With the first two games of the season complete in the Mid Sussex League our first team and third team are looking good with maximum match points each. The annual fight for divisional survival for the second team is underway in a strong league. Follow our Mid Sussex league exploits on the ECF League Management System.
2023/2024 League Tables
2023/2024 Fixtures
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of White, it was the season of Black, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going to blunder, we were all going to create a brilliancy, in short, it was Hastings & St Leonards 3 against Bexhill 4.
A tale of two cities it was. Adrian v A London Jobava & Mason v A London Jobava. Adrian took the semi-slav route whilst I took the Kings Indian Defence approach both proved successful in the end, with the KiD making harder work of it. Adrian made space for his queen’s bishop on f5 with h6 only to find it hunted down with Bd3 & Nh4 from white, this left white’s London Bishop & Knight exposed to a quick pawn fork with g5 but it took quite a number of moves to get it in due to blacks poor King safety. But in the end, it came and with material up Adrian closed out the game. Hunting down the London Bishop in the other game with Nh5 and an exchange on g3 gave white the semi-open H file to play along, but control of the centre gave black -0.4 for the rest of the game, although tense and long white applied lots of pressure down that H file until time eventually run out. In summary, the semi-slav may be best against a London Jobava but the KiD certainly shouldn’t be overlooked.
On top board, stalwart, Chris Hann opened with a delicious Kings indian attack which I gather his opponent struggled with as at one point was 20mins down on his clock against Chris. eventually, it got so bad he was effectively playing on the increment but was constantly finding the best moves much to Chris’ annoyance and regrettably got the better of him.
Board three involving Marc was a typical Marc game and when I looked over after 20 mins it looked like someone had just emptied a box of pieces on the board such was the mess and randomness of the placement of pieces, but from utter chaos (and two pawns down) emerged order with a brilliant rook sac, followed up with the queen infiltration into the castled king position and two moves later, checkmate. Well done Marc!
Another win from the Thirds keeps us top of the table.
Friday 13th October
Mid-Sussex League Division3
Bexhill 4 (1-3) Hastings & St Leonards 3
Come on you Thirds!
(COYT!)
Ón a torrential rainy night last Friday the newly formed Mid-Sussex league Third team took to the roads to take on East Grinstead Bookshop 2. A first outing to this venue for all concerned and what a lovely venue it was which was only bettered by the hospitality of our hosts. Set quite literally in a two story bookshop with nooks & snugs everywhere it really was the best place for a chess match. With wine, filtered coffee & belgium biscuits we were well and truly spoilt.
Not to be distracted by the finery; the boys from the Thirds set about the dismantling of the East Grinstead Bookshop team. On top board for us was Jim Wheeler who ironically in the car there was discussing the rise of the Hippopotamus at our club only to face one himself at East Grinstead. Knowing how to tame this beast, Jim made swift work of it and not a blunderbus in sight. On board two was the in form Adrian Cload against a strong John Pye (1777) but after a lot of huffing and puffing by his opponent (you know your opponent is in trouble when they start making noises), Adrian eventually put him out of his misery. Derek on board three faced a French Tarrasch and never looked in much trouble with plenty of Kingside space and going up a piece closed out the game nicely. With job done on the top three boards is was just down to me finish and offering my opponent a draw in a K+R+B endgame after a relatively uneventful GrandPrix attack by them, but my opponent refused. Well trying to play on in a drawn position is always a recipe for disaster and it could have been had I found the right move to punish him and win the match 4-0 but after a long drive in bad weather conditions I couldn’t find the moves, which were 8 moves deep, can you?
White just played h5 threatening hxg6,fxg6,Qxg6,Qxg6,Rxg6 winning a pawn but black can win this in 8 moves reducing the game to K v K+Q can you find the moves?
So 3.5-0.5 to the Thirds which propels us to the top of the table where we hope to stay for the rest of the season.
Come on you Thirds!
(COYT!)
Don’t forget to join the forum and use the calendar for bookings and see whats on and more player historys which I am also in the process of transferring to this webpage, link above under “The Club” and here:- https://hastingschess.proboards.com/
Please join with your own name so we know who you are!
Friendly match – Hastings v Hammersmith
18 June 2022
It is enjoyable to travel around the country playing chess in different cities. But last weekend it was our chance to stay at home and let the challengers come to us. Hastings and St Leonards Chess Club were hosting a friendly match against one of the top London clubs, Hammersmith Chess Club. The visitors arrived at midday with a team of 10 players, and a number of supporters, and the competition was soon underway.
The home team were marginally stronger, and based on the grading tables would have expected to win 6 games and lose 4. However, the home advantage kicked in and Hastings were ready to shine.
The first game to finish was the bottom board where Hastings Junior Alex Lebedev was facing the youngest competitor, 7 year old Oliver Valle. Alex played good solid chess and steadily dominated the board, giving Hastings their first win.
This was followed by board 9, where Martin Fletcher was playing against Brian Joyce. Martin found some tactical ideas in the middle game and forced a victory before reaching the end game. A pattern was starting to develop, and these two wins were followed on Board 8, where Keith Hossack beat Frank Valle; Board 6, where Brendan Ruane beat Robin Sarfas; Board 5, where Mark Brougham beat Adam Cranston; and Board 2, where John Sugden beat Gaston Franco.
Hammersmith were able to avoid a clean sweep with Ian Calvert on Board 3 and Paul Kelly on Board 4 being held to a draw by Michael Saunders and Edoardo de Angelis.
