Horsham 2 triumph over league leaders

The 2nd team welcomed Division 2 league leaders, Crowborough 1, on Tuesday 5th December. Horsham lead 2½-1½ with one game being sent for adjudication, in which we are claiming a win and they are claiming a draw, so a 3-2 win is at least guaranteed, in what was a tight match.
Phil was the first to win on Board 4 – playing the Blumenfeld Attack in the Scotch Opening – a line he was very familiar with having won previously with the following sequence of moves!!
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 Bc5 5. Be3 Qf6 6. Nb5 Bxe3 7. fxe3 Qh4 8. g3 Qxe4 9. Nxc7 Kd8 10. Nxa8 Qxh1 11. Qd6 Nge7 12. Nd2 Qd5 13. Qc7 Ke814. Qxc8 Nxc8 15. Nc7 Kd8 16. Nxd5
Paul then lost on Board 5 – playing the Dutch he was worried about his opponent making a break on e4 and sacrificed a pawn to prevent this, however he had no compensation for the loss of the pawn and his position slowly collapsed. On top board Anthony then agreed a draw, playing black against Amardip’s Scotch opening.
So at 1½-1½ everything hinged on the Board 2 & 3 matches. Morgan then produced a fantastic attacking climax to mate David Fryer – the finish was reported on the website by Ian on 9th December - if you haven’t read Ian’s piece then please take a look. Dix, playing black, had a very interesting game – his opponent played the London System but reached a position which was very similar to the Yugoslav Attack against the Sicilian. Dix sacrificed the exchange and was able to create enough pressure to then win another piece and at adjudication he held Queen, Bishop & Knight against Queen & Rook together with a superior pawn structure and better placed King – Fritz shows him to be +2.29 with an improving position but Crowborough have decided to refer the position for adjudication.
A Higgs ½-½ A Ahluwalia
M Blake 1-0 D Fryer
D Roberts A-A J Lawrance
P Stimpson 1-0 G McCulloch
P Taylor 0-1 C Dunn