Crowborough defeated by Horsham 1

Horsham 1 hosted Crowborough 1 last night and despite a strong visiting lineup including two of Sussex's best juniors, Horsham prevailed without conceding a game. Phil was acting captain in Dix's absence and there were two subs in the form of Mike and myself promoted to cover for James and Dix.

On board 1 Gavin's French led to an interesting postion against Gareth Anthony. His bishop pair vs knight pair in an open position was balanced by a badly damaged pawn structure, but mass exchanges led to an endgame where there was too little material to create a decisive result for either side. On board 2 Mike launched the Evans Gambit at Peter Kemp and soon had plenty of compensation for the pawn with the Black king trapped in the centre of the board. Peter defended accurately and another draw resulted.

On board 3 Phil played either a Marshall Attack or something very similar (I didn't see the exact sequence of moves) against talented Sussex junior Brian Tarhon. Phil was several pawns down in return for piece activity but Brian slipped up just before the time control and Phil found the winning move. I faced David Fryer with the same colours for the second time this season on board 4. Not being willing to repeat the Manhattan Gambit from the previous game, we ended up in a Philidor structure where White's large space advantage gave me a nice edge. As we both entered time pressure David ended up in trouble on the kingside and a neat queen sacrifice to force mate finished things off. Finally on board 5 Paul transposed into a sort of Philidor exchange structure where White had also played c4, but Josh Higgs was unable to make much headway and a fair draw resulted.

So 3.5-1.5 to Horsham 1 who are finishing the season strongly.

G.R. Lock 1/2-1/2 G. Anthony
M.C. Forster 1/2-1/2 P. Kemp
P.M. Stimpson 1-0 B. Tarhon
A.R.J. Higgs 1-0 D. Fryer
P. Taylor 1/2-1/2 J. Higgs