Brighton 5 v Uckfield 2

Last Thursday our second team travelled to Hove to play Brighton & Hove 5 and we can feel privileged that they turned out their strongest team of the season to battle with us and this took me by surprise as I had counselled our team that if we concentrated we could be on for a big score which would move us to fifth in the division. It was nothing like the forecast as we were out-graded and had a battle on every board ! Artur’s game on 2 was as open as usual but his experienced opponent closed shop even with white and patiently waited for an opportunity, which eventually came, leading to Artur’s first loss of the season; Steve on 5 played skilfully against their wise old captain and it ended with a six pawn and two rooks each game, but Steve’s opponent doubled his rooks to good effect and Steve finally had to concede; Ian on 1 was playing the venerable Dona Strauss who is now in her 80s but was at one time close to international womens master so I am told and she certainly plays like that sometimes as some of us know to our cost, and in Ian’s game he went the exchange down but fought right to the end of the session though she used the rook so artfully against the bishop that he had to concede; Michael on 4 gave us a boost though seemed under pressure through late castling but he showed the usual patience in rebuilding and adding new threats and eventually won through for our first win of the night; I think all noting my game on 3 had great confidence as I emerged from the opening two pawns up and looked strong at the start of the middle game, but my experienced opponent sacrificed a rook and carved my defence open and I needed nearly all of the 25-minute advantage on the clock to work my way out of the positional advantage he had gained, though finally I made the material count.  So we ended with a 2-3 loss when I had expected a win.  It’s a funny old game, but we are still scoring good points in every match !