Horsham 3

Tuesday was the second of the three Horsham vs Horsham matches to start this season. Last match the 3s suffered playing up against the 2s and this time played down against the 4s. Although we outrated our opponents on every board, it's still never a guaranteed result.

First to finish was my own board 1, a repeat fixture from the previous week against John M but with colours reversed. We played a very quiet Spanish where suddenly it wasn't and black resigned under threat of mate.

Horsham 2 faced Horsham 3 this week, the first in a series of such matches, since Horsham is fielding three teams in the second division this year. Of course, Horsham 2 would like to achieve promotion at the end of the season, so it was important for us to start off on the right foot.

Yesterday's game against Brighton & Hove 2 saw another win for Horsham 3, bringing the team's total score to 5.5 out of 8 games. The match started off strong with another Barry Attack played by Jordy Savill. After sacrificing a bishop on h7, he achieved a resignation from Chris Lake (1788), who was forced to sacrifice his queen to avoid mate.

Horsham 3 started the season with a 2.5 - 1.5 win against East Grinstead 2. The teams were very evenly matched, with an average grading of 1728 for Horsham and 1724 for our opponents.

Jordy Savill was the first to score with a quick win in the Barry attack, after Ian Dennis (1698) allowed a mate in 3. The next to arrive at a conclusion was Robert McDonald, who equalized with the Slav against Asanka Amarasinghe (1828). Although the game would continue for a while, Black had an easily drawn endgame with dark-colored bishops.

... if you will forgive such an oxymoron.

Approaching our fixture against Haywards Heath 1, (an unexpected relegation from Division 1 last season?), the omens didn't look great, not helped by needing to play a reserve (me) after a stronger choice had to pull out due to work commitments. Seeing Feliks Kwiatkowski and Jeff Boardman on boards 1 and 2 did nothing to allay my concerns.

I've been remiss in not posting match reports for the 3rd team as the season progressed, so I'll now do a bulk update!

As referenced in my most recent posting, the final week of 4NCL season 3 saw Horsham 2 facing their closest rivals for the remaining promotion slot from their section of division 6. The opponents in this final round had substantially outperformed their ratings to get so close but the grading differences made for a largely comfortable evening for Horsham, running out winners by 3.5-0.5 and thereby securing promotion to division 5.

There were mixed fortunes for the 3 Horsham teams in the latest round of the 4NCL season.

Horsham 1 tied 2-2 although until very late on it could have gone either way. Mark’s Reti on board 1 always seemed under pressure but he found the correct defence and a truce was called with opposite-coloured bishops. In glancing at Dix’s Sicilian from time to time my superficial assessment was pessimistic but subsequent analysis suggested there was never much in it until he smoothly converted his advanced queenside pawns.

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

Round Two of Horsham s 4NCL online season continued on the 9th february.