The Drogheda Congress was held over the June Bank Holiday weekend, comprising four sections with 131 players in all. Very admirably, essentially all games in all sections were broadcast. A full report on the Thomson Masters has been posted to the tournament pages here.
Third seed Jacob Flynn earned a convincing first place, a point ahead of Stephen Brady and Colm Daly, conceding only draws to those two, and agreed a draw against the latter in a winning position in the last round. Brady was also undefeated but conceded four draws, while Daly lost in the second round to Lara Putar.
There were several interesting games. Juan Calvo-Sotelo featured in several. His second round game against Alex Goss reached the diagrammed position:
Calvo-Sotelo – Goss, Drogheda Congress (Thomson Masters) 2023 (2) Position after 21. Nxb6
Black may have planned 21… Bg3, but this loses to 22. Qxh7!. After the game’s 21… Bxh2+ 22. Qxh2 Qxg2+ (there is nothing better) 23. Qxg2 Bxg2 24. Nxa8, White won easily.
The FIDE ratings page here, which shows the highest FIDE ratings achieved by Irish players, ranked in descending order, has been updated to account for the May and June 2023 lists.
Conor Murphy moved from 2450 to 2454 in May (unchanged in 4th place), while Trisha Kanyamarala moved sharply upwards in June from her previous best of 2299 (38th place) to 2344 (23rd place).
Trisha clearly qualifies for the FM title now, but I am fairly sure that she had previously crossed 2300 in live rating around the time that she had a published rating of 2299.
I also added two Irish players I had previously missed.
Eugene J. Gibney is best known as a correspondence player. He was Irish correspondence champion four times, in 1980, 1981, 1985, and 1991 (see list), and became a Correspondence Chess Senior International Master in 2004. He has represented Ireland many times in Correspondence Chess Olympiads and other team tournaments. However, he also played over the board, and was FIDE rated as 2281 in October 2000, registered as Canadian (he has lived in Lloydminster, Canada for many years), placing him 50th in this list. (The ICCA web pages have an interview with him.)
In addition, I was previously uncertain whether Gerard McDonnell of Castlebar was the same person as the player, with USA nationality, rated 2285 in the January 2000 list. The latter player was born in 1960, and as I recalled playing in a Glorney Cup team with Gerard of Castlebar in 1979, it seemed as if the age didn’t quite match. Also, Gerard of Castlebar’s rating in his Irish playing days was lower—for example, his ICU rating in the 1983 list was 2031—and that seemed a large jump. However, I noticed recently that the Castlebar and USA players have the same birthday. I also recall that the cutoff for Glorney Cup eligibility was being under 19 in August of the relevant year. I assume this must be the same player, and he enters the list at joint 45th-48th places.
The position in the puzzle set in the last post is from the last round game between John Delaney and Alan Ludgate in the Irish Championship 1983. It arose just after the time control, but as it was the last round, the game had to be played to a finish with no adjournments.
It’s useful to consider what White is immediately threatening. Not 1. Nf3, allowing 1… g4, when Black has no problems. Similarly, 1. Nc2/Nd3/Ng2 allow 1… f3, with equality, while 1. Kf6? g4 even leaves Black with the advantage. The only reasonable way forward for White is to regroup via Ke4 and Nc2-d4. The resulting position is much better for White, and though there is considerable work ahead, it seems that White is probably winning.
In the game, Black played 42… Kc6?. After 43. Nf3, the problem is that 43… g4? loses immediately to 44. Nd4+ and 45. Kxf4. So Black is forced to move the king forward, and the timing doesn’t work. After 43… Kb5 44. Nxg5 Kxb4 45. Kxf4 Kxc5, Black is one tempo short (draw if Black could move again here). Instead, after 46. Ne4+, Black will not be able to stop White’s promotion. Black resigned a few moves later.
The natural alternative from the diagram is 42… Kc7. Again White proceeds with the main plan, 43. Ke4, and now what next for Black? Not 43… Kc6 or 43… Ke7, which fail in the same way to 44. Nf3. After either 43… Kc8/d8 44. Nc2 K-any 45. Nd4 White has successfully regrouped, while 44… Ng8 45. Kf3 K-any 46. Nd4 comes to the same thing. The only alternative to the king retreat is 43… Ng8, but then 44. Kf5 wins.
