The intensity of competition, at this high level of chess skill, at this late stage of the season, was apparent last night as our 1st team hosted Brighton & Hove 1st team.
The outcome places the latter as clear Division 1 leaders as we go into the final matches to be played through the next few weeks. ( Follow the link on our Sussex League page ) Despite the match score, our team looks to be safe to stay up in Division 1 next year.
The points made in this match are testimony to our whole team’s determination., and extracted maximum value with the White pieces.
At East Grinstead last night, our 3rd team came away with a sound score. Congratulations especially to Bill for levelling the match. It leaves the team well placed in the top half of the Division with two matches still to play.
It was another tough night for our 2nd team, in Division 1 for the first time this year, playing at home against one of the strongest teams in the League. I only had time to see the complicated struggles which were still in the balance as I left near 10.00pm, so the overall result belies the intensity of the games.
James played a Scandinavian defence with …Qd6, which I have seen James play before, inviting White’s Q-side expansion with Nb5, c4, a3, b4 and pressure on the centre with doubled rooks behind the d4 pawn. Meanwhile , in a complex opening with few exchanges to relieve the pressure, Black attempted restraint in the early middlegame with a ‘hedgehog’ formation ..a6,b6. It looked as though James would have problems with lack of space to manoevre.
Michael played a Q’s gambit v Black’s Slav formation. It resolved into a symmetrical structure with open d and c files, with confusing possibilities of tactics based on respective double-rooks batteries and threats of pins, skewers. on both sides Perhaps it was the subtle differences in piece position, which gave Black the edge, e.g. Black’s N better protected on d7, whereas Michael’s N was on c3 and pinned. The position looked to favour Black as I left, with Michael a pawn down.
Steve played a Philidor formation …c6,d6,e5against a double- fianchetto of White’s bishops.. There was an intense positional struggle in the centre against Black’s dark-square strongpoint on e5 supported by d6. White created a powerful pawn chain on the white squares, a2,b3,c4, d5. By threatening a skewer of major pieces by Ba5, White caused Steve to block the threat with the advance ..a5, b5-b4, which left White with two monster passed pawns on c4,d5 after White’s f4 exchanged the e5 pawn. Black’s unopposed pawns on the f and e files did not look as threatening enough to compensate at the point I left.
I saw Bill’s game to its conclusion. Out of a drawish symmetrical pawn structure with one shared open e-file. with all the major pieces and just one N each left. I didn’t observe how Bill came to lose his N but it looked like there were some tactics based on N’s being pinned on e5 and e4 respectively, which could have been exploited successfully by Black.
The result does leave our 2nd team vulnerable, with just one match left to play against East Grinstead 1 on 27 March.
A sound result against the rating odds. Again I was unable to watch all of the games to a conclusion but here’s what I observed until about 10 pm…
Jon lost a pawn early on when an Exchange of White’s B for N on f6 destroyed the one defender of a central pawn. White had a protected passed pawn on c5. Jon played actively with the 2 bishops but White managed the rooks on the open files well to penetrate and pick up more pawns.
Geoff played cannily in an English opening, with a3 and e3. For what seemed a long time he left his King in the centre behind the e3,f2,d2 pawn wedge, leaving his d-pawn unmoved while Black advanced in the centre with …f5,e5-e4 – which wedge was not being used flexibly to break up the shell around the White King. Geoff played on from the flanks into the middlegame where he managed to snaffle Black’s Q for 2 minor pieces and withstood Black’s attempts to counter-attack with both rooks and minor pieces, even while White’s rooks remained on their original squares.
As a welcome new team player, I’m sure Geoff will enjoy much further success with his asymmetric approach. Congratulations, Geoff!
