Ballynafeigh Super Series 2012 finale

The final event in the Ballynafeigh Super Series took place last night. Many of the usual suspects had returned but there were a couple of newcomers too. 27 souls in total eventually turned up, the second-best attendance of the four tournaments. These included Gareth Annesley, who just happened to be walking past the Ballynafeigh Community House, saw the lights in the upstairs windows, remembered it was Tuesday night and reckoned "there be chess players up there". The Beard welcomed him like a long-lost relative and asked yours truly was there any way we could squeeze Gareth into the draw. Even though we'd been going nearly half-an-hour, I was up for the challenge and gave the big man a travelling bye for Round 1. Trouble was, with the accelerated draw already underway, there was a danger of him stomping all over a couple of 1100s for the next two rounds, but after fiddling with the innards of SwissPerfect, I found a solution that allowed him to roam with the other big beasts without troubling the impalas.

Anyway, enough of the preliminaries, the first few rounds seemed to have less shocks than some of the previous editions, and in this calm state it looked as if the Round 4 showdown between the top two seeds, Michael Waters and Steve Scannell, would decide the winner.

Throughout the evening, I had become aware of rock music seeping through the windows but it was very difficult to pinpoint exactly where it was coming from. It was almost as if Chris Millar, fabled promoter of the quick chess-background music combination, was influencing events. When I raised this conundrum with the Sultan, Ballynafeigh's eminence grise, he informed me that the music was drifting over from the other big event of the evening in Belfast, an open air concert being given by the Foo Fighters to 30,000 fans in Boucher Road.

Back in our own little Nirvana, things had taken an unexpected turn. Scannell had beaten Waters in the battle of the giants and general expectation was that he would go on serenely to take the top prize. But we had reckoned without Stephen Morgan, making his debut in the Ballynafeigh Super Series. After a theoretical Gruenfeld Defence (something of a rarity in Ulster chess) Scannell seemed to have Morgan in a spot of bother in the endgame (two bishops, passed pawn) but the latter had other ideas, creating a passed pawn of his own which was to cost Scannell one of his bishops and ultimately the game. When I mentioned to Scannell that he seemed to have lost a theoretically won ending, he good-naturedly put this patzer in his place by telling me I needed to study some of the 1990 World Championship Gruenfeld endgames before making such sweeping statements.

So instead of a single winner and a nice easy prize allocation, we had four players tied first. Oh, dear, only two main prizes to give out, so recourse had to be made to the dreaded tie-breaks. Unfortunately for the gallant Morgan, the tie-break placed him third and therefore out of the prizes. Scannell had just hung on for first with Waters second. Ian Woodfield, who had beaten Super Series One winner Damien Lavery in the final round in a flurry of hands moving pieces and pressing clock-levers, was fourth in this tie-break evaluation but had the considerable consolation of winning the under 1900 Grading Prize.

The other two Grading Prizes also went to tie-break with Niall Troughton just edging out Tony Redden for the under 1600 Section with Ram Rajan marginally ahead of John Monaghan in the under 1300s. In what I hope is a small consolation for missing out in a prize by the slimmest of margins in each case, our three unlucky tie-break losers were offered free entry next time they come to a Ballynafeigh-organised event. Hopefully, we can give them that opportunity next Summer when, all other things being equal, the Beard and I plan to run the Super Series again. However, before that comes around, we are hoping to do something in October before the league season starts, something a little different which hopefully will be sufficiently interesting to attract our faithful participants back to the Ormeau Road. Look our for details here or at the Ballynafeigh CC website (or possibly a personal e-mail from the Beard himself).

Having finished the prizegiving and made a desultory attempt to help in putting away the tables and chairs, it was time to wend my way home. As I drove up the Malone Road and then on to Balmoral Avenue and Stockmans Lane I passed many happy concert-goers walking home from their night-out listening to Dave Grohl and co. Hopefully our own little events have given our paying customers an equally good time.

