A report on the Sligo Spring Tournament Challengers 2022 has been added to the tournament pages here. The event attracted an impressive entry of 87 players, and after five rounds, two players were on full points: Dariy Kelbas (Ukraine) and Jason Liu.
Very unusually for the third section, many games are available: we have 41 of the 191 played, from a combination of live boards and pgn contributed by players, and relayed via chief organiser Craig DuBose, for which many thanks.
Once again, there was much interesting and enterprising chess. Here are three examples.
The most interesting game of all for me was Dineen – Adebowale, round 4. In the first diagram, Dineen has (correctly) sacrificed a bishop on g6, but has no immediately obvious way of pressing home the attack. How should White continue? Engines find two substantially different ways; I did not find either too evident. (See game for answers.) Later in the same game, Black erred in a king and five pawns versus king, bishop, and two pawns ending; again, the decisive error was not at all obvious.
In Campbell -Gallagher, round 3, the second diagram was reached after White’s 14th. In her live commentary on Twitch, Diana Mirza pointed out that after the simple 14… Nc6 15. Qb7 Qc8, Black wins quickly on material. Instead, Gallagher played the creative, though not entirely correct, 14… Nb3!??, threatening mate on the move. After 15. Nbd2 Rxa1, White could have played 16. Nxb3 and emerged with a worse but still playable game. Instead play continued 16. Bxd8 Nc1+ 17. Ke1 Nxd3+ 18. Ke2 Nc1+ 19. Ke1, and now Black could have had a quick mate via 19… Nb3+ (or 19… Na2+) 20. Ke2 Bc4+ and mate next move. Instead, after 19… Bxd8, the material balance of two rooks and two bishops versus queen was overwhelming, and Black duly converted, despite White dangling a stalemate trap near the end.
In Smikle – Campbell, round 2, for which there is a nice photo immediately before the game, the third diagram shows the position after 31. Rf6. Andrew Campbell’s annotation describes his next move 31… Rg8 as a blunder (a little harshly!). What is wrong with this move, and what should he have played instead? (See game for answers.)
[Update, May 9, 2022: a revised report has been uploaded, adding Edward Loane’s annotations of his round 4 and 5 games, for which many thanks.]
I have not traced the full history of chess in Sligo—I’d be interested if anyone can shed light on this—but it goes back at least as far as 1912, when the Leinster Express announced a 10-board correspondence match between Queen’s County and Sligo County Chess Clubs. Except for an Irish Junior Championship held here a few years ago, though, I’m not aware of any tournaments there.
This gap has now been filled with the inaugural Sligo Spring Tournament, taking place this weekend at the Clayton Hotel, involving 128 players across three sections. Live boards are available for all games in the FIDE-rated Masters, and Diana Mirza is providing live commentary. A report on the Masters has been commenced here, and will be updated over the weekend. [Update, April 30, 2022: a report on the Major, up to the end of round 3, has also been added.]
Round 1: On board 1, it looked as though S. Anand Kumar, though putting up stubborn resistance against top seed Alexander Baburin, would come up short in an ending. His efforts were rewarded, however, when Baburin, very uncharacteristically for him, erred in the ending, and the game ended in a draw. Elsewhere, the new last year’s Irish U12 champion Jason Liu also drew against Sergio Esteve Sanchez. The other games went with seeding.
The game of the round was the in-form Jacob Flynn’s win against Leon Putar. In the diagrammed position, he now played 18. Rxe6!. It would have been interesting to see his continuation after 18… Kxe6: though 19. Bh6 and 19. Qb3 are winning, and 19. Qd3 is much better for White, the most accurate move seems to be 19. Qa4!! (19… fxg5 20. Bxd5+!). Black played 18… Rxe6 instead and lost in short order.
Round 2: On board 1, James Toon had the better game as Black against the second seed, Ukrainian WGM Evgeniya Doluhanova, but erred and then didn’t find the most stubborn defence. The game on board 2 seems incomplete. On board 3, Alexander Baburin, who seems definitely out of sorts, drew against Pete Morriss, who could well have played on. On board 6, Andrey Ivanov had the unfortunate experience of blundering in a drawn (I think!) position, having been completely winning earlier.
Round 3: A quick draw on board 1 between Jacob Flynn and Evgeniya Doluhanova left them tied for first on 2½/3 with S. Anand Kumar, who won his round 3 game against Pete Morriss. On board 3, Alexander Baburin had a moment of chess blindness which might have derailed an otherwise smooth win against Leon Putar, but Leon missed his chance. In the most interesting game of the round, Lara Putar won a complex game against James Toon.
