Horsham 1 win away vs Haywards Heath 1

Horsham 1 did not suffer any nasty Halloween surprises in their Thursday night match, and scored a comfortable win against a largely familiar opposition line up.

Gavin Lock's game as White on board 1 against Feliks Kwiatkowski was a quiet draw, as Feliks employed a clever move order to guide play into the solid double Fianchetto system. Gavin was unable to find anything much, so a draw was agreed.

Mike Forster picked up our first win as Black on board 4 against Graham Ewens. He won a pawn in the middlegame, simplified to an endgame, and converted his advantage condifently.

James Mansson has an interesting game as White against Viv Cole on board 2. It looks at if his opponent had blundered a piece on move 14, and indeed it had been an oversight on his part, but on looking at the position more closely, this course of action seemed too risky, and he chose a quieter path. After the game, the players' assessment was that it was risky, and quickly worked out a promsing line for Black. Having looked at it further with a computer, Black actually has a neat tactical blow early on in one line, which wins at once, and gets at least a clear advantage with best play. In any case, White correctly decided to avoid all that, but at the cost of plenty of time on the clock; this meant that although he gradually built up a significant advantage, he decided to bail out when offered a draw, especially in view of the match situation.

Anthony Higgs was up against Sussex Junior Oliver Manchester as White on board 5. He managed to outplay him in a fairly long game, and thus secure a second win and the match victory.

Mark Broom had winning chances against Jeff Boardman as Black on board 2, but had to settle for a draw in then end.

The final result was therefore 3.5-1.5 in favour of Horsham 1.

You can see the full match scorecard here.