Author: Lawrence Rhodes

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.

HAYWARDS HEATH II -3 – 1 – BEXHILLL III

In this Division 3 match on Thursday 27 November, our 3rd team visited Haywards Heath, and faced their 2nd team. After an unfortunate loss by default on our part due to a misunderstanding about fixtures and reminders, Bexhill were defeated, losing on boards 1 and 4, though Michael Hayward won on Board 3.

DIVISION 1 CLASH

 Lewes I – 2 -2 – Bexhill II

Match Report by Bill Tracey :

Our 2nd team comprising of Michael Hubbard, Andrew Fleming, James Lumsden and Janis Petersons travelled to Lewes on Tuesday 2nd December to take on their 1st team in Division 1.

The match finished 2 -all  which is a fine result for our 2nd team.

Janis and James drew, Andrew lost and Michael won.

This was a particularly good win for Michael who was playing a strong and very experienced player on board 1 who out rated him by 81 points.

Achieved both on and off the boards…..

Here is the final results table :

Congratulations to the outright winner, International Master Peter Large :

Talented Juniors were joint Runners-Up :

Rating Prizes:

Other Open Prizes:

Best Junior :

Best Senior :

CHALLENGERS SECTION – RESULTS :

Challengers winners below – Freddie White (5.5/6) Magnus Gomez (5/6) and Jacob Delacour ( 4/6) :

EDITOR : Chairman Bill Tracey reflected on the day :

“The event attracted 53 entrants  although two had to pull out due to illness. In total 16 of our members entered and were a real credit to the club.”

But Bill focussed on all the club’s achievements off the board too, omitting to add praise for his own central, leading efforts.

“I would like to thank all the members who gave of their time to help make the event such a success.:

• Our kitchen team of Nick, Karen and Mike Chapman did a wonderful job of keeping us all very well fed and watered.
• Steve Merchant did a fine job of co-ordinating the entries.
• John Kimber kindly provided 6 of his excellent chess sets.
• Michael Hayward provided a taxi service to Cooden train station.
• Oliver Kuzmanoski, Mike and Luke Chapman, Lawry Rhodes Jo Carthew and Michael Hayward did the heavy shifting on Friday night to get the venue ready for the big day.
• Last but definitely not least Rose, who has recently passed her arbiters exams, worked all day alongside our chief arbiter to ensure the smooth and efficient running of the tournament.

There were many very positive comments from our visitors both about the smooth running of the tournament and of our excellent facilities. “

EDITOR : Thank you to Marc Bryant ( Hastings) for the loan of clocks .

Thanks to Nick Burgess for photos

Thanks to the visiting players for their participation, maintaining a spirit of warm co-operation in competition, and helping clear up !

PHOTOS FROM PLAY :

PROMISING STARTS CONTINUE, STRENGTH IN DEPTH SHOWING (Editor) – BILL TRACEY’s match report follows:

This local derby was played at Eastbourne on Friday 21st November.

Eastbourne have made an excellent start in Division 4 winning 2 and drawing 1 of their first 3 matches.

Our team of  Jo, Bill L, Michael and Alan came away with an excellent win by 3.5 to .5

Jo continued his fine early season form by winning on board 1.

Bill also continued his good form this season by winning with black on board 3.

Michael faced the  Eastbourne captain and gained a good draw.

Alan on board 4 played at his usual high tempo and emerged a worthy winner.

It is, of course, early days for the 5th team but 2 wins from 2 matches by a combined score of 6.5 to 1.5

is a fine start and hopefully it can be maintained in our next match on December 5th at home to East Grinstead Bookshop.

STOP PRESS !! – DIVISION 1 MATCH

BEXHILL I 2.5 –v– 1.5 WORTHING I

The first big test for Bexhill this season in the top Sussex division happened tonight. Against the reigning champions Bexhill fielded our best. Your editor was privileged to watch the earlier developments , while Bill Tracey witnessed the final stages.

Players few years ago would find this result incredulous. But Bexhill Chess Club has attracted a number of experienced players and are spearheaded by talented juniors who – tonight – competed on the top 2 boards against two of the best Sussex players.

The match reoprt –

Board 4 – Andrew Fleming ( with White) pursued a Closed Sicilian solidly against a strong opponent and gained pressure on the f-file with a 2-rook battery in the endgame and achieved a draw.

Board 3 – Howard Tebbs ( with Black) against a young opponent played a Caro-Kann and exchanged pawns on e4. When the N’s were exchanged on f6 ( doubling the f-pawns ) , observers were unsettled at Howard launching his lone h-pawn at White’s castled K-side position. The middle-game looked double-edged but favourable to White : with a protected passed pawn on d5 and Howard’s h-pawn isolated on h4.

