Category Archives: Match Reports and Tables

Hastings lose McArthur Cup final

Disappointment and heartbreak as East Grinstead triumphed 4-2 on Monday night, retaining the McArthur Cup.

Our boys and girl couldn’t have done much more, that was the absolute strongest team we could possibly field but East Grinstead brought an even stronger team with them!

Some really interesting games which you would expect from such quality on display.

First to finish with an early draw was Francis (black). Got into a strange position after the opening both fianchetto’ed on the g file, a pretty symmetrical affair and the queens off on move 11 on the ‘a’ file??? This left Francis with a knight on the rim but had a little initiative although he said in the analysis he hadn’t got a clue what was going on. Computer gave white 1.5+ up with correct play but Peter Kemp said he wouldn’t have found the moves to get to that position so a draw was a fair result. Ng5 after Qxa4, Nxa4, b3 and a draw agreed.

Rasa opened with her customary English opening as was very solid until a slight inaccuracy/mistake which I missed and her position collapsed quickly although her opponent said it was defendable but it wasn’t pleasant and Rasa was struggling with time so it would have a been tough ask for her to find the correct responses to hold it together.

John had good opening (with black) facing an English-ish, set up with a Kings Indian Defence, got a good lead in development and pressure against h3 with a Q+B battery, however his opponent got back in the game and John was hit with a bit of crisis of confidence as he had been blundering a lot in recent games and so offered a draw which was accepted. A good result given that he was nearly 100 points outgraded and had the black pieces.

Daniel (white) came out fighting, blitzing out his moves until move 11, then once the dust had settled, he had this super centre pawn duo, good bishop v bad bishop and pressure down the open c file. In the car home, Daniel admitted he had never had that position before, which made me chuckle, how he blitzed out his moves like that and still had a great position with no theory, gives hope to us lesser mortals. An exchange of queens on g6 gave Daniel a teeny tiny advantage that was snuffed out later in the game with the pushing of said pawn destroying Daniel’s King cover and lots of mating threats, coupled with the pushing of pawns on the queenside that was difficult to stop. Eventually arriving on the second rank and it was time to resign.

Henry opened well, getting a great lead in development against a dutch with his catalan/KIA setup and looking to double fianchetto but went Ba3 and exerted a lot of pressure along the diagonal. In the end his development/pressure dwindled as his opponent kept swapping off pieces and it resulted in a same bishop ending 6v6 with Henry having the good bishop. His opponent refused to accept a draw much to the annoyance of everyone as the match had ended (this was the last game to finish and EG had already won 3.5-1.5). His chess etiquette was lacking all evening, having during the game moving and pressing the clock with different hands and consulting with his captain while Henry was trying to concentrate.

The titanic struggle on board 1 was a good watch between Mark Rich (black) and Chris Baker. Opened as English-ish then Mark morphed into a Najdorf structure but against a central bind, it was really hard to see how he would fix his backward d6 pawn with white pawns on e4 & c4. Anyway it went really positional and Chris manoeuvred pieces from the queenside to the Kingside then smashed up Mark’s King position where he had his King hiding in the corner behind a lone pawn but a semi open g file. Then it came, the queen retreating to d2 from h6 after being threatened by Rf6 forming a queen-sandwich against Mark’s d pawn which was only lightly defended. In came the rook to take the pawn and go material up but then Mark found this awesome Nd4 move trapping the rook which he had to give up an exchange otherwise potentially losing a queen, Rxf6 doesn’t work as Nf3+ is just nasty. After Rxd4 exd4 Qxd4, f4 was played and few moves later a draw was agreed and East Grinstead won the Cup.

 

East Grinstead came ready for the fight and although we got the very best team out that we could they still out-graded us. We may have call up and fly in our GM’s Stuart Conquest and Bogdan next year if we want to win this, the standard has got really high.

Many congratulations to East Grinstead on a fine display and winning the McArthur Cup 2025.

Congratulations to our own Henry Cove, who was the competition’s highest scorer with 2.5/3

Non playing captain: Mason Woodhams

Hastings into the final!

Hastings & St Leonards Chess club took a massive step forward in their pursuit of silverware this season by winning their SCCA McArthur Cup semi-final away to Bexhill 2 on Friday night and booked their place in the 2024/2025 final.

Wins by Francis Rayner, John Sugden, Henry Cove & Terry Hoxey and a draw on top board by Daniel Lowe secured the win 4.5-1.5

A reduced-strength Bexhill due to many cup-tied players, gave a good account of themselves, but it wasn’t to be their night.

