City of Belfast Championships

The City of Belfast Championships started this morning and will conclude on Sunday evening after 6 rounds have been played. After the deadline for receipt of entries passed, Brendan Jamison, one of the controlling team, sent me the list of players .

Nemtzov Cup

No  Name                  Rtg  Club        

1.  Kamil Marchlewicz     2068             
2.  Damian Marchlewicz    1948             
3.  Gareth Annesley       1908 Muldoons    
4.  Danny Roberts         1830 NICS        
5.  Mikhail Pavlov        1799 Ballynafeigh
6.  Stephen Rush          1799 QUB         
7.  Danny Mallaghan       1778 Muldoons    
8.  Pat Coleman           1668 Drogheda    
9.  Dayna Ferguson        1601 Drogheda    
10. Robert Lavery         1601 Ballynafeigh
11. Daniil Zelenchuk      1463 Ballynafeigh
12. Modestas Razbadauskas 1412             

Henderson Cup

No  Name                  Rtg  Club         

1.  John McKenna          1526 Belfast South
2.  Ram Rajan             1390 QUB          
3.  Martin Kelly          1359 Belfast South
4.  Dmitry Zelenchuk      1354 Ballynafeigh 
5.  William Storey        1343 Belfast South
6.  Cathal Murphy         1329 Belfast South
7.  Patrick McKillen      1311 Muldoons     
8.  Paul Seacroft         1150              
9.  Adrian Dornford-Smith 1148 NICS         
10. Tyrone Winter         1060 Ballynafeigh 
11. Geoff Hindley         1050 NICS         
12. Louie McConkey        1030              
13. Vincent O'Brien       919  Ballynafeigh 
14. Paul Anderson         882  Ballynafeigh 
15. Nived Binu Daniel     700               

It looks like there are going to be two very competitive sections with the traditional separation point of 1600 being used. However two players have opted and/or been allowed to move up to the Nemtzov Cup. It will be interesting to see how they will do because both teenager Daniil Zelenchuk and Modestas Razbadauskas have been in excellent form recently. The top seeded Marchlewicz brothers from Poland, who I think reside in Derry, previously competed in the Ulster Blitz Championship in December 2015 but this is their first time competing in Belfast in a standard time tournament. Overall the Nemtzov has a fresh look about it with the experienced Danny Roberts, new to Belfast chess events this year, plus two visitors from Drogheda CC - Pat Coleman and Dayna Ferguson (2nd in last years Henderson) - also competing.

In the Henderson top seed John McKenna will be aiming to retain his title. Three other former winners, Pat McKillen (2006. 2014, 2015), William Storey (2009) and Martin Kelly (2011) will be among those trying to stop McKenna scoring a brace.