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?
A report on the Irish Championship 1985 has been added to the tournament pages here.
The event was held in Dublin, at Ardscoil Rís on Griffith Avenue, from July 6-14, 1985. 30 players took part, including defending champion Eugene Curtin, former three-time champion Alan Ludgate, top seed (by FIDE rating) Mark Orr, Keith Allen, Colm Barry, Pat Carton, Tom Clarke, and Eddie O’Reilly. The event also featured two women for the first time ever, April Cronin and Ann Delaney, setting a record that would not be beaten until 2019. Nine players made their Irish championship débuts, including Peter Cafolla. Five members of the Glorney Cup team, including future champions Colm Daly and Niall Carton, also participated.
All the highest rated contenders dropped points early on, and after five rounds it was David Smith (Raheny) who led with full points, a point ahead of Curtin and Orr. After a loss to Orr in round 6, he won again in round 7 against Pat Carton, to regain the clear lead. He lost a long game against Curtin in round 8. In the last round, Orr could only draw against Ludgate, while Curtin won “a blunder filled game” against Barry. Both Curtin and Orr thus finished on 7/9. They could have been joined on that score by Smith, had he managed to win as White against Kilian Hynes; because of the tie-break system for a tie involving three or more players (progressive / cumulative), Smith would have been sole champion. As it was, though, he was only able to draw, and so Eugene Curtin and Mark Orr became joint champions.
As of today, only one game from the event is available in the ICU games archive: Orr’s win against Smith in round 6. However, the report adds 33 more: Alan Ludgate contributed all his scoresheets, Jonathan O’Connor contributed a games file containing all his games, J. J. Walsh’s report in Fiacla Fichille had fifteen games, and David McAlister contributed a games file of six games, one from a Tom Clarke scoresheet and the rest from various newspapers. Many thanks to all!
There were some very interesting games. Here are two critical moments from the round 8 game between Mark Orr and Colm Barry.
Which way should the king go, and what is the evaluation with best play?
Orr – Barry, Irish Championship 1985 (8)
31… ?
Three moves later, it’s White to play. How should he continue, and what is the evaluation with best play?
Full reports have been added here for last month’s Sligo Spring Tournament remaining sections: the Championship (32 players, 1st Lukian Hushpit after blitz playoff), Major (10 players, 1st Oisín O’Sullivan after blitz playoff), and the mammoth Challenger (76 players, 1st Darun Govindaraju (assigned, after a mixup in the assignment of José Carlos Leal Gámez to this section became apparent)).
Damian Evans, John Loughran, Eibhia Ní Mhuireagáin (Championship), Dermot Earls (Major), and Vladimir Mabhena (Challenger) provided notes for all their games, via Craig DuBose, for which many thanks.
The Sligo Spring Tournament 2023 was held in Enniscrone, Co. Sligo, from February 3-5. The event was held over four sections, and a full report on the Masters has been uploaded to the Tournament pages here.
The Masters attracted a strong field of 22 players, well up on last year’s 14, and resulted in a convincing win for Jonathan Pein, who conceded only half a point, and that in the last round. Last year’s winner WGM Evheniya Doluhanova of Ukraine tied for second a point back with her compatriot IM Oleg Gubanov, Alexander Baburin, and Rustem Abdullayev.
Among the most interesting games was the first round game between Ukrainian IM Andrei Rakhmangulov and Oisín P. Benson, in which Benson sacrificed a piece in the opening. Alexander Baburin’s annotation in the Sunday Independent showed that he would have held a significant advantage on 12… O-O!; unfortunately he erred with 12… Nxe3? and lost quickly.
The third round game between Bernard Boyle and Oissíne Murphy reached the diagrammed position after White’s 19. Bb5.
The game continued 19… Nexg4+! 20. Kg2 Qc8? (an error that threw away the advantage; 20… Qe6! is winning) 21. Bxd6+ Rxd6 22. Qb4, and the disadvantage of Black’s 20th becomes apparent: the rook on d6 is hanging.
After 22… Ne4 23. fxe4 Rf6, White erred with 24. exd5?, which let the black queen join the attack with the devastating 24… Qf5, after which there is no defence; in fact, it’s mate in another five moves. Instead 24. h3! would have left the outcome in doubt, with significant complications.
The City of Belfast Championships 2022 were held in June at the Maynard Sinclair Pavilion at Stormont. Usually there are two separate events for the Nemtzov Cup and the Henderson Cup, but in this case the two were combined into one event, which had 24 players.
Damien Lavery, co-organiser, did an outstanding job in making all games available immediately after the championship, along with 69 photos, and David McAlister compiled an equally prompt tournament report. The long delay since then is entirely my responsibility; apologies to Damien and David.
A full report has (finally) been posted to the tournament pages here. The photos can be viewed in a slideshow (warning: 84 MB).
The mix of playing strengths produced some interesting chess. The round 2 game between John Monaghan and Desmond Moreland reached the first diagrammed position:
Monaghan – D. Moreland, City of Belfast Championship (2)
27. ?
