Tag Archives: McArthur Cup

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 draw Bexhill in Cups

Hastings have drawn local rivals Bexhill in both SCCA The McArthur Cup and Paul Watson Trophy.

Hastings will first contest the Paul Watson Trophy on Sunday 1st December before travelling to Bexhill on Friday 7th March 2025 to take part in the prestigious McArthur Cup.

The Paul Watson Trophy is a four board 1825 avg K.O. for both East and West Sussex.

The McArthur Cup which has been going for over 125 years is straight forward 6 board K.O. and is currently held by East Grinstead.

 

McArthur Cup Draw:

1st Round:
 
West: Sussex University v Lewes
2nd Round:
 
West: Sussex University or Lewes v Horsham (home team dependent on winners of the 1st round match).
           Brighton v East Grinstead
East: Bexhill 2 v Hastings & St. Leonards (Friday March 7th)
          Crowborough v Bexhill 1
Schedule:
1st round match to be played by January 18th 2025
2nd round to be played by March 8th
Semi-Finals to be played by April 26th
Final to be played by May 31st
 
 
Paul Watson Trophy:
 
1st Round:
 
West: East Grinstead v Bognor & Arun
East: Bexhill 2 v Crowborough
2nd Round:
West: East Grinstead or Bognor & Arun v Lewes (Home team dependent on winner of 1st round)
           Sussex University v Horsham
East:  Bexhill 2 or Crowborough v Uckfield (Home team dependent on winner of 1st round)
           Hastings & St.Leonards v Bexhill 1 (Sunday 1st December 2:00PM)
Schedule:
1st round matches to be played by January 18th 2025
2nd round to be played by March 8th
Semi-Finals to be played by April 26th
Final to be played by May 31st

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