Inter-club fixture sees victory for first team

Following Horsham 5's overturning of Horsham 4 last week, the first team managed to avoid the banana skin and eased past the second team last night...

This fixture has not been straightforward historically, only a couple of years ago honours were even in a drawn match. This time however the win was achieved in relative comfort, with the first team only ever in danger on board 5.

On board 3 there was a quick result, as Peter's Petroff came unstuck against James' powerful piece play. Leaving the Black king in the centre too long proved fatal, Black's queen was lost and with it the game. Next on board 4 I agreed a quiet draw with Paul - we were doing well on the top two boards and I needed a calm evening after an earlier tyre puncture had left me flapping around just trying to get to the club in time! Pieces were exchanged and we called it a day in a dead level middlegame.

Next Mike converted his advantage against Ian's English - White sacrificed the exchange to try to untangle but his pieces were too tied down by pins and eventually White's knight was trapped and rounded up. On board 1 Phil had a similar lack of counterplay against Gavin's London System, and after closing the centre Gavin embarked on a strong kingside attack. A forcing sequence led to a decisive knight sacrifice and victory for White, sealing the match.

Finally Tim opted for active queenside counterplay against Dix, which could have turned sour if Dix had tried an interesting exchange sacrifice looked at in the post-mortem. Instead Tim took over the initiative in the endgame and looked well-placed before an eager pawn advance allowed Dix a perpetual to make the final score 4-1 to the firsts.

P. Stimpson 0-1 G.R. Lock
I.S. Comley 0-1 M.C. Forster
P. Harbott 0-1 J.C. Mansson
P. Taylor 1/2-1/2 A.R.J. Higgs
T. Pavlovic 1/2-1/2 D.N. Roberts

Well played all and good to see Tim at the board for Horsham 2 this season following last year's non-playing stint!