Author: veutilep

And so the prestigious Hastings congress has come to a close. The masters section being won by the teenager Haowen Xue, undefeated with 5 wins and 4 draws.
Our Luke Chapman playing in the masters section finished on 3/9. With 2 wins, 2 draws and 5 losses. And grand effort in an incredibly tough section.
In the new years’ tournaments, several Bexhill members participated.
New member Michael Hubbard played in the Under 2050 section and finished on 2.5/5 in joint 7th.
Bill Luxton, Michael Hayward and Steve Blewitt all played in the Under 1850 section. Steve with 2.5/5 in 12th, and Bill and Michael both scoring 3/5 and finishing in joint 6th.
In the final weekend tournaments, Luke played in the open section and scored 2.5 from 5, finishing in 17th. Bill Luxton and Leo Woning both played in the intermediate section. Leo scored 1.5/5 finishing 29th and Bill 2.5/5 finishing in 17th.
In the minor section, Bill Tracey scored 2.5/5 finishing 21st and Rose had a very successful weekend scoring 3.5/5 and finishing joint 6th!
Well done to Bill Tracey and Michael Hayward who both won a share of a rating prize in their sections! Well done to you all!

Massive congratulations to Bexhill junior Harry Morter who won the under 18 minor section of GP4 in Hastings on New Year’s Day. Well done Harry!
Harry will now be promoted to the under 18 major section, the highest section in Junior county chess.

Well done to all our members representing Bexhill at the Hastings chess congress this week.

7 of our members have been battling at the prestigious tournament.
Luke Chapman has been playing in the Masters section! The tournament continues but he has had some great results so far with a win against 1912 and a draw against a WFM.

All the other members have been playing in the rated sections of the 6 round Con Power events.
Andrew Fleming played in the Under 1950 section. He scored 3.5 and finished in 8th place.
Lawry, Leo, Michael, Rose and Bill Tracey were all playing in the Under 1750 section.
Rose did very well in a tough section and scored 1.5 points finishing in 31st. Michael Hayward finished even on 3 points, putting him in 16th. Leo faired a half point better finishing in joint 11th. Finally, Bill and Lawry had very successful tournaments, both scoring 4 from 6 and finishing in joint 6th.

Well done to you all! And good luck to everyone playing in the upcoming New Year tournaments.

Thank you to everyone who attended our Christmas prize-giving and social event last night.
The evening began with the presentation of trophies from the year’s events.
The time handicap award was presented to Andrew Fleming.
The Blitz award to Mark Rich.
The Gordon cup was presented to last season’s winner: Rose Burgess.
The club championship trophy, going back to 1930, was presented to last season’s champion: James Lumsden.
The player of the season for 23-24 was awarded to Andy Nguyen.
And finally, the club member of the year, awarded for outstanding contribution to the club was awarded to Sharon Merchant.
Once the prize giving was completed, we feasted on a a delicious buffet provided by the local cheese shop, (Thank you Julie!) and paired up to play some ‘hand and brain’.
It was a lot of fun, especially as many members were playing this format for the first time. At the end of play, joint winners emerged: John Kimber with David Pratt, and Luke Chapman with Sharon Merchant, who all finished on 3.5 from 4 games.
Massive thank you to Bill Tracey for organising such an enjoyable evening. And thank you to all the members who kindly stayed behind to help with the clearing up afterwards.
A very Merry Christmas and all the best for the new year to all our members!

Here is the match report for Bexhill 2nd team V Eastbourne 2nd team from Bill Tracey.

On Friday 6th December Bexhill 2 hosted Eastbourne 2 in The Sussex League Division 2.

Our team, in board order was Luke, James, Janis and Leo.

First to finish was James who set a trap for his opponent who fell for it. As a result his opponent saw that his position was hopeless and he resigned.

Luke was next to finish. He appeared to be in a better position, when, his opponent failed to spot that Luke was about to pin his queen to his rook. His opponent gave up his Queen for a Rook, but he resigned soon afterwards.

Leo on 4 had a very strong looking attack but unfortunately was not able to find a way to complete it and his opponent found a strong counter attack. Eventually Leo had to resign.

Janis’s match gradually turned into a classic. It seemed to the onlookers that all was lost for Janis as his opponent had two connected passed pawns on the 5th and 6th ranks. Janis however found some wonderful resources and fought back brilliantly. When the match time limit of 3 hours and 10 minutes ran out the two players agreed a draw.

So the final result was 2.5 to 1.5 in favour of Bexhill.

This means that Bexhill 2 are now top of the second division and undefeated after 4 matches.