No Name              Rtg  Total  1    2    3    4    5   Prize

1  Stephen Scannell  2046 4     12:W 15:W  4:W  2:W  3:L First
2  Michael Waters    2132 4      5:W 23:W  3:W  1:L  6:W Second
3  Stephen Morgan    1969 4     17:W  6:W  2:L  7:W  1:W
4  Ian Woodfield     1689 4      9:W  8:W  1:L 13:W  5:W Grading U1900
5  Damien Lavery     1725 3      2:L 13:W 11:W 10:W  4:L
6  Damien Cunningham 1649 3     16:W  3:L 15:W 14:W  2:L
7  Gareth Annesley   1921 3      0:D 16:W  8:W  3:L  9:D
8  Mark Newman       1781 3     10:W  4:L  7:L 19:W 18:W
9  Eamonn Walls      1954 3      4:L 18:D 14:W 25:W  7:D
10 John McKenna      1633 3      8:L 19:W 23:W  5:L 21:W
11 Niall Troughton   1562 3     15:L 12:W  5:L 16:W 17:W Grading U1600
12 John Bradley      1723 3      1:L 11:L 22:W 27:W 20:W
13 Tony Redden       1537 3     22:W  5:L 26:W  4:L 15:W 
14 Mathew Chapman    1345 2.5   26:W 17:D  9:L  6:L 24:W
15 Danny Mallaghan   1780 2     11:W  1:L  6:L 22:W 13:L
16 Desmond Moreland  1801 2      6:L  7:L 19:W 11:L 27:W
17 Sam Flanagan      1706 2      3:L 14:D 20:W 18:D 11:L
18 Steven Eachus     1546 2     23:L  9:D 21:W 17:D  8:L
19 Colin Fenton      1356 2     27:W 10:L 16:L  8:L 25:W
20 William Storey    1329 2     24:D 25:W 17:L 21:D 12:L
21 Ram Rajan              2     25:D 24:W 18:L 20:D 10:L Grading U1300
22 John Monaghan     1110 2     13:L 27:W 12:L 15:L 26:W
23 Callum Ormerod    1756 2     18:W  2:L 10:L 26:W  0: 
24 Paul Anderson     671  1.5   20:D 21:L 25:L  0:W 14:L
25 Gary Johnston     1167 1.5   21:D 20:L 24:W  9:L 19:L
26 Paul Logan        1007 1     14:L  0:W 13:L 23:L 22:L
27 Patrick Magee     1039 1     19:L 22:L  0:W 12:L 16:L

Third Ballynafeigh Super Series quickplay

The June 2012 edition of the Ballynafeigh Super Series was slotted neatly between the Euro2012 football semi-finals, and for July it was placed between the end of the Tour de France and the start of the Olympic Games. This time quality and quantity were even better than before; 32 players taking part, with big-hitters like Michael Waters, Stephen Scannell, Eamonn Walls and Gareth Annesley vying with quickplay specialists Des Moreland, Damien Lavery and Damien Cunningham plus strong Intermediate players like Danny Mallaghan, Mark Newman, Ian Woodfield and Sam Flanagan. Throw into the mix a host of competitors fighting for three grading prizes and an exciting tournament was almost guaranteed. There were plenty of upset wins by lower-rated players (as a careful perusal of the crosstable below will show) but most of the usual suspects rose to the top in the battle for first place. In the end the tight nature of the contest was shown when three players - Scannell, Waters and Walls - tied for first on 4 points from 5 games. Scannell, Ballynafeigh's principal standard-bearer, had the best tie-break and was awarded first place, while even the tie-breaks couldn't separate the two Fisherwick players, Waters and Walls, who therefore shared the second prize. Grading prizes went to David Conlon, Matthew Chapman (both of the host club) and RVH's John Monaghan.

