Ennis Congress 2022

John Cassidy has been in contact to say that it is planned to run next years Ennis Congress from Friday 25th to Sunday 27th February in the West County Hotel. There will be 5 rounds and the games will be FIDE rated. For more information contact John on 087 2495913.

Photos from Ennis Open

Some more photos from last weekends tournament courtesy of John Cassidy.

Connell wins November Open

The first over the board tournament in Ennis for some time took place last weekend with almost 100 competitors from all over the country and abroad taking part. Covid measures were in place with social distancing, mask wearing and COVID vaccination certificates being obligatory.

Well done to Blair Connell who took first place on a perfect score of 5 from 5, demonstrating nice endgame skills to take home the point in a few games. In second place was Juan Rodriguez Fernandez on 4.5 from 5 and who played very solidly throughout. Yours truly finished in third on tie break with 4 points after a blunder in the last round cost me a chance to battle for first. Other players finishing on 4 points were Markel Vesga Izeta, Kavin Venkatesan, Anthony Fox, John Kelly, Andrei Ivanov, Adam Collins, Alice O’Gorman, Peter Cafolla, Tommy Dunne, Henk de Jonge and John Waldron.

Well done also to Ennis man James O’Sullivan who won a grading prize as did Markel Vesga Izeta, Andrei Ivanov, James Scarry, and Oisin O Sullivan.

Thanks to all involved in organising what was a very enjoyable event, especially main organizer John Cassidy and the arbiter Neal Kirby who did an excellent job. Full results now available online courtesy of James Forde.

Blair Connell receivng first prize from John Cassidy

November Ennis Tournament

With the relaxation in COVID restrictions John Cassidy is organising an over-the-board open tournament in the West County Hotel Ennis in November. The tournament will consist of 5 rounds played from November 12th to November 14th. Round 1 will be played on the 12th, with 2 rounds on each of the following days. Entry is limited to 50 people (edit: 11.10.2021 John Cassidy advises an updated maximum capacity of 80-90 players) so contact John on 0872495913 soon if you want to enter.

ennis-chess-open-nov-2021Download

Heidenfeld wins the 100th Irish Championships

Congratulations to Mark Heidenfeld on winning the 100th anniversary edition of the Irish senior championships in what was quite a strong field. It’s Marks second time winning the Irish championship, so he still has a way to go to emulate his father Wolfgang who was an 8-time championships winner. Although winning the 100th anniversary tournament is probably worth at least a few regular ones!

100th Irish Chess Championships

The 100th edition of the Irish Chess Championships starts at the end of this month in Dublin and the first weekender is this weekend! COVID precautions will be in place and entry is limited to 48 players currently. Full details at www.icu.ie

Results of June Junior Tournament

Well done to Tadhg Holland who won last months Junior tournament which took place on lichess. Full results at https://lichess.org/tournament/o8mCafFg

Galway Rapidplay Results

The Galway rapidplay took place last weekend and was won by Adam Collins on 7 out of 7. Ross de Bruin finished in fourth just missing out on third place on tiebreak. Mike O’Donnell finished sixth. Full results at https://lichess.org/swiss/Dsugo4wr

Upcoming junior tournament 12th June

Lukasz Daros has been in touch to say that although Community Games chess won’t be going ahead this year, a tournament just for juniors is being organised on lichess. This competition will take place on the 12th June and will be a 1 hour long arena type tournament with a time control of 5 minutes each with 1 second increment per move. The tournament is open to all U18 members of Ennis Chess Club lichess team and can be joined at the Clare Junior Arena site on lichess.

Other upcoming tournamnets include the Galway Rapidplay which takes place online on the 19th June and The 100th Irish Chess Championship which takes place in Colaiste Eanna, Rathfarnham from the 31st July to 8th August.

Ennis Congress Results

124 players entered the Ennis Congress 2021 which took place on lichess last weekend. Yours truly won the event on 9 out of 9, a score with which I was quite happy! Gavin Sheahan won the Marcel Castricum Cup. Full details of games, results and standings are on the Ennis Congress site on lichess while you can view live coverage of some of the games at Blair Connells Twitch channel https://www.twitch.tv/blairchess

Well done to all involved in organising the tournament and in particular Aaron Daly who made sure everything ran smoothly on the day. A summary of results is below.

Overall Results – Jim Hussey Cup

• First: Rory Quinn 9
• Second: Oisin O’Cuilleanin 7.5
• Third: Jacob Flynn 7

Best Juniors

• First: Wenlie Liu 7
• Second: Trisha Kanyamarala WIM 6.5
• Third: Jason Liu 6.5

Best Female Player: Lara Putar 5.5

Grading Bands

• 1800+ Adam Collins 6
• 1600-1800 Gabriel Matthews 7
• 1400-1600 Peter Koller 6
• 1200-1400 Aidan Coll 5.5
• 1000-1200 David Cunningham 5.5
• 800-1000 James Scarry 5
• 0-800 Christopher Woods 5
• Best unrated George Stack 6
• Best unrated Female Nemhain Doolin 3.5
• Best unrated Junior Anuar Turashbayev 5

Results Marcel Castricum Cup

• First: Gavin Sheahan 6.5
• Second: Ben Sheahan 6.5
• Third: Adam McCoy 6

If you missed the tournament and want to catch up on some of the action, go to Blair Connells twitch channel https://www.twitch.tv/blairchess where you can view recordings of the excellent live streaming of the event. At one point, Blair was joined by the Ginger GM himself, Simon Williams, where aswell as covering the Ennis Congress, they also looked at some of the content in Simon and Richard Pallisers new Grandmaster Gambits course https://www.chessable.com/grandmaster-gambits-1-e4/course/59936/