Shrewsbury’s A and C teams were both in action on Friday, hosting Telepost’s A and D teams respectively. For the A Team, their visitors were handed the opportunity to seize top spot in the first division, with the added incentive of achieving a second consecutive league double over their town rivals. Captain Francis Best was dealt a blow as regular Peter Kitchen was unable to make it, but the availability of Ed Goodwin helped cover the gap, with B team duo Mark Smith and Norman O’Connor completing the line up.
Things seemed to be going fairly well for Shrewsbury early on despite being outgraded on all 5 boards by a sum total of 76 points; an average of over 15 per board. David Everington had sacrificed a piece for three Pawns in a wild Ponziani against Phil Zabrocki on board three, with Phil’s King becoming exposed and no longer able to castle being the chief gain. On board 4, Mark Smith looked to have a slight edge against Matthew Clark as White in a Grand Prix Sicilian. Matthew had traded off his fiancettoed dark-squared Bishop for a Knight, leaving Mark with some promising looking gaps around Matthew’s King for his Bishop and Queen to potentially exploit.
The first game to conclude, however, was the bottom board battle between Norman O’Connor and Keith Tabner. Norman had a slight positional edge as Black in a King’s Indian set-up, with his Bishop pair looking powerful. However, Keith had a significant time advantage, and with the position still roughly level, a draw was agreed. It didn’t take long for the same conclusion to be reached on board 4, where Matthew had managed to trade off Mark’s light-squared Bishop and line up a battery with Queen and Bishop on the a8-h1 diagonal, eyeing up Mark’s King. The result was that Mark would have had to work hard to move his Queen or Rook away from covering the mate threat on g2, and so a truce was called.
Shortly after the conclusion of the bottom two boards, David and Phil’s game also reached its end. Just as Phil looked as though he might be set to hang on, David’s Queen intruded, winning the exchange (leaving the material imbalance at a Rook and three Pawns for two minor pieces) and with the very real threat of picking up the other Rook. With that, along with the very real possibility of potential checkmate on the second rank, Phil resigned, leaving Shrewsbury 2-1 up and needing just half a point from the remaining two boards to avoid defeat. David has annotated this fascinating encounter here; it’s well worth playing through.
However, it was not to be. Despite both positions looking promising earlier on, both Francis and Ed fell to defeat. Ed’s game, against Richard Bryant on board 2, looked fairly level with both players having Queen, Rook and 4 Pawns to keep their Kings company. Ed had the Queenside’s only Pawn, but the passed Pawn proved both a strength and a weakness as it proved tricky to defend with his Rook not active enough. It proved enough for Richard to grind out the win and level the match, meaning all the pressure was on the top board, where Francis faced the in-form Nigel Ferrington. After going slightly wrong with his move order in the opening, Francis was quite happy to come out the opening only a Pawn down. He was hanging on all game, and had the opportunity to swindle a win when he could have won Nigel’s Rook towards the end. Unfortunately for Shrewsbury, both players overlooked the combination and Nigel went on to wrap up the ending and seal a narrow win for Telepost.
There was better news for the C team, at least, who kept their promotion bid on track with a narrow win against Telepost D. If the A team could easily have won their match, it’s safe the say the C team could quite feasibly not have won theirs. After Tony Purser fell to defeat against Quentin Mills on bottom board – levelling the scores after Telepost defaulted board 3 – Andrew Lewis’ victory over Dean Pinnington on board 2 (his 17th league match without defeat, and also ending a long sequence of draws!) put Shrewsbury on the brink. However, Ian Davies had to work very hard to hold the draw against the rapidly improving Kate Walker on top board. Two Pawns down in a Rook and Pawn ending, Ian made the most of his pawn on the 7th to contain Kate’s Rook and hold on the seal the match.
Shrewsbury A 2-3 Telepost A
- F. Best 0-1 N. Ferrington
- E. Goodwin 0-1 R. Bryant
- D. Everington 1-0 P. Zabrocki
- M. Smith ½-½ M. Clark
- N. O’Connor ½-½ K. Tabner
Shrewsbury C 2½-1½ Telepost D
- I. Davies ½-½ K. Walker
- A. Lewis 1-0 D. Pinnington
- E. Inglis 1-0 Default
- A. Purser 0-1 Q. Mills