Latest news
New
link for Irish Chess Online. Webmaster David McAlister advises that
the ICO site has moved to a new address at http://www.irishchessunion.com.
Details of recent Waterford Open as well as May 2003 rating update now
available. 29/05/03
Results:
The Hewlett Packard Galway Open , 17-18th May 2003. GM Baburin wins
with 5/5. See report
and crosstable.
Venue: Galway Bridge Centre, St. Mary's Road, Galway. Open tournament
Format: 5 round swiss (first 2 rounds accelerated) with 90 mins per player
for all moves. (courtesy Ronan Duke) 20/05/03
Drogheda
Chess Congress: May 30-June 2. Venue: Boyne Valley Hotel. Five rounds,
competitors divided up into A-P-A groups of six by grading. Entry, 25
euro. First rd proper, Sat. May 31, 10am. Informal blitz on Friday evening,
8pm, kicks off event.
Contact Donal O'Boyle, email: daoboyle@eircom.net, ph: 041-9824864 (courtesy
Donal O'Boyle) 18/05/03
Full list of current and recent ICU ratings are available on Mark
Orr's Irish Chess
Archive site. 18/05/03
Malahide
Millenium results: Colm Daly wins Open. Open
|
U1800
| U1400
(courtesy Vincent Bissett). 8/05/03
Irish
Open / Leinster Championships results, Easter weekend: Stephen Brady
wins senior title. Full crosstables, Senior
| Intermediate
| Junior
(courtesy Vincent Bissett). 3/05/03
Irish Junior Championships results, April:
Full crosstables, U-19 |
U-16 |
U-14 |
U-12 |
U-10 (courtesy Herbert Scarry). 3/05/03
Irish
Open (incorporating Leinster Senior Chs), April 19-21, Dublin, 6 rd
event, three sections. Full details in
flier. 16/04/03
Irish Double Velvet Junior Chess Chs, April 25-27, St Benildus
College Dublin. Full details in
flier. (courtesy ICO)
16/04/03
LCU
Armstrong Cup final rd playoffs, April 12, ALSAA, Dublin: Phibsboro
A retained their title in the Leinster leagues first division with a final
round victory over Rathmines. Rathmines/Crumlin finished second. Elm Mount
and UCD were relegated to division two. 16/04/03
Cork
City Congress, 21-23 March. Venue: Gresham Metropole Hotel.
RESULTS: English GM Mark Hebden won the Masters event with 5.5/6
after a final round win over Philip Short who finished second on 5. Patrick
Miller won the Major (5.5/6) and Thomas Lane the Minor (5.5/6). Full crosstables,
Masters |
Major |
Minor. (courtesy Vincent Bissett)
28/03/03
Malahide Millenium tournament 2003 will take place on 3rd, 4th
+ 5th May, 2003 (Saturday, Sunday + Monday of May bank-holiday weekend)
at the A.L.S.A.A. Sports Complex, Swords Road, Dublin Airport, Co. Dublin
3. Sections: Open, Under 1800, Under 1400.
Format (all sections): 6-round Swiss event, 2 rounds per day (morning
+ afternoon) with 105mins each player for all moves.
Prize fund: In excess of 3,000 euro. Entry fee (all sections):
Euro30 (discount of Euro5 for any "fees" received by 28/4/03). Entries
to: Vincent Bissett, New Street, Malahide, Co. Dublin, Ph:(01)8453609
or vincentbissett@hotmail.com. Accommodation: Details available on request.
See Malahide CC's
website for more details.
Erratum:
GM John Nunn won the Bunratty Masters on tiebreak and not IM
Brian Kelly as previously reported. Kelly beat Nunn in their individual
game and in the final shakeout both players were joined on 4.5/6 by GM
Baburin, Yuri Rochev and Lorin D'Costa. See ICO
for full results. Over 300 players took part in this year's festival.
28/02/03
Cormac
Brady (1956-2003) by Hugh Cummins amended 01/03/03
Brian
Fitzpatrick won the Gonzaga Open ahead of Sam Collins. See ICO
for full results. 28/02/03
Stephen Brady and Mel O'Cinneide fared well at the annual open at Val
d'Aosta both finishing on 5.5/9. Check the event
site to see how they are getting on. 28/02/03
North Munster Championships take place on 5-6th April, 2003
1st round @ 10:00am. Venue: Auburn Lodge Hotel, Galway Road, Ennis, Co.
