bexhillchessclub.co.uk

Blog

  • Away to Hastings…

    Match report from our captain Bill Tracey:

    On Tuesday 18th, Bexhills 1st team made the short journey to Hastings to play their 1st team in our final league match.

    Hastings, as expected, put out their strongest team as they are in with a chance of finishing 2nd in the league.

    Our team, in board order was Andrew, Janis, Andy and Michael.

    Janis was first to finish. He played the Dutch against his opponents English and came out of the opening with a slight advantage.
    Unfortunately his opponent, rated 250 points higher played a very strong middle game and eventually gained a point for Hastings.

    Michael played very well against an opponent out rating him by 350 points but eventually had to concede.

    Andy has recently gone over 1900 rating points, an outstanding performance by an 11 year old.
    He fought hard right to the end but did get into time trouble. His opponent, rated 165 points higher,
    eventually gained the upper hand and won another point for Hastings.

    Andrew on board 1 continued his fine season and gained a very solid draw against Hastings’ top player. Again there was a big rating difference, this time of 210 points so this represents a fine game by Andrew.

    Overall Bexhill were out rated by over 1000 points and yet halfway through the match all games were still competitive.

  • Bexhill juniors represent Sussex under 14s


    On April 15th, three of our Bexhill juniors headed out to

    play for the U14 Sussex squad against Richmond. These

    juniors were Samuel Merchant, Luke Chapman and

    Sebastian Merchant. Sebastian was playing a tough

    opponent in his first game and Sussex’ own Matthew

    Collins in round two. Samuel and Luke were both playing

    slightly weaker players than themselves and proved it in

    their games. Both players outplayed their opponents.

    Overall, Sussex won 16-8 (8-4 in both rounds) to crush

    Richmond.

    Thank you to all the players and, most importantly, to Steve

    Merchant for organising this event.

  • New junior meeting!

    We hope you have all enjoyed the Easter holidays! Along with the clubs move to our new home at St. Marks, we are pleased to announce that our junior club will be following suit and moving across. This means that we will be meeting at our usual time of 6pm till 7pm, but we will now be meeting on WEDNESDAY evenings.
    Our first meeting will be this Wednesday 19th April.
    Many, many thanks to the RAFA club for hosting us up until now.
    Look forward to seeing you all soon.

  • Juniors on tour to Maidenhead

    Four of our juniors travelled to Maidenhead this week for a one day rapid tournament. Here is a report on the day from one of those juniors; Luke Chapman:

    On April 12th, four of our Bexhill juniors headed out to Maidenhead for a gruelling six rounds of intense junior chess action. In the hotly contested U11 section, Rose Burgess pulled out an impressive 4/6 drawing two of the strongest players in very intense matches.

    In the U18 section, Sebastian Merchant, Samuel Merchant and Luke Chapman were battling it out. Sebastian Merchant, going into the final round on 3.5/5, was paired against a very tough opponent. The two fought it out for over an hour. Sebastian, who played some fascinating chess, after the tough six rounds, landed on 3.5/6. His brother, Sam, playing excellent chess all day, had a huge score of 4/5 going into the final round. Subsequently, Sam was paired against the highest seed who out-rated him by 400 points. He ended his day on a brilliant 4/6 with only one loss.
    Finally, Luke Chapman, playing dubious, attacking chess all day, had the luck of the devil in the last round when his opponent hung a rook; he finished on 4.5/6, coming joint 3rd (4th on tie-break).

    Well done to all of our rapidly progressing juniors and a big thank you to our supportive parents. Keep up the fantastic chess!

  • A fantastic end to the season for Bexhill 3!

    Match report from our captain, Bill Tracey:

    On Friday 31st March, Bexhill 3 entertained Crowborough 2 in Division 3 of the Mid Sussex league.

    The two clubs were joint top of the division, however we were actually in pole position due to a far superior
    game point difference and also having a match in hand. This meant that a draw would be enough for Bexhill to be crowned champions.

    Our team in board order was Bill, Steve M, myself and Derek.

    I was first to finish and unfortunately I lost my match. This clearly created a lot of pressure for the other 3 players to gain two points from the remaining three.

    Steve was next to finish and got us back into the match, by playing a wonderful attacking game. He was a piece down but such was the quality of his attack that this made no difference.

    He smashed open his opponents King side defence and, with checkmate one move away his opponent resigned.

    Bill and Derek were both involved in close evenly matched games.
    Bill applied huge pressure but his young opponent held on grimly for a draw.

