Horsham 1 slip to first defeat of the season

Worthing 1 visited us on Tuesday and inflicted our only loss so far. The visitors fielded their strongest possible lineup and beat us 3-2 in a close match...

With Mike laid up with the flu we were not at full strength, and Worthing sprang a surprise by fielding Matt Payne who was home between university semesters. We were 2-0 down after the first two games to finish - I sacrificed a pawn against Matt on board 2 and achieved compensation with his decentralised queen, but I prevaricated too long over sacrificing a second pawn and never got round to it. Matt almost let me back in when he overlooked a knight sacrifice but his king scampered across the board to safety and I resigned. On board 3 James succumbed to a kingside attack from Chris Jones after an unusual line of the c3 Sicilian, with no counterplay to balance White's steady buildup.

On board 4 Dix pulled one back when he beat Keith Homeyard after an interesting queenless middlegame. I didn't see the finish but was grateful for the point as we looked ok on the other two. On board 1 Gavin felt he was always a bit worse against Dave Graham, but only his final move before the time control was really a problem. Despite having a technical advantage Dave offered a draw after the match which was accepted. On board 5 Peter had had the better pawn structure out of a Petroff and his d-pawn looked very menacing but Morgan Blake drove his king into the open and Peter was forced to choose between two escape routes - the one he chose led to a perpetual, agreed after the match.

G.R. Lock 1/2-1/2 D.B. Graham
A.R.J. Higgs 0-1 M. Payne
J.C. Mansson 0-1 C. Jones
D.N. Roberts 1-0 K. Homeyard
P. Harbott 1/2-1/2 J.M. Blake

The diagram shows Blake-Harbott at the crucial juncture. Peter has to choose between 39...Ka5 or 39...Kc5, what would you do? Answer below in the comments.