bexhillchessclub.co.uk

Sunday 1st December saw Bexhill make the short journey to take on Hastings in the Watson Trophy.
This competition involves a 4 person team with an average rating of no more than 1825.
Our team in board order was Andrew, Luke, Michael Hubbard and myself.

First to finish was Andrew. His opponent, playing to a team plan, offered Andrew a draw after just 8 moves! Andrew and I exchanged somewhat surprised glances, I was happy for Andrew to take the draw
as I was very confident that we would have an edge in both games on boards 2 and 3. Andrew had a long think and then accepted the draw. This did suit us, as, although I fell behind in my game early on and eventually had to resign, Michael and Luke were both looking fine in their games. Michael kept continuous pressure on his opponent, and eventually gained an overwhelming position and a resignation came from the Hastings captain. The rules of this competition are such that if the match ends 2 all board count would come into play since we had won on 3 and lost on 4 we were in front so Luke needed just a draw for us to win. However he negotiated a tight end game very well and won his game.

Final score Hastings 1.5 Bexhill 2.5.

It has been quite rare for Bexhill to be able to compete with Hastings on a level playing field
so this is a particularly fine win for our club.

Our other team in the competition play at home v Crowborough on December 13th, so hopefully we may have 2 teams through to the latter stages.

On Friday 29th November Bexhill 4th team took on Eastbourne 3rd team in Division 3 of The Sussex League.

Our team in board order was Jo, Michael Hayward [captain], Lawry and Sam.

Although we were out rated by 100 points per player the team played superbly and emerged victorious by 4 nil. Considering the level of the opposition this was
one of the best performances that we have seen from a Bexhill team since we first entered the leagues 5 years ago.

So huge congratulations to Michael and his team.

On Friday 22nd November, Bexhill 4 hosted Worthing 2 in Division 3 of The Sussex League.

Worthing 2 are only in Division 3 as they fielded just 1 team last season and therefore their 2nd team were placed in the 3rd division when really they would be very strong contenders in Division 2.
This meant that although our 4th team is a good 3rd Division team it was out rated by an average of 219 per board.
Having said all that the team fought long and hard playing some excellent Chess.
We lost on the top 3 boards but Sam had a fine win on board 4.

Our team was Jo, Michael Hayward , Lawry and Sam.

Match report from our captain Bill Tracy:

Our first team played away to Horsham 2nd team on Tuesday 19th November.
Horsham have the strongest depth of players in the league and are running 6 league teams this season.
We fielded the strongest away team that is available to us and yet we were still slightly out rated by their 2nd team.

Howard played on 1 and secured a draw, Andrew on 2 lost, Janis on 3 got a draw against an opponent rated 100 points higher and on 4 James secured a fine win against an opponent rated 82 points higher.

This was an important draw as there are maybe 5 teams in the league that are contenders for relegation and Horsham 2 and our 1st team are in that 5 so it was vital that we did not lose.

Match report from our captain Bill Tracey:

Monday 18th November saw our 3rd team travel to East Grinstead to take on their 2nd team in Division 2 of The Sussex League.

Our team, in board order was Bill L, Phil, Ed and myself.

In the end we lost 3 to 1 against a team who out rated us by a considerable margin.

The star of our team was Ed who, playing an opponent much higher rated, played a very solid opening and then took full advantage of an error by his opponent to win in style.

Thank you to everyone who came and played in our third event of the Grand Prix season on Friday. Full results and the current standings are now up on the website. Congratulations to the evening’s winner, Samuel Merchant winning all four of his games against some very tough opposition.
Next event will be December the 13th.

Match report from Bill Tracey:

On Monday 11th November our 2nd team travelled to Brighton to take on their 3rd team.

We fielded a strong team of Janis, James, Leo and Michael H.

Janis and James lead the way with fine wins on boards 1 and 2.

Leo lost on 3 and Michael gained a solid draw on 4.

This win by 2.5 to 1.5 sees our 2nd team sitting at the top of Division 2 with 2 draws and 1 win.

Match report from Bill Tracey:

On Friday 8th November for the 1st time we hosted two league matches on the same evening. Our 1st team played East Grinstead 1st team and our 3rd team played Hastings 3rd team.

Our 1st team faced a dauting challenge against a team that included an IM on board 1 and a NM on board 3. Despite the best efforts of Howard, Andy, Leo and Lawry the match was lost 4 to 0.

Our 3rd team, in board order was Luke, Bill L, Jo and Michael Hayward. Luke had a fine win on 1 against a player rated 2132P. Bill lost on 2 against an opponent rated 138 higher. Jo had an excellent draw playing against an opponent rated 239 higher. On 4 Michael played well to win against an opponent with a very similar grade. Final result was a fine win against a very strong Hastings 3rd team by 2.5 to 1.5.

Many thanks to Michael Hayward who organised the evening.

On Sunday 10th of November four of our juniors went to Downlands school in Hassocks. The event was a 6 round Swiss tournament to crown the county champions in 4 age group categories: U9, U11, U13 and U18. Harry, Rose and Sam were all competing in the U13 section.They all had a fantastic day. Harry came out strong and won his first game but was unlucky to be drawn against the second seed with a rating of over 1700 in round 2 and lost. He then came back strong winning his next two games before losing to the top seed (rated 1835) in round 5. Harry soldiered on to win his last game in round 6 finishing on a very respectable 4/6 in tied 5th. Rose was looking to be having a mixed day with a win, a draw and a loss in the first three rounds but then she came back strong and won her last three games finishing on 4.5 and tied third place. Rose just missed out on taking home the 3rd place trophy by one tie break point but took home the top girl trophy instead. Sam started strong winning his first three games including an epic battle against Rose in round three. In round four he faced the second seed rated 1716 and despite his best efforts he unfortunately lost. He fought on through two more difficult rounds finishing on 5/6 in second place only losing to the eventual winner. 

Luke was playing in the very competitive U18 section. He started well winning his first two games and then lost to the eventual winner in round 3. In round 4 he picked up a draw before winning in round 5 and 6. This meant Luke finished on 4.5 and joint first. With a slightly lower tie break he took home the second place trophy. 

Fantastic performance from all our juniors. We are all very proud of you.

Match report from our captain Bill Tracey
On Friday 1st November Bexhill 2 hosted East Grinstead 2 in the 2nd Division of the Sussex League.

Over the last 18 months East Grinstead have managed to recruit some very strong players,
and this showed as they fielded a NM on board 1!
Janis fought hard but to no avail and eventually had to resign.
On board 2 James found himself in a very unusual game. Early on he trapped his opponents Queen and won it in exchange for a Bishop and 2 pawns.
Unfortunately he found himself in a very undeveloped position which required a lot of work to remedy. Eventually the players agreed to a draw.

Based on ratings Leo and his opponent were very evenly balanced and so it proved as the game ended in a draw.
On board 4 Luke continued his fine form of late and established a small lead going into the end game
and eventually forced a win.

Final score 2 all.