In these lines, the Nf3 tactic forced the black king backwards after 43. Ke4. Black can alter the timing via 42… Kc8 (42… Kd8 is similar), and amazingly this saves the game:
42… Kc8!! (or 42… Kd8!!) 43. Ke4 Kc7 44. Nc2 Ng8!, and now Black threatens a fork on f6. If 45. Kf3, as in the previous variation, Black now has 45…. Kc6, when the king breaks into the queenside: 46. Kg4 Nf6+ 47. Kxg5 Nxh5 48. Kxh5 f3, and the pawn decoys the knight; it’s drawn with best play. Also, with the white knight at c2, 45. Kf5 allows 45… f3, and Black survives.
From the diagrammed position, 42… Ng8? loses to 43. Kf5. The key is to play … Ng8 while the white king is on e4 and the white knight has moved to c2, with the black king on c7 or d7.
The Irish Championship in 1983 was held, for the first and so far only time ever, in Castlebar. With continued sponsorship from IBM, the event attracted a large field of 32, including almost all of the top players in the country. The player on form and clear favourite was David Dunne, who had recently received the FM title, and who was rated, at 2406 (ICU), 142 points higher than second seed Philip Short.
There is very little information available on this event in the ICU web pages: the tournament pages give only the scores of the top ten finishers, without even the names of the others, and the ICU games archive has no games, as of the date of this post. It seems that a book was planned, but it never happened.
However, Fiacla Fichille had eight games, and the Irish Times had almost complete results of the first six rounds. In addition, Alan Ludgate sent all his scoresheets, including notes on the top pairings and scores in all rounds, and Derek McGill and Dave Salter provided game files with all of their games; many thanks to each. In all, this yields 31 of the maximum of 144 games. John Gibson’s archive of material included several relevant documents, including the flyer and a partial crosstable, and all relevant issues of Fiacla Fichille. An almost full report has been added to the Tournament pages here.
It’s striking how young the field was: seven of the top eight seeds (and eight of the top ten finishers) were aged in their early 20s: in addition to Dunne and Short, these were Eugene Curtin, John Delaney (defending champion), Colm Barry, Paul Wallace, and Eddie O’Reilly.
Dunne was undefeated and finished clear first on an unbeaten 7/9, and never fell out of the lead or joint lead at any stage. Four of his wins came against players in the top ten seeds: Alan Ludgate, Eddie O’Reilly, Philip Short, and Eugene Curtin.
Nevertheless, the championship was in play until the last round: Colm Barry could have shared the title if he had won his last round game against O’Reilly instead of drawing; as it was, he finished clear second on 6½. Delaney, Curtin, O’Reilly, and Wallace finished joint 3rd on 6, with Delaney taking the third place trophy on tie-break.
The diagram shows a critical moment, from round 7.
Entering the round, Dunne led by half a point from Barry, Delaney, and Short. He was paired against Curtin, who was one of a group a further ½ point back.
Dunne – Curtin, Irish Championship 1983 (7)
21… ?
Here the natural 21… g6 would equalise completely. Instead Curtin played 21… h6?, and after 22. Rdg1, compounded his problems with 22… Kh8?!. After 23. g5, he was already lost.
In the other games in this round, Delaney drew with Short and Barry with Wallace, leaving Dunne a clear point ahead of the field with two rounds to go, from where two draws were enough to clinch the title.
David Dunne had perhaps the most consistent career performance in the Irish championship of any player. In five championships, he finished 1st-2nd 1979 and 1981 (shared title, with Eamon Keogh and Short respectively), 1st-3rd 1982 (with Delaney and Short; lost for title to Delaney on tie-break), 1st 1983, and clear 2nd in 1988 (1st Short). However, Castlebar was the only time he finished as sole champion.
Thomas Bewley, who died aged 95 last June, was a highly distinguished psychiatrist who had a major impact on the treatment of alcoholism and drug addiction, as noted by extensive obituaries in the Irish Times, Guardian, Telegraph, and Times, amongst others.
He was born in Dublin in 1926 into the prominent Quaker family; as he described it himself, he was part of the ‘medical’ branch, and the ‘café’ branch were cousins. As described in the Guardian obituary, at the age of eight he was sent to Arnold House, a boys prep school in Wales, where he developed a love of chess. He went on to Rugby School, but returned to Ireland at the outbreak of the Second World War and finished school at St. Columba’s College. From 1944 to 1950 he studied medicine at Trinity College Dublin, then worked at the Adelaide Hospital and St. Patrick’s, before leaving for England in 1956, where he spent most of the rest of his life.
