Horsham beat Sussex University in the McArthur Cup semi-final

On Tuesday March 17th Horsham were at home to Sussex University in the McArthur Cup, following the previous round win against Brighton. This is the third year in a row we have played the University side, with a win and a loss in the earlier two years. The two teams were quite evenly matched and there was a tightly fought contest, which we managed to win.

On Board 1 Gavin had white against a very strong (2400+) opponent. This was a Spanish game that led to early simplification and a draw was agreed in a 3v3 Rook endgame; impressively played to have a trouble-free draw against such a good player. On Board 2 Mark had a Slav in a repeat of a position against the same opponent earlier in the season. In the first game he got into a bad position but was able to swindle a win. The supposed improvement in this game did not help much and he had to fight to hold a difficult ending in the last game to finish. On Board 3 James Mansson's opponent neglected his development and he was able to force the position open and win material. This was the first result of the match, giving us a strong start. On Board 4 in a hard-fought game James McGrath gained a nice advantage and his opponent played well to hold a difficult ending. On Board 5 Ian played his usual English which became a very sharp reversed Sicilian. Both players were playing aggressively in complex positions but Ian's opponent firstly offered a sound Bishop sacrifice which he declined before his opponent followed up with a  Queen sacrifice which proved too much despite Ian's King being driven up to h4! On Board 6 Rob had the black side of a Keres attack in the Scheveningen Sicilian which he misplayed in the opening resulting in a passed pawn for white on g6. An oversight from his opponent allowed him to win a rook and get his own passed pawn to d2 but he missed the way to avoid perpetual and finished with a draw. 

Horsham 4 Sussex University 2
1 Gavin Lock (W) 1/2-1/2 Sergey Korshunov
2 Mark Broom 1/2-1/2 Oscar Idle
3 James Mansson 1-0 Albert Eldridge
4 James McGrath 1/2-1/2 Benjamin Carter
5 Ian Comley 1-0 Hooman Honarvarmahalati
6 Robert McDonald 1/2-1/2 Aditya Gupta