Horsham Chess Club

It was great to see two new members last night - we offer a warm welcome to Andy and Nick . It was also great to see so many members back again after the summer.

The highlight of the evening was the award of Life Membership to John Cannon in recognition of his sixtieth year as a club member, forty years as Secretary, 13 years as Chairman , his History of Horsham Chess Club (see link on this site) and inestimable other services to make Horsham the successful club it is now.

Characteristically John's first comments were to recognise the excellent efforts of Julie Denning :

Parents are advised that the junior club will restart on 11th September, as usual this is a week later than the adult club. See you then!

It's not long until our first week back after a very hot summer .

See you then.

It was the last club of the season last night (26 June) with a number of competitions being resolved. While some of us travelled to Lewes for the Mid Sussex Chess League AGM some serious chess was under way.
Firstly the juniors had an award ceremony with a host of promising juniors vying for the Peter Alford cup.
The eventual winner was Ben Crosby who narrowly pipped a number of contenders including Peter Crosby , his twin brother and a runner up. Ben also wins the ladder competition this year so there is some silverware heading for the Crosby household.

There was a very exciting and eventful game between Alex Taylor and John Marshall to decide the Knockout Plate winner.

Alex had considerable pressure on the kingside and an open c file but John's pieces were very active and balancing the position. Alex continued to press when John found a typical Marshall tactic and eventually won the better endgame.

Just a quick reminder to all parents that there is no junior chess next Tuesday (5th June). We return as normal the week after.

Twenty players "enjoyed" an evening of 10 second chess with blunders all around! It was great fun and there was some smart chess...and a few substandard moves :)

The two group winners were Dix Roberts and Brian Donnelly. The final was best of two but honours were even after two games so it went to sudden death...with Brian winning in the end.

It was great fun all round and perhaps we should consider some other event evenings along these lines.

Some very impressive results from the Juniors participating in the Rapidplay...time for the adults to study harder before they arrive in the adult club!!!

Congratulations to Nick Warren who is this year's winner of the Knight trophy against some very impressive opposition. (Please remember that to qualify for the Knight Trophy you must have played at least four games).

Horsham 1 drew with Brighton 1 in the final match of the season.

James Mansson won the exchange for a pawn after outplaying his opponent in the middlegame, but failed to find the best way to exploit his advantage and had to concede a draw.

The Forsters both drew as well. Mike Forster played a typically sharp game as Black where both sides seem to have their chances.