The second Glorney Cup, held in Birmingham, July 27-28, 1949, featured three teams, with Wales joining Ireland and England. (Scotland were due to take part, but seem to have dropped out shortly before the event.)
The OlimpBase page gives the final match results and scores. England won again, after a 3½-2½ win against Ireland and a 5½-½ win over Wales. Ireland beat Wales 3½-2½ to finish second.
The OlimpBase report mentions that the game W. Marshall (Wales) versus M. Fagan (Ireland) won the best game prize. I haven’t seen that mentioned in other sources, but the game itself was given by J. J. Walsh in his Irish Times column several years later. Up to now, it has not appeared in any databases, including the ICU games collection.
The diagram shows the position after Fagan’s 19… h5?. Play continued 20. f5! exf5 21. Rxh5! gxh5? (better 21… Bd7, though White is still much better) 22. Rxf5, and one way or another the black queen will be lost. After 22… Qxf5 23. Bxf5 the raw material balance (queen and pawn versus two rooks) was about level, but Black’s open king position gave White an overwhelming advantage. (Move the h5 pawn to g7 in that position and Black is still very much in the game.)
Black was Michael Fagan, Irish Schools’ Champion in 1949; in this photo from around that time he’s playing Black in the game nearest the camera (cf. puzzle and solution from a few years ago). He won his other game in the 1949 Glorney Cup, on board 1 against England, defeating M. Barker.
The Irish team was Michael Fagan, T. Conlon (runner-up in the Irish Schools’ Championship), J. J. Walsh (Leinster Schools’ Champion), Brian Canton, Fintan Doyle, and F. Maher.
In this year’s Glorney, Gilbert, Robinson, and Stokes Cups, held in Paisley, Scotland, all games from rounds 1-3 were available on live boards, but there was a delay for rounds 4 and 5. The organisers have now made the remaing games available, and all Irish games are now available in the games archive here (and on the ICU web site).
One game that caught the eye was the 125-move marathon in the last round of the Robinson Cup, between Daniel Kutchoukov (Netherlands) and Adam Murphy (Ireland).
Kutchoukov – Murphy, Robinson Cup 2018
82… ?
What would you play as Black here?
I think I can honestly say that I would play 82… Kg8 without hesitation, at any time limit, on the basis that Black has a fortress and there’s no way for White to make progress. That was my instant reaction on first seeing the game.
This is one of those cases where a little learning is not a dangerous thing. The defence is actually a bit more complicated than that, and it all gets much more difficult if Black doesn’t maintain the fortress. But 82… Kg8 is indeed correct (the only other move to draw is 82… Rf6) and preserving the fortress greatly simplifies the defence, leaving only one way to go wrong later.
By far the best way to follow this is via the Nalimov tablebases. The arrow keys move the position up, down, or sideways, and are useful to see how the evaluation and best continuations vary. Typing ‘b’ repeatedly plays the best move for each side.
With 82… Kg8, the idea is to keep the king on one of the four corner squares, with the rook permanently posted on f5, keeping out the white king.
The reason it’s not so simple is that after 83. Qd8+ Kg7 84. Qh4, the reply 84… Kg8? loses after 85. Qh6! Kf7 86. Qh7+! Kf6 87. Qg8. After 87… Re5+ 88. Kd4 Rf5 89. Qf8+ Kg5 90. Qg7 Kh5 91. Ke4 Kg5 92. Qh8, something must give way. Though even here the subsequent continuation requires some involved manoeuvring. So (after 83. Qd8+ Kg7 84. Qh4) the rook has to move. Is it more important to cover the rank or the file? This is not so obvious. It turns out that it’s important to cover the f-file: the only moves that draw are 84… Rf8, 84… Rf7, 84… Rf6, and 84… Rf1. That’s certainly missable (since 84… Rh5 is very plausible); but once Black gets that right and otherwise hugs the corner, he can’t go wrong.
In the game, from the diagram, Adam Murphy played the natural, but wrong, 82… Rh5?. After 83. Qd7+ Kf6, White could have won via 84. Kd4 Rf5 85. Qh7 Rh5 (85… Kg5 86. Ke4 reaches the line above) 86. Qg8 Rh4+ (lasts the longest; 86… Rf5 87. Qf8+ Kg5 88. Qg7) 87. Kd5 and the White king maneouvres around to f8. Instead after 84. Qd8+ Kf7 White in turn erred with the (very natural) 85. Kf4? when it’s once again a draw with best play.
