C Team captain Ian ‘dangerous’ Davies came to the rescue of ‘mediocre’ Matt Best whilst standing in for Matt’s B team with an excellent victory to ensure Shrewsbury B move atop the Division 2 table. The B team were hosting Oswestry A, promoted from the third division as Champions last season ahead of Wellington B and Ian’s C team, who had won their opening two games this season, boosted by the arrival of David Bennion to feature on top board this season.
And it was Bennion who was involved in the first game to finish on the night. He elected to play an unusual reply to Matt’s Scandinavian on top board, with a temporary Knight sacrifice leading to a prompt exchange of Queens and an interesting position, where Bennion had a Bishop pair against Matt’s Bishop and Knight, but Matt had a superior Pawn structure and an advantage in development, leading to a slight edge. However, Matt blundered the exchange and wasn’t able to create sufficient counterplay to avoid a frustrating early defeat.
After gaining an early lead, Oswestry’s cause was boosted by a draw on board 5. John Davies and Andrew Lewis cancelled each other out in a tight game, with neither side having much going on in an attacking sense. However, the match was levelled shortly after courtesy of an excellent victory by Norman O’Connor against Keith Grice on board 3 – now on the ‘interesting games’ page and well worth a view.
That meant that a grandstand finish was assured on the final two boards. The first of the two to finish was board two, where Daniel Lockett was facing Graham Ives. Having found himself under pressure throughout the game, Daniel’s tenacious defence enabled him to fend off the attack and head into a King, Pawn and same-coloured Bishop endgame with material level. However, Graham had doubled pawns on the c-file, whereas Daniel had an isolated passed pawn over on the e-file. Ultimately, defence of said Pawn proved untenable, but Daniel, despite being in time trouble, was able to lock up the position with his Pawns on light squares, meaning the game was drawn.
That meant that the result of the final game (where Ian was facing Ashley Peile on board 4) would reflect the match result. Ian had been a Pawn up at the expense of an open line against his King. However, as the game progressed, he was able to gobble up two further Queenside Pawns without further compromise, leaving him firmly in control and Ashley deep in time trouble. With less than a minute left on his clock, Ashley sacrificed the exchange for a Pawn in order to blow open Ian’s King with the target of either checkmate or a perpetual. However, some composed, solid defending from Ian ensured that he avoided both, and Ashley resigned with 16 seconds left on the clock and no prospect of forcing a quick win or draw.
Shrewsbury ‘B’ 3-2 Oswestry ‘A’
- M. Best 0-1 D. Bennion
- D. Lockett ½-½ G. Ives
- N. O’Connor 1-0 K. Grice
- I. Davies 1-0 A. Peile
- A. Lewis ½-½ J. Davies