Last weekend, five of Bexhill’s juniors travelled to Leatherhead to play for the Sussex under 11 squad in the south zonal qualifier for the national finals. It was a fantastic day for the whole team lead by our Steve Merchant. Our juniors all made fantastic contributions, Samuel Merchant, Harry Morter and Timmy Nguyen all won 2 out of 3 of their games. Noah Pearson and Zach Carthew won all 3 of their games! Overall, Sussex scored 45 points and won the tournament! So all the kids came home with a gold medal and will go on to play in the national finals in Northampton in May. Congratulations to all the Sussex team and especially our junior members! A wonderful result!
Due to some juggling of dates in the Sussex league, we have had to postpone the 6th Grand Prix in our series by a week from April 26th to May 3rd. In order to try and keep the spacing even, we have decided to also push back the last two Grand Prixs by a week as well. So the final 4 grand prixs will be as follows: GP5 – March 29th, GP6 – May 3rd, GP7 – May 31st, GP8 – June 28th. Things are getting super juicy as we move into the final half of the season. Current standings can be found on the website.
On Monday 11th March, Bexhill 2 made their way over to East Grinstead to play their second team in the Sussex league. Our team in board order was Leo, Bill.L, Steve.M and Michael.
Michael was first to finish after winning a piece in the opening and continued on to a comfortable win.
After an epic battle on board 1, Leo and his opponent reached an equal position and they agreed a draw.
To secure a draw for the match, Steve decided to also take a draw in a game in which he had held a slight edge but had been unable to hold it.
Bill Luxton appeared to be in trouble, two pawns down, the match was heading for a draw. But some fantastic attacking chess quickly turned into a winning position and a victory for both Bill and the team.
Final score 3-1 to Bexhill!
This should be enough to keep Bexhill 2 in the second division for another season.
Last month, nine of our juniors sat their level 1 Institute of chess exam. On friday we had the pleasure of presenting them with their certificates. All of the juniors achieved a mark of ‘pass with distinction’, the highest mark possible. Five of them achieved a score of 100%. Fantastic results! Well done to you all!
On Friday 8th Bexhill 3 played Eastbourne 3 in a vital relegation battle in division 2 of The Sussex league.
As with every match this season we were once again out rated. This time we were out rated by 440 points on the top 3 boards (on board 4 Jo does not yet have an established grade]
First to finish was Jo on board 4. He took advantage of his opponents gambit in the opening and steadily built up an overwhelming lead until his opponent resigned.
Luke on board 1 was next to finish. He faced a vastly experienced opponent and the game boiled down to Luke having 4 pawns, bishop and Knight to 7 pawns and Bishop. Ultimately the 4 to 1 advantage on the King’s side proved decisive an, with promotion imminent Luke resigned.
I was next to finish on board 3. I was forced to defend an endgame where I had an isolated pawn on the h file and doubled pawns on the F file. Fortunately I was able to hold on for about 25 moves and escaped with a draw.
Lawry had a big challenge on board 2 being out rated by 240 points. He responded superbly. The end game was very tense Lawry having Queen, Rook and 2 pawns to his opponents Queen, Rook and 4 pawns. Lawry managed to win a pawn, and with both Kings now quite open a draw was looking likely and, indeed, Lawry offered a draw, but his opponent declined. However his opponent was under big time control pressure and living on his 30 second increment. Finally as he strived to find a way past Lawry’s stout defense his clock ran out. Lawry deserves huge credit for his excellent end game resistance.
Final score Bexhill 2.5 Eastbourne 1.5
This result now moves the 3rd team level with the 2nd team and 2 places out of the relegation zone. One more win from our last 3 games will insure that we remain in Division 2.
Great news! We have confirmation from the lovely folk at the DLWP that they will kindly host us again this year for CHESS ON THE BEACH!! Save the date in your diaries! August the 10th we will be back on the beach for more variants, more duck chess, the bughouse cup, and of course, crowning a new Bexhill Beach Blitz champion!
On Friday 1st March Bexhill 1 hosted Horsham 2 in League 1 .
Our team, in board order was Andy, Andrew, Janis and Leo.
Andrew continued his recent excellent form and was in control from early on until, with Andrew in an overwhelming position, his opponent resigned.
The remaining 3 matches were much longer and and closer fought.
Leo and his opponent had a three fold repetition in a very complex situation with Leo having pressed very hard for the win.
Andy and his opponent both seemed to have chances with Andy a pawn down at one point and then 4 pawns to two up. Unfortunately Andy’s rook was pinned down defending a pawn on the 7th rank and a draw was agreed.
Janis’s game was eventually halted by time running out on the match clock. After a brief examination it was agreed that Janis was lost . Rather unusually after further analysis by Janis he discovered that 2 moves earlier the game was level and although Janis wasn’t certain at the time he did think about stopping moving and letting the match clock run out. If he had a draw would have been the result!
The final score was 2 all which means we still have a chance of avoiding relegation.
On the evening of 27th February 2024, Snodland chess club hosted a simul with GM Sergey Tiviakov. Rose Burgess from Bexhill was in attendance and all 26 challengers played the black side of the board. She noticed that Sergey played 1e4 in every game and against the Sicilian his moves are Nc3 and d3; he is a closed Sicilian player.
For most games, he played the Guicco Pianismo with good effect. Rose had the Guicco Pianismo line and was defeated after 1 hour 45 minutes. Sergey had a successful evening, leaving with an undefeated score 26-0
On Friday 16th February our 3rd team had a home match V East Grinstead 2.
Our team, in board order was Luke, Bill T, Jo and Ben.
Luke lead the way with a fine win, in which he applied pressure from early onхand eventually forced a resignation.
I had a long match on board 2 with time running short missed a chance for a draw and lost my game.
Jo on 3 looked as though he had chances but eventually his opponent was able to make use of a passed pawn and Jo had to resign.
Ben’s game on 4 came down to a complex end game which looked drawish but his opponent made a very uncharacteristic error which cost him a rook and the game.
The final score of 2 each keeps our hopes up of avoiding relegation.
On Sunday the 25th, two Bexhill Juniors headed out to Burgess Hill to play Richmond in the SCCU U14 league. Firstly, on board three, Luke Chapman took two from two beating his opponents in two king and pawn endgames. Next on board nine, Rose Burgess won her first game in resounding fashion. This lead to a positive 3/4 for Bexhill and an astonishing 19.5-4.5 win for Sussex. Well done to all involved and thank you to Steve and Mike for the organisation.
