The 1st home match of the season for our 1st team saw Bexhill take on Brighton.

Our team, in board order was Anh, Andrew, Bill Luxton and Michael Hayward.

As is often the case we were heavily out rated for this match against last years
Division 1 champions. This time by over 950 points!
Michael and Bill put up stout resistance but eventually both had to concede defeat.

Andrew on board 2 played a fine game and was never in trouble against an opponent
rated 200 points higher. In the end a draw was agreed.

Anh on 1 was once again pitched against an opponent of the highest standard rated at 2244.
A game of almost three hours and of very high quality ensued.
With the maximum playing time of 3 hours and 10 minutes nearly up the two players agreed a draw.
So once again a great effort by Anh who continues to display match skills way beyond his years.

Our first home fixture of the season saw our 2nd team take on our 3rd team in Division 2.

Our 2nd team , in board order, was Janis, Lawrie, Bill Luxton and Steve Merchant.

Our 3rd team, in board order, was Bill Tracey, Lawrie, Luke and Michael Hayward.

Janis and I were first to finish. Janis got on top after 10 moves and kept the pressure on
until , with checkmate imminent, I resigned.

Michael and Steve played a very impressive short game on board 4, with both players achieving a computer rating of 98% before agreeing a draw.

On board 2 Steve managed to go ahead by a knight to 2 pawns and this proved vital. Lawrie battled hard but eventually had to resign.

On board 3 Luke and Bill had a fine game. Luke was able to gain an edge in a rooks and pawns endgame and, with two strong passed pawns looking unstoppable, Bill resigned.

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.

The first league match of the 2023/4 season for Bexhill was an away fixture on Monday 9th October
to play Worthing 2.

Our team, in board order was Michael Hayward, Lawrence Rhodes, Alan Ticehurst and Jo Carthew.

The match turned out to be close and well fought.
Many congratulations to Jo, playing his first league game for the club who achieved a fine win.
Lawrie, also playing his first match for the club, and Alan unfortunately both lost their games.
Michael on board one played extremely well to gain a draw against a player ranked over one hundred points higher.

Final score Worthing 2.5 Bexhill 1.5.