Horsham through to McArthur Cup final

It was great to welcome Chichester's team to Horsham in the semi-final of the McArthur Cup, an opposition we have rarely faced in recent years. Horsham ran out close winners on the night...

On board 4 I was first to finish after both players attempted to out-gambit each other in the opening - after 1.d4 d5 2.Nc3 c5 3. e4 offering a reversed Albin Countergambit with an extra tempo, Black played 3.e5?!? and we were off into uncharted waters! I managed to hang on to the extra pawn and eventually passed pawns on d6 and e6 proved too much with mate looming. Shortly afterwards Phil won on board 5 where his knights proved to be able opponents to his opponent's bishop pair.

The match was decided when the next two boards concluded - on board 1 Gavin drew with Sussex county/4NCL regular Jaimie Wilson in a position where Gavin's hanging pawns were well supported and neither player could make much headway. On board 6 Ian came in as a late substitute and the strength of his queen/bishop battery on the long diagonal proved too much for the Black king's defences.

Chichester deservedly pulled one back on board 2 where captain Mark got into a bit of strife with a loose king position arising from a Botvinnik English structure. Mark's opponent responded accurately and gained an advantage, before sacrificing the exchange to open up the position forcing decisive material gain. Finally on board 3 James seemed to be doing well out of the opening against another Sussex county regular Rolandas Lukosius, but White managed to hang on to James' sacrificed knight and emerged from the complications with plenty of material for a queen, eventually forcing James to resign faced with mate or the loss of the queen.

So overall a 3.5-2.5 win and nice to play different opposition for a change - the return of the 6 board match was also welcome!

G.R. Lock 1/2-1/2 J. Wilson
M. Broom 0-1 A. McDougall
J.C. Mansson 0-1 R. Lukosius
A.R.J. Higgs 1-0 N. Gyorke
P.M. Stimpson 1-0 I. Judd
I.S. Comley 1-0 S. Coe