An epic battle…

Match report from our Captain Bill Tracey:

On Friday 4th November, Bexhill 2 hosted Worthing’s second team.

We expected a tough match as they are probably the strongest club in the league and our expectations proved correct.

The final score was Worthing 3.5 Bexhill .5.

However, after 2.5 hours of the match any result was still possible, as the match proved to be far closer than the score line suggests.

I was first to finish on board 4 and managed to gain a draw from what at one point looked a difficult position.

On board 3, Bill Luxton was in a very evenly contested game and both players ended up with 5 pawns each. Unfortunately for Bill, his opponent had the last pawn move and Bill was forced to move his King from the defence of a pawn and the game was lost.

On board 2 the game reached a point where Leo was up 3 pawns and a rook to 2 pawns and a rook but just one wrong pawn move allowed his opponent to gain a win from what had seemed a very promising position for Leo.

On Board one John was playing a very highly rated young player. John played extremely well to go up a pawn in the middle game, but his opponent fought back well and by the end game material was all square at 5 pawns and a rook each. Unfortunately, John made one wrong move and his opponent was able to secure a win.

So what could potentially have been a 2 all draw became a heavy loss.

One consolation is that Worthing 2 are quite likely to be the highest rated team in the Division.