Match report from our captain, Bill Tracey:
Monday 7th November saw the 1st team play their first league match
of the season. We have been promoted to Division 1 and were looking forward to some tough matches.
Brighton have a reputation for being one of the strongest clubs in the league and we knew we were in for a tough match.
We were heavily out rated. In fact we were out rated as a team by almost 1400 points!
First match to finish was John on board 3 Playing as white and employing the Bishops opening.
John played exceptionally well against an opponent out rating him by about 280 points.
The game was even throughout and eventually a draw was agreed.
I was next to finish. I used the Budapest opening and it gave me a solid start against an opponent
out rating me by 500 points. Going into the endgame we were level with 4 pawns each, but I missed the chance for a draw and eventually resigned.
Andrew on board one had the challenging task of playing an opponent rated 2230.
A fine game was played by both players and it seemed that with material equal but with a better pawn structure that Andrew had a slight edge in the endgame but his opponent played tremendously well to eventually get the win.
On board 2 Janis proved to be the star of the night. Out rated by 300 points he managed to survive a strong attack and eventually win an exchange. He continued to push his advantage and, with checkmate imminent his opponent resigned.
Although we lost, a score line of 2.5 to 1.5 was a tremendous effort given the disparity in ratings.
All 4 games were close and hard fought affairs and this has boosted our confidence for the matches ahead.
Well done Bexhill!