Horsham Chess Club

Horsham 1 scored an excellent win over Brighton 1 last night.

Horsham 3 had a fine victory last night against Uckfield 1.

Lucy Bennet-Stevens was the first to finish, she was up against a 200 player on board 1 and was fighting tenaciously but ultimately he got the better of us and we were 1-0 down. Peter Harbott was on board 2 and was next to finish..although I was focusing on my own game and didn't see much of his I heard a rumour that he had castled. Could this be true? In any case he got a couple of pawns up against a strong player and levelled the score with a nice victory.

Sad news from the MSL website

Is with great sadness that Lewes Chess Club post news of stalwart member Martin Costley, who died on Tuesday 12th November following a long illness.

Having lost at Hastings in our first match of the season, our second outing was nearly as far but sadly with the same result against Eastbourne 2.

Chris S-L's English led to a very open game with white's pawns advancing on both sides of the board. Ultimately however, black's unopposed black squared bishop alongside infiltration down the open c file by one of black's rooks proved terminal against white's uncastled king.

Horsham 1 did not suffer any nasty Halloween surprises in their Thursday night match, and scored a comfortable win against a largely familiar opposition line up.

Gavin Lock's game as White on board 1 against Feliks Kwiatkowski was a quiet draw, as Feliks employed a clever move order to guide play into the solid double Fianchetto system. Gavin was unable to find anything much, so a draw was agreed.

Mike Forster picked up our first win as Black on board 4 against Graham Ewens. He won a pawn in the middlegame, simplified to an endgame, and converted his advantage condifently.

Last Thursday Horsham 2 made the long journey to Hastings, despite missing 3 of our best players, Ian and Bob stepped into the breach, and unfortunately we lost a close match having been noticeably outgraded.

Ian's game was the first to finish with an equal middlegame transtitioning to an endgame where Ian's opponent had unpleasant pressure down the a-file. Ian fought hard but his opponent found the right moves to bring home the game for Hastings.

The next round of the Knockout is on Tuesday 29 October.

This year we have the unusual situation where Horsham 4 have a match on the same night. If you are affected please just arrange to play your game at the earliest opportunity.

Horsham 1 overcame Horsham 2 in a tightly-contested match on Tuesday 15th October.

The first team were missing only Gavin Lock on board 1, and the second team were also able to put out a good line up.

As technically the away team, Horsham 1 were White on the odd boards.

Not helped by my own poor effort, Horsham 3 made the long trek to Hastings for no tangible reward, losing narrowly despite modestly out grading our hosts.

I saw little of Chris S-L's game which he finished in quick time through a strong kingside attack against black's fianchettoed bishop resulting in serious material gain and leading to early success for Horsham.

It was great to see the return of a former member after many years , former third team captain Danny Holloway. And what nudged him back?