Members are taking a break until the New Year. Here are a few snapshots from the year’s end, followed by our Chairman’s message.
Rose leading the juniors in the Christmas gameEzter goes for the prizes!Christmas cheers with Quiz winners at the Christmas Party at the Wheatsheaf
With thanks expressed by our Chairman Bill Tracey as he reflected on the year.
Tuesday 23rd December will be our last meeting of 2025.
Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 6th January.
2025 has been a very busy, enjoyable and successful year for the club.
Much of what has been achieved is well documented, thanks to Lawry on our website.
I would just like to mention a few recent achievements .
Our 5 League teams continue to represent our club extremely well.
Particular mention goes to our 1st team who, after 4 matches are joint top of division 1with 3 wins from 4 matches.
Our 5th team are one of only 3 teams, there are 42, in the entire 4 divisions to still have a 100% record
Two of our outstanding juniors have had great recent success. Luke won the County u18 championship without losing a game, Rose came third and only lost one game and that was to Luke. Rose then went on to win the girls u18 County championship for the second year running. Rose won all 6 of her games.
Friday 19th December was a fitting final Friday meeting of the year.
The juniors had a wonderful Xmas party full of fun and games and laughter.
Very well done to all involved particularly well done to Karen, Lawry and Rose for their efforts.
Also on Friday the 1st team of Luke, Andy, Howard and Andrew had a fine win against a very strong East Grinstead 2nd team.
Also on Friday it was great to see a strong turnout of members, we had 15 in attendance.
Our Tuesday meetings have been really well attended throughout much of the year, we have often had between 14 and 18 in attendance.
The club has, in the last few months picked up 6 new members and, as a result, our adult membership now stands at 35.
Good luck to all our members playing at the famous Hastings Congress over the holiday period.
The Christmas theme seems to have been -Trapping Queens on open boards …
Bexhill I – 2.5 —–1.5 – East Grinstead II
Friday 19 December saw this First Division clash as we hosted East Grinstead II.
Andy on Board 2 had White against an opponent he outrated by 100 or so points. This was an amazing game! Sharp tactics were promised with an open Sicilian Accelerated Dragon variation. At Move 9, Andy went into deep thought after Black’s ..Qb6, appearing to eye the ‘poisoned pawn’ on b2, as well as threatening discovered attacks on d4, plus complex tactics based on the loose white bishop on e3 should the Nd4 move. Andy had used up over half his time and appeared to ignore the threats with a calm 0-0.
Here is the score as I watched the game ( apologies to the players if my memory is wrong)
The amazing continuation, as I remember it, went :
9. O-O Nxe4 10. Nd5 Qc5 11. Nxc6
Black had struck with ..Nxe4, a ‘desperado’ piece discovering the attack on d4 and hoping to wreck White’s centre after a recapture f3xe4. I was amazed at Andy’s rapid reply Nd5 -he’d had it all worked out! The Nd5 attacked the Q on b6 at the same time defending the B on e3. Back’s Q displaced to c5, still on the e3 bishop’s line, but attacking White’s B on c4. Andy played Nd4xc6. Now virtually all his minor pieces were hanging. Black could only take one at once!
Black captured the bishop, as recapturing the N with ..Qxc6 would have resulted in a fork from the remaining Nd5 x e7+. After Nc6 x e7+, Kh8, Andy still didn’t take the Black N hanging at e4, instead attacking the Q with b3, exposing his QR to the Dragon Bishop on g7. Escape for the Q on a seemingly open board was impossible without loss as a move to b5 or a6 would meet with a fork of Q and R by Nc7. At the end of this sequence, which I believe Andy had probably seen from the start, Andy was a vital piece up. He went on to harass the R on b8 and eventually win the exchange putting him a whole R ahead.
On Board 1, Luke, evenly matched on ratings , had Black against a Catalan set-up, in which White pressurised and eventually won Black’s Isolated Queen’s Pawn. White dominated the open c and d files. Luke placed his hopes of saving the endgame in the opposite coloured bishops but lost a second pawn and conceded the game. This levelled the match score.
On Board 3 Howard had a great game as Black . He out-rated his opponent significantly, but the match position put pressure on him to overcome a seemingly solid “Stonewall” set-up against Howard’s Dutch Defence. White had developed the dark-squared QB to g5 early and exchanged it for the N on f6, and then deployed all his pawns on the dark squares.
