Horsham Chess Club

The Weald Congress took place last weekend and is an excellent event which I would recommend to more Horsham players.

Gavin Lock was playing in the Open tournament which was won by Richard Bates (231) and Nick Pert (250). Gavin scored a very creditable 3.5/5 and came fifth.

Lucy Bennet-Stevens won the Anne Gammans cup in the Major for the best female Under 18 performance with a score of 2.5/5. I'm afraid I took a point off her in our encounter as I started well with 3/3 but couldnt play in the final day - there is always next year!

A glance at the website revealed I hadn't posted a report for the final match of the season vs Worthing 2 which confirmed Horsham 1 in second place in Div 1. So here is the scorecard and a puzzle...

The season ended on Tuesday - another fun season with so much more to look forward to next year.

We have our traditional rest over July and August and will meet again on 4 September - see you then!

The well established Weald Congress is coming up shortly - the details can be found at www.wealdchesscongress.org

Every year there is a strong contingent of Horsham players so you will be amongst friends!

As well as the Open competition there is also the Major (under 175), Intermediate (under 140), Minor (under 110) so there is good scope for games around your level

It is a 5 round Swiss tournament with all moves in 80 minites.

Congratulations to Matthew Forster for winning the Knight trophy with a very impressive score of 86% (6 out of 7).

As a club we scored 102 points from 210 games in the MSL leagues and KO which represents 49% .

I have circulated the full results by email but have copied all those with over 50% in the picture. Please remember that those with fewer than 4 games are not eligible for the Knight (hence the shading).

Julie, Anthony and I represented the club at the AGM last night. It was a pleasant evening which was not too contentious. I took home brief notes which I copy below. Julie stood down as fixtures secretary and earnt a round of applause for all her excellent work for the MSL.

As the season heads to the final week on 27 June we have had a flurry of results which I will summarise here.

Last night James Mansson secured the Rook championship to join Paul Taylor as the Bishop victor and Julie Denning as the Knight winner.

Also last night Paul Taylor beat Mick Harris is the final of the Knockout Plate.

In the quickplays - James Mansson also won this while in an all junior plate final Zevon Rustom nudged out Lucy Bennet-Stevens to win his first adult trophy...the first of many I suspect!

Division 2 has been finalised and Horsham 3 have just missed out on promotion.

Prior to the adult club's lightning competition the juniors got in on the act with their own frenetic brand of 10-second chess - actually I'm being slightly unfair as there were plenty of decent quality games...

Another evening of ten second chess with all the usual upsets and exciting turns! Mike Forster went through to the final after a tiebreaker with Paul Taylor. In the other division three players shared top spot but Anthony Higgs and James Mansson were edged out by Morgan Blake who went through to the final.

It was the usual tense final but Mike took the lead to set the scene for a thrilling final game. Morgan managed to take the lead but there were complications in the centre which Mike optimised. Morgan's King was forced forward to h4 before succumbing.