After several hours of play there were just two games still continuing. On Board 1 Daniel Lowe was in an evently matched end game against Marios Kouis. With both players graded at 2170 this was always going to be a difficult result to call and as it reached its climax the game could still go either way. However Daniel’s faultless end game skills proved decisive and Hastings had one more win. The final game was Caelan Rooney against Charlie Sturt. This was also a very closely fought end game, with the clock also impacting on the play with
just minutes remaining. Like Daniel, Caelan showed that he was solid in the end game, and this proved too much for Charlie as the final chance of a win for Hammermith disappeared. This gave a final result of 8 wins and two draws to Hastings with a score of 9:1.
While the long play games were the main course for the day, these were followed by a dessert of rapid play with a five round blitz tournament. Twelve players took part in this and the winner (with 4 points) was Hammersmith player Gaston Franco. Jim Wheeler was joint second with visitor Michael Sunders, both achieving 3.5 points.
The day was a great success. Not only did both teams enjoy some great chess, but it was also a friendly atmosphere, and Hastings are definitely hoping that this will become a regular fixture – perhaps with a trip to London next time. After the match the Hastings team were quick to say that the cammeraderie was more inportant than the winning. However that is much easier to say when you have won 9:1, than when you have lost.
Martin Fletcher
The last mid Sussex match played on Saturday was the first team at home losing to Brighton 1-3, the final table shows the first team 3rd and the second team fifth out of 8 teams.
| Team | Play | Won | Draw | Lost | For | Against | Points | SP | MP | IM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brighton & Hove | 7 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 22 | 6 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Horsham 1 | 7 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 19 | 9 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Hastings & St Leonards 1 | 7 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 16 | 12 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Lewes | 7 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 11½ | 16½ | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Hastings & St Leonards 2 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 12 | 16 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Worthing | 7 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 11 | 17 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Horsham 2 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 11½ | 16½ | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Eastbourne 1 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 9 | 19 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
28 April 2022
The Hastings and St Leonards second team played their final match in the Mid-Sussex League at home against Horsham 2.
Once again Hastings was facing a stronger team, with an average grade of just 1756, compared to Horsham’s 1844. Hastings got off to a good start with an early win by Paul Kelly, against David Roberts. Paul has been the anchor of the Hastings team, having played in every match, and achieving 3 wins and 2 draws. The visitors then caught up with a win by Philip Stimpson, against Hastings board 1 player Henry Cove. The next game to finish was Adrian Cload against Alex Taylor. This was always going to be a tough match for Adrian, as he was giving away 262 rating points. However, he played a strong game and lasted 42 moves before he was defeated.
With Horsham leading 2 points to 1, the result of the day rested on team captain Martin Fletcher, who was facing Roger Waddingham. Martin sacrificed a pawn early in the game in exchange for a positional advantage, and continued to press this advantage throughout. Roger was almost able to win the endgame with an advance of three central pawns, but Martin was able to use his king to stop the attack. And on move 58, when Martin moved his pawn to a7 it was clear that Roger was unable to stop this becoming a queen on the next move, and he resigned.
With this 2:2 draw, Hastings achieved a very welcome point, and finished the day in fifth place on the league table. A couple of the teams below them still have a game or two to play, so this may change. But Hastings will definitely not finish at the bottom of the table. For a second team in Division 1, this is a good achievement.
Martin Fletcher
Congratulations to the winner Francis Rayner
From Martin Fletcher – second team captain
The Hastings and St Leonards second team were playing at home in the penultimate match in the Mid Sussex Chess League. The match was a first division match against Lewes.
In recent matches the Hastings team has been substantially outgraded, and it was encouraging to face a team with almost identical grades – an average of 1736 for the visitors compared to Hastings’ 1759.
With such even pairings a draw was a distinct possibility, but team captain Martin Fletcher was hoping for better than that. Martin was playing on Board 4, facing Keith Osborne, the Lewes captain. Martin was white and facing a Sicilian defence. Martin played the unusual line Nc3 on move 2, and it was not long before he was in a dominating position. A Bishop on h6 prevented Keith from castling, and following a number of piece exchanges Martin was a bishop up. The game lasted less than an hour, and when Keith resigned on move 22 Hastings was not only one game up, but all three of the other boards were going well.
Next to finish was Paul Kelly against Jonathan Britnell, on Board 2. Paul won this game, giving Hastings a 2:0 lead. During the post game review both Paul and Jonathan said that throughout the game they each thought that their position was leading. However, it turned out that Paul was the one reading the board correctly. A key factor in the final result was time pressure. Paul was playing his usual rapid style, not least because he was well practiced in the line being developed. His clock showed over an hour remaining. However, Jonathan was being more reflective, and was down to under 5 mintues.
The third game to finish was Bernard Cafferty on Board 1, who was facing Richard Welford. This game was a draw, which meant that Hastings was going to win the match. Reviewing their game both Bernard and Richard spotted missed opportunities, and they agreed that a draw was a fair result.
The final match was Board 3. Adrian Cload had gained an early pawn advantage against Peter Weston, but Peter had been able to turn this around. However, Adrian’s superior play was too strong for Peter and this game ended with another win for Hastings.
With a final score of 3 ½: ½ Hastings produced a very decisive win, and have moved up the league table. They are now hoping to repeat this performance in the final match of the season – a home match against Horsham 2nd team on 28th April.
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