There was a 3 way tie for first in the recent Bunratty masters tournament. Michael Adams, Nigel Short and Gawain Jones all tied for first on 5 from 6. The top two players on tiebreak, Adams and Short, had a blitz playoff and Michael Adams won to claim the tile of Bunratty Masters Champion 2012. It seems like a few players overindulged on the Saturday night as there were some defaults on the Sunday morning including Andrei Istratescu in an important game against Gawain Jones. Kieran O Driscoll downed so much rum at the bar in the Saturday night that he defaulted his first game ever on the Sunday morning. I also apparently defaulted a game (also for the first time ever in all the hundreds of games I have played) in slightly strange circumstances on the Sunday afternoon despite checking with one of the arbiters that it was ok for me to leave and having been told I wouldn’t be included in the draw for the last round. Meanwhile I had headed back to Ennis, my car broke down on the way and I spent 2 hours stuck on the motorway and my car is now in the scrappage yard. Just to top things off I saw today that I had been included in the draw after all by mistake and defaulted my game.
Anyway back to the Ennis results and Ljubica Cirkovic had a great result winning the Major tournament on 5.5 from 6. Herickson da Silva finished on 3 out of 6 and James Danaher from Shannon finished joint second in this section. Players competing in the minor were Padraig McCullough, Rob Wall, Stephen Meaney, and Andrew Ingram who finished on 3,3.5, 3.5 and 4 respectively. Kieran O Brien and Gerry Casey competed in the challengers which was won in fine style by Jan Heinrich, congratulations Jan! Clare junior players Cian Wall and Dara Flynn competed in the minor and scored 2 and 1.5 respectively. I hope I haven’t left anyone out, feel free to remind me if I have. Check out Gerry Grahams report over at the ICU website for a comprehensive report including games. The tournament seems to have been a huge success with the live games attracting an audience from all over the world. I am sure we will see some more reports on chess news sites in the coming days.
By the way don’t forget the Paddy Hennessy blitz taking place in Kilfinane this Saturday night. It’s sure to be a cracking event. Contact Vincent O Donnell on 087 7434182 for more information. If there are any Ennis players out there with a working car who feel like playing and can give Cassidy and/or myself a lift it would be greatly appreciated 
