Horsham Chess Club

Five Horsham players took part in this very well organised event.

I grew up playing chess in cold church halls and buying curled ham sandwiches swigged down with tepid tea but this was very different with plush carpet, ample room and excellent playing conditions. Hosted at the Crowne Plaza Hotel there was first class food to sustain the players through the ardours of the tournament and there was something appealing about a bar dominated by 30 players analysing their games.

Please can you ensure you have booked up with your opponent to finish off these competitions.

We have 19 weeks left so there is plenty of time left but of course you may have team matches, the knock out and even the quick play still to fit in!

Horsham 2’s strength in depth enabled the team to record another impressive victory to move into 4th place in Division 1.
Alex, playing Board 1 for the first time, had a tough initiation with the black pieces. Paul was unlucky on Board 2 having outplayed Howard Tebbs for much of the game and winning his opponents backward e pawn. Unfortunately his opponent found some counter-play that enabled him to win back his pawn and move into a won ending.

Horsham 2 achieved a pleasing 3-2 victory against Haywards Heath 1 last Tuesday. This promised to be a very tight match with both teams having the same average grade of 173 – they were stronger (on paper) on Boards 1 & 2 and we out-gunned them on 4 & 5 (with our strength in depth!).

A pretty impressive looking result for Horsham 3 last night.

The most unusual opening was on top board where Marc Bryant tried to outwit Roy Page with 1.a3 g6 2. h3 b6 which is unusual. He tried a later g3 and Rh2 to allow Bg2 but Roy always looked very strong and his attack soon became overwhelming.

Horsham 1 took a big stride towards winning the top division by defeating current leaders and last year's winners Worthing 1 decisively on Tuesday night...

Horsham 3 played a home game versus Woodpushers on Tuesday, we were missing our star performer Matthew but Roy Page was able to step into board 1 for us.

Only one game was finished before time control, Ian on board 2 had a great attack going and looked like a mating net was close after an exchange sacrifice but his opponent was able to get his queen back into the defence and hold.

With a few regulars missing, Horsham 1 still ran out comfortable winners down at Eastbourne 1...

The new gradings have come out to reflect recent results. I thought the graph of the distribution of gradings might interest you (see graphic) - our average grade is 138 but we range all the way from 201 to 66.

Biggest improvers were Alex Freeland (+10 to 182) Ian Comley (+18 to 169 ), Lucy Bennett-Stevens (+9 to 141)

Check out your own grading at:

http://www.ecfgrading.org.uk/new/menu.php

Amazingly there are still 24 weeks of this season so this is a good time for a little reminder about keeping up to speed with your games.

If you dont have a match please prioritise the knockout then all play all (Rook, Bishop or Knight) before the quickplay. It is particularly important that we keep the Knockout on track.