Peter Kitchen writes.
They gave it their best shot – but Shrewsbury’s first teamers couldn’t stop Telepost A from gaining derby day revenge, battling gamely before falling to a 4-1 defeat.
Chasing a unique quadruple in the county town’s “El Chessico”, Shrewsbury pushed their full-strength hosts hard on four of the boards.
Dan Lockett provided Shrewsbury’s highlight of the evening, beating John Bashall with the black pieces on board four to draw the score level at 1-1 with plenty of play left in the other games.
But Telepost then showed their class to grind out victories on the top three boards, leaving Shrewsbury rooted to the foot of the Shropshire Chess League division one table.
Despite the disappointing result, Shrewsbury can reflect on a positive performance where they pushed higher-graded opposition hard. The first team had previously won both online league derbies with Telepost A in the online league and won the reverse league fixture 3-2 back in December – the club’s best seasonal record against Telepost’s first team for many years.
Both sides named unchanged teams from their last league outings, while Shrewsbury tweaked their board order slightly with Peter Kitchen swapping with skipper Francis Best to return to top board.
Richard Vernon had a difficult night against the solid David Hodge on bottom board, losing a rook and resigning shortly afterwards.
Lockett’s victory raised hopes of getting a result, particularly with prospects of results on at least two of the remaining boards.
Best had dropped a pawn early on against Phil Zabrocki on board two and was positionally ground down in fine style by the Telepost man, putting the home side 2-1 up.
Mark Smith appeared to have a promising middlegame position against Telepost captain Matthew Clark on board three, having two rooks for a queen. But his rooks became disconnected, and a fatal tactical slip led to Smith’s king and rook being forked, prompting an instant resignation.
With the match result sewn up, the only game still playing was the top board encounter between Kitchen and the county’s number one rated player Nigel Ferrington.
Kitchen was playing the white side of a Ruy Lopez Berlin ending for the first time in a competitive game – and despite the line’s dry reputation an interesting balanced position was reached.
Ferrington managed to use his king actively to get his play going on the queenside, eventually forcing Kitchen into a passive position. The Telepost man was then able to transpose into a same-coloured bishops ending a pawn up, which he duly converted into victory on move 53.
It was a fifth defeat in six games for Kitchen against Ferrington, but another one he can take great encouragement from.
Shrewsbury will next be in over-the-bard league action at the Nerdy Café on April 8 when they host champions-elect Maddocks A – just two days after a rapidplay league night at Telford.
Results (Shrewsbury colours in brackets):
Telepost A 4-1 Shrewsbury
1.Nigel Ferrington 1-0 Peter Kitchen (w)
2.Phil Zabrocki 1-0 Francis Best (b)
3.Matthew Clark 1-0 Mark Smith (w)
4.John Bashall 0-1 Dan Lockett (b)
5.David Hodge 1-0 Richard Vernon (w)
My resignation actually came about after I was hoodwinked to take a pawn with my queen. Subsequently a bishop, that sat between my queen and the opponents queen, delivered check leaving my queen exposed for the taking. This is when I resigned. David Hodge did play a very solid game it has to be said.