Clare. 2 sections: Under1200 + Open Entrants. Restricted to those players
resident or originally from North Munster (Charleville, Clare, Kerry,
Limerick + Tipperary). Entry fee: Euro15, Under18s = Euro10. Entries to:
John Cassidy, Loyola, Cusack Road, Ennis, Co. Clare. Ph(065)6824642 by
Wed 2/4/03. (courtesy Vincent Bissett). 15/02/03
Bunratty
Chess Festival takes place on February 21-23 and will draw upwards
of 250-300 players from Ireland and further afield to the Fitzpatrick
Bunratty Hotel. For full details, including online entry, see the Bunratty Chess Festival
site.4/02/03
Rathmines
Chess Club have changed their opening nights. The club now meets at
Rathgar Parish Hall, 52 Grosvenor Road, on Tuesday and Thursday nights
from 7.30pm onwards and no longer meets on Saturday night. 4/02/03
It is with great sadness that we heard of the tragic, early death of Cormac
Brady last week. Cormac was a well-known and well-liked member of the
Irish chess community over the last three decades. A loyal, competitive
and successful club player with many of the strongest club teams in Leinster,
he won Armstong Cup medals with Bray and Crumlin in recent years before
joining the recently formed club in Wicklow town. I'm sure that many readers
of this page will join in offering our condolences to Cormac's family.
27/1/03
LCU
Armstrong fixtures, 2003 (courtesy Gerry Behan). Download
(xls format) 8/1/03
GM
Alexander Baburin has written to indicate that postings on the bulletin
board purporting by him are in fact the work of an impostor. I take the
opportunity to repeat that contributors are requested to sign their postings
using their own name. 8/1/03
LCU
Xmas Blitz, 7 December: Results - Winner: Martin Schmidt, 2nd Mel
O’Cinneide, 3rd Peter Hayes, 4th Derek Smith
Runners Up: 1st Ciaran Quinn, 2nd Joerg Weidemann, 3rd H. Hofstra. Best
under 1500: Gerard Reilly and Darren McCabe. (Courtesy / for further info,
ICO ) 26/12/02
Kilkenny
2002 results: Four sections, two hundred and fifty players, four
winners ... GM Alexander Baburin won the Masters, Richard O'Donovan the
Major. Peter Carden the James Mason and Jonathan Wyse the Challengers.
Full crosstables at ICO.
26/12/02
The 2002 Chess Olympiad finished in Bled, Slovenia at the weekend
with the Irish men's team finishing in its highest position ever after
good results in the last two rounds (4-0 v Costa Rica and 2-2 v Romania).
The most notable result was Sam Collins' excellent 7.5/8 which won him
the board six gold medal (Sam will be interviewed on the Pat Kenny
radio show, Wed 13/11/02, according to an email from Alexander Baburin).
On other boards, Brian Kelly's 7.5/11 was nearly good enough for a second GM norm while IM Mark Orr had a good event on board five between making despatches in his Bled diary (see for full Irish team performance details).
Final Irish board scores. Men GM A.Baburin 4.5/11, IM B.Kelly 7.5/11, IM M.Quinn 3.5/10, IM M.Heidenfeld 2.5/8, IM M.Orr 5.5/8, S.Collins 7.5/8. Women Suzanne Connolly 6.5/13, Debbie Quinn 4.5/10, Gearoidin Ui Laighleis 4/10, Elisabeth O'Shaughnessy 3/9
For further accounts of the Olympiad, see the daily diary kept by Gerry
Graham, men's team captain, on the
Limerick Chess Club site. The official
site was excellent also.
Prior to the event, the Irish Chess Union stripped Colm Daly, the original choice for board five, of his place on the team. The reasons for this decision are alluded to in an ICU statement confirming the decision. 25/10/02
Mel
O'Cinneide won the 2002 City of Dublin senior event with 5.5/6. Full
crosstables (courtesy ICO)
- Senior
| Intermediate
| Junior.
Venue: The Bankers Club, 93 St Stephens Green, 4-6 October. Flier
(doc). 25/10/02
European Youth championships, October 2002, Penascola, Spain.
See team manager, Herbert Scarry's account
of the Irish performance. (courtesy ICO)
25/10/02
Crumlin CC represented Ireland at the European club championship
in Kallithea, Greece on 22-28 September and finished a creditable 43rd.
Top scorer for CCC was Derek Smith (2/6) which included a draw against
a 2400+ Israeli IM. See official
site. 25/10/02
Chess
on the radio: Tom O'Sullivan advises that there is a regular Chess
Broadcast on NEAR FM 101.6. 'Chess Corner' on OTT [On the Touchline- a
midweek sports program] - usually the first item on the show which starts
just after 7 p.m on Wednesday nights, repeated 11.30 a.m on Thursday.
