Great Win Away From Home For Eastbourne 4

Our closest neighbours and friends at Bexhill Chess Club played host to our 4th team on Friday 17th November, for a Division 3 match against Bexhill 4.

Played at their lovely new venue of Little Common Community Centre, adjacent to St Mark’s Church, the match-up seemed close on paper; however, our players got the upper hand across all four boards.

Board 1 was contested by Anthony Giles with White against a very strong junior for Bexhill, Luke Chapman. A solid response to the French Defense left Black passive, but with rough equality. After some maneuvering and exchanges, the game eventually opened up and was decided in White’s favour by a blunder on move 26, tactically leading to a winning rook and pawn endgame. Anthony was able to score the point using 3 passed pawns on the queenside.

Dejan Lekic’s game on board 2 featured the English opening leading to a closed centre. His opponent fell for a central slingshot tactic, capturing a pawn with a knight, which then protected the bishop that was attacking its undefended counterpart. The pawn was regained due to the backward nature of d6, but the natural f5 break soon came and led to an attack. The game was relatively equal until the opponent’s queen wandered away from defence, allowing the attack to land. White resigned with mate-in-2 on the board.

The Caro Kann featured on board 3, with Ian Goodyer as white initially losing the d4 pawn, and then a bishop to Qa5+. He was, however, able to muster a counterattack due to a lead in development and pressure on the C-file. This led to the tactical win of a rook. Up an exchange for a pawn, Ian was also able to advance his pawns on the queenside. Eventually, an unsound sacrifice from his opponent helped net the point.

With all the results going our way, board 4 was no different. John Wright declined the Queen’s Gambit, responding with the Semi-Slav Defence. With a passive middle game and no pieces exchanged until move 15, Black managed to establish a knight on d5, which proved crucial.  A breakthrough on the king’s side led to white’s resignation on move 41 before a forced mate-in-two.

With a final score of 0-4, Eastbourne 4 currently find themselves at the top of Division 3 with three wins and one draw out of four games.