When a club has more than one team in a division in the Mid-Sussex League, it is normal for all the club's team to play each other, before playing the other teams. With Horsham 1 and 2 both in Division One, this meant that Horsham 1 vs Horsham 2 was the first match of the season.
Because of three first team players being unavailable, boards 3 to 5 of Horsham 1 were occupied by players one might normally expect to play for Horsham 2; admittedly two of them had played many games for the first team in previous seasons.
While Horsham 1 v Horsham 2 was taking place on the green felt there were plenty of other games going on. I was playing a particularly dynamic game so the details are a little sketchy this week!
The final first round of the Knockout was played between Andrew Burling and Richard Barrowclough. It seemed fairly level with a fairly stable position but Richard managed to work some magic to make it through to the second round.
A pretty busy turn out again last Tuesday with a number of games across several competitions all under way. Paul Richardson and Ian Comley had a return match in the knockout which resulted in typically sharp play with Ian finding a way to trap Paul's Queen. Meanwhile Julie Denning was victorious over David Gray.
Some good chess played last night as the all-play-all competitions started. Phil is the early leader in the Rook with victory over Chris, whilst Alex and I drew, as did James and John M. The Bishop was more bloodthirsty, with Guy fighting back after a tricky start to beat Peter H, Mick overcoming some stout resistance from Andrew, and Julie beating Harry.
Great to see the competitions underway once again.
Next week is a good week to begin the all play all competition - Rook or Bishop as appropriate. The full table is available on the right hand side of this website under club competitions (make sure you are signed in, if you need a password just click on new password). The table shows the colour of the player on the left column.
It is probably best to try and arrange games by email before Tuesday but as we agreed at the AGM if we all turn up then there should be opportunities for games.
See you Tuesday.
Sussex Chess news is an excellent publication brought together by the hard work of Mick Plumb . It brings together all the activities of chess in the county and includes this year club reports, county worries and Junior successes.
In amongst this I noticed a picture of Mike Forster shaking hands with quite a handy player named Gary Kasparov and thought you might be pleased to see it if you have missed it.
There is also coverage of the excellent game between John Marshall and Alex Taylor. Phil Stimpson' victory over myself is also there - feel free to enjoy!
The Knockout draw has been published on the website for a little while. I have copied it below for convenience.
Remember to sign into the website to get the full functions in the menu bar on the right. If you are new and need to get a sign in you can do so directly through the website. If you have any problems have a chat with James Mansson at the club.
Submitted by Julie Denning on 16 September, 2018 - 16:50
Those who attended our AGM earlier this month will recall that I expressed concern for the survival of Sussex as a meaningful participant in county chess. Horsham has had a proud history over many years of contributing both players and captains for County teams over a spread of playing ability. Sadly, this has fallen off to some extent recently and others have so far failed to fill a number of vacancies. For the 2018 / 19 season the County has been reduced to entering only an Open team in the County Championships. I, for one, will certainly miss the opportunity to play County chess.
MSL have let us know that the first match of the season will be Horsham 1 v Horsham 2 on 16 October - let the opening preparation begin!
Here is the draw for next week. Good Luck!
M Forster (snr) v J Marshall
C Heath v I Comley
P Harbott v N Warren
R Moorhouse v LJ Cannon
H Roberts v B Donnelly
A Higgs v A Burling
L Bennet-Stevens v P Helliwell
R Waddingham v G Turvey
J MacLean v M Harris
D Gray v Bye
R Barrowclough v J Mansson
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