Horsham 3's trek to Hastings in vain

Not helped by my own poor effort, Horsham 3 made the long trek to Hastings for no tangible reward, losing narrowly despite modestly out grading our hosts.

I saw little of Chris S-L's game which he finished in quick time through a strong kingside attack against black's fianchettoed bishop resulting in serious material gain and leading to early success for Horsham.

My own game was a sort of French by transposition after my opponent's opening of d4 followed by Nc3. Roughly equal into the early middle game I was a bit cramped and entered upon what I thought was a clever series of exchanges though in the event found myself a pawn down through miscalculation. Hardly terminal with all the major pieces left on the board but I then capitulated two moves later by generously donating my rook. Interestingly in his book, Practical Chess, John Nunn refers to the frequency of one error leading to another, demonstrated in this instance in spectacular fashion.

Meanwhile Peter on top board came under sustained pressure whilst trying to extricate his queen from behind enemy lines after an early pawn grab and he succumbed not long after me.

Nick W's outcome ended up dependent upon a pawn race but unfortunately his opponent was able to engineer a position whereby he promoted with check and that was that.

This left Ian to add some respectability to the score where his Dutch defence created an initiative which he never relinquished, leading first to the win of the exchange and subsequently resulting in the advantage of a whole rook with cessation of hostilities shortly thereafter.

Final score 2-3 to Hastings 3.

You can see the full match scorecard here.