This was always destined to be a daunting task for us as Haywards Heath have a strong team
lead by a player who has been Sussex champion on more than one occasion.
Our team, in board order, was Anh Nguyen, Andrew Fleming, Steve Merchant and Bill Tracey.
Steve was first to finish, he won a piece in the middle game and then played very solidly until
his opponent had no choice other than to resign. A fine win against an opponent rated 153 points higher.
I was next to finish. My opponent and I both played a solid, if not spectacular game, and agreed a draw in what was a very closed position.I was quite pleased as he out rated me by 165 points.
Andrew was next to finish. He seemed to have the game well under control , a passed pawn up and with the bishop pair, but his opponent found a trick and was going to win material, leaving Andrew with little choice other than to resign.
This left 12 year old Anh on board one, giving away 338 rating points, to try to get the result for Bexhill.
This he quite magnificently did by going into the end game with a small advantage and then proceeding to out play his illustrious opponent until he was 4 pawns to 1 ahead with both players having a rook and and a knight each. There was no way to stop one of Anh’s passed pawns and so his opponent resigned.