Tony Purser unbelievably fought back from losing his queen to win the deciding game and give Shrewsbury C their first Shropshire Online League division two victory of the season.
Purser’s heroics helped the C team defeat Newport A 2-1 to hand Richard Vernon his first victory as the side’s captain, writes Peter Kitchen.
But there was despair for Shrewsbury B in division one as they narrowly lost 2.5-1.5 to rivals Telepost A. Defeats for Nathanael Paul and Mark Smith proved their undoing, and Smith’s side is still searching for a first win of the campaign.
Purser, playing on board two for the C team, looked down and out when he missed a tactic and had to give up his queen for a rook on move 35 of his game against Dave Lovegrove.
But he kept fighting and forced an error that saw him win his opponent’s queen in return for a bishop 10 moves later. Purser reached an ending the exchange up and coolly saw it home to checkmate Lovegrove on move 70.
Earlier Norman O’Connor had got Shrewsbury off to a flyer, unleashing a fine tactic to win two pawns en route to a swift win over Andy Jones on top board.
But Newport had drawn level when Vernon lost an entertaining tussle on the black side of a Sokolsky Opening against Malcolm Price on bottom board.
For Shrewsbury B, not even being able to field Paul – the club’s strongest player – was enough to see them over the line. Paul suffered a second online defeat with the white pieces at the hands of Telepost’s Matthew Clark in the space of a week on top board.
Smith also went down to Rob Nield on board two, ultimately unable to prevent his opponent’s kingside attack in a Ruy Lopez middlegame from breaking through.
Stephen Priestley was the star performer for Shrewsbury, securing a fine victory over Cesar Pileggi on board three.
Having seized considerable space on both sides of the board in the early middlegame and establishing a strong knight on d5, Priestley won a key pawn on the queenside.
He then took advantage as Pileggi tried to break into the centre, coming up with a lovely tactical blow that quickly led to victory.
On board four, Ivor Salter struggled to make headway with the black pieces against Matthew Ryan. A tight game led to a double rook ending that finished with a draw by repetition after 36 moves.
For Telepost, the result was sweet revenge for a similarly narrow defeat at the hands of Shrewsbury A six days earlier – and perhaps vindication of their policy of giving relatively new and unknown players the chance to gain experience in the online league.
Full scores:
Telepost A 2.5-1.5 Shrewsbury B (Shrewsbury colours in brackets)
1.Matthew Clark 1-0 Nathanael Paul (w)
2.Rob Nield 1-0 Mark Smith (b)
3.Cesar Pileggi 0-1 Stephen Priestley (w)
4.Matthew Ryan 0.5-0.5 Ivor Salter (b)
Shrewsbury C 2-1 Newport A (Shrewsbury colours in brackets)
1.Norman O’Connor (b) 1-0 Andy Jones
2.Tony Purser (w) 1-0 Dave Lovegrove
3.Richard Vernon (b) 0-1 Malcolm Price