Shrewsbury B made their way through to the next stage of the Minor Knockout with a hard fought victory away to Telepost C.
All the signs pointed towards it being a tight game: the two sides finished 4th and 5th in the second division, with Telepost two points behind Shrewsbury; both sides had won one and lost one of the two head-to-head meetings this season; both sides had a grading advantage on two of the four boards and the average grades of the two teams were very similar (Shrewsbury’s 122 and Telepost’s 117).
Skipper Matt Best got the ball rolling in a positive fashion by winning the toss, ensuring White on boards one and three, and then went one better by actually winning his game on board three against Charles Micallef. With Matt opting for a Grand Prix set-up against the Sicilian, Charles overlooked a crucial in-between move which cost him a piece, and the remainder of the game was always going to be a struggle.
Telepost’s skipper John Casewell leveled the scores with an impressive victory over Francis Rooney (standing in for the unavailable Mark Smith) on board 4. A tense struggle had led to a position with Queens still on the board along with opposite coloured Bishops, and it was John’s light-squared Bishop that delivered the killer blow, pinning Francis’ (with his mind possibly elsewhere after a physics exam earlier on in the day) Queen on his King and finishing the game off. A positive for the visitors was that as it was bottom board that they lost, one more point would be sufficient to progress due to the tie-break system of board count.
That one point was then gained thanks to Ivor Salter’s superb win over Peter Crean on top board. Having got to an ending a pawn up, some calm play and plenty of swapping off led to Ivor having a winning position courtesy of his two marauding rook pawns on the sixth rank. At that stage, Peter overlooked a skewer which cost him a Bishop, thus making his position entirely untenable, and he resigned, sending Shrewsbury B through to the Minor Knockout semi final.
With progression already secured, Norman O’Connor and Vinny Crean were now solely playing for pride on board two. After Vinny played slightly erroneously as White against Norman’s King’s Indian, he faced a tough task to keep himself in the game. Some stoic defence and complex tactical play ensured that he made things difficult for Norman, and the two agreed a draw rather than slog it out for another half an hour.
Shrewsbury B 2.5-1.5 Telepost C
- I. Salter 1-0 P. Crean
- N. O’Connor 0.5-0.5 V. Crean
- M. Best 1-0 C. Micallef
- F. Rooney 0-1 J. Casewell