NEAR FM is a Northside Community Radio Station aimed at North Dublin -
City & County but can be picked up in the south city as well apparently.
31/08/02
Dublin
Classic results: 1st FM Jorg Weidemann (Germany) 5/5, 2nd IM Mark
Heidenfeld 4.5. 64 participated. Full
crosstable (courtesy ICO).
31/08/02
Glorney
and Faber Cup 2002 results are available on John Alfred's Limerick
Region chess site. Also report
by Herbert Scarry (courtesy ICO).
31/08/02
The 2002 Dublin Classic will be held on August 24th - 25th at the
United Arts Club, 3 Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin 2. This is a 5 round open
swiss tournament which will be rated bythe Irish Chess Union. All moves
to be made in 1hr 45 minutes per player. First round 10.00am Saturday
24th. Limit on entries so early entry advised. Entries to Deborah Quinn,
8 Castle Court, Ballinteer Road, Dundrum, Dublin 14. Tel: 01-215 7850
or 087 97 87 377. Email: deborah.quinn@irishlife.ie or deborahq@gofree.indigo.ie
11/08/02
For details of recent performances by Sam Collins (Copenhagen, British
Chs), Gavin Wall (British Chs) and Joe Ryan, Mel O'Cinneide and Colm Daly
(Amsterdam), see ICO.
I cannot quite figure out whether Sam Collins made an IM norm at the British
Chs ... will advise when I find out. 11/08/02
Congratulations
to Sam Collins, winner of the 2002 Irish senior championship. Decisive
final round matches at the Charlesland Golf Club, Greystones: S.Collins
drew with Paul Dempsey while John Joyce beat Phililp Short.
Final scores: 1st Sam Collins 7/9, 2nd John Joyce 6.5, 3rd Paul
Dempsey 6. 18 played. Full results in coming days. More event info at
dublinchess.com. Final
crosstable
(courtesy ICO).
17/07/02
FIDE
all-play-all: a small closed FIDE-rated tournament played earlier
in the year was won by Joe Ryan on 6/8 ahead of John Joyce, Stephen Brady,
Mel O'Cinneide and Colm Barry. Final crosstable
(courtesy Joe Ryan). 17/07/02
ICU
AGM, July 21: The Annual General Meeting of the Irish Chess Union
will be held in the Arts Club, 3 Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin 2 on Sunday
21 July 2002 at 2.30 p.m.
Irish Blitz Championships at same venue at 11.00 a.m. Entry fee 10
euro - bring chess equipment. 14/07/02
Belfast
Summerfest, 8-9 June. 1st Tom Clarke 4.5/5, 2nd J.Munoz, 3rd G.Heathwood.
Crosstables, Open
| Challengers
|
Novices (courtesy ICO)
03/07/02
Drogheda Chess Festival, 1-3 June.
Section A: 1st Sam E. Collins (Gonzaga). Joint 2nd Colm Egan (Dublin)
and Kieran Rogers (Drogheda)
Section B: Joint 1st Peter J. Lynch (Rathmines), Nick Larter (
Ennis) and Hameed Khonji (Phibsboro)
Section C: 1st Peter C. Jackson (Phibsboro), Joint 2nd Alan Dee
(Drogheda) and Ronan Fleming (Ayrfield)
Section D: 1st Brendan Evers (Drogheda) Joint 2nd Una O'Boyle (Crumlin)
and Harry Howard (Ayrfield) 4th Austin Blake (Ayrfield) Veterans:
Joint 1st= Maurice Coveney (Douglas) and Pat Loughrey (Dublin) (courtesy
ICO) 03/07/02
Irish
team selections: a statement from the ICU's
international selection subcommittee with its recommendations for forthcoming
international selections.
17/06/02
Irish
championships 2002, July 5-14, Charlesland Golf and Country Club,
Greystones, Co. Wicklow. For detail of events, see
flyer (courtesy Dublinchess.com). 30/05/02
Bray
Rapid, June 29. Details. 30/05/02
Leinster
championship, May 17-19: Joe Ryan won the senior event on 5/6 a half-point
ahead of IM Brian Kelly and Sam Collins. Joe started with five straight
wins and a 1.5 pt cushion allowed him the luxury of a loss in the lost
round to Brian who was playing - if my memory serves me right - his first
event in Dublin for six years. Full details forthcoming.
Update: Championship report / results
and questionnaire (doc) re future Leinster chs
(courtesy Debbie Quinn) 29/05/02
Belfast
Summerfest Tournament 8th - 9th June. Venue: Queen's University Staff
Common Room, Belfast.