No Name                  Total  1    2    3    4    5   Prize

1  Stephen Scannell      4      7:W  4:W  2:D  3:W  6:D First
2  Michael Waters        4     15:W  8:D  1:D 21:W  7:W Second equal
3  Eamonn Walls          4     11:W 16:W 20:W  1:L 10:W Second equal
4  Desmond Moreland      3.5   26:W  1:L  8:W  5:D 16:W
5  David Conlon          3.5    6:W 15:L 12:W  4:D 17:W Grading U1700
6  Damien Lavery         3.5    5:L 18:W 23:W 24:W  1:D
7  Ian Woodfield         3      1:L 10:W 21:W 20:W  2:L
8  Gareth Annesley       3     23:W  2:D  4:L 25:D 15:W
9  Mark Newman           3     16:L 17:W 11:W 10:L 21:W
10 Mathew Chapman        3     32:W  7:L 27:W  9:W  3:L Grading U1500
11 Damien Cunningham     3      3:L 22:W  9:L 26:W 25:W
12 John Monaghan         3     24:W 23:L  5:L 19:W 20:W Grading U1200
13 Tony Redden           3     17:D 20:L 28:W 14:D 22:W
14 Colin Fenton          3     22:L 32:W 18:D 13:D 24:W
15 Sam Flanagan          2.5    2:L  5:W 16:D 29:W  8:L
16 Niall Troughton       2.5    9:W  3:L 15:D 28:W  4:L
17 Danny Mallaghan       2.5   13:D  9:L 25:W 18:W  5:L
18 Robert Lavery         2.5   30:W  6:L 14:D 17:L 29:W
19 Ram Rajan             2.5   29:D 25:L 26:W 12:L 28:W
20 Richard Gould         2     27:W 13:W  3:L  7:L 12:L
21 Martin Kelly          2     31:W 27:W  7:L  2:L  9:L
22 Paul Anderson         2     14:W 11:L 24:L 23:W 13:L
23 Paul McLoughlin       2      8:L 12:W  6:L 22:L 30:W
24 Mohamed Saad          2     12:L 31:W 22:W  6:L 14:L
25 Chris Armstrong       2     28:D 19:W 17:L  8:D 11:L
26 Dennis Wilkinson      2      4:L 30:W 19:L 11:L 31:W
27 Callum Ormerod        2     20:L 21:L 10:L 30:W 32:W
28 Paul Logan            1.5   25:D 29:W 13:L 16:L 19:L
29 Garry Johnston        1.5   19:D 28:L 31:W 15:L 18:L
30 Adrian Dornford Smith 1     18:L 26:L 32:W 27:L 23:L
31 Patrick Magee         1     21:L 24:L 29:L 32:W 26:L
32 Charlie Logan         0     10:L 14:L 30:L 31:L 27:L

Top seeds Waters and Scannell fought out an entertaining draw in Round 3.

[Event "Ballynafeigh Super Series 3"] [Site "?"] [Date "2012.07.24"] [Round "3"] [White "Waters, Michael"] [Black "Scannell, Stephen"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "A04"] [PlyCount "68"] [EventDate "2012.??.??"] [Source "ChessBase"] [SourceDate "1997.11.17"] 1. b3 c5 2. Bb2 d6 3. e3 Nc6 4. Nf3 e5 5. d4 e4 6. Nfd2 d5 7. c4 Nf6 8. cxd5 Qxd5 9. Bc4 Qf5 10. O-O cxd4 11. exd4 Bd6 12. g3 O-O 13. Re1 Re8 14. Nf1 Qh3 15. Ne3 Bg4 16. Bf1 Qh5 17. Nxg4 Nxg4 18. h3 Nf6 19. Qxh5 Nxh5 20. Nd2 f5 21. g4 fxg4 22. Nxe4 Bb4 23. hxg4 Bxe1 24. Rxe1 Nf6 25. Nxf6+ gxf6 26. Bc4+ Kg7 27. Rd1 Rad8 28. d5 Ne5 29. g5 fxg5 30. Bb5 Re7 31. d6 Re6 32. Bc4 Ree8 33. Bb5 Re6 34. Bc4 Ree8 1/2-1/2

Ballynafeigh Super Series - June edition

With the European Football Championships taking a short break before their semi-finals, we cunningly scheduled the second edition of the Ballynafeigh Super Series for Tuesday 26th June. Interest is high in the Series so Damien Cunningham tries to ensure we don't overtax the capacity at Ballynafeigh Community Centre. So it was a disappointment that four players had to cry off on the night but Damien still conjured up four replacements.

