Thanks to everyone who came and played in our second Grand Prix of the season. Full results are now up, including the current Grand Prix standings over on the Grand Prix page here:
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Grand Prix 2!
Author: Lawrence Rhodes
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Match report
Bexhill 4 had a very successful trip over to Eastbourne. Three of the Merchants and Alan took on Eastbourne’s fifth team.
On board 1, Alan finished quickly, pinning his opponents queen to checkmate and putting the first point on the board for Bexhill. Sharon on board 4 was next to finish. After some initial pressure coming out the opening, Sharon launched a devastating king side attack and her opponent was forced to resign.
Next to finish was Sam on board 2. He went into a tricky rook and pawn endgame a pawn up, and managed to see it home.
Last to finish was Sebastian on board 3. He was playing another very strong Sussex junior and they were the last to finish, battling it out late into the night as the clocks ran low. Sebastian was up an exchange but down a few pawns. His opponent played very well, and the pressure of the pawn assault was too much, and finally Seb had to resign.
Overall, a 3 – 1 victory for Bexhill 4.
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Match report
We travelled to the University knowing that we had a big challenge on our hands and what followed was one of the best performances by any Bexhill team since we entered the Leagues 4 years ago.
First to finish was Alan on board 3. Taking on an opponent outrating him by 180 points, he played a very solid game which ended in a draw.
I was on board and, my opponent out rated me by 220 points.
We played a very evenly balanced game and, after 35 moves I offered a draw. He thought for several minutes and, rather reluctantly, he agreed. Analysis showed the final position to be level.
Steve Merchant on board 1 was next to finish.
Steve played exceptionally well to really outplay an opponent rated 167 points higher.
Eventually with Steve very well on top his opponent resigned.
On 4 Jo continued his recent fine form and recorded a fine win.
Sussex University 1 1 Bexhill 3 3
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Match report
This match was a fine effort by our third team against the 2nd team of one of the leading clubs in the County.
On board 1 Steve Merchant came very close to winning his game against an opponent rated 160 points higher, but eventually he was forced to resign.
On board 2 I played an opponent out rating me by 220 points. Our game was a long tight game and eventually a draw was agreed.
On board 3 Lawry giving away 180 points competed well but the game got away from him and he eventually resigned.
On board 4 our very promising junior Luke played a fine game and looked to have an edge but his opponent managed to engineer a 3 fold repetition for a draw.
Bexhill 3 1 Brighton 2 3
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Match report
On Tuesday 31st October we made the long journey to Horsham to take on Collyers 6th Form College.
Janis on board 1 played a fine game against a higher rated opponent to win his game.
On board 2 Bill fought hard and gained a good draw against a promising young player.
On board 3 Michael Hayward did his part with a solid draw.
Unfortunately on board 4 I played one of my worst ever openings and was down a Bishop after 7 moves! My young opponent went on to play very well and eventually I had to resign.
Collyers 6th Form College 1 2 Bexhill 2 2
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Match report
This was a tight match against local rivals Eastbourne.
The teams were well matched in terms of ratings and the games reflected this.
On board 1 Janis earned a draw against a vastly experienced opponent.
On board 2 Bill Luxton just came up short against a very resilliant opponent..
On board 3 Alan attacked hard from the start, but his opponent was able to find the right moves at the right time and eventually Alan had to resign.
On board 4 Lawry played very well to gain his first win for the club.
Final score Eastbourne 3 2.5 Bexhill 2 1.5
Congratulations to our Bexhill Juniors who had a great day out last weekend at the third Sussex Junior Chess Grand Prix of the season. (@sussexjuniorchess ) 9 of our juniors competed and every one of them did us proud!
Special mention goes to Eszter who scored a fantastic 2.5/6 in her first tournament and picked up an arbiters award. Timmy Nguyen scored a whopping 6 out of 6 and took home the Under 11 minor trophy! Amazing! Noah also had a great day, narrowly missing out on a top three spot but taking home the top under 9 trophy! Andy scored 4/6 in the U18 major section sharing third place. Sebastian Merchant, after a slow start to the day, finished strong on 4.5 from 6 and shared third place in the under 18 minor section.
Well done everyone!
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Bexhill Rapid 2023
Bexhill rapid 23
On Sat 18th november, sleepy Bexhill on sea was once again descended upon by some of the best chess players in the county and beyond. Players young and old were locked in fierce combat for 6 grueling rounds of intense rapidplay chess.
By the time the winners were announced some 8 hours after the battles began, new friends were made, new champions were crowned but sadly, some had fallen by the wayside.
All results and plenty of photos can be found below, Bexhill Chess Club would like to thank each and every one of the players and supporters for making the day so successful and we look forward to seeing you all again next year!
Bexhill Rapid 2023 winner: Ilya Iyengar 5.5/6
2nd place: Andrew McGettigan and Gavin Knott 5/6
Top Senior: John Sugden 4.5/6
Top Junior: Tobias Taylor 4/6
Top Bexhill player: Anh Nguyen 4.5/6
Top Under 1900: David Fryer 3.5/6
Top Under 1820: Richard Welford and Janis Petersons 4/6
Top Under 1550: Hal Gomez, Aditya Gupta, Samuel Merchant 3/6
Bexhill Challengers winner: Aidan Burnside 5/6
2nd place: Rose Burgess 5/6
3rd place: George Taylor 4.5/6
Top under 18: Sebastian Merchant 3/6
Top under 12: Harry Morter 3.5/6
For all the photos, see the main report here.
On the fourth of November, five of our Bexhill juniors set out for a
tough battle; they were to play for Sussex teams in the National Youth Chess Association Junior Team Championships in Oxford.
In the U18 team, Sebastian scored 2.5 from 3 on board 5; a very
impressive result against strong players. He also was awarded star player. Then for the U14 team, Luke Chapman scored 2.5 on board 1 against some strong opponents.
Finally, in the U12 team, Andy and Sam on boards 1 and 2 both scored 1.5 from 3. On board 6, Rose won all her three games resulting in a Sussex U12 team second place finish and, for Rose, a star player award.
Thank you to all our parents for their driving and support.
Congratulations to the U12s, and a huge thank you to Steve Merchant for helping organise another brilliant day of chess for Bexhill juniors – 11 points from 15 games!
(Luke Chapman)
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Match report
Our team in board order was Mark, Anh, Michael and Lawry.
The evening produced 4 really long and hard fought games
On board 4 Lawry fought really well after a challenging opening
which left him a pawn down. He managed to win an exchange but
his opponent had a very strong central pawn mass which eventually proved decisive.
On board 3 Michael and his opponent both were under immense time control
with his opponent at one time down to a mere 2 seconds! However Michael
was also playing on his increment and eventually his time ran out.
This was still a very fine effort from Michael as he was giving away 280 points to his opponent.
Mark on board 1 was playing his first league match of the season and it also was a long and well contested game. Mark eventually wore down his opponent and thus gained our first point of the night.
Anh on board 2 was matched against another very strong junior some 5 years his senior.
Anh fought hard and despite looking as though the end game looked to favour his opponent, Anh stayed cool and calm and secured a well earned draw.