Another long trek in vain for Horsham 3

Having lost at Hastings in our first match of the season, our second outing was nearly as far but sadly with the same result against Eastbourne 2.

Chris S-L's English led to a very open game with white's pawns advancing on both sides of the board. Ultimately however, black's unopposed black squared bishop alongside infiltration down the open c file by one of black's rooks proved terminal against white's uncastled king.

Not long thereafter Bob restored parity, castling queenside against his opponent's Najdorf and maintaining pressure on the kingside even after picking up the exchange. He further extended hostilities to the centre and black called it a day when faced with an imminent zugzwang.

Having misplayed the opening against the Nimzowitsch Defence (only the second time I ever recall facing this, having also messed up on the first occasion!) I was under pressure for most of the game, using up far too much time in the process. Courtesy of some missed tactics by black which neither of us saw over the board, I was relatively pleased to have a very modest plus by move 35 but was then playing on the increment in a still difficult position with perhaps the inevitable mistakes and result.

As black, John employed a sort of Kings Indian in an irregular opening and enjoyed a modest initiative though with both players short of time was ultimately unable to convert an interesting endgame of two bishops against two knights.

In his first game for the club, Nick A enjoyed an combative baptism on the black side of the QGD. Entering the middle game he built up a promising attack but trade of queens led to a difficult end game a pawn down. In the last game to finish his opponent managed to convert a knight ending after stiff resistance.

Final score of 1.5-3.5.

You can see the full match scorecard here.