Horsham 2 lose out to St. Francis & Haywards Heath 1

A relatively short journey for an away match at last! Horsham 2 put up a good fight but the score currently stands at 3-1 against us with one game to resolve.

I arrived at the venue to the sight of my faithful team jeering at me from the upstairs windows of the venue, having managed to walk through the wrong bit of the hospital and ending up having to drive round the whole one-way system. I made some amends by winning the toss and we got underway.

On board 2 Peter allowed Robert Fitzgerald's queen and dark-squared bishop to infiltrate his queenside, with the result that only a few moves after castling his king had been driven back to e8 again! Robert drove home his advantage and mated Peter's king on the back rank. I think Ian was next to finish on board 3, a very sharp game against Jeff Boardman with each side's queen and bishop targeting the enemy king. Both players sacrificed pawns to damage each other's kingsides and Jeff surprisingly turned down a draw offer in what looked like a slightly worse endgame to me, but then agreed one a few moves later.

Nick ended up with a sort of Closed Sicilian position on board 5 despite the fact that c5 wasn't played until about move 10! Initially things looked promising but his pieces became scattered around the board and Martin Faulkner's pieces targeted Nick's weakened king forcing resignation. Chris seemed to have a comfortable game on board 4 against Viv Cole, his isolated pawn being balanced by his extra queenside space and White's tangled knights. Both sides continued solidly and a draw was the right result.

On board 1 against Feliks Kwiatkowski I finished last yet again. Just out of the opening (a Nimzo-Indian) I decided on a positional exchange sacrifice, for which I also had a pawn and created some Black weaknesses, but which was objectively unnecessary. Feliks consolidated and reorganised his pieces well but then exchanged down into a pawn-up rook ending that looks almost certainly drawn, although we await confirmation of this (update: draw confirmed).

Overall a 3.5-1.5 loss.

F.J. Kwiatkowski 1/2-1/2 A.R.J. Higgs
R.C. Fitzgerald 1-0 P. Harbott
J. Boardman 1/2-1/2 I.S. Comley
V.J. Cole 1/2-1/2 C.W. Heath
M. Faulkner 1-0 N. Warren