The Major has featured some entertaining chess. Here is an interesting moment from the third round game between Shay Scott and Yannick Woods. What should White play now? In the game he missed the opportunity and soon lost. See the full game for answer and sequel.
Round 4: Evgeniya Doluhanova won convincingly on board 1 against S. Anand Kumar. The co-leader at the beginning of the round Jacob Flynn lost on board 2 against Lara Putar, in perhaps the most interesting game of the tournament. The third diagram shows the position with Flynn, as Black, to play his 35th. It seems, though this is far from obvious, that he has a win with 35… Qb8!, e.g., 36. Qc4 Bb2 37. Rxc2 Qg3! and White’s position collapses. Instead he erred with the plausible 35… Qf2, and later missed a not-too-straightforward drawing resource, and lost. On board 3, Alexander Baburin was held to another draw by Oisín O’Cuilleanain. On board 5, Leon Putar and Dylan Mize played an interesting opening—please tell me this isn’t theory!
Round 5: On board 1, Evgeniya Doluhanova outplayed Lara Putar in a long rook plus four pawns versus rook plus three pawns ending, with all pawns on the same flank, to win the tournament by a clear point. Alexander Baburin won against Jacob Flynn to finish clear second, with S. Anand Kumar, Oisín O’Cuilleanain, and Lara Putar sharing third place on 3/5.
Congratulations to the organisers for an outstanding inaugural event. An update on the Major and a report on the (huge) Challengers event will be added.
Update, May 3, 2022: The report for the Major has been updated to add the final results. Lukian Hushpit (Ukraine) won with 5/5, followed by Rustem Abdullayev on 4, while Steve Farry (England), David Hewitson (Sweden), James Scarry, and Yannick Woods shared third place on 3½.
Rounds 4 and 5 continued the Major’s record of enterprising and entertaining chess. The round 4 games O’Shea – Wynarczyk and Abdullayev – Hewitson were notable, but perhaps the most memorable was the round 5 game between Farry and Vjekoslav Novak. Novak sacrificed a piece, reaching the diagrammed position, and now has a clear win with 15. .. Qh6+ 16. Kg1 Qh2+ 17. Kf1, when the most precise way is 17… f4!, e.g., 18. Qd3 (what else?) Nc5! 19. dxc5 Bh3 and it’s all over. Instead he erred with 15… Rf6??, and after 16. Nde4 his queen was trapped, while there’s no mate: 16… Rh6+ 17. Bh3, etc.
The last post commented that new games from long-ago events appear all the time. Here is another example, which has also surfaced this month, and which also involves John O’Hanlon.
This one is from a subsidiary event of the British Championship 1938, held in the Royal Pavilion in Brighton. The game appeared in the Augsburger Schachblatt a month after the event (discovered by Ulrich Tamm and contributed by him to BritBase). O’Hanlon’s opponent was Jakob Adolf Seitz, 1898-1970, joint winner of the section, who had a column in the publication at least earlier in the 1930’s (source), and was perhaps giving one of his own games here. It’s not a surprise to find, therefore, that O’Hanlon lost.
O’Hanlon – Seitz, British Championship Major Open B 1938 (8)
42. ?
The game itself is a puzzle, though. O’Hanlon outplayed his opponent and built up a decisive advantage. In the diagrammed position, 42. Rxb4 Rd1+ 43. Ka2 Rxg1 44. Rb7 is winning (44… h6? 45. Ra5). O’Hanlon seemed to lose the thread, though, and after a series of aimless manoeuvres and passive choices, finally lost.
Another game from the event, versus Alfred Joseph Butcher, has long been available in the ICU game archive. It was annotated by O’Hanlon for the Belfast News-Letter, and, naturally, features a fine win: click to replay.
O’Hanlon scored a respectable +4 =2 -5 in this 12-player all-play-all, finishing in joint 7th-8th places. Full event information can be found, once again, on the BritBase event page.
One of the interesting aspects of chess history is that missing games from long-ago events turn up out of the blue, rediscovered in some out-of-the-way publication.
One such game appeared this very month, discovered by “Tabanus” at chessgames.com and relayed via BritBase: the game between Irish champion John J. O’Hanlon and Roland H. V. Scott from the British Championship 1921.
This appeared the following day in the Westminster Gazette, August 18, 1921 p. 6, under the heading “A Lively Skirmish”, and the game itself doesn’t disappoint.
