Sussex League

Horsham 1 finished 2019 with a narrow win vs Worthing 2, which left them comfortably on top of the MSL Division 1 table.

Although the winning score was 3-2, Horsham's only loss occurred when they had already secured the match with a 3-1 scoreline.

Horsham's wins were secured by Gavin Lock and Anthony Higgs, against Joe Everett and George Neale.

Mark Broom and Mike Forster drew with Mike Nicholas and Peter Larwood.

...as Andras Adorjan liked to say - and so it was proved last Monday as Black was successful in Worthing 1 vs Horsham 2...

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.

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.

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.

Horsham 1 finished the season with a good win against Brighton 1. Depending on the result of Hastings 1 against Worthing 1, Horsham 1 will either end up in second or third.

Gavin Lock scored a fairly quick win in a sharp line of the Modern Benoni. His opponent made a serious error in a tricky position and resigned at once following Gavin's reply.

The game between Phil Stimpson and Paul Selby saw Phil launch a sharp attack, against which Paul was unable to defend. Horsham went two up with this game.