I was again controlling the event and decided on experimenting with an accelerated draw in the five-round Swiss to get the main contestants for the first prize to meet each other a little earlier and also give the lower rated players a more equitable list of opponents in their search for grading prizes. Overall, I think it worked quite well and more than likely I will give the system another chance next time.

Ulster Champion Michael Waters had one of his rare off-days at the May Super series event but looked in determined mood from the off this time, in particular showing good time management, and raced to four wins out of four. Nearest pursuers were on three points so Waters only needed a draw in the final round. Despite this he didn't go for safety first and rolled out the risky Albin Counter Gambit - game on! Waters had clearly equalised by move 12 but then Masterson "started sacrificing pieces like Tal" as his opponent put it. It didn't look sound (but then Tal's attacks often didn't) and Waters, with his eye firmly fixed on overall victory, decided discretion is the better part of valour and allowed a perpetual check which Masterson had no option but to take.

Now to the grading prizes: Damien Lavery, winner of the May event, conceded draws in Rounds 1 and 3 to Steven Eachus and Damien Cunningham, but wins in the final two rounds, brought him the over 1700 Grading Prize and he was the only other unbeaten player after Waters. Karina Kruk beat Ballynafeigh Rascals team-mate Robert Lavery in the final round to secure the 1400-1700 Prize. However Robert's overall efforts (which included a brave attacking effort against May runner-up Des Moreland) secured the Under 1400 Prize on tie-break from Chris Armstrong.

Ballynafeigh Super Series - June 2012
Final Crosstable

No Name                  Total  1    2    3    4    5   Prize

1  Michael Waters        4.5    8:W 15:W 14:W 12:W  5:D Winner
2  Karina Kruk           4     20:W 10:W  7:L  6:W  9:W 1400-1700 Grading
3  Damien Lavery         4     13:D  4:W 12:D 16:W 11:W Over 1700 Grading
4  Gareth Annesley       3.5    0:D  3:L  8:W 15:W 12:W
5  John Masterson        3.5    6:W 12:L 18:W 17:W  1:D
6  Sam Flanagan          3      5:L 11:W 15:W  2:L 14:W
7  Desmond Moreland      3     12:L 17:W  2:W  9:L 18:W
8  John Bradley          3      1:L 16:W  4:L 22:W 17:W
9  Robert Lavery         3     23:W 18:L 13:W  7:W  2:L Under 1400 Grading
10 Danny Mallaghan       3     14:L  2:L 21:W 19:W 16:W
11 Chris Armstrong       3     22:   6:L 20:W 14:W  3:L
12 Damien Cunningham     2.5    7:W  5:W  3:D  1:L  4:L
13 Steven Eachus         2.5    3:D 14:L  9:L 21:W 20:W
14 Chris Black           2     10:W 13:W  1:L 11:L  6:L
15 Mark Newman           2     18:W  1:L  6:L  4:L 23:W
16 Mohamed Saad          2     21:W  8:L 19:W  3:L 10:L
17 Richard Gould         2     19:W  7:L 22:W  5:L  8:L
18 Paul McLoughlin       2     15:L  9:W  5:L 23:W  7:L
19 Dennis Wilkinson      2     17:L 23:W 16:L 10:L 22:W
20 Garry Johnston        1.5    2:L 21:D 11:L  0:W 13:L
21 Patrick Magee         1.5   16:L 20:D 10:L 13:L  0:W
22 Adrian Dornford Smith 1     11:L  0:W 17:L  8:L 19:L
23 Paul Anderson         1      9:L 19:L  0:W 18:L 15:L

[Event "Ballynafeigh Super Series"] [Site "Belfast"] [Date "2012.06.26"] [Round "5"] [White "Masterson, John"] [Black "Waters, Michael"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "D08"] [PlyCount "47"] [EventDate "2012.06.26"] [Source "ChessBase"] [SourceDate "1997.11.17"] 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e5 3. dxe5 d4 4. Nf3 Nc6 5. a3 Bg4 6. Nbd2 Qd7 7. g3 Nge7 8. Bg2 Ng6 9. O-O Be7 10. b4 O-O-O 11. c5 Ncxe5 12. Nxe5 Nxe5 13. f4 d3 14. fxe5 dxe2 15. Qb3 Qd4+ 16. Kh1 exf1=Q+ 17. Nxf1 Qxa1 18. Qa4 Kb8 19. Bxb7 Qxc1 20. Bg2 Qc4 21. Qc6 Kc8 22. Qb7+ Kd7 23. Qc6+ Kc8 24. Qb7+ 1/2-1/2

