Shrewsbury Chess Club’s 100% record across all its three teams in all three divisions continued with the A Team securing a hard fought victory at home against Priorslee Lions A.
With newly-appointed captain Francis Best picking up an injury in the warm-up which ruled him out of the game, frantic last-minute arrangements were made from the hospital with its dodgy signal, via a lieutenant back home, and Daniel Lockett agreed to fill in on bottom board with David Everington standing in as captain.
The theme of the match was set by an early conclusion to the game on board 4, where Peter Kitchen gained a headstart on the clock thanks to his opponent, Andy Tunks, turning up slightly late. Although Andy won a pawn in the opening, he then offered Peter a draw after just 8 moves, which Peter accepted.
There was a fairly long wait to see the conclusion of the next games, but when boards three and five did finish some time after board four, the result was the same. On three, Ed Goodwin looked to have a fractionally better position against Glyn Pugh thanks to a more mobile Bishop, but the advantage was not enough to win and a draw was agreed. On bottom board, Daniel was facing Marvin Carbin. Although Daniel had created some threats with a powerful dark-squared Bishop on the long diagonal, Marvin was able to fend them off and the combination of opposite-coloured Bishops and level material in a tight position meant that a draw was always likely.
With the match level, that placed plenty of pressure on the top two boards. On board two, things looked promising for Shrewsbury in David’s game against William Bates, but the top board tussle between Jamie Hopkins and Adrian Zdanowski looked far more tight. Without any discernible edge and running fairly short on time, Jamie offered a draw. Adrian checked the score, looked at the other positions, had a consultation with his teammates, and then, much to the dismay of William on board two, accepted the offer.
That meant that the result of the final game to finish would mirror that of the match. Earlier, William had sacrificed three queenside Pawns against David to create attacking possibilities. David defended excellently, giving two of the pawns back in order to create attacking chances himself, and the game arrived at a position where both players had a queen and rook over with David’s lone passed pawn on the queenside, and their kings tucked away behind their three connected kingside pawns. With William’s queen blocking David’s pawn, the only way to make progress was to trade queens off and head into a rook endings. Despite the reputation for drawishness, David’s powerful passed pawn gave him the advantage, as he advanced his kingside pawns and his king, created weaknesses in William’s kingside and eventually won William’s two remaining pawns in exchange for his queenside pawn, now on the seventh rank, leaving a clearly won position to wrap up the points.
Shrewsbury A 3-2 Priorslee Lions A
- J. Hopkins ½-½ A. Zdanowski
- D. Everington 1-0 W. Bates
- E. Goodwin ½-½ G. Pugh
- P. Kitchen ½-½ A. Tunks
- D. Lockett ½-½ M. Carbin