Sections: Open (1800+), Challengers (1400-1799), Novices (U1400 and unrated).
Schedule: Saturday Round 1: 10:00am Round 2: 2:00pm. Round 3: 5:30pm.
Sunday Round 4: 10:00am, Round 5: 2:00pm. Entry fees: £8 Open: £7 Challengers:
£6 Novices.
Time Limit: All moves in 90 minutes for each player.
Entries and enquiries to: Tony Parker, ph: 028 90281700 or email tonythetiger101@aol.com
or David McAlister, ph: 028 92638857 or email rct26@dial.pipex.com. 20/05/02
Ulster
Team Championship results: The final (a double round with 5 players
a side) ended Fisherwick 5.0 RVH 5.0. Fisherwick won the Championship
on Board Count. More details at Ulster
Chess Chronicle. 20/05/02
Some
snippets from Dublinchess.com:
According to Colm Daly, Ireland's top-rated indigenous player IM Brian
Kelly will be playing at the Bankers' Club, Stephens Green in the Leinster
Championships this weekend. Brian needs to notch up a few ICU-rated events
to qualify for the coming Olympiad team. On which subject .... Colm also
has a few cross words to say about ICU matters and the recently nominated
international selection sub-cttee. According to a notification received
here earlier this week, Gerry Graham has been appointed chairman of the
selectors who will also include myself, Tony Fox, Stephen Scannell, Jonathan
O'Connor and Herbert Scarry. While hearsay suggests that the usual back-room
mischief resurfaced in and around recent ICU meetings, I'd just like to
put on the record that I have confidence that the above cttee will carry
out their selection decisions fairly, openly and accountably. 18/05/02
Galway
Open results, May 11-12: Jt winners Lorcan O'Toole and Joe McDonnell
4.5/5. 55 took part. Full
crosstable (courtesy ICO). 18/05/02
Malahide Millenium, May 4-6. Generous prize money saw many top
players compete at this recently established annual event sponsored this
year by . Winner of the 1000 euro first prize was FM Colm Daly on 5.5/6
ahead of IM Mark Heidenfeld (5) and my Crumlin CC team-mates Mel O'Cinneide
and Daire McMahon (4.5). Irish champion FM Stephen Brady, FM Joe Ryan
and Tom Clarke were amongst those a further half-point adrift. Full
crosstable (courtesy ICO).
In the U-1600 event, UCD's Peter Carden won outright on 5.5/6. Full
crosstable (courtesy ICO). 18/05/02
North Munster Championships, April 20-21. John Alfred won on 4.5/5.
Full
crosstable (courtesy ICO). 18/05/02
Phibsboro
CC Armstrong champions 2001/2: The city centre club won the
Armstrong Cup, surprisingly I think for the first time, after the last
round play-offs in ALSAA, Co. Dublin at the end of April. Last year's
champions Crumlin CC finished second on tiebreak ahead of Kilkenny. Further
LCU league results to follow.
Armstrong (Div 1): 1st Phibsboro A, 2nd Crumlin. Relegated: Faughs
& Celbridge.
Heidenfeld (Div 2): 1st Dun Laoire, 2nd UCD, both promoted. Relegated:
Elm Mount "B" & Faughs.
Ennis Shield (Div 3): 1st Wicklow, 2nd Lucan, both promoted. Relegated:
Demoted: Celbridge + Tallaght/Rathfarnham.
O'Hanlon Cup (Div 4): 1st Dublin University 2nd Straffan, both
promoted. Relegated : UCD +Lotus.
BA Cup (Div 5): 1st Jobstown and Drogheda, both promoted.
I'm sure all players actively involved in the LCU leagues will share in a word of thanks to Tom O'Sullivan, the leagues controller, and all of the individual league controllers for their sterling efforts throughout the season. Also to Peter Scott for maintaining his excellent Chess League LCU results service. 18/05/02
Chess Links |
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Irish Chess Online
Updated link: ICU official website |
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Including the indispensable weekly magazine, The
Week in Chess (TWIC), published Monday/Tuesday each week. Also access
to ...
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Includes links to GM Alexander Baburin's Chess Auction
site, his best games and coaching details
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Maintained by IM Mark Orr, a record of Irish championships,
representative team performances, biographical information about
Irish players
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Updated 09/05/00
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A site I like very much
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Maintained by John Saunders covering many top British
events in addition to the 4NCL leagues
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Go - oriental strategy game for people who don't
find chess confusing enough
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Hannon Russell's chess archive including monthly
columns by Tim Harding, Hans Ree and Edward Winter
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The best chess magazine in the world. 1900+ chess
links
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