Shrewsbury C’s promotion bid was kept on track with a 2-2 draw at home to fellow promotion chasers Newport D thanks to some spectacular attacking play from captain Ian Davies.
The match got off to a bad start when junior Lewis Clarke ended Fred Harris’ 100% record in the league with some excellent endgame play in a position which had previously looked level or possibly even slightly in Fred’s favour.
Eric Inglis was able to continue his outstanding season with a highly creditable win over Steve Cooper on board three. Having (as Black) managed to get a pawn up on e3, he restricted Steve’s position and eventually built up enough pressure to secure the win.
That result was cancelled out shortly after, when the in-form Richard Szwajkun was finally able to break Andrew Lewis’ resilience on top board. Despite having a vast multitude of pieces aimed menacingly towards his seemingly undefended King, Andrew managed to find a host of defences before finally crumbling.
That results meant that Ian had to win on board two against Steve Szwajkun. Having given it away somewhat with the title and opening paragraph, there’s little point in trying to build any suspense, so I’ll just stick with saying that he did. Despite having a very restricted light-squared Bishop and several of Steve’s pieces eyeing Ian’s potentially vulnerable King, the captain’s thoughts were solely on winning – a draw for him would have meant a defeat for the team and leave the promotion hopes hanging by a thread.
Ian decided to sacrifice his Bishop to open the position up, move Steve’s Queen away from its dangerous position, prevent the threat of a perpetual check for Steve and, crucially, force Steve to think long and hard about it with both players beginning to get short on time. It proved a smart move, and shortly after played another sacrifice when he appeared to give up the exchange. Steve, after thinking for several minutes yet again, opted against recapturing and inviting pressure on his own King, meaning Ian was 2 pawns up and the position becoming hugely tense.
Eventually, however, Ian secured the victory (see diagram [white to play]*, which I have tried to construct from memory and so may be slightly inaccurate! The winning move played in the game does work, however, so I think it’s right!). The result means the C team temporarily remain second – two points off top spot and Oswestry A, one point ahead of their third-placed opponents for the night and one point ahead of fourth placed Wellington B but having played a game more. Three massive games await.
That was not the only match on last night, however. Oh no. There was also the small matter of the fierce derby (well sort of) between the two top Shrewsbury sides to precede Shrewsbury Town’s trip to Walsall the following day (Come on TOWN!) as Shrewsbury A hosted Telepost A.
Jamie Hopkins was able to strengthen his side thanks to the availability on board three of Ed Goodwin, whose previous game for Shrewsbury this season resulted in a win for him and Shrewsbury B’s first win of the season. Jamie will have hoped his appearance would result in a similarly positive outcome this time around.
Indeed, he did his bit. Having come under a fair bit of pressure from Phil Zabrocki, Ed weathered the storm whilst creating positive counterplay, and the game finished drawn. Unfortunately, however, David Everington found himself a piece down on board four against John Bashall. Although he did have some counterplay initially, it wasn’t enough to compensate for the piece and John was able to eventually win.
After Jamie continued his excellent (and unbeaten) league season with a draw against Nigel Ferrington on top board, Shrewsbury were in need of a win. They got one, thanks to Francis Best’s impressive victory over Richard Bryant on board two. Despite a significant material disadvantage, Richard kept plugging away and making life very difficult for Francis, before he was able to win the game with a stylish finish.
That meant that match was level at 2-2, and that the individual result on board five between Dan Lockett and Keith Tabner would mirror the match’s overall result. Having got a strong position out the opening with the lively Benko Gambit, Dan played the middlegame nicely and emerged in the opening on top. An unfortunate error saw him drop a piece, but he kept on battling and got to a fiercely tricky endgame for both players, with Keith having a King, Knight and h-pawn against Dan’s King, h-pawn and marauding central pawn stationed on e4. With time at a premium, the game, set and match were eventually secured by Keith as he demonstrated some textbook(ish) endgame skills under huge time pressure. The result means Telepost’s title challenge remains intact and that the visitors have done the double over Shrewsbury this season – the first time either side has managed to do so in a long time.
Shrewsbury A 2-3 Telepost A
- J. Hopkins 0.5-0.5 N. Ferrington
- F. Best 1-0 R. Bryant
- E. Goodwin 0.5-0.5 P. Zabrocki
- D. Everington 0-1 J. Bashall
- D. Lockett 0-1 K. Tabner
Shrewsbury C 2-2 Newport D
- A. Lewis 0-1 R. Szwajkun
- I. Davies 1-0 S. Szwajkun
- E. Inglis 1-0 S. Cooper
- F. Harris 0-1 L. Clarke