Munster Chess Union AGM

The AGM of the Munster Chess Union will take place on September 15th at 8pm in the Charleville Park Hotel (thats actually my birthday so I might have to give this one a miss hopefully some of the other Ennis lads are going)

Well done to Irish champion Alex Lopez who after a slow start made an IM norm in the closed GM tournament in Dun Laoghaire with a score of 5 from 9. Alex beat the German GM Bischoff in the last round. This is his second IM norm. Englands Mark Hebden won the GM tournament with 6 from 9 just half a point ahead of Mark Quinn who had a good tourney. Simon Ansell was a convincing winner of IM tournament with 7 from 9. There are round by round reports and games at the ICU site

European Club Cup 2010

Ennis will be one of Irelands two representatives at the upcoming European Club Cup in Plovdiv, southern Bulgaria from 16th to 23rd October 2010. Bray/ Greystones decided not to send a team and having finished third in the National Club Cup Ennis had the right of first refusal should another team drop out. Thankfully (more through luck than planning I should add) almost all our squad from this years National Club Cup should be able to make it. There are still slight doubts over one or two but there is no doubt that we can send a team even in a worst case scenario.

To those who aren’t familiar with it the European Club Cup is the premier competition for chess clubs in Europe, chess’ equivalent of soccers Champions League I guess. I am not sure who will be travelling as Irelands second representatives. Kilkenny finished second in the National Club Championships and had confirmed that they would play (despite saying they probably wouldn’t immediately after securing 2nd place) but apparently there are doubts over their participation now also. Also apparently some of the Bray players who played at the National Club Cup were not happy about the decision not to send a team so there seems to be a possibility that they might go after all. I really can’t fathom why it takes clubs so long to make up their mind about sending a team. The dates and qualifying teams are known months in advance so in theory it shouldn’t prove too difficult to sort things out an early stage.

A puzzle from Zagreb

I think it’s fair to say that former Eastern bloc countries, although usually less economically developed, tend to have a much richer chess culture than their Western counterparts. I am reminded of an anecdote from Stuart Conquest (at least I think it was Stuart Conquest) who once commented that as he was leaving the playing hall after a gruelling endgame in a Russian tournament the cleaning lady with mop and bucket paused to explain to him how he had misplayed the rook ending. And so to our newest puzzle which I received via email from Nick Larter earlier today. Nick is currently in Zagreb (whether for business, pleasure or a mixture of both I am not sure). Nick says that this puzzle was shown to him by a taxi driver in Zagreb. Its white to play and win.

White to play and win

The first person to post the solution below, without using a computer obviously, gets 2 free pints (or non alcoholic drinks if you prefer) from me the next time I see them. Nick hasn’t sent me the solution yet and I haven’t tried solving it myself, I’m crap at endings anyway. Nick actually didn’t mention a solution so I am hoping he got both and not just the puzzle otherwise we might be stuck for a while!

Blitz in Lahinch

The blitz in Lahinch went off at the weekend with slightly less numbers than hoped for. Probably some people were up in Dun Laoghaire for all the chess going on there at the moment. Daily updates are being posted on the ICU site. David Fitzsimons has started well in the IM tourney and is on 2 out of 2. In the GM tourney Alex Lopez seems to have misfired a bit in the first two rounds and has a tough one today against Sam Collins who beat Baburin in round 1. Gawain Jones won the weekender, kinda surprising that Gawain wasn’t asked to play in the GM tourney actually. The good news is that Gawain is moving back to London soon so hopefully we will see him playing some games for Ennis in the not too distant future.

Back to the blitz and I think those who went enjoyed themselves. Yours truly won after taking apart Cass with 1Nc3 in the second last round. John was leading going into this round courtesy of a somewhat controversial win on time against Mike O Donnell (well Mike claimed it was controversial anyway!) We also had some good cash games of doubles, even some of the spectators in the pub got involved. There was forty quid on the table at one point and the referree Mike O Donnell had to use all his diplomatic skills to prevent mayhem breaking out. We’ll go for another one in Galway maybe in early September. The word on the street is that Ennis will likely be going to Plovdiv this October but we are still waiting for official confirmation.

O Keeffes this Tuesday 24th

The club will meet in O Keeffes this Tuesday due to the ongoing renovations in Brandons.

Galway Congress

The annual Galway chess Congress will take place on a slighty later date this year 1st-3rd October 2010. Take a look at Galway chess clubs shiny new site (and very nice it is too!) for more information.

Ficheall

Una O’Boyle is launching the first ever book written about chess in the Irish language Ficheall this Friday 20th August (ficheall of course being the Irish word for chess). The launch will conincide with the opening ceremony of the Dun Laoghaire chess festival in Dun Laoghaire chess club. For those who don’t know Una is an Irish womens international and womens candidate master. (She was also in the band HyperBorea trivia fans!). I believe she currently teaches chess to youngsters in Gaelscoileanna around Dublin so she was obviously the perfect author for this tome. Its great to see a book on chess published in our native ‘dteanga’. If you are in the area or attending the tourney it will be worth going along to the opening ceremony as I remember hearing Dave Fanning on rte radio 1 doing an interview with Una and Mark Quinn at the last olympiad which was very entertaining and I would imagine this launch will be just as much so. Take a look at the Ficheall website or go to facebook and search for ‘ficheall’

Lahinch

The beer and blitz will go ahead as planned in Kennys pub in Lahinch this coming Saturday. The blitz will run from 4ish pm to quite late I should imagine and post blitz we will hit some night spot in Lahinch. All are welcome and if you don’t want to play chess but just drink thats ok too! Its likely to be a long night.

Irish players abroad

A great result for Sam Collins as he made his second GM norm at the Artic Challenge in Tromso, Norway. With Brian Kelly seemingly inactive these days Sam must be short odds to become the first Irish born GM.

Ryan Rhys Griffiths followed up his third place in the Irish championship with another good result finishing in 18th place in the British at the University of Canterbury and beating GM Summerscale along the way.

Apparently there are a number of Irish players heading to Europe for tournaments this month, among them John Delaney so hopefully we will be reading about some more good results in the near future!

Tuesday nights

The main pub (downstairs) in Brandons is closed for the next 3 months for renovations. I’m told the new pub will have a certain ‘wow’ factor to it but exactly what they are doing seems to be a closely guarded secret. Anyway upstairs is still open at weekends however I think it will be closed during the week. Declan has said he will open on a Tuesday if we let him know in advance and if there is a few of us. Alternatives would be to meet in the Auburn or O Keeffes for the 3 months. Attendances havent exactly been through the roof lately anyway, last time the club met was about three weeks ago. I understand there is a blitz chess/ drinking trip planned for Lahinch soon. Details later.