Victory for Horsham 3

Horsham 3 started the season with a 2.5 - 1.5 win against East Grinstead 2. The teams were very evenly matched, with an average grading of 1728 for Horsham and 1724 for our opponents.

Jordy Savill was the first to score with a quick win in the Barry attack, after Ian Dennis (1698) allowed a mate in 3. The next to arrive at a conclusion was Robert McDonald, who equalized with the Slav against Asanka Amarasinghe (1828). Although the game would continue for a while, Black had an easily drawn endgame with dark-colored bishops.

Soon East Grinstead 2 was able to return the score to parity. Robert Wall (1685) employed the move 3... a6 in the classical French, and achieved an advantage in the endgame. Eventually the pressure led to him winning an exchange against Peter Rankin, and the result followed soon after.

On my board I was defending a Trompowsky attack against Adrian Waldock (1684), who offered a draw in a double-edged and unclear position as he was getting low on time. Luckily I declined the draw and the time pressure proved fatal, since he soon blundered a center pawn.