Lucky 13

Week 13 of our 42 week season tonight - week 13 was lucky for some.

It was great to see the rapid play team playing Crowborough . Anthony will provide a full report so I won't steal his thunder but there was some great chess being played on the green baize.

Apart from the casual chess there were a number of knockout games being played but firstly in the Rook there was a very interesting game between Lucy and Peter. At first it seemed that Lucy's Queenside was very passive but somehow she emerged with a Rook and Bishop and 3 pawns facing Peter's Rook and six pawns. They reached 42 moves and decided a draw was better than adjournment! Meanwhile Nick and Phil were having a combative struggle where Nick sacrificed two pawns for a Knight to create an attack on his opponents King. There were fierce complications but in the end accurate defence from Phil carried the day.

In the Bishop there was an extraordinary tussle between Dave Britton and David Gray. Dave was a whole piece up but somehow David was able to fight back and ended with the advantage to win.

The knockout was busy - Chris and Mick Harris had a fascinating tussle which went to a deep endgame before finally ending in the second draw of their round. Mike Forster and Tim played a very tense struggle with Mike winning the middle game and went on to victory.

Next week we have two matches - Horsham Knockout team face Lewes and Horsham 2 are playing a division 2 game against Crowborough.

Don't forget that the next round of the Quickplay takes place on 19 December. In the Knockout Mike Forster is due to play Alex Taylor with the winner playing Paul Taylor to reach the Semi final and play James Mansson. In the bottom half of the draw Anthony Higgs is due to play Brian Donnelly in the semis.

In the plate Chris Heath is due to play Ben Crosby with the winner playing Paul Richardson to decide who plays Nick Warren in the semi final. In the bottom half Mick Harris is due to play Richard Barrowclough in the semis.