NI Chess News

Blitz, Williamson, and Black is the new Black

2011-12-30T20:19:00.000Z

The first ever Ulster Blitz Championship was held at the Belfast Boat Club on the 27th December. I popped in about 4pm to see how the final rounds unfolded. New UCU supremo (please note the alias el presidente is copyrighted) John Cairns had magically arranged that the four contenders for the title, the Robbin brothers, Cal Leitch and the veteran (at least in this company) speedster Damien Lavery were encountering each other in the final rounds. In round 13 Leitch and Kiran Robbin had "contrived" a grandmaster draw and once again proved the maxim "discretion is the better part of valour" when they ended up tied for first place. An Armageddon game was ordered to break the tie. Leitch had Black and less time but only needed to draw. After a complicated middle game that needed a proper amount of time rather a few seconds contemplation, Leitch came out a pawn ahead and carefully hoovered off the remaining material to leave K and P v. K. Just as I was trying to work out if he had the opposition (a lengthy process for me at the best of times) Leitch calmly offered the pawn up to his opponent - after all, he only needed a draw!

For those who want an entertaining if fictionalised account of the event I warmly recommend the Beard's gossip column at the Ballynafeigh Chess Club website. I see the Beard is concerned about the embarrassment of not resigning when you've been completely mashed and provides video evidence of this phenomenon. I understand the Ulster Chess Union had arranged extensive video coverage of the event (coming to YouTube some time soon) so I look forward to examples of the equally embarrassing spectacle of some bozo having a completely won position and simply sitting there until his time runs out.

At the closing ceremony John Cairns announced that the next UCU competition will be the Williamson Shield. Although not absolutely confirmed as yet, expect it to be held on the first weekend in February at its normal venue, the Maynard Sinclair Pavilion in the Stormont estate. If I'm wrong, you didn't hear it from me!

Finally, those who have not lost the will to live (or at least visit these pages) due to my rather infrequent blogs will note that the website has had a makeover - Black is the new Black in Ulster chess circles as I now realise I have come dangerously close to plagiarising Sam Flanagan's house-style over at his Malone Chess Team website. Still it has to be better than the purple shag pile over at Ballynafeigh. BTW, congrats to my team-mates on the Angels for topping the League table at Christmas (my absence from the team-sheet obviously instrumental!)

Rookie rides again

2011-12-10T00:02:00.002Z

It took three seasons after 5 consecutive 5-2 defeats, but at last Malone beat Bangor in the UCU League on 8/12/11. Despite those defeats, Malone had won UCU League Division Two in the last two campaigns. How ironic it would be if Bangor go on to win it this season.

Groomsport was the windswept setting for the match and Bangor got "the wind up" when captain Martin Kelly's favourite Vienna Gambit "waltzed" to victory against young "ashen-faced" Ashley McWhinney. The 2011 Henderson Cup winner was able to "make winning" moves against McWhinney as shown below.

R. Proctor "gambled" and lost to J. Bryars, while D. Ruben avoided a "drubbing" by drawing against P. McLaughlin. P. McGuigan said "play it again, Sam" after beating Sam Flanagan to keep Bangor's hopes alive but it was "alan a day's work" for Stephen Morgan as he clinched victory for himself and Malone against Alan McConnell! The final score was Bangor 1.5-Malone 3.5.

Ulster Masters

2011-11-04T09:27:00.008Z

The Ulster Chess Union has announced a new event on their calendar: the 2011 Ulster Masters, to be played on the weekend of the 10th-11th December at the Belfast Boat Club.

EDIT 07/12/2011: Entry fee reduced from £20 to £12 (£10 if entered by 09/12/2011)

Full details at the UCU website

Autumn Rapidplay

2011-09-24T18:25:00.002+01:00

The Ulster Chess Union is running a rapidplay tournament at the Belfast Boat Club on Sunday 9th October. There will be 6 rounds and players will have 25 minutes plus a 3 second increment for each game. There is a guaranteed £200 prize fund with 3 grading prizes.

More details at the UCU website

City of Dublin Championships

2011-09-08T10:22:00.002+01:00

The weekend after the Ulster Championships, a sizeable contingent of Ulster players headed south for the City of Dublin championships organised by the Leinster Chess Union.

The championships were played in four sections and it was in the Majors (for players rated between 1600 and 1999) where our players enjoyed most success. Eamonn Walls, who had finished 3rd in the Ulster Senior, finished clear first with 5.5 points from his 6 games while Gareth Annesley took third place on tie-break.

