Here is the match report for Bexhill 2 V East Grinstead from our captain Bill Tracey:
On Thursday 8th December Bexhill 2 travelled to play East Grinstead in the Mid Sussex League.
The team, in board order, was John, Leo, Derek and myself.
Derek was first to finish. He played the French and was very pleased that he made a strong start and he felt that after a dozen moves that he was in a good position. However the game seemed to get away from him and he eventually had to resign.
John, on board one was next to finish. Playing an opponent of equal rating I think it is fair to say that
he blew him off the board with a wonderful attacking game. This included a Bishop sacrifice when he took his opponents G pawn to bust open his defence. John kept up the pressure to such an extent the almost all his opponents pieces were still on the back rank when John checkmated him.. All this was achieved despite John having a very uncomfortable toothache.
I was next to finish and was quite pleased to get a draw against an opponent who out rated me by 150 points. He was a rook to a knight up when we agreed a draw, but the position was such that he would have had to sacrifice a pawn and give back the exchange to attempt any progress, he felt that this was too much of a risk and with his time getting quite low he accepted my offer of a draw. Computer analysis showed that he was right to be wary as the position was very equal.
Leo was last to finish. He had checked with me to see if a draw was going to be OK as he felt that he was slightly worse, I said yes, he offered but his opponent declined. Soon after this the game started to turn in Leo’s favour and with checkmate imminent his opponent resigned.
Final score East Grinstead 1.5 Bexhill 2.5
This was a good win as East Grinstead had already won 2 and drawn 1 in the league.