Horsham 1 scored an excellent win against Brighton 1 last Tuesday. The score stands at 3.5-0.5 in Horsham’s favour, with just Phil Stimpson’s game unfinished; he is hoping for a win.
On board one, Gavin Lock scored a crushing win against Luke Rutherford, with only his habitual time trouble causing a few nervous moments. The game started with Gavin playing the solid Torre Attack with White, but his opponent engaged in some dubious adventures. He both managed to place his queen in danger of being trapped, and allowed his king to become stuck in the centre; Gavin managed to combine threats on both fronts to open things up in his favour.
Phil Stimpson’s game against Geoff James seemed unclear for a while, but he managed eventually to end up in a rook endgame where his passed pawn and rook cutting the Black king off on the back rank offer him winning chances; as mentioned above, this game has yet to be decided.
Dix Roberts scored a counter-attacking win against Paul Batchelor in a messy encounter on board four, his Modern Benoni again proving a dangerous weapon with the Black pieces.
Anthony Higgs played a solid game with the White pieces against Adrian Pickersgill, the encounter ending as a draw without too many adventures.
My game against Brian Denman was a dramatic encounter, with both players running desperately short of time, until my opponent exceeded the time limit in rather farcical fashion. I’ll let the notes to the game below tell the rest of the story.