There is a report on the event at the ICU website

Ulster Chess Championships

2011-08-06T13:26:00.005+01:00

The 2011 Ulster Senior, Intermediate and Junior Championships are being held over the August Bank Holiday weekend. New UCU Tournament Director Gareth Annesley sent me the following details:

Format: 6 rounds Swiss

Venue: Europa Hotel, Belfast

Dates: Saturday 27th to Monday 29th August

Bobby Fischer Against the World

2011-06-21T21:07:00.003+01:00

Screening at QFT Belfast from Friday 15 – Thursday 21 July

When genius turns to madness…enthralling documentary portrait of the enigmatic chess genius Bobby Fischer.

Proving that truth really is stranger than fiction this fascinating documentary recounts the life story of the troubled chess player Bobby Fischer, from his childhood in Brooklyn, where he became addicted to the game at 6, to his international fame as a chess champion and eventual descent into reclusive eccentricity bordering on madness. From the highs of his famous 1972 “Match of the Century” showdown with Russian master Boris Spassky to the lows of anti-semitism and Holocaust denial, this unsettling film lends strength to the belief that sometimes, too much genius can drive a person insane.

Nemtzov Cup echoes

2011-05-24T16:35:00.007+01:00

This year the top section in the City of Belfast championships (for the Nemtzov Cup) was a 6-player all-play-all rather than the usual Swiss. The luck of the draw had paired Richard McMaster and Gareth Annesley, the two leaders with one round to go, in the fifth and final round. They put on a grandstand finish battling each other to a draw (and a shared title) with only seconds remaining on the clock after a complicated endgame.

From the position in the board below McMaster played 1. g7 Rd3 2. Ke2 Rd8 3. g8(Q) and a draw resulted, but his analysis shows he missed a couple of wins. He wonders whether Gareth might have found a Black win earlier in the complications.

Over to Richard:

UCU March Rapidplay

2011-03-16T09:59:00.002Z

Damien Lavery sent me this game from the last round of the UCU Rapidplay held Sunday March 13th at the Belfast Boat Club.

This win brought Lavery into a tie for first place with Ulster Champion Michael Waters and English newcomer Jonathon Arnott.

Bunratty live

2011-02-26T14:03:00.003Z

The official website promised you could "Watch Bunratty 2011 live on the internet" so I decided to give it a go here today. Only one game - a bit disappointing, but it does feature Nigel Short. So here are the moves.

Adam Hunt (White) -v- Nigel Short (Black):

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Be7 5.e5 Nfd7 6.h4 c6 7.Bxe7 c5 8.Nb5 Qxe7 9.Nc7 O-O 10.Nxa8 Nc6 11.Nf3 cxd4 12.Qd2 Qb4 13.Rd1 Qxb2 14.Bd3 Nc5 15.Nc7 Bd7 16.Nxd5 Rc8 17.O-O exd5 18.Qf4 a6 19.Rb1 h6 20.Rfd1 Qc3 21.Kh2 b5 22.g4 Re8

Nigel doesn't seem to be quite at his best; has the legendary Irish hospitality affected him? His 7th move, leaving his Queen en prise, looks more than a bit dodgy. Ah, good, he's noticed next move. However, even more surprising he's forgotten you can't castle out of check (move 9). Probably best to draw a veil over the rest of the game.

City of Dublin Round up: Murphy pipped to 2nd place in Juniors by Chestnut69

2010-09-06T19:57:00.003+01:00

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.

See Leinster Chess Union tournament website for full results/tables.

Queens “dethroned” at AGM while Hawks “soar” to the top

2010-08-13T22:31:00.000+01:00

It’s official! RVH Hawks are League Division One champions on 82.5 points ahead of Queen’s on 81 points after a decision at the recent UCU AGM overturning the result from Board 1 in one of the big two matches.

We await eagerly an update on the QUB chess website, which is usually quick off the mark with results. I assume the huge pictures of their team, which adorned Queens’ Naughten Gallery, have been taken down, leaving “naughten” its walls!