O’Hanlon – Scott, British Championship 1921 (9)
11. ?
The anonymous editor gave O’Hanlon’s previous move 10. Q(b7)xa8+ a question mark, but it turns out to be best. White would now have an overwhelming advantage after 11. a4!!, with 12. Bb5 to come. I must admit that this would not have occurred to me at all; I might have considered 11. Nd2, but this turns out to be about equal. O’Hanlon made the natural choice 11. gxf3.
Scott’s defence 11… g5 12. Bxg5 Bg7 13. Qxh8 Bxh8, though also natural, seems not to be best, and engines think White is winning again after 14. Nd2!. Why this is anything other than ‘unclear’ and why it is so much better than 14. b3 or David McAlister’s suggestion 14. Bc1!? (about equal, apparently) is mysterious to me.
O’Hanlon chose the natural enough 14. b3, and after the reply 14… Nxd4!, the second diagram was reached.
O’Hanlon – Scott, British Championship 1921 (9)
15. ?
Up to now, O’Hanlon’s choices have been understandable, but his next move 15. Be3? was poor: the continuation 15… Nxf3+ 16. Ke2 d4 was obvious enough, and left him irretrievably lost. Instead 15. Nd2 would have given him some advantage.
In this 12-player all-play-all, O’Hanlon finished 11th, with a record of +2 =0 -9. The full crosstable, with much other information, can be seen on the BritBase event page.
The inaugural John Bolger Cup was held at Coláiste Éanna in Rathfarnham, Co. Dublin, from March 25-27. The event attracted 154 players across three sections. All games for the Masters section were broadcast via live boards, and a full report has now been added to the Tournaments pages here.
I have not seen any background information on the donor/honoree of the Cup, John Bolger.
The first round saw top seed Sébastien Mazé lose to the young Bulgarian player and FM Beloslava Krasteva, and second seed Matthew Turner had a quick draw on board 2. This scrambled the pairings, and after three rounds Leon Putar was in sole lead on full points, followed closely by his sister Lara and Kavin Venkatesan, plus Alexander Baburin and the Ukrainian IM Vladyslav Larkin, half a point behind. In round 4, Leon Putar lost to Larkin, Lara Putar to Baburin, and Venkatesan to Mazé. The last round saw a short draw between Baburin and Larkin to tie for first, joined by Jacob Flynn, on 4/5.
I’m never sure whether to mention blunders, as these are often painful for the players involved. I will just say that there was one for the ages in one round 2 game.
One interesting moment arose in the round 3 game between Colm Daly and the Dutch player Maxim Le Clercq.
Daly – Le Clercq, John Bolger Cup 2022 (3)
47. ?
I have to guess that Colm was short of time, as he missed a straightforward win a few moves before the diagrammed position. Now it is appreciably more difficult, and after his next move he was lost. White has a startling resource here. What is it, and what should the result be with best play?
Among the many tributes that poured in for John Gibson was one at the Irish Go Association web site, which features a very nice recent photo:
The photo’s metadata indicates that it was taken on February 29, 2020.
The last time I saw him, he remarked on the unusual friendliness of the Go community: if you’re ever in a strange city, make your way to the local Go club, and you are assured a warm welcome. It doesn’t seem to matter if you are a beginner: an expert will be willing to spend time with you.
Among the vast amount of material John has provided (some even dealing with Go), there are also several scoresheets. For this post, here is a game that does not appear in the ICU games archive, or any other database, as of today. It’s against Tony Doyle, from the Leinster Championship 1980. This strong 9-round event was held on a two-game-a-week schedule in April and May, and resulted in a win for the in-form Paul Delaney, who also won the Irish Championship later in the year. Tony Doyle was joint second, a point behind, and John finished in joint 8th, on 5/9.
In round 4, both players were going well, and were paired on board 2. John won a pawn early on, and the diagram shows the position when it came time to adjourn, with John, as White, to play and seal.
The FIDE ratings page here shows the highest FIDE ratings achieved by Irish players, ranked in descending order. The list had not been updated since the November 2020 FIDE list came out, initially because there was almost no chess activity and so no changes. However, things seem to be getting back to normal, thankfully, so the page here has been refreshed to reflect all FIDE lists up to April 2022, which has just been published.
