Result still in the balance...

Horsham 2 travelled down to Eastbourne on Friday and came away 1.5-1.5 on the night - all is still to adjudicate for with one result outstanding...

Eastbourne outgraded us but are currently bottom of the division so a positive result was very possible, and we won the toss to get off to a good start. For probably the first time ever my game finished first, an interesting Nimzo-Indian in which Rasa equalised easily enough. I chose a risky pawn sacrifice but Black did not find the most critical continuation and the position fizzled out into an equal queen and knight endgame. Chris played solidly with Black against the dangerous Paul Carpenter and kept his pawn structure intact to reach a drawn endgame. Ian looked better against Jordan Madjovski thanks to a bad bishop. Ian lost a pawn but the strength of his pieces was such that this didn't matter much and another draw was agreed.

Two games went the distance. Mick was knight for pawn down fairly early (this may have been a sacrifice on f7 but I'm not sure) but kept himself in the game as Adrian Pickersgill's king was somewhat exposed. Adrian successfully made the time control and the extra material meant Eastbourne are currently one-up. Peter's game against Oliver Froom is undecided with a possible adjudication looming - Peter is a pawn up in a queen endgame with what looks like decent winning chances so we hope to square the match, watch this space...

A.R.J. Higgs 1/2-1/2 R. Norinkeviciute
P. Harbott A-A O. Froom
I.S. Comley 1/2-1/2 J. Madjovski
C.W. Heath 1/2-1/2 P. Carpenter
M.C. Harris 0-1 A. Pickersgill

Currently 2.5-1.5 to Eastbourne, come on Peter!!

UPDATE: Peter drew with Oliver Froom, so Horsham lost 3-2.