On Tuesday 8th February, the Bexhill A team made the long journey to Horsham to play Collyers 6th form college.
The team was not at its strongest as both Andrew and Steve Blewitt were missing. However, we felt quite confident as we had been informed that Collyers were fairly inexperienced and relatively low graded.
The team in board order was Janis, Derek, myself and Steve Merchant.
My game was the first to finish, I started well, and my efficency rating was to be analysied by Stockfish as 100% for the first 10 moves. I then had a long think about 4 or 5 possible moves for my 11th move almost immediately rejected the first of these as it would cost me my Queen! Then, after several minutes, I proceeded to make the move, and lost my Queen and the game!
Steve was next to finish. He played a strong attacking game as black and proved too strong for his opponent who resigned when faced with imminent checkmate.
Janis had his opponent in trouble from very early on winning a piece after 6 moves. The Collyers player fought hard but Janis gradually wore him down and secured our second point.
Derek on board 2 was involved in the game of the evening. His opponent had the edge early on and achieved a dangerous passed pawn on the a file which looked to be well supported by a Bishop and the Queen. However Dereks superior experience and knowledge of the middle game gradually allowed him to gain control. Derek knew that a draw would win the match for Bexhill and sportingly offered his opponent a draw even though it looked as though Derek was now favourite for the win. His opponent gratefully accepted and therefore the match ended 2.5 to 1.5in favour of Bexhill A.