Ballynafeigh May Rapidplay results

Tuesday 22nd May saw the first in a summer series of rapidplay tournaments at Ballynafeigh Chess Club. A strong field included Michael Waters, Stephen Scannell, Eamonn Walls and Gareth Annesley, but there were shocks from an early stage and in the end Damien Lavery and Desmond Moreland rose to the top. The latter two won their first four games before drawing with each other in the fifth and final round. Lavery took first prize on tie-break. Grading prizes went to Ballynafeigh pied-piper Damien Cunningham and Mohamed Saad.

Final Crosstable

No Name                  Total  1    2    3    4    5   Prize

1  Damien Lavery         4.5   17:W  5:W  3:W 10:W  2:D First
2  Desmond Moreland      4.5   13:W 15:W  6:W  7:W  1:D Second
3  Gareth Annesley       4      9:W 11:W  1:L 14:W  8:W
4  Eamonn Walls          4     14:L 21:W 18:W  6:W  7:W
5  Stephen Scannell      3.5   18:W  1:L 11:D 12:W 15:W
6  Damien Cunningham     3     12:W  8:W  2:L  4:L 11:W Under 1800 Grading
7  Danny Mallaghan       3     21:W 16:W 14:W  2:L  4:L
8  Calum Leitch          3     19:W  6:L  9:W 15:W  3:L
9  David Conlon          3      3:L 17:W  8:L 20:W 16:W
10 John Bradley          3     16:L 20:W 22:W  1:L 14:W
11 Ian Woodfield         2.5   22:W  3:L  5:D 13:W  6:L
12 Michael Waters        2.5    6:L 13:D 21:W  5:L 19:W
13 Mohamed Saad          2.5    2:L 12:D 23:W 11:L 20:W Under 1400 Grading
14 Karina Kruk           2      4:W 23:W  7:L  3:L 10:L
15 Sam Flanagan          2     20:W  2:L 16:W  8:L  5:L
16 Robert Lavery         2     10:W  7:L 15:L 18:W  9:L
17 Paul Anderson         2      1:L  9:L 19:L  0:W 22:W
18 Paul McLoughlin       2      5:L 19:W  4:L 16:L 23:W
19 Chris Armstrong       2      8:L 18:L 17:W 22:W 12:L
20 Adrian Dornford-Smyth 1     15:L 10:L  0:W  9:L 13:L
21 Martin Kelly          1      7:L  4:L 12:L 23:W  0:-
22 Ram Rajan             1     11:L  0:W 10:L 19:L 17:L
23 Paul Adamson          .5     0:D 14:L 13:L 21:L 18:L

Rapidplay at Ballynafeigh

Ballynafeigh Chess Club are running some rapidplay tournaments over the summer at their clubroom on Tuesday evenings. Planned schedule is to have one a month. Damien Cunningham has modestly christened this addition to the local chess calendar as the Ballynafeigh Super Series.

I'm going to be controlling at the first one on Tuesday 22nd May. There will be five rounds, 15 minutes each player per game. Players need to be there by 7.30 pm and the whole thing should be wrapped up by 11.00pm. I'm reliably informed places are going fast and there's already a good field entered for the series opener, so if you're thinking of playing get in touch pronto with Damien - his contact details are at the Ballynafeigh CC website.

Waters wins Williamson centenary edition

Michael Waters continued his right vein of form to win the 2012 Williamson Shield, 100 years on from its first edition. Crucial to his overall victory was a round 5 win over nine-time Williamson champion, Stephen Scannell. Waters went into the game with full points from his previous four games, with Scannell a half-point behind after taking a half-point bye on Saturday night. Waters with the Black pieces was content with a draw but was clever enough to offer the possibility of a pawn race between rival a- and h-pawns in a bishop and 4-pawn endgame. Scannell decided to grasp the opportunity to leap-frog his main rival for the title and played a move which looking like forcing Waters to give up his bishop to prevent the White a-pawn queening. But Waters countered immediately with a push of his h-pawn - he could afford to let his bishop go because now his pawn would queen first. Scannell immediately resigned.

