Cathal Murphy shrugged off the disappointment of relinquishing his Ulster Junior title at the Europa Hotel on bank holiday weekend, by storming to 2nd place at the City of Dublin Junior six days later. His score of 5/6 at the Ambassador Plaza was a half point better than his performance at the corresponding event last year when he finished in a three-way tie for 1st spot.
Cathal as top seed played board 1 for the first five games, but on 4/4 lost his place in round 5 to the eventual winner Alan Lau. In a tight Budapest gambit declined, Lau had blundered on move 36 to which Cathal, whether under time pressure, or perhaps momentary loss of concentration, blundered immediately back overlooking a Q x R check to hand the game to his opponent. It was the only mistake Murphy made all weekend and as he went on to beat Dublin mate Sean McGowan in round 6 proved to be a costly one at 100 euros (the difference between 1st and 2nd).
His round 2 game is below. Check out the overlooked “mate in 1” on move 23, which preceded quite a neat finish on move 26. Of course all those "good" Ulster players are welcome to comment/analyse.
The Ulster triumvirate, or as they are increasingly known down south as "Three Musketeers" was completed by Philip Morrison in his third appearance in Dublin finishing with 2/6 in the Juniors, (incidentally Henry the Horse has made a new friend - a lovely Camel called Humphrey) and of course Martin Kelly who narrowly missed out in the Challengers section with 3.5/6. Martin was up material in round 5 against eventual winner Pat Coleman, before eventually losing. There was a good deal in the nearby bar on pitchers of beer for 9 euros, not that this had any interest for Martin of course!!
Check out Rookie’s regular blog for further “tongue in cheek” reports/gossip.
