Horsham 1 draw with Brighton 1

Last Monday, Horsham 1 travelled down to Brighton to take on Brighton 1 at their new venue in the Queens Hotel.

The first game to finish was Mikes Forster against Geoff James (Board 3). Mike had the White pieces, but his English Opening was met by solid defence by Geoff, and he offered a draw in a position where he seemed to lack a promising plan. His opponent was happy to accept.

This was a relatively brief game, but the other three game lasted somewhat longer.

James Mansson managed to equalise with the Black pieces against Albert Eldridge (Board 4). He later had a chance to establish some pressure by establishing his pieces on much more active squares, but played the wrong order of moves, and the game soon petered out into a draw.

The final two games went down to the wire.

Mark Broom was up against Luke Rutherford with the Black pieces (Board 2). Luke managed to build up some pressure, but the game later turned in Mark's favour. However, with both sides running short of time, he was unable to find one of the good ways to continue, and Luke's attack crashed though on the kingside, winning him the game.

It was therefore up to Gavin Lock, who had White against Callum Brewer on Board 1, to level the scores. His position did not look especially promising for a while, but he managed to break through on the queenside, winning some pawns, while his opponent was unable to get enough in return on the kingside. His opponent resigned when he was facing the exchange of queens with a clearly lost king and pawn endgame.

The final result of the match was therefore a 2-2 draw.

This was our last match before Christmas. This first section of the season has been tough, but hopefully we will find better form in the New Year.