Hastings now await the victors of the other semi-final, East Grinstead (holders) v Horsham.

Should the home team progress, then Hastings will be at home for the final, however and interestingly should the away team win, then lots will be drawn. The format for lots in the final will be determined on the outcome of another random sporting event, an MLB Baseball match during the week. Hastings were offered the choice of which team to represent them in the draw and although we could have selected the Yankees or Red Sox or even the Dodgers, the choice was obvious, the Pittsburgh Pirates! We are of course, the pirate capital of the world (Guinness Book of World Records holder), so how fitting for us to cheer on the Pirates for us to get home advantage in the McArthur Cup final

Come on you Pirates!!!!

 

McArthur Cup SF 2005 results

Non playing captain: Mason Woodhams

Hastings win tough McArthur Cup QF

Friday 7 March 7:30 PM
Bexhill (2) 3-3 Hastings & St Leonards
(Hastings win 7-8 on board count)

Unbelievable as it sounds, Hastings were the underdogs against Bexhill’s second team in the quarter-final clash of the SCCA McArthur Cup but managed to progress by the skin of their teeth anyway. Giving away over 200 grading points in total across the six boards but still coming up trumps.

To be fair Bexhill did field all their best players sans Howard Tebbs for this fixture, gambling that they would have to play us eventually as their First team was also on the same side of the draw playing Crowborough and would meet us anyway, which indeed is the case as Bexhill 1 won setting up a semi-final clash against Hastings. In this tournament players can only play for one team, effectively being cup-tied so Hastings will now play a much reduced Bexhill next time out with eyes on progressing to the final.

The match itself was a tense affair mainly due to the confusion of the time control. The McArthur Cup is a prestigious tournament and so should reflect this in the time control. The default for a mid-week game was 40 moves in 90 minutes with 10s a move from move one. What the players didn’t realize was that the clocks just added 10s from move one and hence they had to work out that the cut-off time for move 40 was when there was 6:40 left on the clock (40x10s). No one realised this and hence the time control was not met in many the games. This didn’t really affect the final score so the captains let it slide.

In the match Francis was first to finish after agreeing a draw with Anh Nguyen, Francis’ position looked a little open and hard to defend but solid enough that Nguyen couldn’t find any answers. 0.5-0.5

Drawmaster Jim showed his mastery on how to draw a game when two pawns down, with opposite ‘B’s (sorry Henry) Andrew was never going to convert his advantage and after quite a number of moves had to concede the draw. 1-1

Young William Cobb was solid on board 4 going an exchange up and managing his time perfectly compared to his opponent who when playing close to the increment and facing a pair of connected passers on the Kingside thought better of the struggle and resigned. 1-2

John Sugden had a commanding position early in the game with a monster bishop on an outpost deep in enemy territory and with Luke’s King very drafty due to the Dutch opening he played, John just needed to bring his forces to bare and victory was assured. However a few inaccuracies and down on time allowed the youngster back in the game with vigor and vim and converted for the win. 2-2

Adrian, who was heavily outgraded played solidly and although fell for a tactic midgame losing a pawn kept the game complex and unclear right up to the end which was crucial to the match as Henry’s opponent had to keep an eye on the result to determine what to do in his own game.

Henry facing the Jobova London System set up in semi-slav fashion and having his queen’s knight forced to spend time offside on a6 due to defending the Jobova’s typical Bf4-Nb5 manoeuvre threatening the Nxc7 fork had to play a long positional game. However with time short and Adrian’s game unclear Henry’s opponent didn’t realise that he wasn’t getting anymore time when his flag fell and let his flag fell and lost on time. 3-3

The match ended in a draw but Hastings won 7 to 8 on board count and thus progress to the semi-finals.

Hastings face Bexhill again in the semi’s but as both teams were away in the previous fixture lots needed to be drawn to determine who has home advantage. Lots were chosen based on the result of the outcome of last night’s UEFA Champions League match between Liverpool & PSG with Hastings being assigned Liverpool and Bexhill PSG. Suffice it to say Liverpool LOST! and so Bexhill will be at home. However Hastings “will never walk alone” when we face our French cheering counterparts on the 18th April, the date of the SCCA McArthur Cup Semi-final.

You watch, I bet Liverpool go and win the Carabao Cup final this weekend but couldn’t do it last night to give us home advantage!

