Horsham 1

On Tuesday January 27th Horsham hosted Brighton in the McArthur Cup, a historic Sussex tournament dating back to 1889, played over six boards. The teams were evenly matched, but after a tough struggle we emerged as the winners.

On Friday, Horsham 1 made the long trip down to Bexhill to take on Bexhill 2 in Division 1 of the Sussex League.

It was tough match that was in the balance for a while, but Horsham 1 finally prevailed.

Gavin Lock was first on the scoresheet, with a win on board one against Mike Hubbard.

This gave a score of Horsham 1 1 - 0 Bexhill 2.

Horsham 1 narrowly defeated East Grinstead 2 last night at their venue, recording one win and three draws.

Gavin Lock was held by David Norton on board one.

Mark Broom was able to overcome Michael Dams with his trusty Petroff on board two.

James Mansson had a winning position on board three against Eric Granzelius, but was unable to find a way to convert in an error strewn contest, where in the end he had to play carefully to draw.

Anthony Higgs was up against Trevor Norton on board four. He also missed a win, and had to settle for a draw.

Horsham 1 suffered a minor setback when they were held to a draw at home last night by Haywards Heath 1.

Gavin Lock held Feliks Kwiatkowski to a solid draw, while James McGrath also drew against Graham Ewens.

James Mansson went down to defeat against Jeffrey Boardman in a complicated game. He seemed to gain a superior position early on but was unable to make anything of it. Then a natural kingside thrust unexpectedly backfired, leaving him in a difficult position. A series of bad moves when running short of time then led to his defeat.

Horsham 1 got their league campaign back on track with a comfortable win away to Crowborough on Friday 14th November.

James Mansson was first to finish, accepting a draw offer in a slightly dodgy position from an unambitious Gerry Michaud.

Mark Broom and Gavin Lock then secured the match result with wins over Jon Lawrance and David Fryer respectively.

This mean that the result of last game, between Anthony Higgs and Elena Currah, did not matter, which was fortunate in that Anthony's position looked very dubious, although he managed to escape with a draw.

Horsham 1 got off to a disappointing start to their league season at home on Tuesday 28th October, losing narrowly to Lewes 1.

The bottom three boards were drawn, leaving everything on the top board clash between Mark Broom and George Adams. Unfortunately for Horsham, Mark went down in a complicated battle.

The final score was therefore 2.5-1.5 in favour of Lewes 1.

See https://lms.englishchess.org.uk/lms/fixture/131074 for the full details.

Alex, Julie and Anthony represented Horsham at the Sussex League AGM last night and received the Mowatt Cup for league Division 1 winners Horsham 1. Team captain James is pictured with the cup after it was delivered to him in the pub the same evening!

Last Tuesday, Horsham 1 scored a memorable victory in an exciting match against a strong Brighton 1 team.

Since my last report, on the excellent away win against Worthing 1, Horsham 1 had accumulated enough points, given the results in other matches, that they needed a win by any margin to definitely take the league title.

Horsham 1 scored a fine away win over Worthing 1 last night.

First to finish was Mark Broom, who was up against Russell Granat with Black on board two. His position look passive to start with, but he managed to launch a counter-attack to exploit his opponent's over-extension, winning material and forcing resignation.

The score was now 1-0 in Horsham 1's favour.

Horsham 1's progress in Sussex League Division 1 was halted by Eastbourne 1, as they crashed to a narrow away defeat.

The match looked to be going well for Horsham 1 as Gavin Lock secured a good win against the dangerous Maks Rozman on top board. However, progress was not so serene on the other boards.

Anthony Higgs ran into difficulties against Laurence Butt on board 4. He came under pressure from his opponent's Stonewall Attack and blundered, resulting in a loss.