Shrewsbury A were given an enormous fright by Shifnal and Telford B on Friday night. The visitors came into the game propping up the first division table and without the services of Windsor Peck, and so Steve and Richard Szwajkun stood in – the duo both having played against Shrewsbury B for Shifnal and Telford C on Wednesday, and in the third division for Newport the week before against Shrewsbury’s C Team.
However, both looked thoroughly at home in the top flight. Richard’s impressive start to the season saw him play on board three, where Shrewsbury captain Jamie Hopkins had decided that David Everington’s excellent run (including, most notably, a victory over Phil Zabrocki, graded 22 points higher than David) warranted a promotion to board three.
So, while on paper this may have appeared a straightforward task- the smallest grading gap was on board three, with David graded 29 points higher than Richard – it was anything but.
On top board, Jamie Hopkins was looking to continue his unbeaten start to the season against Richard Thompson, fresh from his victory over county number one Nick Rutter. Jamie managed to win a piece in the middlegame after Richard had opened with an English.
However, things were looking slightly more tricky elsewhere. Material was level on board three, but with most pieces exchanged off, both players were down to a pair of rooks, a minor piece and a lot of pawns. David’s pawns were chiefly on dark squares which impeded the movement of his Bishop, although he had the benefit of having doubled some of Richard’s pawns without doing so himself.
By this stage, Dan Lockett found himself down the exchange on board 5 against Steve Szwajkun, although Peter Kitchen looked as though he may have had an edge against Stefan Tennant on board 4 with a menacing looking attack. Francis Best had declined Simon Maydew’s offer of a draw on board 2, and managed to open up the a-file, with Simon having castled Queenside in an entertaining Scandinavian.
The first game to finish was on board 3. David managed to see off the pressure Richard had been building against his central pawns and double his rooks against Richard’s h-pawn. He managed to win the pawn and force through his own pawn to the seventh rank on the Kingside, before forcing Richard’s position to fall apart with him unable to defend against all the threats. Richard resigned, but, as David remarked after, it had been a very tough game in which Richard’s performance belittled his grade.
However, trouble arrived on board 4. Stefan Tennant had managed to find some resourceful moves to counter Peter’s attack, and managed to trap Peter’s Queen after securing some sharp counterplay.
Things then went from bad to worse to slightly better again. Firstly, Dan dropped a piece in time pressure on board 5, leaving him a whole rook down, and he promptly resigned. However, Jamie’s temporary sacrifice of a piece enabled him to break through with his mass of central pawns, and also winning the piece straight back. Richard conceded defeat, leaving the match score level at 2-2 with board two the final game to finish.
It looked as though Francis may have been on top, and he had a strong time advantage to go with it. Simon then gave up a rook for two pieces, only to miss an in-between move which lost a pawn and saw Francis infiltrate the 7th rank with his Queen. Simon fought on, but eventually Francis was able to secure the victory to scrape a narrow win for the team.
Shrewsbury A 3-2 Shifnal and Telford B
- J. Hopkins 1-0 R. Thompson
- F. Best 1-0 S. Maydew
- D. Everington 1-0 R. Szwajkun
- P. Kitchen 0-1 S. Tennant
- D. Lockett 0-1 S. Szwajkun