Thanks
I would like to thank the Chief Arbiter IA Alon Shulman, Deputy Arbiter FA Colm O'Muireagain, National Arbiter Adam Rushe, National
Arbiter James Forde, National Arbiter Ronan Sutton, ICU Chairperson Desmond Beatty, the ICU, organiser Sandra Woods,
Ola Piechorowska, smart board set up specialists Frank Pentony and Sean Cummins, WICF Advocates Brid Graham and Camille Secher, Twitch Streamers WFM Diana
Mirza and Patrick Lessmeister, Tugdual Dru, Lorna McHugh, Mary Pracht, Noel Farry, Oksana Hushpit, anyone who helped in any way, the players and their families, the Diamond Coast Hotel, photographer Conor Doherty, our corporate sponsors: Beyond,
DGT, Chessable,
Liber Bookshop, Dmac Media, Abtran, Dunnes Stores, Chess.ie, Sligo Credit Union, and our many board sponsors. The tournament would not have been possible without all of these people and companies. Thank you all. Your generosity and hard work are greatly appreciated.
100% DGT Smart Boards
Anticipating 200 players, we had 100 DGT smart boards ready in the playing area. Every player played on a DGT smart board and had access
to their PGNs after the game through Lichess. Our Twitch streamers, WFM Diana Mirza and Patrick Lessmeister, had access to every game and commentated on many of them. In the 25 questionnaire responses that I have received thus far, most people have cited the
ubiquity of smart boards are one of their favorite aspects of the event.
Players
We had 194 players across four sections representing 13 different national federations: England, FIDE Flag, France, India, Ireland,
Italy, Mexico, Scotland, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Ukraine, USA, and Wales. We had unrated players participating in their first over-the-board tournament and we had last year's winner, FM Jonathan Pein. We had our invited guest, Swedish WIM Irina Tetenkina, who we
thank for her attendance.
Title Winners
Pairings/Results:
https://chess-results.com/tnr838243.aspx?lan=1
Here are the winners of the titles:
|
Title
|
Name
|
|
Master 1st Place
|
James Naughton
|
|
Master 2nd Place
|
FM Oscar Abraham Culbeaux Tello
|
|
Master 3rd Place
|
IM Oleg Gubanov
|
|
|
|
|
Championship 1st Place
|
Nitish Arun
|
|
Championship 2nd Place
|
Sergey Nikiforov
|
|
Championship 3rd Place
|
Darun Govindaraju
|
|
|
|
|
Major 1st Place
|
Christopher Woods
|
|
Major 2nd Place
|
Finn Cummins
|
|
Major 3rd Place
|
Akim Pikh
|
|
|
|
|
Challenger 1st Place
|
Cal Nolan
|
|
Challenger 2nd Place
|
Jamie Comley
|
|
Challenger 3rd Place
|
Deason Kelly
|
|
|
|
|
Best Women's Player 1st Place
|
WIM Irina Tetenkina
|
|
Best Women's Player 2nd Place
|
Alina Kononova
|
|
Best Women's Player 3rd Place
|
Nicole White
|
Live Board Games
All of the games can be found at the links below.
Masters
Championships
Majors
Challenger
Twitch Streamers - WFM Diana Mirza and Patrick Lessmeister
WFM Diana Mirza and Patrick Lessmeister commentated tournament games on her Twitch channel (https://www.twitch.tv/dianamirza). You
can find the videos of their commentary using the links below:
Round 1 (Part 1) -
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2051140360?collection=bEmQATdQsRcv4g
Round 1 (Part 2) -
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2051262487?collection=bEmQATdQsRcv4g
We also had an IP camera with a wide angle static shot of the playing area that was used as part of the stream.
Professional Photography
There was a photographer present for round 3 and the awards ceremony. You can find those photographs at the following link:
https://condohphotography.pixieset.com/sligochessevent2024/.
Women In Chess Foundation
We received the first ever WICF Safepolicy certification in recognition of our code of conduct, our associated processes, and the training
and presence of our WICF advocates. The WICF advocates maintained their vigilance over the weekend looking out for any instances of misconduct. This led to a safer environment for all.
Civil Defense First Aid Team
The Civil Defense first aid teams were available onsite all weekend. I am happy to report that they were not called into action.
Craig DuBose