Meanwhile, Martin Kelly recently followed up his second place in the City of Belfast Junior with second spot in the Irish Junior and a grading prize in the Irish Weekender-at which Stephen Scannell finished joint second. It means Martin’s recent record is: Pl16 w9 d5 l2. He kept his lifelong unbeaten record against Irish-born ladies by beating Johanna Lowry- O’Reilly (Oh really? No, O’Reilly!), whose daughter Hannah is a woman FM, and Nicola Benson, who has been selected for the 2010 Irish Women’s Olympiad team in Russia and whose son Oisin is a top Irish junior. Incidentally, Cork’s Alex Lopez is this year’s Irish champion.

Don’t forget this year’s Ulster Championship at the Europa Hotel, Belfast from August 28 to August 30 - more details on the Ulster Chess Union website. See you there!

Stateside results: Murphy grabs joint fourth by Chestnut69

2010-06-21T09:34:00.002+01:00

Three Ulster players took part in the recent Las Vegas International Chess Festival at the South Point Casino in Las Vegas Nevada. CJ Murphy in his stateside chess debut managed to claim a share of fourth place in the "unrated" section with a score of 3.5/6. This section was nominally unrated, but all the players in it had played before, albeit not in official tournament play in the states. To demonstrated the relative strength of the section, Murphy actually played up in round 2 to the U1200 section and claimed his easiest win of the tournament in only 20 moves.

All the unrated players will now have official USCF ratings.

Two experienced American campaigners Danny Mallaghan and Cecil Sloan, made up the Ulster/Irish contingent. Danny scored 2.5/6 in the U2000 section and Cecil matched this score in the U1800.

All results cross tables can be found here.

Karina Kruk “steals” the limelight

2010-05-20T17:50:00.003+01:00

It’s been an eventful few days in Ulster chess-where do I begin? Last weekend at Stormont, Karina Kruk “kruised to a krushing konquest” in winning the Henderson Cup on 5/6, a half-point ahead of joint seconds Martin Kelly and newcomer Ross ”Rolf” Harris. Cathal Murphy was consistent again, picking up the grading prize on 4/6, despite losing the first game below against Martin Kelly.

Rumours that Karina might not have won if she had to play Kelly are unfounded surely? Incidentally, it appears that Karina might also pip Martin for the season-long Tom Clarke Grand Prix by 44.5 points to 40.5, though the latter might have the consolation of winning the Junior Grand Prix like last year.

At the same time and venue, Dubliner Gordon Freeman won the Nemtzov Cup on 5/6, a point clear of Michael Waters in second, with Mark ”Paul” Newman getting the grading prize on 3.5 points. Interestingly, Ryszard Kaczorowski lost his game when his mobile phone went off under new FIDE rules. He did not try to make “phoney” excuses and the other players gave controller David McAlister a “ringing” endorsement of his decision.

QUB might propose the above-named Gordon be made a “freeman” of the city after helping them beat Fisherwick 6-1 at Queen’s on Tuesday night to clinch league division one for the third consecutive time but runners-up RVH Hawks might not agree. Firstly, he was parachuted in midseason from Dublin and secondly there is still a dispute about one of the QUB players using a computer while playing a league game earlier this year. This may well be brought up at the UCU AGM at North Belfast CC, Antrim Road, on Wednesday 2ndJune. at 7.30pm. Get there early to avoid the crowd-the AGM should prove “a gem”!

Rookie

UCU LEAGUE DIVISION ONE

TEAM	PL	W	D	L	PTS	%
QUB	16	14	0	2	82.5	88
RVH HAWKS	16	12	1	3	81.0	78
FISHERWICK	16	7	2	7	57.0	50
THE AWAY TEAM	16	3	2	11	33.0	25
LAGAN	16	1	1	14	26.5	9

Anand on top of the world

2010-05-12T15:07:00.001+01:00

Yesterday, World Champion Anand retained his world championship crown in Sofia, beating Bulgarian challenger Topalov in game 12 to win 6.5-5.5. For Viswanathan, ”nothing” was too difficult - if an “and” was expected at this point of the sentence, you’re not getting one because this is the end of the sentence!

Don’t forget the City of Belfast Championships this Saturday and Sunday, 15-16/5/10, at Maynard Sinclair Pavilion, Stormont.over six rounds. It is split into the Nemtzov Cup for those 1600 and over and the Henderson Cup for those under 1600. For more details, ring David McAlister at 92638857 - remember it’s free for females, under 18s and newcomers - which reminds me of last year’s prizegiving for the Henderson Cup where I beat Karina Kruk in the last round to deprive her of the cup as we finished joint second behind William Storey (but that’s another “storey”) .I announced then:”I didn’t want a “kruk” winning the tournament”!