In the meantime, the changes were:
June 2021: John L. Hughes 2247 → 2257, 61st → 56th
August 2021: Tom O’Gorman 2372 → 2377, unchanged
October 2021: Conor E. Murphy 2407 → 2428, 8th → 6th, Tom O’Gorman 2377 → 2381, 19th → 17th
December 2021: Conor E. Murphy 2428 → 2431, 6th → 5th
January 2022; Tarun Kanyamarala 2384 → 2398, 16th → 11th
April 2022: Tarun Kanyamarala 2398 → 2403, 11th → =9th-10th.
One notable milestone occurred with this latest list: Paul Henry, whose 2400 from the January 1979 list made him the highest rated Irish player ever, a record he held for many years, has fallen out of the top ten for the first time, displaced by Tarun Kanyamarala.
The last post gave one of John Gibson’s wins from Harrachov 1967, against the Dutch player Gerben van Manen. Curiously, his other win from the event came against the same player, also as Black, in the preliminary rounds.
Though the result was the same, the game itself (which has long been available in databases) could hardly have been more different. J. J. Walsh’s report said that John was “distinctly fortunate to win the first game”, and “The Knight”, writing in the Cork Examiner, similarly remarked that this game “should surely have gone the other way.” Indeed, it was a great escape of the sort that can bring more joy than a hard-fought and well-deserved victory.
Van Manen – Gibson, Harrachov 1967 qual-1 (2.4)
25. ?
The diagrammed position shows a critical juncture. White had under three minutes to make move 40, but has such an overwhelming position that it shouldn’t matter. 25. Rxf7+ leads to mate in 6, but 25. fxg6, 25. Qxc5+, and the game’s 25. Rbb7 are all around +8, according to the engine.
After 25… Rh7 26. Qxc5+ Kg7, though, instead of 27. Rxf7+, White erred with 27. Qd5??, and after 27… Kh6! was already lost. If 28. Rxf7 Rxf7 29. Rxf7 c2 30. Rxf6 c1=Q+ 31. Kh2 Qe1 and Black wins. The game finished 28. fxg6? c2 29. gxh7? c1=Q+ 30. Kh2 Bxg3 mate.
In 1967, Ireland sent a team to the World Student Team Championship, or “Student Olympiad”, in Harrachov, Czechoslovakia. As described here ten years ago, the Student Olympiads were very strong events, with far fewer weak teams than in Olympiads, and Ireland found the going very tough. Gerry McCurdy (½/11 on board 1), Noel Kerins (1/8) and Michael Roberts (½/8) had tournaments to forget, J. B. (Brian) Tomson scored a relatively respectable 2½/9, but the top scorer was John Gibson, with 3/8.
The excellent OlimpBase report of the event is missing one of his wins, and it is not currently available in the ICU games archive or in any other database that I’m aware of. I found it in two clippings (see here and here) in a package I received from John himself back in September, and as far as I know, it appears here for the first time outside those reports.
It’s a spectacular win as Black, against the Dutch player Gerben van Manen, 1946-2021, later a correspondence chess IM (1986).
Van Manen – Gibson, Harrachov 1967 final-B (6.4)
25. ?
In the diagrammed position, White has been thoroughly outplayed and is already lost. To meet the threat of … Rc2, the most natural move seems to be 25. Nde3, but after 25… Nxe3 26. Nxe3 Rd8! (threat 27… Nxe2+!!) 27. Kf2, Black has the spectacular 27… Nf3!!, winning after 28. exf3 Rxd3 29. Re2 Bd4 30. Qe1 Qd5; there must be other wins as well.
In the game, White surrendered more tamely via 25. Nd6 Qa7 26. Ne4 Rc2 27. Ra1 Qxa1! 28. Qxa1 Nxe2+ 29. Rxe2 Bxa1 30. Kf2 Bd4+ 0-1.
I was very sorry indeed to hear of the passing of John Gibson, announced on RIP.ie and the ICU web site.
I saw him in September, when he seemed in excellent form in all ways. He was interesting and entertaining, as always: it was striking how many different roles he played within chess. He played every role from junior international in the Glorney Cup and at the Student Olympiad in the 1960’s, to Leinster champion in 1978, international in senior events in later years, club player, correspondence player, and administrator. In this latter role he did a vast amount of work in the early days of the ICU rating system in the 1970’s, and he was controller of the 1972 Irish championship. And all this is just within chess: he also had a wide range of other interests, including Go.
I’m particularly grateful for the extensive information and help on Irish chess history he provided me over the years, including regular parcels of tournament flyers, documents, clippings, and games from a vast and meticulously maintained archive.
