Matt Best’s final game as Shrewsbury B Captain ended in success as Shrewsbury B won the first piece of Silverware for the club since the A Team’s first Division triumph three years ago. The final, played at the Shrewsbury Club, was against Newport B – a side Shrewsbury finished above in the league and beat twice, but for the final Newport had the higher graded player on three out of the four boards.
Things started off fairly slowly. Norman “quick draw” O’Connor had offered a draw to Danny Griffiths on board three before the match, and perhaps was more serious than we initially presumed as “quick draw”‘s quick draw (although they had at least played some moves by this stage and, in fairness, the position was looking pretty level) got the ball rolling with half a point apiece. Indeed it wasn’t too long afterwards that Matt Best – not known for his drawing prowess due in part to his “combustible” style – also agreed a quick draw with Athar Mehmood on top board. A potentially exciting, double-edged opening fizzled out into a rook and pawn ending with no imbalances. Although Matt was able to gain more activity for his Rook and take control of the one open file, the position was such that Athar could just sit tight and if either player tried too hard to force a win, their position would deteriorate.
The fact that Shrewsbury had won the toss and Matt, unlike the previous round when he chose Black on top board to avoid this very scenario, chose White for top board meant that Shrewsbury had to win at least one of the two games. The nuances of the rules meant that a win for Dan Lockett on board 2 against Stuart Ross would have secured the win for Shrewsbury irrespective of the result on board 4, where Mark Smith was playing Chris Paul. Furthermore, a draw for Mark was as much use to Shrewsbury as a loss – either way, anything other than a win for Dan would mean Shrewsbury would lose the tie. Under orders to press on and not take a draw, Mark had initially looked to have an uncomfortable position as he had exchanged his fiancettoed dark-squared Bishop for a Knight, leaving a potentially worrying gap in his Kingside for Chris’s dark-squared Bishop to exploit. Things didn’t look altogether clearer on board two, either, where Dan had failed to get anything for some early pressure (although he perhaps could have won a Pawn) and the position, with level material, was fairly congested.
However, the breakthrough finally occurred. Mark equalised via a series of exchanges, before some misjudgments from Chris left his Rooks too passive and allowed Mark to swap off the Bishop and Knight, simplifying down into a double Rook and Pawn ending where Mark’s superior Rook activity ensured he won a gaggle (feel free to suggest a superior collective noun) of Pawns and converted the routine win to put Shrewsbury on the brink of victory. Also, incidentally, it ensured Mark the tag of “player of the tournament” ahead of Chris, with both men going into the game with two wins from their previous two games. Dan was then able to comfortably hold the draw, perhaps with a slightly superior position, and Shrewsbury sealed a surprise win.
Shrewsbury B 2½-1½ Newport B
- M. Best ½-½ A. Mehmood
- D. Lockett ½-½ S. Ross
- N. O’Connor ½-½ D. Griffiths
- M. Smith 1-0 C. Paul