Horsham Chess Club

Horsham 5 started the season at home against East Grinstead 3 on Tuesday in Division 3. On paper we are one of the lower rated teams in the league so it promises to be a tough season.

East Grinstead 3 are amongst the favourites this year and despite being heavily outgraded on every board, we came away with a creditable 2-2 draw.

Horsham 2 faced Horsham 3 this week, the first in a series of such matches, since Horsham is fielding three teams in the second division this year. Of course, Horsham 2 would like to achieve promotion at the end of the season, so it was important for us to start off on the right foot.

The adult club returns for the new season on 2nd September at 7:30pm for our AGM, with the junior club meeting from 9th September onward...

If you are an adult club member or new starter our season gets underway with our AGM next Tuesday, with the junior club starting up the following week. If you can't make the AGM please send your apologies to Anthony, many thanks.

Last Tuesday (15th July) saw the club hosting a Hand and Brain double round robin blitz tournament.
In Hand and Brain players play in pairs across a normal game of chess. The Brain states which piece, e.g. "bishop", and the Hand chooses which bishop and where to move it. As you can imagine there was plenty of chaos and confusion as Hands picked up the wrong piece and Brains did not say the right piece (sometimes for several moves!). All in all a good, fun evening.

Last Tuesday (8th July) saw the club hosting a Racing Kings Arena Tournament.
As usual with an Arena tournament there was plenty of chaos and Racing Kings is quite a wild variant too.

This summer Horsham Chess Club is hosting a series of tournaments and events given below. To enter you simply need to turn up on the night. The tournaments are casual tournaments so if you wish to leave part-way through that is no problem.
8th July - Racing Kings Tournament. Racing Kings is a variant where you aim to get your King to the other side, checks are not allowed. Please see the image for the starting position of this exciting and slightly crazy variant.

This Tuesday (1st July) saw the club hosting a King-of-the-Hill Blitz Tournament. The tournament took place over 5 double rounds using the unusual McMahon-Swiss pairing system.
From the start top seed Mark showed his brilliance to run away with the tournament, winning 9 games, drawing 1, and losing 0. In my own games against Mark it felt like the rest of us were still playing chess whilst Mark had already mastered King-of-the-Hill. A thoroughly deserved winner!

Last night was a busy one (as can be seen from the photo!) that saw the 10th and final round of the club championship Swiss competition...

An exciting night of chess with only ten seconds per move and the usual mistakes showed up... on my board at least!

There were 21 players split into three divisions with the winners going through to the final. Anthony Higgs, James Mansson and Daniel Miller all had perfect scores from their division and battled in a tense series of final matches.

Horsham 1 finished the season with a 3-1 win over Eastbourne 1.

First game to finish was on board one, where Gavin Lock's opponent failed to turn up, giving him a win by default.

Next, James McGrath played out a solid draw on board four as White against Paul Carpenter.

The final two games were closer.

At one point late on, James Mansson, who was Black against Oliver Froom on board three, was offered a draw, which he declined as Mark Broom, who was White against Rasa Norinkeviciute on board two, seem to be in trouble.