Friday 18 April 2025 7:30 PM
SCCA McArthur Cup Semi-Final
Bexhill (1) v Hastings & St Leonards

Full match results

 


	

Hastings Dominating Kent

Hastings’ teams in all four divisions/cups entered this season have reached the semi-final stage.

Our Harvey team was runners-up in the Mid-Kent division despite a thumping 5-1 win against Weald Of Kent our final game of the season. An away Semi-Final against Petts Wood & Orpington(5) tonight is the reward.

In the En Passant Cup, our team topped the division and have home advantage against Charlton on Saturday 11th.

Henry’s Super Stevenson Team scraped through as runners-up having the same number of match points and board points as third-placed Rainham but due to head-to-head results were given the nod. Another away semi-final match to Petts Wood & Orpington on Friday 17th. Charlton awaits the winners in the Final.

Umberto’s Underdogs were runners-up in the Tom Fuller Cup and now have a plum tie against Charlton away to look forward to on June 1st.

It’s very rare to have all our teams reach the semi-finals and may cause a bit of a problem if all make it through to the final as we may not have enough players, but that will be a nice problem to have if it happens.

Come on Hastings!

Kent County Chess Association Semi-Finals

Stevenson
17/05/2024 Petts Wood & Orpington v Hastings & St Leonards

En Passant
11/05/2024 Hastings & St Leonards v Charlton

Harvey
03/05/2024 Petts Wood & Orpington v Hastings & St Leonards

Tom Fuller
TBA Charlton v Hastings & St Leonards

 

Hastings promoted!

Haywards Heath (3) 0.5 – 3.5 Hastings & St Leonards (3)

Congratulations to our Third team in the Sussex league who, on Thursday evening won their final game of the season to gain promotion to the second division!

Third placed Horsham fourths put the pressure on us by spanking Haywards Heath seconds on Tuesday night 4-0 winning their game in hand and coming within a point of our team. With one game each, Hastings had to win to seal the promotion , a draw may have been enough but given the form of Horsham, another 4-0 win would draw on match points but their board difference would be superior, denying us promotion.

Hastings currently sit top of the table but Brighton have two games in hand and only a point behind. The title might be ours but it’s unlikely Brighton will slip up.

On the night all our players went up early in all games with Marc a pawn up and 6th rank monster pawn in a Roy Lopez which he converted eventually. Adrian a pawn up in a Queens Gambit and as usual navigated the tactics perfectly to bring home the win. Mason an  exchange up in a Sicilian Mengarini variation (an unusual line involving an early wing attack for white), surrendering the fiachettoed black squared bishop and groveling for the rest of the game but eventually getting a draw.  New team member Caelan Rooney played a little trick in the opening to get massive pawn duo centre although gave up castling rights when his opponent sacked a bishop on f2. The strong centre was too much and Caelan dominated the game from then on.

(b) Falvey James 0-1 Caelan Rooney
(w) Matthew File 0.5-0.5 Mason Woodhams
(b) Alan Davey 0-1 Adrian Cload
(w) Chris Baldry 0-1 Marc Bryant

Congratulations to all team members and good luck in Division 2 next season. The Thirds were:

Adrian Cload
Mason Woodhams (Captain)
Derek Cosens
Chris Hann
Marc Bryant
Jim Wheeler
Leon Sazkissyan
Caelan Rooney
Greg Chandler.

Full Match Result

League Table

 

Victories in Sussex and Kent leagues

Two Hastings teams in both the Sussex and Kent leagues had great results this week. Our Third team in the Mid-Sussex Third Division took a big step towards promotion with a 4-0 win over Worthing(2), the Thirds are just one game away from automatic promotion. Haywards Heath(3) stands in our way to the promised land of the second division.

In the Kent league our En Passant team swept aside last years’ finalist, Weald of Kent 3.5-2.5 on Friday to set up a crunch game against top of the table Medway with the winners guaranteed a place in the play-offs. Hastings didn’t disappoint and scraped a narrow victory 3.5-2.5, and with a game in hand, Hastings can top the league and will play either Charlton or Sidcup in the semi-finals.

Hastings v Medway

Hastings v Weald of Kent

Hastings(3) v Worthing(2)

Hastings unbeaten run ends

Monday night saw Hastings Third team unbeaten run in the Mid-Sussex league Division 3 come to an end with defeat to rivals Brighton 1.5-2.5. This was a top-of-the-table clash with the winners most likely to go on and lift the title. Despite a blistering victory on top board by junior Leon Sazkissyan, a commanding performance by Mason over Robert Counsell and lovely attacking chess by Adrian and Derek it wasn’t to be. Hastings will now need to win their final two games to get promoted to the second division.

