Horsham Chess Club

We have acquired a magnificent new trophy in honour of John Cannon who served the club over so many decades. The Cannon family have generously contributed this superb cup and agreed the criteria we will use to award it.

Completing my trilogy of over-due reports, is one on the County Association's Paul Watson Trophy. Alas, our participation was short and not sweet! We faced an opening match against East Grinstead. Although we out-rated them on the top 3 (out of 4) boards, we went down to a 1 - 3 defeat. My thanks to Roger Waddingham, who stood in for me at short notice after I'd tested positive for covid.

The KO competition doesn't manage to attract a large entry, although Horsham have consistently taken part for many years. This season there were 6 entrants, including 2 teams from Crowborough. Our first match was due to be against Crowborough 2, but their club was laid low by covid and they conceded the the match. We then faced a semi-final match against Sussex University. Knowing they had a potentially strong line up of players this season, we confronted them with a strong team, including Mark Broom and James Mansson.

I've been remiss in not posting match reports for the 3rd team as the season progressed, so I'll now do a bulk update!

Horsham 1 scored a narrow 2.5-1.5 win over Hastings 1 at home last night. Neither side was quite at full strength, which probably evened things out overall.

The first game to finish was Rayner vs Lock, as the Horsham 1 held his opponent to a draw with the Black pieces.

Horsham 1 vs Hastings 1 match score: 0.5 - 0.5

Phil Stimpson looked to have a dangerous attack with White against James Wheeler, but it eventually petered out and the players agreed a draw.

Horsham 1 vs Hastings 1 match score: 1 - 1

Due to half term holidays the junior club will not run on 14th February - Mike Forster

For a fleeting moment midway through the evening there seemed a possibility that Horsham 2 would repeat their heroics of last year when they were the only team to take a point off Brighton...but in the event the end result (0.5-3.5) reflected the disparity in gradings between the two, being an average of 260.

Horsham 1 suffered a narrow 1.5-2.5 defeat away to Brighton 1 on the Monday of last week. Travelling to Brighton's new (temporary) venue, Horsham 1 looked well placed as they secured two draws on the top two boards, as Gavin Lock drew with Luke Rutherford and Mark Broom drew with Calum Salmons. However, disaster struck, when James Mansson's strong position against Geoff James fell apart in time trouble, and he ended up losing on time in what seemed in any case to have been a lost position.

Not helped by the captain snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, Horsham 2 went down to a disappointing 3-1 defeat against Crowborough 1 earlier this week.

First to finish was Ian whose English opening led to a slightly unusual response from black, with white appearing to be in good shape. A tactical sequence by Ian, however, which initially looked highly promising unfortunately proved the opposite at its conclusion and he had to hoist the white flag (no pun intended).

At the fourth time of asking Horsham 2 got on the scoreboard with a vital 3-1 against Bexhill 1.

For a change, the team was not out graded. Indeed, on top board, Anthony had an identical rating to his opponent based on the latest monthly listing and so it proved in practice. Facing the English, he managed to get in a d5 break with everything then getting swapped off. Despite mutual attempts to muddy the waters in the endgame, traps were avoided on both sides with a drawn game being the deserved result.