Finally, Queen’s University play Fisherwick next Tuesday, 18/5/10, at QUB Students Union, knowing a win would win them their third consecutive league division one title. Anything less will hand the title to RVH Hawks. May the best team win!

Rookie

“Oils well” that ends well for Malone

2010-05-04T17:11:00.002+01:00

In view of the recent Gulf of Mexico disaster, I shouldn’t use any “slick” puns about Malone plucking victory from defeat last week against Bangor Wannabees to win the UCU league division two title, but I couldn’t help it! In the end, it all hinged on the excellent game below, where Ruben’s technique was as skilful and beautifully crafted as any of his namesake’s oil paintings. Perhaps this will be the “platform” for greater success next season. I hope I’m not being a “bore” but I hit a rich “vein” of humour! When Derek Truesdale won a 1980’s game, I said in the “Irish News” that “Derek lifted his game”-get it (Derek=derrick)!

Don’t forget the Summer Tournament every Wednesday starting tomorrow night at 7.45pm and the City of Belfast Tournament from Saturday May 15thto Sunday May 16th,both at Maynard Sinclair Pavilion, Upper Newtownards Road, Belfast. Contact Mark Newman (tel.no.91-456638) and David McAlister (tel.no.92-638857) respectively for more details.

Finally, Anand leads Topalov 4-3 in Sofia after 3 consecutive draws-The first to 6.5 points wins the World Championship.

Rookie

Magnificent Malone make brave Bangor wannabees for another season

2010-04-30T22:14:00.004+01:00

Report by Rookie; pics by Dennis the Menace

BD	MALONE	VS	WANNABEES
1	S.FERRIS	0.5-0.5	P.MCGUIGAN
2	N.GREEN	0-1	A.MCCONNELL
3	S.FLANAGAN	0.5-0.5	P.MCLAUGHLIN
4	D.RUBEN	1-0	W.MCGRATTAN
5	N.MCFARLAND	0-1	R.PROCTOR
6	A.BECKETT	1-0	B.BELSHAW
	TOTAL	2.0-3.0
	+BONUS	2.0-5.0

AT GROOMSPORT, 29/4/2010
BOARD 6 NOT PART OF THE OFFICIAL LEAGUE MATCH

Having promised to eat his hat if Wannabees won league division two, Malone “cap”tain, Martin Kelly, cap in hand, turned up with his team at the idyllically-situated Groomsport Church Hall to play Bangor Wannabees in the top of the table clash. Kelly cleverly switched his two S.F.s - Sam Ferris and Sam Flanagan - around from their usual board order to flummox the opposition. On board one, Sam’s draw against a stronger opponent was as “ferris” as his anxious captain could have expected. The next game to finish saw Proctor “gamble” and succeeding in a risky opening on board five and Neil turn “green” after losing on board two. Suddenly, Wannabees only needed a point from the last two games to win the league. By this stage, Kelly had returned from watching Liverpool lose and his quiz team win in the nearby pub. On board three, Paul McLaughlin, behind on material, offered his short-of-time opponent a draw, which was eagerly accepted. With an explosive finish on board three, David’ was “ruben” salt into Wannabees’ wounds as he grabbed a win to guarantee Malone are division two champions, despite losing twice to Wannabees this season.

TEAM

PL

W

D

L

PTS

%

MALONE

14

10

1

3

67.0

75

WANNABEES

14

10

3

1

66.5

82

WINSTON

14

8

2

4

60.5

64

BOMBARDIER

14

8

1

5

55.0

61

FORTWILLIAM

14

6

4

4

54.0

57

HENDERSONS

14

3

2

9

34.5

29

RANDALSTOWN

14

0

4

10

28.0

14

RAVENS

14

1

3

10

26.5

18

The packed hall, Bangor supporters to a man (apart, that is, from guest star Dennis the Menace), were very sporting in defeat as they joined in the group photo taken by our Dennis.

Finally, the Catalan opening is bound to get a revival in popularity after Anand’s second win with it over Topalov in round four.

Denis Bond RIP

2010-04-28T19:48:00.001+01:00

Colin Fenton sends the following sad news:

Denis Bond, former member of Craigavon chess club, died recently on the 11th April. It's at least fifteen years since I last played him. He was mid to late forties when he passed away.

Will Anand “topalov” chess throne?

