Shrewsbury B played their season opener against Maddocks A last Friday.  Shrewsbury were without Ile, who has been working nights, and Dan Lockett stepped in. The first challenge of the evening was to arrange the tables so that everyone could play comfortably as we now have less space then previously.  I think it was just about ok. I am not going to get into opening details too much this season, partly because some people have raised concerns about giving away opening secrets, but mostly because I’ve come to the conclusion that worrying about what everyone else is playing is not good for my own opening play! All of the positions…

Shrewsbury B team enjoyed a truncated evening on their latest outing to Newport when we faced their B team. Not for the first time this season we were forced to default a board with both Tony and Ian unavailable.  Even so, we approached the match with confidence, as our four were pretty strong.  Added to this, Newport were missing some of the players who gave us a hard time earlier in the season. Board 1 saw Ile with White take on Danny Griffiths.  No prizes for guessing Ile’s first move: 1.b4!  Danny reacted with the line I was shown when I first saw this opening; he played 1…e5 followed by…

Shrewsbury B team’s match with Church Stretton A could reasonably be called lively, not just for chess reasons.  As some of us knew, Church Stretton were forced to change venue recently, due to the closure of the club where they used to play.  The new venue, the Bucks Head, is a nice pub with a lively atmosphere.  The first drama of the evening occurred when I got a phone call off Ted.  He and Ivor were outside the old venue which was obviously closed; I thought Ivor knew!  At least there was no damage done, as Stretton is a small place and they weren’t far away.  The second drama unfolded…

Shrewsbury B took on Priorslee Lions B at the Lion on February 5th. On paper this looked like a good contest and the opening stages were certainly not without interest.  Board 5 saw Tony Purser going back to his usual 1.Nf3 and a King’s Indian Attack set up against Ian Jamieson.  I have to admit that I wasn’t sorry to see this as this system seems to suit Tony’s style very well and he’s had some excellent results with it. Ian Davies played one of his favourites, a French Winawer against George Vizokai.  George sensibly avoided the hair-raising Qg4 lines but the position still looked fairly sharp and both sides…

Shrewsbury B teams most recent match saw them up against Newport Juniors.  This was theoretically a home game but, as it was against the juniors, it took place in Newport.  I feel we’ve been slightly unfortunate in the matter of away travel this season.  It’s worked out that, of our 15 matches, only 6 will have been at our own venue, with 4 trips to Newport, our longest journey. For once, we arrived at our venue armed to the teeth, or at least with a full complement of players. I suppose it’s not too surprising that Newport were unable to do the same; in fact they only had 3 available! …

There was high drama in Shrewsbury B team’s recent clash with Telepost B.  Once again, we were hamstrung by having to default a board with several players unavailable.  1-0 down before we started.  I consoled myself with the thought that, so far this season, we had done rather well from this position. Board 1 saw me take the Black pieces against Peter Crean.  I had won my last two games against him but they were a couple of years ago and I had the White pieces both times.  Peter played 1.e4 and in response to my Sicilian played 2.f4, which can lead to the Grand Prix Attack, but in this…

Shrewsbury B team faced a tough challenge in the form of league leaders, Newport B on Friday 15th December.  Newport fielded a strong side and we were not helped by having to default bottom board.  We really have struggled to put out a full team this season, though, at least, we haven’t defaulted any match points.  So 1-0 down at the outset and Chris Paul had a relaxing evening, at least at first. Board 1 saw a welcome return for Matt Best, taking on Chris Lewis with Black; an exchange French defence was the opening.  On board 2, I had White against Tony Holdford and a Philidor occurred.  An interesting…

Shrewsbury B picked up their second win of the season away at Church Stretton. Unfortunately, we were one down at the outset, as we were only able to field four players with a couple of our regulars unavailable.  Fielding a full side for away games has proved to be problematic so far this season; nobody’s fault, just the way things are. As if to balance the books, Church Stretton were also missing key players Trevor Brotherton, David Hodge and Karl Wakefield. This meant that, instead of my traditional loss to Trevor, I was playing Steve Chadaway, who is relatively new to the area and is playing his first season for…

Newport sometimes complain that Shrewsbury are their bogey opponents.  However, on Friday 24th November, they must have had a degree of confidence, especially as they didn’t turn up with GM Arkell plus bro!  Even with this “under-strength” team, Newport still significantly out-graded us on all but the bottom board. Nevertheless, we had some cause for optimism, having the services of both Jamie Hopkins on board one and Matthew Best on board 5, and felt that we could at least give Newport a serious run for their money.  The first game to finish was Matt against Danny Griffiths on board 5.  Matt played the French and Danny chose the exchange variation. …

Well, sort of… What I really mean is that I am catching up, having neglected the web write-ups for the A Team recently.  Perhaps one of the reasons for my neglect was the 0-5 drubbing we received at the Ludlow fixture on 10th October.  Things started badly when Norman had to pull out of the match with a bad back.  One advantage of that, however, was that the limited table space now only had to accommodate four boards; a serious plus!  Sadly, that was the extent of the good news for the evening, although the one-sided scoreline probably didn’t reflect the battles involved, as is often the case. Things were…