There are several more twists and turns according to the tablebases, though what constitutes best play is mysterious in many cases. In what follows, ‘!’ means the only move that preserves the best-play result, and ‘?’ indicates a move that changes the result with best play: 85… Rf5+ 86. Kg4 Rh5 (86… Kg7=) 87. Qd4 Rf5 88. Qd7+ Kf6? (again this insistence on moving forward! 88… Kg8!=) 89. Qh7 Rg5+ 90. Kf4? (90. Kf3!+- (mysterious)) 90… Rf5+? (90… Rh5!=) 91. Ke4 Re5+ 92. Kd4 Rh5 93. Qg8 Rh4+ 94. Kd5 Rh5+ 95. Kd6 Rf5 96. Qd8+? (allowing the fortress again; 96. Qh8+ is quickest) 96… Kg7 97. Ke6 Kh6? (and yet again … Black just had the wrong idea; 97… Kh7= is the fortress) 98. Qh4+? (returning the favour; 98. Qh8+ and 98. Qg8 win) 98… Kg7! 99. Qe7+ Kh6 (still drawn, but 99… Kg8 or 99… Kh8 are simpler) 100. Qd8 Kh5? (no! 100… Kg7 and 100… Kh7 are the only moves that draw) 101. Qh8+ Kg5 102. Qg7 Kh5 103. Qh7+ Kg5 104. Qh3 Rf6+ 105. Ke7 Rf5 106. Qh8 Kg4 107. Qh6 g5 108. Ke6? (and here is the final error: the unique move to win turns out to be 108. Qe6!, and if it’s obvious to you why this should be so, you must be a very good endgame player). The game was drawn in another 17 moves.
Reuben Fine describes Queen v. Rook and Pawn as ‘one of the most intricate endings that can come up’ (Basic Chess Endings (McKay, 1941), p. 562). Based on this game that seems apt; perhaps we could add that it seems significantly more tricky to win than to draw.
The 2nd Annual St. Andrew’s Charity Congress was held in Booterstown two weeks ago. Full reports for the Masters and Majors have been added to the Tournaments pages here.
The live board coverage of the lower events was unusually good, with 104 games (out of 118) broadcast in the Majors and another 22 in the Challengers.
This year’s Ulster championship, which ran from August 25-27 in Belfast, was a 6-round event with 12 players, and resulted in a clear-cut win for Thomas Donaldson, a full point clear of the field, for his first title.
The report on the Chess NI web site shows the new champion in action against the top seed, defending champion, and nine times former champion Stephen Scannell:
Scannell – Donaldson, Ulster Championship 2018
The photo captures a critical stage of the game, after Black’s 18th move:
Scannell – Donaldson, Ulster Championship 2018
Position after Black’s 18th
Play continued 19. Qh4 h6 20. b3? (20. g5! and White has a decisive attack) 20… Qc7!, and now it is too late for 21. g5? because 21… Qxe5 22. gxh6? Qa1+ 23. Kd2 Bc3+! 24. Nxc3 fxe3+ 25. Kxe3 Qxc3+ gives Black a winning attack. The position would still be about equal after 21. exf4, but instead after 21. Qh5? White’s position went quickly downhill.
I’m reeling, as is anyone remotely linked with Irish chess, at the sudden and unexpected loss of Philip Short.
He was Irish champion five times—1981 (joint), 1986 (j.), 1988, 2015 (j.), and 2017 (j.)—and finished joint first in 1982, out of the 27 championships he competed in overall.
His win last year, in which he dominated the field, defeating each of the four top remaining finishers, was perhaps the most convincing of all. He earned a well-deserved IM norm for that performance, the first ever achieved in an Irish championship. I think it’s not widely known, though, that it was never submitted to FIDE: it seems Philip had no particular interest in titles and ratings and the like, and preferred to simply play chess.
The photo above (from the ICU Facebook page) is from his last Irish championship, completed less than three weeks ago.
The Irish championship ran from August 4-12 in Dublin. Congratulations are due to the organisers for an outstanding event, which must rank as the strongest ever. The turnout of 36 players has only rarely been exceeded (fifth on the all-time list, I think), including 8 former champions and 12 titled players.
The in-form Alex Lopez won in a canter, finishing with 8/9, 1½ points ahead of the field. He was never in any trouble throughout the event, and for good measure he followed up with 9/9 in the blitz. He has now played in three Irish championships (2010, 2017, and 2018) and has been champion or joint champion in all of them.
