Mid-Sussex League Division 1 2016-17: Horsham 1 – Horsham 2

Posted on December 4, 2016 by James Mansson

As both the Horsham first and second teams are in the same division of the Mid-Sussex League, their first league fixture of the season is against each other. In previous years, there have been some close encounters, but this year the first team won comfortably. Continue reading →

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County Match (Open) 2016-17: Sussex – Surrey

Posted on November 26, 2016 by James Mansson

Sussex ended up scoring a comfortable win against Surrey in their most recent match. My contribution was an easy draw as Black against a strong opponent. He played the double-edged Goering Gambit as White, but was unable to show anything against the classic equalising line I employed. Continue reading →

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Horsham Club Championship 2016-17: Mansson – Marshall

Posted on November 26, 2016 by James Mansson

I won my second game in the Rook against John Marshall at the start of October. I managed to secure an edge out of the opening, and gradually build up my position. In a difficult position, my opponent cracked and I was able to win with some precise moves. Continue reading →

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Horsham Club Knockout 2016-17: Mansson – Rustom

Posted on November 20, 2016 by James Mansson

My game in the first round of the club knockout was a fairly straightforward win. I emerged from the opening with an edge, although it seems that Black missed a chance to equalise. I then adopted an aggressive approach to which my opponent failed to find the best response; instead, he lost a piece to a neat tactic and was then unable to put up much resistance. Continue reading →

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Horsham Club Quickplay Knockout 2016-17: Mansson – Taylor

Posted on November 5, 2016 by James Mansson

The second round of the quickplay saw me up against Paul Taylor. Paul is a tricky but erratic player, and while I have generally done well against him, I have suffered a few defeats too.

In the first game, Paul played an unusual line that he had used to defeat me in last year’s Horsham 1 vs Horsham 2 match. However, I was prepared for it and he made a serious mistake on move 9, allowing me to win the exchange and a pawn. Although I didn’t play as well as I might in what followed, I was still able to win in the end.

In the second game, I was able to establish a slight advantage out of the opening. An aggressive, double-edged thrust (15 g4!?) did not immediately yield dividends, but fortunately for me, my opponent tried an exchange sacrifice that was simply unsound. With some calm play, I was able to consolidate and win. Continue reading →

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Horsham Club Quickplay Knockout 2016-17: Mansson – Waddingham

Posted on November 5, 2016 by James Mansson

The first couple of rounds of the Horsham Chess Club Quickplay Knockout were played on the 20th September. It has become customary to play the first two rounds like this en masses to ensure that the competition gets moving.

I was paired against Roger Waddingham in Round One. As usual, he played his “King’s Fianchetto Against Anything With Both Colours” system. In both games – you play each other once with Black and White – I managed to build up an advantage quickly, and was able to win without any great difficultly, apart, of course, from the pressure of the clock.

Continue reading →

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Horsham Club Championship 2016-17: Pavlovic – Mansson

Posted on October 16, 2016 by James Mansson

I made an early start to my club championship games this season, but because the game was adjourned and not completed until last Tuesday. I was up against Tim Pavlovic as Black. This time he did not play the King’s Gambit, apparently influence by a recent blog post (!), but instead played a form of the Colle, which was not especially effective. Although a slip by me gave him a chance to mix things up in his favour, he did not take the chance. Instead, he allowed me to head for an endgame where Black had a nagging edge; following a later mistake, his position was much worse. By the time he reached the time control, he was two pawns down. None the less, he decide to adjourn and play on, but there were no surprises in the second session, and I was able to secure the win without much drama. Continue reading →

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Horsham Club Championship 2015-16: Stimpson – Mansson

Posted on June 8, 2016 by James Mansson

I played my final game in this season’s club championship just over a week ago. I was up against Phil Stimpson with Black. It was a complicated encounter in which I twice allowed my opponent a strong possibility, and twice he failed to take it. He followed the second miss with a couple of further poor moves, after which his position was hopeless. Continue reading →

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Horsham Club Championship 2015-16: Comley – Mansson

Posted on May 30, 2016 by James Mansson

The Symmetrical English is an opening that does not have the most exciting of reputations. However, there are plenty of opportunities to break the symmetry and create an interesting position. The following game is a good example, as play becomes extremely sharp as the position opens up towards the end. Continue reading →

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Horsham Club Championship 2015-16: Pavlovic – Mansson

Posted on May 18, 2016 by James Mansson

I played the King’s Gambit as White for a couple of years a while back (1994-5), but although my overall score with it was good, I nevertheless decided to give it up after a game in a County Match which I won! This might seem a strange decision, but the point was that the game confirmed my misgivings about the opening. I had been very lucky to win, as I had been a clear two pawns down when my opponent blundered a piece. My own experience with the opening, along with observations of other King’s Gambit games in event I participated in, suggested that while it was an effective weapon against weaker opposition, against a well-prepared opponent, I was likely to end up in a poor position from the opening. The point was that the opening had lost the surprise value it long had, following the publication of Gallagher’s 1992 book on the gambit, so Black was likely to be ready for it. Also, having followed the recent development of the opening closely, it struck me that White was having to make great efforts to prove that he was equal, let alone better, which is not desirable in a system that takes centre place in one’s repertoire! Continue reading →

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