Horsham 3 Victory

Horsham 3 had a fine victory last night against Uckfield 1.

Lucy Bennet-Stevens was the first to finish, she was up against a 200 player on board 1 and was fighting tenaciously but ultimately he got the better of us and we were 1-0 down. Peter Harbott was on board 2 and was next to finish..although I was focusing on my own game and didn't see much of his I heard a rumour that he had castled. Could this be true? In any case he got a couple of pawns up against a strong player and levelled the score with a nice victory.

That left the bottom three boards still battling away. John Marshall was on board 5 and he seemed to have the better of the position when he dropped his Rook on to the seventh rank and his opponent's King was suddenly exposed despite being surrounded by pieces. A few moves later he had won to place us 2-1 up.

I was on board 4 and had a good position for most of the game but my opponent was holding me at bay while I was creating weaknesses. As I was growing concerned about the position I noticed a nasty pin which allowed me to take a protected pawn on g5 with my Queen . I continued the attack his King and was fortunate when the pin took another victim picking up a Rook on g5 . Suddenly we were 3-1 up and victory was certain.

Meanwhile on board 3 Nick Ashby was continuing rebuilding his chess rehabilitation with an interesting game with his Sicilian. He had already won the exchange when he spotted another tactic which took him into a very advantageous ending an exchange up. He demonstrated excellent technique and finally forced a King and Rook against King. For a moment I thought he was going to have to demonstrate his technique but it was quickly resigned.

So an excellent 4-1 victory for Horsham 3 which will definitely help our prospects in Division 2.