4NCL Round 3

On Tuesday 23rd February Horsham 1,2 and 3 played in 4NCL.

Horsham 1 were up against probably the strongest team in their particular league with an average grading deficit of around 100 and whilst a close run thing, they were just unable to achieve parity. Mark's English on board one led to a protracted struggle, a high quality game with never much in it apart from a mutual exchange of inaccuracies towards the denouement - how easy it is to opine thus with the aid of the silicon beast! - and ultimately a well fought draw. Dix's Benoni was always under pressure but just 2 moves before the end the imbalance was down to less than one. In a very tricky position his queen abandoned her consort to seek retribution elsewhere only to allow a 2 move checkmate. On board 3 Alex made steady progress against his opponent's modern defence, ultimately prevailing the exchange up in the end game together with an unopposed queenside pawn. Nick's game meanwhile was a fairly wild affair with numerous tactical complexities though a deficit of two pawns going into the ending proved critical, thereby leaving a final score of 1.5 - 2.5.

Horsham Two were playing Hackney Hungry. with roughly equal pairings. Chris was the magician of the night resurrecting from a rather doomed looking exposed King to forking his opponents advantage and winning. John's Spanish game of complications put his opponent into time trouble but the position couldn't progress and was drawn. Richard played a Scotch which was tested fully until a drawn position was reached. Marian's Slav led him to a rook for two pieces exchange and unfortunately put him into a losing position where his passed pawns could not progress. The match result was even at two apiece.

Horsham 3 played Colchester JFF B who were slightly better on rating. Alex's opponent didn't show up so he won that game via forfeit giving him 1 point on our opponents losing 0.5 a point. On board 2 Andrew managed to win a queen for a bishop through a pin and from there was able to take more pieces to be a lot of material up when his opponent resigned. On board 3 Harry lost a couple of pawns due to some tricky knight forks and then missed some tactics trying to win material back. On board 4 Simon lost a queen and form there his opponent managed to checkmate him with a queen and bishop. Overall, this means that Horsham 3 won 2-1.5.