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