Horsham 5 Off To A Good Start

In our season opening intra-club match we failed to embarrass the 4th team, although in a battle of the captains I was able to reverse the defeat I'd suffered at Jordy's hands in the Swiss a couple of weeks before. Being black on both occasions, I came a little better prepared for his d4 London System opening. This limited our defeat to 1 - 3.

Next we played away against Eastbourne 4. I was grateful to Robert standing in at short notice as both player and driver. Wins by him and Guy on the outer boards offset Peter Rankin's loss on 3, while John Marshall's draw on 2nd board secured a 2.5 - 1.5 win.

With perhaps not the best of fixture scheduling (!) we then hosted Eastbourne 3. Having gained only the slimmest of victories over Eastbourne 4, we fielded a strong team. In the event Eastbourne's average rating only went up by 3 points compared to the 4th team they'd fielded at home against us, whilst we upped the ante by over 60 points. Alas, Nick was an early victim on board 1, but this was soon redeemed by Robert on 2, who reports:

"I (was) White with the Caro-Kann Defence, Panov-Botvinnik Attack. White established a Queenside pawn majority with c5 and an effective bishop pin of Black's Queen's Knight. This led to the winning of a pawn. Subsequent moves with White's Queenside Knight led to the forced winning of the exchange. On the Kingside, similar pinning play disrupted Black's pawn structure. White then consolidated the Queenside pawn structure while defending against Black's counterplay in the centre. This ultimately led to White queening pawn and finishing the game a rook up, prompting a resignation." Although with black advancing a passed pawn to the 2nd rank, pinning down white's major pieces for a while, the ending was perhaps a little more nail-biting that Robert's account suggests.

Next to finish was Ian on 3. Ian reports "I got into a Queen’s pawn opening, which was a slightly sticky position for a while, but I managed to clear some pieces off the board and we each ended up with a black bishop and 5 pawns ending, 3 v 2 on one wing and 2 v 3 on the other. It seemed to be one of those positions which could be lost by whoever tried to win it. I was trying to work out whether offering a draw would help the team best, but I wasn’t convinced we were winning the match overall at that point, so decided to keep pressing for a while to see what happened. My opponent managed to misjudge the position and I was able to get a passed pawn home first."

Thus with a 2 - 1 advantage, all eyes turned to Jordy's game on 4. With white, Jordy remained loyal to a London system opening and opposite side castling. Early in the middle game he trapped a knight at the expense of 2 pawns. The material advantage remained unchanged while all other pieces were swapped off, reaching an end game with opposing a-file pawns and, on the king's side, white's Knight tied down to support the 2 to 4 pawn minority. Black decided to send his King towards the queen's side of the board and while this won him a passed a-pawn, it freed up white's Knight to clear a path for his h-pawn. Consecutive promotions occurred on the a and h files, but with first promotion advantage white was able, through a series of checks, to corral the black King against the black Queen. Swapping Queens left White with a remaining, unstoppable, pawn and a win.

3 - 1 to us.

This leaves the 5th team currently in 3rd place in Division 3, one below Horsham 4, but as half the teams have matches in hand this is little indication of where we might end up.