Ian Davies, B team captain reports:
“The B team’s solid start to the new league season continued on Friday night (31st October) as we held a strong Telford B team to a 2½-2½ draw. This was our “away” fixture to them, but played at our place due to two other matches being played at Telford on the match date. I decided to treat it as an away match, even though the Telford players thought they were away, as indeed the website states for some reason. But they weren’t!! All clear? Good.
A slight change to the team saw Tony Purser coming in on board 5, as “Lethal” Lewis wasn’t feeling so lethal. And what a great game Tony played. It was not a great start, however, as Ivor Salter’s Morra gambit, in reply to Richard Thompson’s Sicilian defence, didn’t go well, with Ivor making a blunder and losing. Mark Smith continued his great form on board 1, when, after falling into a trap and losing his queen for two rooks, held Steve Tarr to a very creditable draw.
Norman, on board 2, was next to finish, although I didn’t see any of the game really. However, it looked like a tough encounter against Stuart Ross, with Norman eventually losing.
This left the two C team “refugees” left to try and salvage something. Tony got a point back after outplaying Roger Brown on board 5, with both players seeming very loath to castle. Tony cunningly won Roger’s h-pawn, then later on a piece, and never looked back. Roger played on until the very last second but Tony, calm as ever, held it all together to win comfortably. A splendid performance!
Talking of the last second, that’s exactly how my encounter against Windsor Peck’s d-pawn opening finished on board 4. My Queen’s Indian defence (and my nerve) held steady as Windsor tried to break me down. He certainly had the initiative for most of the game, although I did see some glimmers of light coming through as we both began to run out of time. Windsor decided to swap off both rooks with about five minutes each left, which enabled me to pick up a pawn. The only trouble was that Windsor had a passed d-pawn coming straight for me. ‘Not panicking and just blockading,’ was my deep strategy, with his Queen trying to outwit my Queen (all other pieces off), five pawns against four.
I don’t like to do it but I decided I must try to keep him thinking and win on time to salvage a point. The trouble was that Windsor’s thinking was a lot deeper than mine and just as he was about to force the exchange of queens to get his passed pawn through, he ran out of time. An awful way to lose – or win come to that – but, as Bobby Fischer once said `chess is war’. A bit of an exaggeration but it did feel like that somehow. Sorry Windsor!!”
| Telford B | Shrewsbury B | |
| Steve Tarr | ½-½ | Mark Smith |
| Stuart Ross | 1-0 | Norman O’Connor |
| Richard Thompson | 1-0 | Ivor Salter |
| Windsor Peck | 0-1 | Ian Davies |
| Roger Brown | 0-1 | Tony Purser |
| 2½-2½ |