Horsham 2 promoted in 4NCL league

As referenced in my most recent posting, the final week of 4NCL season 3 saw Horsham 2 facing their closest rivals for the remaining promotion slot from their section of division 6. The opponents in this final round had substantially outperformed their ratings to get so close but the grading differences made for a largely comfortable evening for Horsham, running out winners by 3.5-0.5 and thereby securing promotion to division 5.

John played a Ruy Lopez Zukertort gambit slowly taking over the space on the board before constricting his opponent to a decisive combination winning a queen before patiently delivering checkmate.
Richard’s Guico Piano looked drawish until a nasty discovered check left him scrambling to hold on which he managed after his opponent chose the wrong follow up.

Marian proved too strong in his game with steady building of pressure and his opponent throwing in the towel facing a heavy material deficit. It was a similar story for Chris’s Dutch defence Raphael variation, ultimately winning the queen and also putting mate on the board.

Meanwhile Horsham 1 had yet another drawn match, final standings showing 1 win, 2 losses (each by just 2.5-1.5) and 4 draws to finish 4th in their section of division 2.

The outstanding performer throughout the season was Alex (with 5.5 out of 6) and true to form his dynamic attack on the black side of the dragon against his opponent’s queenside castling proved far the more deadly of the two, thereby cancelling out Dix’s tough reversal.

On board 1 Mark found a nice drawing line, ending up K v K, P and B with the pawn being a rook’s pawn and a bishop of the ‘wrong’ colour. I never made any progress in my game, but we did play it all the way through to K v K.

Horsham 3 faced another difficult evening, being heavily outgraded on all boards but ended the season with a commendable 4 match points.