But – Report from Bill : Howard under intense time pressure broke through on the King’s side and won.

EDITOR : I wish I had watched this . I think Howard is on fire this year!

Board 2 – Andy, ( with White) played 3.Bd3 against the French Defence. Andy aimed to make play with speedier development in an open centre ( after exchanges on e4) . Black seemed to spend tempi on travelling the q-Knight via e5 to exchange the annoying Q- side pressure from the white squared bishop on f3. Despite this removal, Black’s King looked ‘windy’- castled Q-side on the opposite wing. It was complex piece play on a fluid board and it was not clear how this would pan out.

Bill’s on-the- spot report : Andy took a poisoned pawn and lost a piece.

Board 1 – Luke ( with Black ) faced a Closed Sicilian. He faced a highly experienced opponent who used a cautious approach but offered an early exchange of bishops on h6 ( signalling attack) and created a space advantage in the centre with e5. Luke’s pressure was on the Q-side with a pawn storm …c4,b4.

Bill’s report : Luke was applying loads of pressure and forced an error – he won a piece for a pawn and cruised to victory.

EDITOR -This is an on-the day report, in recognition of a promising start to our Division 1 season against a strong club -current League champions.

On a cold night, we are grateful to host very strong and determined opponents travelling the 40 or so miles!

HASTINGS I – 2.5 —1.5 – BEXHILL II

 

Here is Bill Tracey’s match report for Hasting 1 v Bexhill 2

On Tuesday 11th November our 2nd team made the short journey to take on Hastings 1st team.

Hastings fielded a very strong team which outrated us by almost 800 points.

None the less the match was hard fought with Hastings eventually winning by 2.5 to 1.5.

Michael Hubbard, James Lumsden and Phil Swain all gained excellent draws.

Lawry Rhodes on board 4 was out rated by 300 points but fought tenaciously. One missed opportunity to block a Q- side invasion in the endgame proved to be the turning point and his opponent eventually broke through and overwhelmed the defence.

Efforts like this from the team overall bode well for the rest of the season.

Here is Bill Tracey’s report on the Knock Out Cup v Lewes.:

Friday 7th saw our 2nd team host Lewes 1st team in The Sussex Knockout Cup.

This was always going to be a huge challenge for our 2nd team as Lewes out rated us by 770 points. The rules of the competition, however, have a handicap system and this meant that we would require 1.5 points from the 4 games to win the match.

Things looked good for much of the evening as Michael Hubbard held a strong advantage on board 1 which he eventually converted into a fine win against an opponent who out rated him by 149 points.

On board 2 James opened up with b4 which caused his opponent to spend several minutes over his first move. For much of the game a draw looked a very real possibility but, under time pressure James just lost his way in the end game and eventually had to resign.

Jo on board 3 was out rated by 236 points and put up a great fight. He perhaps had chances but his opponent played vey well and eventually Jo ran out of time.

On board 4 Oliver continued his recent trend of playing people who heavily out-rate him, this time by 238 points. The game was very close and eventually came down to his opponent having one extra pawn and Oliver being under intense time pressure, and, despite his best efforts it seemed that Oliver would not be able to stop the pawn being promoted. Eventually Oliver ran out of time and therefore Lewes, after a very hard fought match emerged worthy winners.

Well done to our team who represented the club so well against such strong opponents.

Editor : Don’t forget to enter our Rapidplay Tournament on 29 November. Go to ‘Our Events ‘ page for full details and entry

BILL TRACEY’s REPORT :

Bexhill 3 played  Horsham 5 in division 3 against Horsham 5 in Division 3 on 31/10/2025.

Janis won on board 1

Steve Blewitt  lost on board 2

John Kimber won on board 3

Ed won on board 4.

Well done to all involved in what is an excellent, and, unbeaten start to the season for the club.

EDITOR : Bill said yesterday at the club ” To date our teams are undefeated in the League this year “

BILL TRACEY’S REPORT :

Our 2nd team travelled to take on East Grinstead 2 on  27/10/2025 in what was going to be a very important match in our effort to stay in the 1st Division.

The result was a fine win for our 2nd team 2.5 to 1.5

Andrew  drew on board 1

James won on board 2

Oliver lost on board 3 against a much higher rated opponent

I won on board 4.

EDITOR – One word “Brilliant!”

Bill Tracey’s report :

Bexhill 5 got their Division 4 campaign off to a fine start against Brighton 5 on 24/10/2025

Bill Luxton won on board 1

Michael Hayward won on board 2

I won on board 3

Jon James making his league debut for the club played very well but one error was enough to tilt the game in his opponents favour.

Final score

Bexhill 5   3   Brighton 5    1

Editor : Don’t forget to enter the Rapidplay Tournament on 29 November . Go to ‘Our Events ‘ page for full details and entry