Match report from our captain Bill Tracey:

On Friday 13th January, Bexhill hosted Eastbourne 4 in the Mid Sussex division 3.

Our team, in board order was Bill L, Steve M, Bill T and Alan.

Alan was 1st to finish. He and his opponent played a quick game
and then shook hands for a draw.

Steve was next to finish. He applied early pressure which resulted in him
going a piece up. He maintained the pressure and his opponent eventually resigned when Steve forced the exchange of a pair of rooks leaving Steve with a knight and 6 pawns to just 6 pawns.

Bill L finished next. Eastbourne had brought in a strong young player for board 1, and Bill, very uncharacteristically lost 2 pawns early on and this was to prove decisive.
In the end the extra pawns were destined for promotion and Bill resigned.

I was last to finish. In a very tight game my opponent had a weakness with an isolated central pawn.
This was to prove just enough for me to exploit and eventually promote a pawn and force a resignation.

Final score Bexhill 3 – 2.5 Eastbourne 4 – 1.5

This means that after 4 matches we are top of the table, with several of the other teams having played 5 matches!