    This meant that it was all down to Derek to get us the half point that we needed, and he didnt let us down! He and his opponent were well matched and after a three fold repetition a draw was the final result.

    Bexhill 3, 2 Crowborough 2, 2

    Well done to all members who have played for the third team.
    A full report on the season will be published when all the matches are completed.

  • Our new home

    On Saturday 1st April we met for the first time at our new home, St Marks in Little Common.

    The turnout was fantastic with a total of 27 people attending.
    This included four people making their first appearance at the club..

    What was also so good to see was that we had an age range from 10 to 81 and also a wide range of playing strengths from novice to National Master.

    The consensus of those present was that St. Marks provides a wonderful base for our club not just for the present but for the future as the club continues to grow.

    Positive comments were made about having a large car park, that the main playing area was very light and spacious, that the 2nd room was an ideal base for league and competition matches and that the accommodation was light, airy and warm.

    Our next meeting is on Tuesday 4th April at 1pm, and we look forward to having another well attended session.

  • Rose represents Sussex

    Congratulations to Bexhill Junior Rose Burgess who played for the Sussex girls team this weekend at the national finals in Oxford and helped them to achieve 3rd place!
    Well done girls!!

  • A visit from the bookshop.

    Match report from our captain Bill Tracey.

    On Friday 24th march Bexhill hosted East Grinstead Bookshop 1 in
    a Division 2 league match.
    This was a match that we needed to win to stay in the Division,
    it was also a match that on paper we were favourites to win.

    However the match did not go well for us.

    On board 1 Leo faced a player playing his first ever league match,
    who turned out to be a very strong player and produced a very fine performance to beat Leo in 25 moves! Had Leo faced any other player that had previously played
    for our visitors he would have been considered a firm favourite.

    On board 3 Steve Blewitt faced an opponent that it is probably fair to say that he would beat maybe 9 out of 10 times, but, unfortunately, Steve made a very uncharacteristic early error that cost a piece, and,
    despite battling hard, eventually he was forced to resign.

    On 4 Michael played very well and had established a very strong position and was also 2 pawns up,
    however he got a sequence wrong which cost him the game.

    John Kimber was playing on board 2 and was against a very useful young player. John played a fine game and eventually his opponent was forced to resign.

    So the final score was Bexhill 1 Bookshop 3.

    This means that we are now relying on other results to avoid relegation.

    Finally, after the match, which was our final League match of the season, John announced that he was retiring from playing League matches (unless we were ever to
    be a player short for a match with no one else to play).
    John played in our first ever League match in October of 2019, winning on board 2 against Uckfield so it was good to see him end his career with another win on board 2.

    John has been an invaluable member of our teams in so many ways. Win or lose his Chess is always great to watch as he plays in such a bold attacking manner. He has on a number of occasions taken
    on the role of Captain and travel organiser.
    His good humour and Chess knowledge will be sorely missed on the long journeys around the County.

    So on behalf of the Club I would like to thank John for all that he has done to support our League
    teams over the last four years.

  • We are moving!

    We are very pleased to announce that Bexhill chess club has a new home! Despite many wonderful years at Centenary house, our growing membership means we have found ourselves needing to seek a bigger space.
    We have found ourselves a new home at St Marks church community Centre. Our Tuesday and Saturday meetings will remain at the same times, but will be moving to St. Marks, starting on Saturday 1st April. Meetings will continue as normal at Centenary house until then. Look forward to seeing you all then.

  • Away to Worthing

    Match report from our captain Bill Tracey:

    On Monday 16th march our first team travelled to Worthing to take on their 1st team.

    This was always going to be a very tough challenge as Worthing have a large number of very strong players to choose from.

    Our team, in board order was Andrew, Janis, Steve B and Michael H.

    The scale of the challenge was clear when the relative ratings were compared and Worthing out ranked Bexhill by just over 1000 points.
    They even had a player on board 4 that has been Sussex champion 6 times!

    Michael played very well against his illustrious opponent but in the end had to concede defeat.

    Steve on 3 fought very well against a fast rising young player and earned an excellent draw.

    Janis on 2 facing an opponent out rating him by 370 points played an outstanding game and had his opponent in a great deal of trouble. Eventually a draw was agreed.

    Andrew on 1 lost a pawn early on but fought long and hard against an outstanding player, but eventually ran out of time.

    Final score Worthing 3 Bexhill 1.

    We now have one match left V Hastings 1. Depending on results we may need to win this match to remain in Division 1.