Shrewsbury B maintained their three-point lead at the top of Shropshire Online Chess league division two after a hard-fought draw with fellow title challengers Oswestry C.
Despite significantly outgrading their opponents, the B’s were indebted to Mark Smith grinding out a 99-move win in a topsy-turvy struggle on top board against Keith Grice to extend the side’s unbeaten run to five matches.
There was also a bizarre finish to the match on board two. Oswestry’s Stephen Tulett’s computer froze while in a level position against Stephen Priestley. He subsequently lost on time on the Lichess website that the match was being played on – but the players and captains both agreed to declare the game a draw owing to the unusual and unfortunate circumstances that had arisen.
Ivor Salter had earlier lost with the white pieces against Jonathan Smith on bottom board, as the match finished 1.5-1.5.
The B’s have three wins and two draws from their five games and remain three points clear of Oswestry C, who do have a game in hand.
Meanwhile, Shrewsbury C’s recent good run came to a shuddering halt as they were well beaten 2.5-0.5 by Newport Juniors.
The C’s were indebted to bottom board Richard Vernon for helping to avert a whitewash. In a see-saw game, Vernon recovered from three pawns down against Colin Parker to find himself a piece up in the ending. But he gave the piece back to prevent one of Parker’s pawns from promoting, and the game ended as a draw after 70 moves with just the two kings left on the board.
Top board Tony Purser had been looking good against Thalia Holmes, only for the game to turn and the Shrewsbury man to be the victim of a vicious counter attack. Robin Nayman was well beaten by Daniel Hilditch-Love on board two.
The C’s slip to third in the table, level with five other teams on four points.
Shrewsbury C will be looking to fall in love with the feeling of success again when they play Oswestry C in the week of Valentine’s Day, before the big inter-club derby between the B’s and C’s during the week starting February 28.