Horsham beats a strong team in the online 4NCL rd 2

Last Tuesday Horsham faced Warley Mighty Quinborne in round 2 of the 4NCL online league and we had white on even boards. Warley Mighty Quinborne are ranked first in our group on initial seeding so this was going to be a tough match.

First to finish was Marian on board 4. Marian played a sort of reveresed Queen's Gambit Accepeted and was soon attacking on the King side as his opponent was grabbing central control. With a nice tactic Marian managed to snatch one of those central pawns but ended up with a Rook trapped on the h-file. Unfortunately, with some clever play his opponent managed to trap this Rook and create an attack on the kingside that broke through to win the game.

Second to finish was my game on board 2. My opponent misplayed the Sicilian Dragon to give me a crushing attack. To counter this they gave up a piece to slow down my attack. I grabbed the piece and was pretty comfortable. They then played well to generate some pressure against my king and rather than going with my gut to continue attacking myself I tried to consolidate my piece advantage into an endgame. My opponent threatened a perpetual or for me to give up a pawn to give them 4 connected pawns and a queen against a queen, a bishop and pawn on the opposite side of the board. After ten minutes of analysis and knowing we were a game down I allowed the perpetual worried about those connected pawns marching.

Third to finish was Nick's game on board 3. He was playing an unusual hyperaccelerated dragon and his opponent had managed to grab a central advantage and control of the only open file. Nick turned things around with creative play to win a piece and a dominating attack. This attack was converted with a nice Rook sac to finish.

Last to finish was Dix's game on board 1. Their game started out as a symmetrical English and his opponent managed to castle queenside and put some pressure on Dix's position but this was carefully neutralised. They had reached a complicated endgame and Dix was getting short of time. Dix playing on the increment is not an unusual site in the second team, and his opponents sometimes underestimate him. Dix's opponent's time did not dip under 5 mins yet it was Dix who was more tactically astute and Dix who won the game after 33 more moves.

This left us 2.5-1.5 to win the match against Warley Mighty Quinborne, a brilliant result. Details are below:

Round 2 Results: http://www.4nclresults.co.uk/2019-20/online/2/3/export/#t12
Table: http://www.4nclresults.co.uk/2019-20/media/online/prog-div3.html
Round 3 Pairings: http://www.4nclresults.co.uk/2019-20/online/3/3/export/