Ashton, a talented , rapidly-progressing junior who has only recently joined the team achieved an impressive draw against a highly experienced opponent. Black tried to throw Ashton out of any possible comfort zone, with a questionable very early 2nd move of a pawn from d6 to d5 – a pawn sacrifice- in an Open Sicilian, followed immediately by a further dubious Queen sortie inviting further loss of tempi as Ashton calmly completed his development. Black created doubled White c-pawns, hoping they would be targets, but Ashton used the open files for his rooks well and eventually advanced from c4-c5 restraining any b5 break by Black. Throughout, Ashton’s pieces kept active, not passively defending against any counter-threats. His king was fully centralised in the endgame, then shepherded the pawn to promote , after it had captured on the b-file, forcing Black to give up his N. Black had to defend with his lone King, plus 4 pawns in a connected island on the King side, against Whites’ 3 connected pawns opposite and a N. Black’s e-pawn was a protected passer on e5, which tied Ashton to covering that pawn making a dash to promote. Ashton could not find a way to push the Black King back through use of the opposition to get at the base of Black’s pawn chain on ..g7. After his attempts to break in were successfully foiled, Ashton eventually offered the draw, which Black, relieved after taking all the pressure throughout the game, instantly accepted.
This was an excellent achievement, Ashton! I think ( though stand to be corrected) the position, though tricky, was won for you, if perhaps you could have aimed at playing g4-g5 earlier, to fracture the pawn chain with the support of your N, with the h-pawn on h4, rather than fixing the pawns with h5? Have a good look at it again . The final position was something like this which for some time had been through various permutations of King and N moves:
Oli’s game, which I didn’t see to a conclusion involved Oli exchanging B for N ( conceding the 2 bishops to saddle White with an isolated d-pawn.) That is always a double-edged strategy, as it seemed to me, White was gaining greater piece activity in the middlegame.
The result leaves our 4th team still looking fairly safe from relegation with 2 games still to play, both at home , Haywards Heath 2 on 27 March and Eastbourne 4 at home on 24 April – both of which on current performance appear to be winnable for our 4th team
It was a remarkable debut – not just for the club but also as a first Standard Play game over the board – from Geoffrey Veale. He played a heavy pieces + B v N middlegame through to endgame, with his K still on e1, activating his R via h1- h4 to the Q-side exploiting a fragility in Black’s castled Q-side to pick up a N, followed by more pawns. It was cool and careful play. Welcome and well done Geoffrey!
Bill continued his solid scoring, using active pressure with a double rooks’ battery on the d-file.
I didn’t get to see much of Jo’s game, clearly the crucial win, on top board with the Black pieces. Congratulations, Jo! ( Game scores always welcome from players afterwards for analysis and publication on the website)
In the final game to finish, Lawry (your editor) spotted an opportunity to pick off a N, for a pawn, to stymie an oncoming K-side attack, at the expense of a broken pawn structure in front of his King. Choosing not to take a 2nd pawn as some compensation, instead his opponent pushed on with the attack with a Q on h6 trying to intimidate, as if the N had been a sacrifice, but the mating options were covered against just a Q & the remaining N. Among a variety of tactical options in a counter-attack, Lawry settled on exchanging pieces and simplified to a won ending, a piece plus eventually 2 pawns up.
Our position in the Division 4 League Table currently speaks for itself :
The deciding match will be on 17 March when we travel to Lewes to play their 2nd team. It may be the 4th Division , but all points are hard-fought on both sides and if we get through it shows that with 5 teams in the Sussex League, we have strength in depth.
With every Horsham player rated over 2000 and our difficulty in raising all of our strongest players for away matches at this stage of the season, this result was not unexpected.
Well done Howard for achieving a draw against clearly one of the League’s best players.
Bexhill 1st team still occupy mid-table placement with 8 points, with 2 matches outstanding.
Horsham share a place ( now 2nd ) among the 4 front -runners Brighton , Lewes and Hastings on 10 points, though Brighton and Hastings have 3 games in hand compared to both Horsham’s. and Lewes’ 2 games still to play.
See the full League Table for Division 1 on the link to Sussex League LMS on our “SUSSEX LEAGUE” page.
Our team faced the current Division 3 leaders and was clearly outrated most significantly on Boards 3 and 4.
Well done Oliver for a result above par!
The team is still in with a chance to avoid relegation, positioned currently 8th/11, 2 points clear of the bottom. ( Go to our ‘Sussex League’ Page for the LMS page and navigate to League Tables)
Without an on-the-spot match report, it’s clear that there were individual results which achieved beyond expectations against one of the traditionally strongest clubs in the League.
