Horsham Chess Club

Two teams of Horsham's online players faced off against two from Crowborough last Wednesday as the online Mid Sussex League got underway...

I am very sad to report that John Cannon passed away at home on Sunday night with his family following a period of illness. John's contribution to the club was absolutely enormous and the club owes him a great debt. I was pleased to speak of him shortly before Christmas and there was no doubting the great pride he had in Horsham Chess Club and the great joy it had brought him over the years. He will be very sorely missed.

Horsham is running blitz tournaments on LiChess once a fortnight under the team page: https://lichess.org/team/horsham-chess-club. The time control is 5minutes and 5seconds increment running 7:30-9:30pm on alternate Tuesdays. This coming Tuesday is the next tournament and everyone is welcome.

Happy New Year lets hope 2021 sees you all safe and well and back at the board at chess club!

In the meantime we will continue with our online tournaments - do get involved, its great fun and everyone is welcome.

Ian Comley
Chairman of Horsham Chess Club

A Chess960 (or Fischerrandom) tournament was held between Horsham players on Lichess last Tuesday night. This chess variant begins with all the pieces in randomised locations on the first rank and throws opening theory out the window!

In terms of league fixtures, Tuesday saw the final week of the current 4NCL online season but with the top 4 teams in each division going through to their particular semi finals, Horsham 1 secured their place in the league 3 play offs with an emphatic win by 3.5-0.5. Their semi final is on 1 December (and can of course be watched online) with the hope of a final on 15 December.

Our teams were battling it out again last week with the 4NCL tournament entering the final stages.

Horsham 2 lost had a narrow loss, 2.5-1.5 which was unfortunately decided with a 'mouse slip’ in Richard's game which was looking solid. Marian managed a solid win and Chris secured a draw but it wasn’t enough to beat Hackney Hungry with John defeated on board 2.
Horsham 3 managed a nice win against Uxbridge Bombers C with a nice win from Samuel and a default on their bottom board meaning we managed a 2-1.5 victory.

David Fryer runs a blitz tournament on the last Thursday of the month on LiChess, which is open to all teams in the Mid-Sussex league. Horsham has been competing in these tournaments since they started at the start of lockdown. Every Horsham player is welcome to play, the more the merrier.
At the end of August we didn't really realise the tournament was running and with only two players - Chris and Marian - Horsham managed a very creditable 3rd.

Last Tuesday in the 4NCL there was some close matches, back-and-forth games, and plenty of surprises.
The 1st team were up against Chessmates, who we strongly outgraded. Things appeared to be going smoothly with Nick and I wrapping up quick wins on the bottom boards, only for the top two to go down in tricky, time-pressured, tactical positions to leave us with a 2-2 draw.

As we approach the midway point, Division 3 was starting to look hopeful for Horsham 1, with three wins & a draw so far.
This week we took on Streatham B which looked like a match that we should win based on the average grades.

I was first to finish with the black pieces, my opponent started with the English. I quickly managed to get in an early pounce and prevent the white king from castling and then built a solid attack, white soon after resigned.