Here White enterprisingly went forward with 27. Kc3 (27. Ke1 wins), and after 27… Qa5+ 28. Kc2 Qa4+ 29. Kc3? Ne4+ had to go forward again with 30. Kd4. Black now had more than one way to win, but after 30… c3+ 31. Qc4 Qd7+ 32. Qd5 Qa4+ 33. Qc4, the game ended in perpetual check.
The most crucial game in deciding the destiny of the Nemtzov Cup was the defeat of the top seed Modestas Razbadauskas by Adam Rushe. The second diagram shows a critical point in the game.
Rushe – Razbadauskas, City of Belfast Championship (2)
26. ?
White now played the utterly natural 26. b4, but, very strangely, engines think this is an error that hands the advantage over to Black. I must admit that I do not understand the engine’s alternative suggestion here. The reader is invited to think about how White should proceed.
Many thanks to Robert Pye, who answered the question from the previous past on what the final outcome was in the Leinster Senior Schoolboys’ Championship (essentially the Leinster U19 championship) in 1972: the players shared the title after they had each won one game in a playoff match (see comment on last post). This was the first shared title.
The event itself was held at St. Joseph’s School for the Blind from December 28, 1971 to January 3, 1972. Eleven players entered, and Pye and Kernan finished joint first on 5½/6, dropping only a half point against each other.
Their game, in round 3, appeared in Paul Cassidy’s column in the Irish Independent on January 7. As of the date of this post, it does not appear in the ICU games archive.
The diagram shows the position facing Pye at move 10. On the previous move, he had inadvisedly captured on d5 (9. d4, with an equal game, was better).
The game continued 10. d4 exf3 (better 10… Bd6 11. Ne5 cxd5, when Black stands considerably better) 11. dxc5 fxg2 (here 11… Qg6! retained some advantage) 12. Re1, when Black’s advantage had disspiated.
The competition started in 1942, with only a single section, and limited to boys. The Leinster Schoolboys’ Championship quickly became the Leinster Senior Schoolboys’ Championship, later the Leinster Schools’ Championship, and finally the Leinster U19 Championship.
An incomplete list of winners (of the top section) is available on the Tournament Series page here. (Many thanks to David McAlister, who provided several winners I had missed.) The list covers 63 out of the 80 possible championships (there was no championship in 2021; it’s not clear if a championship was held in every other year from 1942 to 2022 inclusive).
For some years, the results of the championship event are available, but the destination of the title is unknown. For example, in 1972 Bernard Kernan and Robert Pye tied, and a playoff match was planned, but no reports seem to be available on the final outcome. (Was the title shared?) Similarly, in 2018 Jacob Flynn and Alice O’Gorman tied, but reports do not make clear how the title was decided.
I assume the trophy will be available at the competition this week. If anyone reading this is there, and can check the trophy for the missing winners, I’d be very grateful for the information.
The lists of Irish championship players have been updated to reflect the 2022 championship, and to correct some errors and add details.
Five players made their débuts in 2022, taking the total to 575 players in all, including 561 men and 14 women [but see update below]. Of these, 50 have been Irish champion.
The players who made their début in 2022 were Andrey Ivanov, Cathal Keenan, Jason Liu, Diana Mats, and Oisín O’Cuilleanain.
The first names of Hubert Boyd and Herbert Quinton were corrected, and the rendering of Donal Déiseach’s name was modified.
First names have been added for Kevin Burke (2021) (previously omitted due to a glitch), Colm Darby (1989), M. P. (Michael Philip) Furmston (1963), Shane Heffernan (1993), Maurice Hughes (1962), David Kerr (1962), W. D. (William David) Kerr (1948), Alexander Martin (1950, 1951), Dominic Mockler (1957), Derek O’Byrne (1985), Peter Ryan (1992), and Dave Smith (1981, 1982, 1983, 1985). An extra initial was added for J. A. Long (1962).
Update, December 19, 2022: The lists have been updated to distinguish between the Michael O’Brien who played in 1967 (now Michael O’Brien (of Limerick)) and the Michael O’Brien who played in six championships between 1980 and 1992 (now Michael O’Brien (of Cork)); many thanks to Jack Killane, who suggested there was an issue here. With that change, there are 576 players in all, including 562 men and 14 women. In addition, David Houston’s name (previously with typo) has been corrected, and Gearóidín Uí Laighléis’ first name has been added (previously omitted due to a glitch). First names have been added for the five players who made their début in 2022. In addition, first names have been added for Colm Kenny (1967), Victor Lyons (1967), and Peter O’Kane (1968).
I was alerted by Twitter to an interesting game earlier this week involving Gavin Wall, which comes with an even more interesting annotation. The game was against Peter Lalić in a club knockout match in London, and the annotation is by John Saunders, associate editor of CHESS magazine and founder of the BritBase archive.
The full annotation is given at Kingston C.C.’s web site; it includes some discussion of the difference between the best engine moves and the best human moves, with application to this game.
The game, without any of the notes, has been added to the archive here.
P. Lalić – Wall, Thames Valley League Knockout Cup 2022-23
17… ?
In the diagrammed position, it’s Gavin Wall to play. How should he continue?
