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?
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!
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