
An unfortunate …f5 advance by Evans opened lines on the kingside for Vernon to exploit, only for the battle to then take two drastic turns. First, Vernon lost a piece, only for Evans to hand it back with interest three moves later when he put a rook en prise.
There were no further slip-ups from there, as Vernon confidently saw the game out, as his rook dominated black’s knight. Evans resigned on move 49.
Full scores:
Oswestry C 1-2 Shrewsbury C (Shrewsbury colours in brackets)
1. Steve Tulett 0-1 Robert Green (w)
2. Jonathan Smith 1-0 Tony Purser (b)
3. Alf Evans 0-1 Richard Vernon (w)
The C’s will next be action on February 27 against Newport A, and will hope for a repeat of the last meeting between the sides – a 2-1 win in the online league in late November.