2010-04-27T17:00:00.005+01:00

After defeat in round one of the world chess championship in Sofia, Bulgaria last Saturday (see game below), it appeared Topalov had the “Indian sign” over the world champion, but on Sunday Anand fought back to win the second game - so expect exciting times over the next fortnight or so!

I was very busy last weekend, playing in the Phillip Hogarty Memorial Rapidplay in Dublin on Saturday and the QUB Blitz at the Parlour Bar, Belfast on Sunday night. The Dublin event was won by Kilkenny’s Ryan-Rhys Griffiths on 5.5/6, a half-point ahead of Colm Daly, Oissine Murphy and Stephen Moran (the latter beat me in round one). The Ulster scores were: G. Annesley and D. Mallaghan (3.5), P. Morrison (2.0) and M. Kelly and C. Murphy (1.5). The David and Goliath prize of 50 euros went to our own Phillip Morrison (1051). He was able, wearing his red beret, to “beret” his opponent, Dubliner Jack Killane (1860)! Gareth “Ainsley Harriot” Annesley acquired his new nickname after the controller misprinted his surname on the results sheet!

Stephen Scannell and Lukasz Kwiatek scored 4.5/5 at the QUB Blitz on Sunday, a point clear of Eamonn Walls. Scannell was lucky to beat Kwiatek in the playoff as the latter’s flag fell when a queen up! Shane Keers (3 points) said “cheers” when pipping Martin Kelly and Karina Kruk on tiebreak for the under-1600 grading prize, while Pearse O’Brien and Chris McDonald took the under-1200 and best newcomer prizes respectively (“old McDonald had a form” advantage over his opponent in the playoff!).

Finally, here are details of two tournaments coming up soon. First, contact Vincent Bissett at 00 353 16903195 about the Malahide Millenium Tournament at the Hilton Dublin Airport Hotel on May 1-3. (website www.malahidechessclub.com). Secondly ring Mark Newman at 91-456638 to enter the Summer Tournament at Civil Service C.C., Maynard Sinclair Pavilion, Upper Newtownards Rd., Belfast running on Wednesday nights from 5/5/10 to 29/9/10.

Rookie

Queen’s clip Hawks’ wings

2010-04-23T17:47:00.002+01:00

UCU League Division One

Team	Played	Won	Draw	Lost	Points	%
RVH Hawks	16	12	1	3	81.0	78
QUB	15	13	0	2	76.5	87
Fisherwick	14	6	2	6	51.0	50
The Away Team	16	3	2	11	33.0	25
Lagan	15	1	1	13	24.5	10

Both scheduled matches this week in division one ended in 5-2 wins - for QUB over Hawks and for The Away Team over Lagan.

As Hawks were 7.5 points ahead going into this, their last game, a draw would have won the title over QUB. As it is, the latter can win the title by beating Fisherwick in a postponed match which QUB have claimed by default. League controller David Houston will require the wisdom of Solomon to solve this one. Will David “sling” their claim out (yes, it’s a biblical pun!) And force them to play Fisherwick or will he award them the title by default (“de fault” of “de” Fisherwick team)? Meanwhile, Lagan “sank” without trace against The Away Team to finish last, even if they win their delayed game against Fisherwick.

Rookie

TAT successfully sails through stormy seas

2010-04-22T18:07:00.002+01:00

Last season the QUB B team won the Division 2 title, but “artistic differences” between the team members and QUB supremo, Chris Millar saw the second-tier champions cast adrift and enter the top league as The Away Team, having gathered a few “reinforcements” along the way. Not the most inspired of name choices but the acronym TAT seemed to sum up well this rag-tag bunch under Captain “Beard” (think here of “The Caine Mutiny”).

With their top-rated player only at 1800 the little frigate TAT was always going to find it difficult against the big battleships of QUB, Fisherwick and RVH. A relegation battle with Lagan, long-time experts in avoiding the drop, was on the cards. And so it proved.

Going into the final round of scheduled fixtures this week, TAT was leading Lagan by 2 points with the two teams due to face each other at the Boat Club on Wednesday. However, both teams had postponed games against Fisherwick, and first TAT shared the spoils with an under strength Fisherwick on Monday night.

This now put TAT 5.5 points ahead of Lagan, going in to their Wednesday night encounter. If TAT could win the match, then Lagan could not catch them, whatever the riversiders did in their postponed match with Fisherwick. However, if Lagan could win, then the most they would have to do to stay up would be to draw against Fisherwick.