Out of the opening, White seemed to have some q- side pressure, against which Howard engineered the b5 pawn break after a ‘strategic withdrawal’ of his N to a7. It was at the cost of a pawn but, as Howard explained afterwards, it was opening lines to White’s King which had castled q-side. White seemed to waste tempi repeating moves by his remaining ( white-squared) B and manoevring his Q from b6 over to the K-side. I missed what happened to the White Bishop.
Howard opened the e-file with a middlegame exchange e5xd4 and when White challenged the opened file with Re1 Howard boldly exchanged his Q for 2 rooks.
With apologies to Howard for my poor memory, the game concluded with a position something like this where the Q was trapped on an open board!
On Board 4, Andrew was White against an opponent who outrated him by 86 points. Sensibly playing a positional Vienna/King’s Indian Attack vs an Italian set-up (!) ) : 1.e4, e5 2. Nc3, Nf6 3.g3, Bc5. Black tried to mix it with an early …h5, h4. but Andrew sidestepped with g4 and after that neither side seemed to make progress on the K-side. Both sides delayed castling .The middle-game focussed on the d-file which was half open after Black’s pawns were doubled on the c-fileafter Andrew played Na4x the B on c5 .
Again, with apologies to Andrew for my poor memory, but a position something like this occurred, with everything resting on a potential d4 pawn break, which must have occurred while I was out of the room. But it gives me a chance to practice transferring play from my Fritz program onto this website!!
When all the heavy pieces had been exchanged ,Andrew sensibly accepted the draw which clinched the match.
As I spoke to him briefly afterwards, each sides’ pawns being largely on the opposite coloured squares to their own bishops and on the same coloured squares to the opponent’s bishop – might have been vulnerable.
Thank you to East Grinstead for the positive spirit in the match and undertaking the travel.
Any correction of information in the commentary will be welcome, if you email the secretary at lawryrhodes@yahoo.co.uk
A general seasonal message will follow after our last club meeting of the year on Tuesday 23 December, along with an update on the Christmas party at the Wheatsheaf and the Juniors Christmas party which took place just before the above match.
On Friday 5 December, we hosted East Grinstead Bookshop for a 4th Division match. Overall the ratings were fairly even, apart from Board 4, where Lawry outrated his opponent by around 250 points and gained an early win after he was able to pick up 2 central pawns, one of which became decisive when it reached e7, forcing more material loss.
Bill Luxton, with White, was next to finish on Board 2 after winning multiple pieces. and looked in control throughou.
Michael Hayward on Board 1 was outrated by about 100 points, but maintained the balance as Black in the endgame to achieve a sound draw.
Oli, with Black on Board 3 , was evenly matched on rating points and looked to have good play into the middle-game. At the end of a long game, Oli fell foul of a pawn fork of 2 rooks, leaving him the exchange down , his King very exposed to White’s rooks and then was unable to save the position.
It was a good result and our thanks go to East Grinstead for visiting and playing good chess in a good spirit, on a stormy night.
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.
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.
Congratulations to the outright winner, International Master Peter Large :
Outright winner Peter Large on 6/6
Talented Juniors were joint Runners-Up :
Luke Freeman ( 2nd on tie-break) and Hal Gomez, both on 5 points
Rating Prizes:
U-1850 Jack Lawrence-CadeU-1650 – Michael Hayward on 4 /6 . Bill Tracey, our chaIrman drew attention afterwards to Michael’s achievement as outstanding not only for this performance, which included defeating a WFM rated 400 points above, but also running a taxi service from Cooden! U-1500 – Joint winners on 3/6 Lawry Rhodes, Robert Hopkins (above) and Yoteng Wang ( not pictured)
Other Open Prizes:
Best Junior :
Best Bexhill Player, Luke Chapman, on 4 points, with Chairman Bill Tracey
Best Senior :
Best Senior, John Sugden on 4.5/6
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 :
A pleasant playing spaceLooks like Oli battling Michael HaywardAndrew Fleming earning a creidtable 3.5/6Bill Luxton , with a fine 4/6 score – at work wearing the club hoodie
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!
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.
