2017-18 Season

Week 13 of our 42 week season tonight - week 13 was lucky for some.

It was great to see the rapid play team playing Crowborough . Anthony will provide a full report so I won't steal his thunder but there was some great chess being played on the green baize.

Horsham 1 secured a narrow home win over Eastbourne 1 last Tuesday after some nervous moments.

For the first time this season (and the last, as Morgan Blake will be heading off), Horsham were able to field their strongest side, but several players misfired, leading to a tight contest.

Mike Forster ran into early trouble, giving up material but not gaining sufficient attacking chances. His opponent was able to consolidate and win.

It was not all bad news for the Forsters, however, as Matt secured a comprehensive win with a typically energetic performance.

Only last week Horsham 3 travelled to Hastings to play Hastings 2. Now it was Hastings 3 turn to travel and we out graded them quite substantially.

Lucy played a typically assured performance in a Semislav and was first to bring home a victory. Meanwhile on boards 1 and 2 the Hastings players vied to make the earliest draw offer with borad 2 offering after four moves and board one after just eleven!

Always a tricky venue to play at but felt we had good chances with a fine team. I was playing on 5th board and although a pawn up my attacking chances dwindled after a queen exchange and a draw was agreed. Next to finish was Phil on board 1 with another draw, having played through a very sharp position there was little left to work with once the dust settled. Alex meanwhile was down to a rook and 6 pawns each and some very rapid play by Alex who was on 1 minute with 10 second increment for 30-40 moves and could not gain time due to the Bronstein setting being used unknown to him.

Horsham 4 had a very successful trip to Brighton recently..

This Tuesday we welcome two teams in the Mid Sussex League.

Horsham 1 are facing Eastbourne 1 in an important division 1 battle . Meanwhile in division 2 Horsham 3 will be facing Hastings 3 having lost 4-1 at HAstings to Hastings 2!

The 2nd team travelled down to Uckfield last Wednesday and secured a good victory 4½-½.
On top board Anthony faced Chaski Patrick (graded 206) and played 1. Nc3 - an opening referred to as either the Dunst, the Van Geet or Der Linksspringer (“The Knight on the Left”). Chaski played a very solid Caro-Kann set up in reply and Anthony held a space advantage for much of the game. In an exciting climax Anthony held his nerve as both players queened pawns in a King and Pawn ending before agreeing a draw.

Horsham 1 bounced back from their disappointing loss to Hastings 1 to beat a weakened Haywards Heath 1 by a big margin. On the morning of the match, I was rung by the Haywards Heath captain to inform me that Feliks Kwiatkowski was not going to be playing. This meant that their line up was noticably weakened, although we would have been favourites to win in any case.