Sussex League

In mid-February Horsham 1 hosted Brighton 1 for their Sussex League Division 1 match.

The match got off to an excellent start, as James Mansson beat Mikolaj Rogacewicz with Black. He caught his opponent in some deep opening preparation, sacrificing a queen and rook for four minor pieces. His minor pieces proved much stronger due to White's weak pawns and king position, and he managed to force checkmate by luring his opponent's king up the board.

Horsham 1 had an unproductive trip down to Hastings at the start of February, when they suffered a narrow (but decisive) loss to their first team.

Gavin Lock drew with Francis Rayner on board one, but losses on boards two and four (Mark Broom vs John Sugden and Anthony Higgs vs James Wheeler) gave Hastings 1 a decisive 2.5-0.5 lead. James Mansson managed to swindle Henry Cove on board four to make the final score a more respectable 1.5-2.5 margin (from a Horsham perspective), but it was still too little too late.

On Friday, Horsham 1 made the long trip down to Bexhill to take on Bexhill 2 in Division 1 of the Sussex League.

It was tough match that was in the balance for a while, but Horsham 1 finally prevailed.

Gavin Lock was first on the scoresheet, with a win on board one against Mike Hubbard.

This gave a score of Horsham 1 1 - 0 Bexhill 2.

Horsham 1 narrowly defeated East Grinstead 2 last night at their venue, recording one win and three draws.

Gavin Lock was held by David Norton on board one.

Mark Broom was able to overcome Michael Dams with his trusty Petroff on board two.

James Mansson had a winning position on board three against Eric Granzelius, but was unable to find a way to convert in an error strewn contest, where in the end he had to play carefully to draw.

Anthony Higgs was up against Trevor Norton on board four. He also missed a win, and had to settle for a draw.

Horsham 1 suffered a minor setback when they were held to a draw at home last night by Haywards Heath 1.

Gavin Lock held Feliks Kwiatkowski to a solid draw, while James McGrath also drew against Graham Ewens.

James Mansson went down to defeat against Jeffrey Boardman in a complicated game. He seemed to gain a superior position early on but was unable to make anything of it. Then a natural kingside thrust unexpectedly backfired, leaving him in a difficult position. A series of bad moves when running short of time then led to his defeat.

Horsham 1 got their league campaign back on track with a comfortable win away to Crowborough on Friday 14th November.

James Mansson was first to finish, accepting a draw offer in a slightly dodgy position from an unambitious Gerry Michaud.

Mark Broom and Gavin Lock then secured the match result with wins over Jon Lawrance and David Fryer respectively.

This mean that the result of last game, between Anthony Higgs and Elena Currah, did not matter, which was fortunate in that Anthony's position looked very dubious, although he managed to escape with a draw.

Horsham 1 got off to a disappointing start to their league season at home on Tuesday 28th October, losing narrowly to Lewes 1.

The bottom three boards were drawn, leaving everything on the top board clash between Mark Broom and George Adams. Unfortunately for Horsham, Mark went down in a complicated battle.

The final score was therefore 2.5-1.5 in favour of Lewes 1.

See https://lms.englishchess.org.uk/lms/fixture/131074 for the full details.

I thought it would be useful to share the results of the matches in the Sussex League. There are still a number of matches before xmas including a total of three this week!

Obviously this list doesnt include the Knockout teams or the Swiss, Knockout, Quickplay or other internal matches - tons of chess being played :)

Tuesday was the second of the three Horsham vs Horsham matches to start this season. Last match the 3s suffered playing up against the 2s and this time played down against the 4s. Although we outrated our opponents on every board, it's still never a guaranteed result.

First to finish was my own board 1, a repeat fixture from the previous week against John M but with colours reversed. We played a very quiet Spanish where suddenly it wasn't and black resigned under threat of mate.

Horsham 5 started the season at home against East Grinstead 3 on Tuesday in Division 3. On paper we are one of the lower rated teams in the league so it promises to be a tough season.

East Grinstead 3 are amongst the favourites this year and despite being heavily outgraded on every board, we came away with a creditable 2-2 draw.