Waters eventually finished with 5.5 points out of 6 after drawing with Danny Mallaghan, the only person who could still catch him, in the final round. That draw looked like securing Mallaghan one of the minor prizes; he had 4.5 points along with Ian Woodfield, who emerged the winner from a short but brutal battle with third-seed Gareth Annesley in the last round. The only other players who could reach 4.5 were Scannell and Callum Ormerod.  They were paired against each other and their game looked a certain draw from the time quite early in the game that a Queen and 5-pawn ending was reached. There were no obvious weaknesses to exploit or breakthroughs to make so it looked like the only thing Mallaghan and Woodfield had to worry about was who took second and who took third on tie-break.

However Scannell still had ambitions to make the prize-list and decided to try to tease out a win. The inexperienced Ormerod showed he had very strong nerves, worthy of a seasoned campaigner, and after a lot of careful manoeuvring, Scannell decided to take a very big risk to create complications, but in reality all he was doing was signing his own death warrant. Ormerod snaffled up the full-point to join those on 4.5. When the tie-break standings were calculated, it turned out that Ormerod was second, Woodfield third and despite his draw with the centenary champion, Mallaghan was remarkably out of the prizes.

Ross Harris won the 1300-1600 grading prize. Along the way he drew with the much higher- rated Mallaghan and Annesley and finished off his weekend by beating early pace-setter Damien Cunningham. Harris has just broken through the 1500 barrier and looks to be making strong strides towards 1600. He has the makings of a strong Intermediate player if he can continue to progress at his current rate. Raymond Smith took the under 1300 Grading Prize. Smith is one of those players who seems to raise his game against higher-rated opposition and he played a strong field in reaching 3.5 to win his prize on tie-break from the unlucky Gary Johnston.

Williamson Shield in early March

This year's Williamson Shield is a about a month later than usual. A few scheduling difficulties have pushed it back to the first weekend in March, but it's at its normal venue - the Maynard Sinclair Pavilion. You can find more details at the UCU website.

It will be interesting to see whether this time-slot proves popular with players. UCU Chairman John Cairns tells me that the entries so far are very encouraging with 5 of last year's top 7 already confirmed in the field. That 5 doesn't include last year's champion, Stephen Scannell, but he usually like to leave his entry late and it would be a big surprise if Scannell didn't turn up to defend his title. Main rival is likely to be Ulster champion, Michael Waters, who seems to be winning everything these days, but former winners Cairns and Gareth Annesley, the latter just back from a good performance in Bunratty, will no doubt be in the mix too.

I'm controlling the Williamson so I'm looking forward to seeing some excellent competition at close quarters.

Submarine gambit brings success for Annesley

The Bunratty weekender was held 17-19 February. The main event, the Masters,  had its strongest ever field and was won by English GM Michael Adams after a blitz play-off with former World Championship challenger Nigel Short. IM Mark Orr,  resident now for many years in Scotland, was the only Ulster player in that section and finished on 3.0 points.

There were four separate tournaments at Bunratty and four Ulster players competed in the second-tier Challengers section. Unfortunately two of them met in round one with Danny Mallaghan turning the rating list on its head by beating second seed Gareth Annesley. However Gareth shrugged off that setback to win his remaining five games and secure himself an equal first place with three others, though Jan Heinrich took the Challengers title on tie-break. Danny lost in rounds 2 and 3 but finished strongly by beating fourth seed Pete Morriss in the final round. The other two Ulster players were Cecil Sloan and Paul McLoughlin. Cecil finished on a very creditable 3.0 after playing a strong field, rated an average 161 points higher - he also beat the afore-mentioned Mr Morriss. Unfortunately Paul, who tends to blow either hot or cold, couldn't raise the temperatures of his opponents this time.

Check out the complete results at the Bunratty website