The inaugural Drogheda Super Rapid 2K24 KlimaX 2024 was held on December 28-29, 2024, with a field of 76, and 15 rounds.
A full report has been added to the tournament pages here. The organisers provided twenty live boards, with the result that 298 of the 534 games are available.
FM Oleg Artemenko of Uzbekistan finished first, winning €800, a point and a half ahead of Jacob Flynn and Kavin Venkatesan, with David Fitzsimons a further half a point back in fourth. Fifth place was shared between Andrey Ivanov and Hong Nhung Nguyen, a further point and a half back, with the latter also winning the Best Woman prize.
I confess that I only scanned a small fraction of the games, and did not compile an Interesting Games selection in the report.
38… ?
One critical moment came in the game between Artemenko and Flynn in round 7. The diagrammed position has chances for both sides, with engines finding that Black stands slightly better after 38… Re8.
Instead Flynn erred with 38… Qxa4?, and after 39. Ne6!, compounded the error with 39… fxe6?, and had to resign after 40. Rxd7, when mate is inevitable.
After 39. Ne6!, 39… f5 was essential, but White is still winning after 40. Nd6!, when it turns out that Black’s kingside position is fatally weak. Best play seems to run 40… Qa2 41. Nxf8 Rxf8 42. Qe3, where Black can struggle on for a while via 42… f4 43. Bxf4 Rxf4 44. Qxf4 Qe6 45. Qxh6, but otherwise is hard put to survive.