In addition David Murray recorded his first IM norm. That’s the second consecutive year in which the Irish championship has produced a norm, and another testament to the work of the organisers. (And to David Murray, of course.)
It will take some time to compile a full report. In the meantime, here is one fragment. In round 8, the only Ulster player Stephen Rush (White) grabbed a pawn against Eamon Keogh, and was faced with the following position at move 23:
Rush – Keogh, Irish championship 2018
White to play
Play continued 23. Re1? Rd6 24. Kg2 Qe4+ 25. f3 Rxf3! 26. exf3 Qxf3+ 27. Kg1 Qxg3+ 28. Qg2 Nf3+ 29. Kf1 Nh2+ and the players agreed a draw, due to the perpetual.
Actually, 24… Qe4+? threw away a win. After 24… Rh6! White is defenceless, since the presumably-intended 25. Rh1 loses to the same theme after 25… Qe4+.
So from the diagram White needs to cover the square e4, as well as e2. He thus had to play 23. Nc3!, when he is still in the game: engines then give White a small edge.
Oisín McGuinness’s recent comment on the Simuls page here talks of a simul the West German grandmaster Hans-Joachim Hecht gave at Collegians C.C. (Kiely’s of Donnybrook) on April 17, 1974.
A report of the event appeared in the Irish Times (April 19, 1974 p. 4). There were 39 players, and Hecht recorded 28 wins, 7 draws, and 4 losses, to Ray Byrne, Tony Dennehy, David Dunne, and Wolfgang Eulitz. This has now been added to the Simuls page, along with the simul he gave in Wexford the following day (+22 =0 -0).
Actually, Seán Terry (of Oxford City C.C. and DisinformatorTM) sent me information about the Collegians simul some considerable time back [January 18, 2012, now that I look at the date of his email], including his game.
The game reached the following position, with White (Hecht, of course) to move. How would you evaluate this position and what would you play as White? This is not at all trivial and is well worth your time.
Hans-Joachim Hecht – Seán Terry
Simul, Dublin 1974
White to play
Answer, plus full game, in a couple of days.
[Updated July 22, 2018, with corrected name of fourth player to win.]
The 8th Blind Olympiad was held in Zalaegerszeg, Hungary, April 17-30, 1988. In all 23 teams competed, and Ireland finished in the middle, fifth out of eight teams in the second of the three final groups.
Philip Doyle, author and compiler of the B.C.A.I. History pages, has kindly provided several photos of Irish teams down the years, that have not appeared anywhere else. Here is one from this event, at the start of Ireland’s match against Great Britain.
Ireland v. Great Britain, 8th Blind Olympiad, Hungary 1988
Ireland, L.-R.: Ernie McElroy, Seán Loftus, Philip Doyle, Michael Keating.
Ireland’s captain and guide was Gerard MacElligott, who is partially hidden here, between Philip Doyle and Michael Keating.
No games from the event appear in the ICU games archive at the time of writing, but they’re all available at the always excellent OlimpBase site. All Irish games have now been added to the collection here.
Round 6 of the 1975 Irish championship paired Oisín McGuinness and Alan Ludgate, each on 3½/5 and just half a point off the lead. The following position was reached after White’s 24. Nce4.
McGuinness – Ludgate, Irish Championship 1975
Black to play
Play continued 24… Nd2 25. Nxd2 Qxd2 26. Rxf5? (but White is much worse after 26. Rfe1 also) 26… gxf5 27. Qxh5 Qxd4+ and White’s attack had petered out.
But Tony Doyle has now contributed new analysis, showing that actually White is winning in the diagrammed position. After 24… Nd2, 25. Nf6+ Kg7 26. Nxh5+ gxh5 27. Nxf7! is a win in all lines, e.g., 27… Ne4 28. Qxh5 Qd2 29. Nh6+ Kf6 30. Ng8+! and mate in two moves.
‘Nor does Black have a draw by first playing 24… Bxe4 25. Nxe4 Nd2. White wins with 26. Qe1 Nc4 27. Qg3!, with the threat of Rfxf7: if then 27… Kg7 28. Qh4 (threatening Qf6+, followed by Ng5 and Ne6). In short, Black is completely lost in the position at move 24.’
So there was a win; but it was quite missable, to say the least. It’s therefore worth pointing out that the opportunity and analysis above were all found by Tony without any engine analysis. (Though engines confirm it all.) ‘I could have saved myself a couple of hours by initially entering the position at move 24 into Komodo, but where’s the fun in that? It was this kind of analysis that I used to love when playing CC.’ Yes, indeed.
