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Three Bexhill teams battled on Friday 11^th April in separate knockout semi-final events – itself an achievement!

Against Crowborough, our team of (L-R pictured below) Phil, Mark, James, and Ed out-rated opponents on the top 2 boards, but not significantly on boards 3-4.

Ed suffered an early loss on Board 3 so the pressure was on as the team needed to win by 3-1 to advance. Phil, on Board 4, determinedly pressed consistently in a locked pawn structure, gaining a knight v ‘bad’ bishop ending. Phil went for the q-side pawns and accurately calculated he would win the race to promote. Well done, a truly impressive game Phil!

 James, playing with White, was next to finish, after creating a space advantage on the k-side, keeping  Black’s pawn majority locked down and knight sidelined on h7.Then , with an extra pawn on the q-side, James snuffed out Black’s counterplay there, took control of the c-file and concluded with a difficult-to-spot long range fork of loose pieces on h7 and c8 from his queen on c2.

Mark, on Board 1, with Black against a very strong opponent, adopted what appeared to be a Stonewall formation – a white-square blockade – against which White’s K-side attack eventually subsided after queen exchanges – in its aftermath White’s rook became sidelined and eventually trapped. It was a complex struggle in the centre and the opposite wing. Mark’s isolated but advanced pawns seemed to defy gravity as, with active pieces they contained White’s central pawn mass, which never seemed to get moving. The finish was decided by Black’s rook entering on the 7^th. Classic active defence and counter-attack.

BEXHILL 3 – CROWBORUGH -1

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WATSON TROPHY

In this match we hosted Uckfield. Our team (in board order) of Luke, Andrew, Michael Hubbard (pictured below after the match!) and Oli out-rated the opposition on paper, on the lower boards, but this was not going to be a walk-over.

Oli had a tough battle and unfortunately lost early. Again, the pressure was on.

Luke, with White against an opponent equally strong on paper achieved a sound draw in a double-rooks endgame with a bishop v knight. If anything, Luke seemed to have the edge as he pressed in the middle-game  with a better pawn structure and had chances against Black’s centralised king, at least while the queens were still on the board.

Mike, playing with a French Defence opening, against White’s Advance variation, demonstrated a textbook strategy of q- side counterplay . His bishop on b5 was especially powerful as it prevented White’s k-side castling. A decisive breakthrough was made on the a-file. Mike looked deservedly well-pleased afterwards!

Andrew once again proved his endgame technique, using the power of two bishops with a rook to dominate the board. He overpowered his opponent after a long struggle eventually corralling the White king with a mating net in his own fortress supported by a rook from the 8^th rank.

BEXHILL 2.5 – UCKFIELD 1.5

So, 2 out of 3 – “ain’t bad”.

(My apologies for missing the chance on this occasion to get a photo of the whole team. I owe you – Editor)

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MCARTHUR CUP

Bexhill hosted Hastings where we were outrated on all 6 boards, significantly on all but Board 1. This was always going to be a big ask. Many of our top players were unable to play as they had already played against Hastings in the previous round for our other team. Hastings fielded their absolute best (maybe a sign of our rising reputation). Here is our team, just before the match – L-R Bill, Steve, Leo, Jo, Lawry) :

Well, the team without Howard (below) who missed the photo-shoot but here seen hurriedly arriving in the nick of time!

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Our team fought hard. Leo, on board 5, outrated by 250 points, finished quite early after what looked like a sound opening main line in the King’s Indian. Leo decided to keep Black’s knight out of f4 with pawn-g3 but fell foul of an opened f-file and his own knight then pinned and double-attacked on f3.

Lawry (outrated by 200 points) got an early win, on board 6 after an irregular opening on White’s part failed to translate to an advantage. Lawry gained from early piece exchanges to a knight v bishop ending, where the opponent’s bishop was more restricted, when his opponent offered a draw. Lawry refused and went on to make a speculative pawn offer. His opponent took the bait and 2 moves later resigned after the knight forked king and bishop.

Bill, on board 3, outrated by 300 points, lost a long positional struggle, with almost all pieces on the board throughout the middle-game. It seemed to me that Bill just had less space to create pressure and perhaps Bill’s style is more suited to an open game?

Steve on board 3 , against a chess ‘legend’ John Sugden, out-rating  Steve by 335 points. Steve faced some material deficit then middle-game pressure with a monster advanced pawn which proved too much.

Jo, outrated by 387 points on board 2 fought a long rook and pawns ending, material down. His opponent had connected passers advanced up the board and was wary of the promotion trap Jo was setting him, should the king be mis-placed. Jo made the most of the chances he had but could not escape the accurate technique.

Finally, Howard on Board 1 , outrated by 100 points, drew with White. He faced a long heavy-pieces middlegame, with a target weakness of an isolani on e3 which his opponent pressured constantly with a battery. Howard defended accurately and actively and Black could not capitalise.

BEXHILL 1.5 – HASTINGS 4.5

A big THANK YOU to Michael Hayward in organising the matches and refreshments  on this special night and to Bill Tracey co-ordinating from home.

WE HAVE TWO TEAMS IN COUNTY FINALS !!!

FIRST CLASS PERFORMANCE!

Our 1st team have been battling to keep their place in the 1st division. 

We needed 1 point from our last 2 matches. These matches were against Horsham and Worthing – two of the strongest clubs in the league.

Needing a draw we took on Horsham at home on Friday 4th April. Howard, on our Board 1 and Andy on our board 2 each secured excellent draws during play, whilst the other two games were adjourned.

 Mike Hubbard’s game on Board 3 showed, after analysis, that he had a certain win.  Congratulations Mike!

 Analysis of Andrew’s game on Board 4 showed a certain draw. All-round sustained fine play from each member of the team.

Over the weekend Horsham agreed to these results so we won by 2.5 to 1.5.

 This result means that we remain in Division 1 and hopefully if our 2nd team can gain a draw from their final match on Friday 2nd May v Hastings 2 we will have 2 teams in division 1 next season. 

Thank you to everyone who came and played in our 6th Grand Prix event of the season last night. Well done to our joint winners: Luke Chapman, James Lumsden and Janis Petersons. Updated season tables can be found below or over on the ‘Grand Prix’ page.

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.

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.