On board 1 rising star and junior Leon came flying out of the traps, banging out moves in a most unusual opening, forcing off queens very early whilst decimating the pawn structure of both sides, after the dust settled Leon had an advanced passed pawn on the e-file which when the game reduced to a rook and pawn ending he navigated the complications like a senior with years of experience. 1-0

Mason on board 2 had a very strong opening restricting Robert Counsell to just crumbs of opportunity and although he did manage some queenside initiative it soon fizzled out leaving Mason to rearrange his forces and prepare for an overwhelming attack. Robert at this point was just moving back and forth with a knight awaiting the oncoming storm. With 5 mins on the clock to Robert’s 3 mins and other results from the match undecided, it was time to launch the attack and Nxg6 was played!! Robert didn’t take and instead, Nf8 was selected and after Nxe7,Qxe7,Bg5 white is winning but with very little time on the clock the better player (Robert) found the right moves. 1-1 (Moral, don’t complicate a position when you don’t have any time!)

Adrian on board 3 found himself up against the popular London system and although setting up with the Grunfeld defence which featured in the “Game of the Century” between Donald Byrne and Bobby Fischer wasn’t enough for Adrian. Going a pawn down early doors but having the advantage of the fianchetto bishop versus a knight late on was too much for Adrian 1-2

Derek on board 4 playing Susan Chadwick had a great start with a three pawn centre v Kings Indian Defence, winning an exchange and a pawn, looked good for the win but Susan is no pushover a very solid positional player which Derek could not finish off. In the end a draw and Brighton take the honours.

In summary, Hastings played really well and at one point looked to be winning 3-1 but the extra quality of Brighton carried them through. New team member Leon was outstanding on top board and it won’t be long before he is knocking on the door of our second and even the first team!

Hastings play Worthing at home next before a trip to Haywards Heath for the final game of the season.

Come on you Thirds!

https://ecflms.org.uk/lms/league_fixture/198256

 

Monkey business against Haywards Heath(2)

Monday 20
Mid-Sussex League Division 3

Hastings(3) 2.5 – 1.5 Haywards Heath(2)

In league division three, Hastings thirds in second took on Haywards Heath’s seconds in third.  A top-of-the-table clash.

Jim Wheeler on top board played an unsual opening, an Orangutan with the black pieces. His brief before the match was, as your opponent is significantly lower graded than you just wait for the mistake and capitalise on it. Well blow me his opponent David Curtis didn’t make a mistake and played a very solid game opening with the Colle-Zuckertort which is characterised by developing the dark-squared bishop on b2. The typical plan is: 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 e6 3.e3 Nf6 4.Bd3 c5 5.b3 Nc6 6.0-0 Bd6 7.Bb2 0-0, where White, despite their apparently innocuous development, will eventually play for a kingside attack. A locking up of the pawns occurred and neither player could break through, eventually it ended with N+2R v B+2R and David managed to exchange off his knight for Jim’s Bishop doubling his pawns and with an even rook ending achieved a draw was agreed. This monkey opening might get put aside as our big game hunter looks for better beasts to hunt next time.

Board 2 saw Chris Hann with the white pieces face off against a reversed London System. A promising start from the visitor but instead of going full steam on the queenside against Chris’ KiA he was probing the kingside with not much success. Another game where all the pawns got locked up and this one resembling a draughts board at one point, a few huffs later and Chris found the winning moves. 1.5 – 0.5

Derek on board 4 had an exciting game with white against a Najdorf. In the hands of Bobby Fischer the Najdorf was an awesome weapon full of sharp lines and tactical goodness. In the hands of the 1400 player the Najdorf poses so many problems for the non booked student of chess. Derek on the other hand comfortable with the themes, rammed his d pawn all the way to d6 then plonked a juicy Knight on c7 for the majority of game. His opponent failed to deal with forward outpost and monster knight and Derek manoeuvred the rest of his forces around it going a pawn up then a pawn and piece up and eventually crushing and closing out the game. 2.5 – 0.5

Adrian on board 3 continued the theme of night of blocked positions (excluding Derek) and was made to work for a few paltry crumbs. Gradually making progress against his opponent James Falvey who was 100 grading points lower he eventually went an exchange up less a pawn, and so with a +1 advantage was looking good although it was unclear how to progress. Then in less time it took me to go upstairs grab a delicious Sainsbury’s mince pie and come back down again, Adrian had gifted his opponent an early Christmas present of a piece and an awful position in a 4v3 RvR ending which only lasted a few more moves. 2.5-1.5

A close result for the Thirds but enough to go back to the top of the table after Eastbourne(4) had deposed us a few days early. Monday 4th December will see the crunch match between Hastings(3) and Eastbourne(4), 1st & 2nd in the league respectively which could be a deciding factor in who might be favourites for the title.

