chess in Ennis and maybe some other random stuff
 | John Keane on Ennis Congress 2018 |
 | John McKenna on Gonzaga win NCC, Ballinasloe a… |
 | Rory Quinn on Penultimate round of Munster L… |
 | Martin on Penultimate round of Munster L… |
| Rory Quinn on Munster League Results |
| Martin on Munster League Results |
| Martin on Bunratty Congress 2018 |
 | Gerry McCarthy on Mulcahy Cup and Philip Hogarty… |
| Rory Quinn on Mulcahy Results and Wijk aan… |
| Rory Quinn on Mulcahy Results and Wijk aan… |
 | thremnir on Mulcahy Results and Wijk aan… |
| Rory Quinn on Blitz and beers |
 | Michael O'Donnell on Blitz and beers |
| Rory Quinn on Mulcahy Cup and Philip Hogarty… |
The Irish Championships 2018 takes place in the Talbot Hotel, Stillorgan from August 4-12th. This one looks like being the strongest ever with an impressive list of players already signed up and a prize fund of €4000. More information and online entry available at the Irish Chess Union website.
The Ennis Open finished today in a 3 way tie for first. Winner for the last two years IM Lucian Costin-Miron finished tied for first place with his compatriot FM Daniel Hristodescu and Anthony Bourached of Trinity College. All three finished on 5 points.
Two Ennis players tied for first in the U1400 with last years winner Azzizbek Shamsiddinov sharing first place with young Dylan Murphy who had an excellent tournament to finish on 5 points and get his first top place finish in a major tournament (probably the first of many!). Results and some games are linked to from the Irish Chess Union website.
The top 2 boards from the Ennis Open and the top board from the U1400 are being broadcast live here. Links to the pairings and standings are at the ICU website.
Well done to David Fitzsimons on becoming just the eighth person from Ireland ever to achieve the International Master title at chess. David made his third norm at a recent round of the 4NCL. Congratulations to David on a fine achievement.
The 2018 Ennis Congress takes place from the 11th to the 13th May in the West County Hotel in Ennis. As usual there are two sections, an Open and an U1400. You can enter the tournament via the ICU website or by contacting John Cassidy 087-2495913.
The 2017/2018 season of the Munster League finished on Saturday in Charleville. Two teams were in with a chance of winning the title. CCYMS were going for a first Munster League title in 25 years and were slightly ahead of Sarsfields going into the final day.
Just one round was left to play and Sarsfields beat Limerick 3.5 to 1.5, with wins by Frank Noonan and Paul Kiely giving them the points as the other games were drawn. It also gave them the title as Cork A beat CCYMS 3-2 in their match.
We had a win over Charleville to finish fourth. A good result to finish the season but a slow start meant we were playing catch up for most of the season. Sarsfields victory over Limerick meant that Limerick and Cork B will go into the playoff with Division Two winners Tralee.
Ennis results from yesterday.
Ennis A 3.5:1.5 Charleville
1. R Quinn 1-0 PJ Rea
2. M O’Donnell 1-0 K Cole
3. J Cassidy 0.5-0.5 K Foley
4. P Quinlan 0-1 A King
5. G Casey 1-0 P Meskell
Gonzaga won their third national club championship in a row at the weekend at the National Club Championships in Athlone. Dublin City chess club came second. Well done to Ballinasloe who for the first time will be among Ireland’s representatives at the European Club Cup, which takes place in Rhodes, Greece later this year, after finishing third. The Irish Chess Union website has a link to results on chess results server.
Some interesting results in todays Munster League. Charleville caused a shock in the first match of the day with a win over Sarsfields, a result which blew the chase for the title wide open and also had an impact on the relegation battle. Cork A were missing two players for their match with ourselves, a bit surprising considering they still had a chance to win the league. We won over the 3 boards that were played to give ourselves an outside shot at the title if we had beaten CCYMS in the last match. Unfortunately from our point of view a close match ended in a tie, Gerry Casey won in the last game to finish to ensure the points were shared.
The battle for first place looks like it will go down to the final series of games. CCYMS are still in a good position to win the title and also Sarsfields depending on how they finished in their second match this evening against Cork B.
Cork A 1-4 Ennis A
1. G Spyropoulos 0-1 R Quinn
2. T McGrath 0-1 M O’Donnell
3. S Lawrence 1-0 M Buckley
4. w/o 0-1 G Casey
5. w/o 0-1 A Shamsiddinov
CCYMS 2.5-2.5 Ennis A
1. K Moynihan 1-0 R Quinn
2. P O’Donovan 0.5-0.5 M O’Donnell
3. G McCarthy 0.5-0.5 M Buckley
4. P Dowdall 0-1 G Casey
5. T Myers 0.5-0.5 A Shamsiddinov
The Irish Junior Chess Championships 2018 are taking place in Shannon this weekend. Updates available at the Irish Chess Union website.
Two Irish players made norms at the recent Easter tournaments in Dublin, winning their sections in the process. IM Alex Lopez made a GM norm. After starting somewhat slowly he won his last 5(!) games to win the tournament and make a norm. A little bit reminiscent of his performance in the Irish Championships last year when he won his last 4 games to tie for first. In the IM tournament FM Conor O’Donnell made an IM norm and won the tournament. Details at chess results and the ICU site.
