Bexhill —-2.5 – 1.5 —-Haywards Heath
On Friday 5 December, we hosted Haywards Heath for the Knockout round. Under the rules we needed to win 3-1 to go through. This was not to be, despite best efforts and a ( Pyrrhic) victory for Bexhill on the individual results.
On board 4, Janis ( as White) established 3 passed pawns on the Q-side and relentlessly pressed home their advance, finally pinning the Black Q on f8 and attacking it with the killer Bh6 – forcing exchanges and promotion. 1-0.
On Board 3 , Andrew ( as Black) pressed a slight advantage of 2 Bishops in an otherwise fairly level middlegame, eventually winning a piece with crushing pressure on White’s one remaining pawn protecting the king on g3. Thus taking the team score 2-0 in Bexhill’s favour.
On Board 1, Luke ( outrated somewhat by a highly experienced County-level player ), looked to be holding his own as Black in a roughly even ,if double-edged, middle-game. Both players concentrated their efforts against each other’s castled positions on the K-side. Luke had advanced a pawn to h4 to probe weaknesses but had his own weaknesses on the dark squares around the fianchetto structure the h-pawn had left behind. White had the 2 bishops v Luke’s B and N. White’s Q and dark-squared B penetrated the dark squares, picked up the h-pawn with the Q on h4 and broke through after Bf6. Match score 2- 1 to Bexhill now.
With the match hanging in the balance, it fell to Andy on Board 2, with White, to win, against an even younger talented Sussex Junior. In the endgame Andy managed to claw back the one extra pawn his opponent held. It came down to a rook endgame, with Andy having a better-centralised King, and each side with isolated passed pawns on adjacent central files. Andy got his R behind the Black passer and eventually picked it up, despite surviving on a minute on the clock. Unfortunately while Andy was engaged in blocking the passer with the king, Black was able to snatch Andy’s pawn on a4 so material levelled again with each side having passed pawns but unable to push them further without loss. A draw was agreed.
Match score 2.5 -1.5 to Bexhill, but it is ‘adios’ for this year’s Knockout. Hardly a shameful exit!
With congratulations to Haywards Heath and thanks to them for making the journey on a wet and windy night for enjoyable and hard-fought chess.