Agonising defeat for A team – but captain Dan is seeing the positives
Shrewsbury A captain Dan Lockett has hailed his team’s “competitive” performances at the start of their Shropshire Chess League division one campaign – despite seeing his charges fall to an agonising 3-2 defeat away to Telford A.
Despite being without regulars Olusegun Ilesanmi and Mark Smith and being significantly outgraded by their hosts, the visitors were competitive on all five boards, writes Peter Kitchen.
Ultimately Ivor Salter’s loss to Toby Neal on board four was the night’s only decisive result – and Shrewsbury had chances on all three of the top boards before all of those games finished as draws, including a tense finish in a complex ending in a time scramble on board one in the final game of the night.
And while Lockett was understandably proud at his team’s effort, he admitted he hoped some of those opportunities would be taken in future matches.
“We were outgraded on every board – Tiago (Faustino) has 140 points on me, for example. But we acquitted ourselves well.
“From my point of view, it’s great that we seem to be playing well and seem competitive, albeit we’ve only played two matches.
“We were obviously a little weaker without some of our more regular players, but thanks go to Ivor and to David for stepping in at the last minute. Both of them played well.
“I think, of those four draws, any could have ended in a win for us as there were chances. I’m hoping we can take a few of these in future matches if we get them.”
On the night of a double header with Shrewsbury C taking on Telford C in division three in the same room, the A team was forced into two changes from the team that beat Oswestry A 3-2 on the opening day, with Smith unavailable and Ilesanmi forced to withdraw less than 24 hours in advance. B team players Ivor Salter and David Edwards stepped into the breach, while Shane Greenwood moved two boards up the order to board three.
In contrast, Telford A were strengthened by the return of Richard Parry on board three, who came into the side in place of Richard Szwajkun.
For context, Shrewsbury’s top board Kitchen’s ECF rating of 1821 would only have been enough for a place on board four in Telford’s line up. But despite the disparity in gradings, the visitors held their own throughout the night.
The first game to finish was on board two. Lockett generated significant play out of the opening on the black side of a Chigorin Defence against Tiago Faustino. Despite being a pawn down for much of the game, that initiative endured for much of the game – but not enough for Lockett to win. Later computer analysis confirmed that at one point Lockett had held a winning advantage, so it felt like one that had got away.
But Telford struck first blood with what turned out to be the decisive blow on board four. Salter was quickly a pawn down against the wily Neal, and despite battling hard to keep his opponent at bay, was ultimately forced to bow to defeat.
Edwards also found himself a pawn down for a while with the white pieces against the hosts’ captain Roger Brown. Brown was swiftly well behind on the clock (as is common for him), but the position remained tight and the players eventually agreed to a truce.
Greenwood played a very solid game against Parry on board three, and had chances himself to press on that he couldn’t take full advantage of before the players called a ceasefire.
That left Shrewsbury’s hopes resting on Kitchen on top board. After an aggressive response to Hollands’ Owen’s Defence worked out well, the Shrewsbury man held an initiative for much of the game. But he ran into a brick wall, with the obdurate Holands refusing to allow his defences to be breached – at one point even re-routing a knight to a8 to stave off Kitchen’s threats.
Kitchen at one point slipped 20 minutes behind on the clock – and subsequently ended up playing almost half of his 60-plus moves in his final five minutes of thinking time. But just as Kitchen stopped recording on move 32, Hollands finally erred and fell prey to a tactic that netted Kitchen a bishop and knight in return for a rook.
In the scramble, Kitchen missed an opportunity to trap one of Hollands’ rooks that would surely have sealed the game. A complicated endgame ensued with Hollands having two passed pawns supported by his rook. But despite his time shortage, Kitchen won one of those pawns before creating in impenetrable barrier with his own bishop and knight while possessing two passed pawns of his own on the kingside. Hollands had turned down one draw offer a few moves earlier, but his own offer was accepted by Kitchen who had 38 seconds to spare (at one point he was down to his final two seconds of thinking time). Hollands himself only had just over a minute remaining.
Shrewsbury A will look to bounce back when they travel to early pacesetters Newport A on October 21.
Ful scores (Shrewsbury colours in brackets):
Telford A 3-2 Shrewsbury A
1.David Hollands 0.5-0.5 Peter Kitchen (w)
2.Tiago Faustino 0.5-0.5 Dan Lockett (b)
3.Richard Parry 0.5-0.5 Shane Greenwood (w)
4.Toby Neal 1-0 Ivor Salter (b)
5.Roger Brown 0.5-0.5 David Edwards (w)
Average ratings – Telford A: 1813 ECF, Shrewsbury A: 1671 ECF