Pirates run aground as default proves costly
Shrewsbury Pirates slipped to their third 4NCL Online division four defeat in five games, as they slipped to a 3-1 loss to War & Piece Banner.
The Pirates could only field three players after the named board three Richard Vernon was called up to play for Shrewsbury A against Newport Junior A on the same evening, writes Peter Kitchen.
And in a match between two evenly-matched teams on paper, it proved to be a key difference as Shrewsbury were unable to claw back the deficit.
The Pirates had not played for four weeks since their heavy defeat at the hands of Epsom Salties 2 in round three – they had not been able to raise a team for round four but were fortunately awarded a bye by league organisers.
Ivor Salter came into the team, but unavailable pair Nick Nuthall and Tom Osenton dropped out – and with Shrewsbury A needing to field a full team over-the-board at Newport, intended replacement Vernon also dropped out.
Howells won a pawn early on against Matthew Britain on board four and retained a large positional advantage for much of the game. But an ill-advised exchange of rooks into a knight and pawn endgame cost him a lot of his advantage, and after mutual inaccuracies, both sides queening a pawn and then exchanging them, the game ended in a draw on move 57 with insufficient mating material left.
Tony Purser’s game with the white pieces against Thomas Fox on board two also went beyond the 50-move mark. But the game was as good as over as early as move 11, when a blunder by Purser allowed a queen check on h4 that cost him a pawn and then a rook.
The top board encounter also went in excess of 50 moves – and Salter claimed a draw with the black pieces against Chas Chapman.
With the queens off the board as early as move seven, a strategic ending quickly arose where Chapman’s king on d1 was offset by him enjoying the bishop pair against Salter’s bishop and knight. The game appeared to be drifting towards a peaceful ceasefire – but a blunder by Salter on move 28 gave Chapman an opportunity to trap Salter’s dark squared bishop on b6, a chance he fortunately missed.
There was still time for one more twist – in the ensuing same coloured bishop ending, Chapman blundered his c-pawn. But Salter misevaluated the final position, agreeing to a draw by repetition when he had a winning continuation at hand.
Full scores (Shrewsbury colours in brackets):
War & Piece Banner 3-1 Shrewsbury Pirates
1.Chas Chapman 0.5-0.5 Ivor Salter (b)
2.Thomas Fox 1-0 Tony Purser (w)
3.Tristan Searle 1-0 default
4.Matthew Britain 0.5-0.5 Dafydd Howells (b)
Average ratings – War & Piece Banner: 1422, Shrewsbury Pirates: 1362.
The result leaves Shrewsbury Pirates 25th out of 29 teams in the division. There are two rounds of the current season left, with the Pirates next setting sail for treasure on November 18.