Horsham Chess Club

In terms of league fixtures, Tuesday saw the final week of the current 4NCL online season but with the top 4 teams in each division going through to their particular semi finals, Horsham 1 secured their place in the league 3 play offs with an emphatic win by 3.5-0.5. Their semi final is on 1 December (and can of course be watched online) with the hope of a final on 15 December.

Our teams were battling it out again last week with the 4NCL tournament entering the final stages.

Horsham 2 lost had a narrow loss, 2.5-1.5 which was unfortunately decided with a 'mouse slip’ in Richard's game which was looking solid. Marian managed a solid win and Chris secured a draw but it wasn’t enough to beat Hackney Hungry with John defeated on board 2.
Horsham 3 managed a nice win against Uxbridge Bombers C with a nice win from Samuel and a default on their bottom board meaning we managed a 2-1.5 victory.

David Fryer runs a blitz tournament on the last Thursday of the month on LiChess, which is open to all teams in the Mid-Sussex league. Horsham has been competing in these tournaments since they started at the start of lockdown. Every Horsham player is welcome to play, the more the merrier.
At the end of August we didn't really realise the tournament was running and with only two players - Chris and Marian - Horsham managed a very creditable 3rd.

Last Tuesday in the 4NCL there was some close matches, back-and-forth games, and plenty of surprises.
The 1st team were up against Chessmates, who we strongly outgraded. Things appeared to be going smoothly with Nick and I wrapping up quick wins on the bottom boards, only for the top two to go down in tricky, time-pressured, tactical positions to leave us with a 2-2 draw.

As we approach the midway point, Division 3 was starting to look hopeful for Horsham 1, with three wins & a draw so far.
This week we took on Streatham B which looked like a match that we should win based on the average grades.

I was first to finish with the black pieces, my opponent started with the English. I quickly managed to get in an early pounce and prevent the white king from castling and then built a solid attack, white soon after resigned.

Every other Tuesday Horsham Chess Club is running a blitz tournament on LiChess.org. The time control is 5minutes + 5seconds increment and they run 7:30-9:30pm. If you are interested you will need to join LiChess.org and then join the Horsham Team: https://lichess.org/team/horsham-chess-club. The tournaments are listed on the Team page.

Back in April and shortly after lock down 14 members embarked on an online tournament on chess.com which completed yesterday with an inconclusive conclusion!

The format involved four blocks of three or four players playing a double round all play all with the winners going through to what was expected to be a final group with similar arrangement. Time control was 3 days per move (quasi correspondence chess) though in practice it rarely stretched that far and there were bursts of activity sometimes akin to live chess.

Horsham 1 were up against Celtic Tigers, who are easily the highest rated team in the group. The top three games were close and Nick won a cracking game on board 4 for it to end up as a 2-2 draw.

Horsham 2 were outgraded against Braunstone (average grade difference of 33 ECF). In the end all 4 white players won, particularly impressive was Guy's queen sac and Marian's smooth victory. The other two games were close, so Horsham 2 were unlucky to only draw 2-2.

Horsham 3 scored an astonishing victory. Heavily outgraded on every board Andrew, Charlie, and Alex won and Harry completed a mammoth 108-move draw.

Horsham 2 lost against a very strong team that would give the 1st team a challenge with their IM on board 1. Nonetheless, Guy had a great win on board 4, turning down a draw offer which meant a couple of pawn sacs, then finishing with a nice attack.

Horsham 1 took on Wimbledon 2. Horsham looked hot favourites with a 70-point average grade advantage.

With Horsham having had just one team in the inaugural (I think?) 4NCL online league season recently concluded (as previously reported) the new online season has begun with three teams entered.

Horsham's first team remained where they were previously (division 3) whilst teams 2 and 3 have been placed in the new division 6 where the sheer number of teams indicates the interest that this has generated in the absence of 'normal' chess.