He played in one Irish championship, in Belfast in 1950, where he finished equal 5th-11th out of 22, on 4½/8. His one game in the ICU games archive is from that event, from round 5, against Warwick Nash of Athlone, several times Olympiad player and Irish correspondence champion.
Bewley – Nash, Irish Championship 1950 (5)
Final position
It’s a fine attacking win, based on an enterprising opening. If this is typical of his style, it’s puzzling that there are so few of his games in the archives.
The Irish Championship 1997 came down to the final game between Anthony Fox and Stephen Brady. A win for Brady would leave him tied with Joe Ryan for first, on the astounding score of 8½/9, thus sharing the title, while a draw would leave Ryan as sole champion.
As described by Colm Daly in the Irish Chess Journal report,
“The game looked drawish for about 95% of the time but just when it seemed to be turning in Stephen’s favour, his opponent started to play passively and allowed Stephen to build up a Q-side initiative. Soon the position was winning for Stephen (even if it had to be proved) but he went badly wrong and allowed a perpetual check.”
The diagram shows the crucial position.
Fox – S. Brady, Irish Championship 1997 (9)
68… ?
Here Stephen played 68… Ka7?, and after 69. Be4 b3+ 70. Kc3 Qb4+ 71. Kd4 c3+ 72. Ke3 c2 73. Qd7+, the game soon ended in a perpetual check, thus giving Joe Ryan the championship outright. Here 69… Bd6 is no better, as White has an immediate perpetual starting with 70. Qd7+.
But what about the alternative, from the diagram, 68… Bd6, as suggested by Daly? Does this in fact win?
It would certainly have made the defence more difficult. But it seems to me that with best play, there is no win.
After 70. Be4 Qd4 71. Kc1 b3, it seems that after 72. Bh7, Black will eventually be able to break through, but White has the saving resource 72. f4!!. After 72… gxf4 73. g5 Ka5 74. Qd5+ Qxd5 75. Bxd5 Kb4 76. g6 Bf6 77. Be4, Black is unable to break through with the king (77… Kc5 78. Bg2 Kd4 79. Kd2), while the breakthrough 77… c3 78. bxc3 Kxc3 is a tablebase draw: White plays 79. Kd1 and holds the f-pawn with the king, leaving the b-pawn to the bishop. If instead 77… Bg7!?, seeking to place the white bishop on a less favourable square, it is essential for White to respond 78. Bc6 or 78. Bd5: the bishop must be on one of the squares e4, d5, c6 when Black plays … c3.
The report on the event in the Tournament pages here has been greatly expanded. Once again, I’m indebted to John Gibson for providing a huge trove of material.
Black’s last move 24… Rf8-d8? turns out to be an error that allows White to develop a crushing attack. In the game, Peter missed the chance with the natural 25. Rd1?, and won after some further inaccuracies by Black.
The (engine-found!) best move here is 25. d5!. Now something like 25… a5 fails to 26. Qe6+ Kf8 27. Re1 Re8 28. d6! and it’s all over.
But how does White counter the most natural response 25… Nxd5? This part I’ll offer as an exercise.
In the Irish Championship 1999, defending champion Colm Daly had some difficulties at the beginning of the event, drawing in round 2 against Gerard O’Connell and then losing in round 3 against Jonathan O’Connor. His 5½/6 in the remaining games was enough to retain the title by the minimum margin over Tom Clarke.
In his notes to the round 2 game in the Irish Chess Journal, Gerard O’Connell said “I was convinced that I had a winning advantage” in the diagrammed position, but that none of his considered 17. Nxd7, 17. Nxf7, 17. Nxd5 and 17. f5 seemed to work.
How should he have continued, and what is the evaluation with best play?
The report on the event has been updated and significantly expanded, now including the report from the Irish Chess Journal (from John Gibson collection).
In the 1985 Irish Championship, contemporary reports said that Mark Orr was in serious danger in only one game: his round five encounter with 17-year-old Kieran Greer.
After Black’s 21… g6, the position in the first diagram was reached. How should White continue?
I highly recommend treating this as an analysis problem; it seems one of the best exercises arising from an Irish Championship that I have ever encountered.
Greer – Orr, Irish Championship 1985 (5)
22. ?
After the game continuation 22. Bh6 Qe7, the second diagram was reached. How should White continue here?