Come on you Thirds!

Click for Full match card

Thirds Mediterranean night

Mid-Sussex League Division 3
Eastbourne(5) 0.5 – 3.5 Hastings(3)

Friday night had a Mediterranean feel to proceedings with two Italian games, a Sicilian and a Catalan, keeping us warm on a dark autumnal night.

Newly promoted to the top board, Marc opened with the first of the Italians and within a few moves treated his opponent to a tactic on

e5 & f7 exchanging two of his pieces for two pawns, a rook, and a lousy king position. It was pretty much game over but Marc being Marc cooked up some spaghetti moves in the middle game and bolognesed his position. Fortunately, his stronger end-game skills made mincemeat of his opponent to bring home the first point of the night.

Adrian on board two faced the Italian from the black side. With neither side castling in the early game and his opponent even starting a king-side pawn advance! Our in-form turbo Ferrari Adrian parked his prancing horse on an amazing outpost on g3 which was never going to be dislodged. Queen-side castling by both resulted in navigating usual Mediterranean waters for both before Adrian’s skill triumphed. Just before the end his opponent was even heard to say “That was good!” when Adrian hit him with a tactic to win a piece. You know it’s over when your opponent is muttering such utterances. 2-0

On board 4, Woodhams continued the Mediterranean theme with a Silician against Robert Smart, which evolved into an Alapin and thus a quiet game was had on those southern Italian shores. Equality achieved early doors and even -0.5 for most of the game until I missed a clean win. A pawn up in the end game with opposite B’s and two rooks each it was heading for a draw but then “Mama Mia!” a swindle out of nowhere and the game was lost for Robert. 3-0

Chris Hann on board 3 was up against Eastbourne junior Zeb Taylor and what game it was. Game of the night. Opening with a Catalan (well it was a KiA but saying Catalan to keep the Mediterranean theme), the game quickly settled into opposite side castling with all the fireworks on the board that that entailed. Chris managed to get the bishop pair in an open position but the resilience of the junior was amazing. The endgame resulted in KBR v KR+3 pawns which the youngster duly marched up the board, however, Chris managed to pick a couple of them off until we reached this final position, at which point we had to stop for the night and adjourn much to the disappointment to the 10 people watching the game. In this position black only has one move to save himself, everything else is losing. Can you find it?

Black to move and save game

The thirds win again on the road but now face the biggest test of the season with visits from Haywards Heath (2) and Eastbourne (4) in the next two matches. The two other top teams in the division.

Come on you Thirds!

MSL Div 3 Eastbourne(5) v Hastings(3) match card

First round draw McArthur CUP and Paul Watson Trophy

Hastings have drawn local rivals, Bexhill at home for the first round of the McArthur Cup and Uckfield away in the Paul Watson Trophy. Matches to be played by Feb 10th and January 13th respectively.

 

Full details:

McArthur Cup:

1st Round:
 
West: Sussex University v Horsham
Bye – East Grinstead
 
East: Hastings v Bexhill
Bye – Lewes
For the semi-finals, the home team will be determined by whether the winners of the 1st round match were home or away in the 1st round (i.e. if the winner was away in the 1st round they will be at home in the semi-final).
Schedule:
1st round matches to be played by February 10th
Semi-Finals to be played by April 20th
Final to be played by May 31st
 
 
Paul Watson Trophy:
 
1st Round:
 
West: Shoreham v Sussex University
East: Uckfield v Hastings
Quarter-Finals:
West: Bognor v Horsham
Shoreham or Sussex U v East Grinstead (Home team dependent on winner of 1st round)
East: Lewes v Crowborough
Uckfield or Hastings v Bexhill (Home team dependent on winner of 1st round)
Schedule:
1st round matches to be played by January 13th
Quarter-Finals to be played by March 2nd
Semi-Finals to be played by April 27th
Final to be played by May 31st