For much of the three-hour battle, it was too close to call. Board 1 was always a careful manoeuvring encounter between Lagan captain Jonathan Brown and Danny Mallaghan and was the first game to finish. A half-point each. On board five "the Sultan”, despite a valiant rearguard action eventually had to surrender to Peter May, rated only 32 points lower than TAT’s top board. Cal Leitch, only able to play because he had been marooned in Belfast because of the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud (and according to Beard unable to travel by boat to England because he suffers from sea-sickness ?!?), always held the initiative despite Sam Moore’s efforts to drain all the pieces off the board, but in the end even a risky exchange sacrifice by Leitch couldn’t prevent a classic Moore draw. With the score 2-1 in favour of Lagan, attention turned to boards 2 and 3 where the TAT players had both been under heavy bombardment. Now with about 10 minutes of the session to go, Des Moreland (apparently recruited late in the season because his captain believed him to have a “double o” like that other famous naval man James Bond) seemed to have weathered the storm and although he had double isolated e-pawns, they seemed to give his pieces more open lines and he secured a winning endgame. 2-2. On board 2, Damien Lavery had ventured the obscure gambit 1 d4 Nf6 2 g4 and had spent most of the game doing some desperate ducking and diving (but he’s good at that – experience aplenty). After spending all game avoiding William Collins’ depth-charges, Lavery finally launched a torpedo to sink his opponent amidships. 3-2 and finally the good ship TAT could sail back into its summer harbour safe and sound.

The Away Team	vs	Lagan
Danny Mallaghan	0.5-0.5	Jonathan Brown
Damien Lavery	1-0	William Collins
Des Moreland	1-0	Tom Esmonde
Calum Leitch	0.5-0.5	Sam Moore
John McKenna	0-1	Peter May

But where was the TAT captain during the final week’s events? In the brig? Will the mutineers be court-martialled despite their heroic efforts?

TAT offensive

2010-04-20T20:28:00.002+01:00

Two members of The Away Team (or TAT), Danny Mallaghan and Richard Gould, lived up to their billing by travelling south to the Leinster Championships, held at the Academy Plaza Hotel, Dublin over the 16-18 April weekend.

Danny was competing in the under 2000 Majors, while Richard was second seed in the under 1600 Challengers. Both players remained unbeaten until the final round, when both succumbed to the eventual winners of their sections. Gould still won 3rd prize while Mallaghan secured a grading prize.

Crosstables can be found at the tournament webpage, part of the LCU blog. If you look closely, you’ll see Danny took a half-point bye on the Saturday night. The reason was to enter a poker tournament at the Fitzwilliam Club, where he survived to the final table, proving once again that chess players can make more money playing poker than chess. Grrrr.

To postpone or not to postpone-that is the question!

2010-04-20T18:33:00.004+01:00

Yes, everyone is talking and blogging about the latest postponement of that match-no, not the Anand-Topalov World Championship Match in Sofia, Bulgaria due to open tomorrow, but the vital Malone-Wannabies UCU division two decider which will now go ahead in Groomsport next Thursday 29/4/10, thanks to the sportsmanlike and generous gesture by the Malone captain to accept the suggestion of Bangor’s Garry ”Kasparov” Johnston. By the way, thanks for all the recent comments, good or bad, by fellow bloggers, although I hope Dennis the Menace is not trying to “mussel” in on my territory of pun-master! You will notice in the Parlour Bar, Elmwood Avenue, Belfast this Sunday night at 7.15pm, while playing the QUB April Blitz (see http://chess.club.qub.ac.uk/qubblitz.htm), that the “shot of the month” behind the bar is-you’ve guessed it-“Dennis the Menace”!

It’s a case of “Sofia” and no further for Viswanathan Anand, current world champion, who has been struggling to get there from Frankfurt due to the Icelandic volcanic ash cancelling his flight. The organisers have got themselves into a bit of a “lava” over the delayed arrival of the world champion to play their own countryman, Veselin (definitely no puns here!) Topalov and there are still conflicting reports over whether the weather will wither hopes of starting on time! By the way, I’ve heard of a new quiz programme in Iceland called “Ash the family”!

Finally, back to the antiques road show as I wheel out another of my old gems from the “Irish News”. Fittingly for the lambing season , it’s about Paddy Lambe again. When Paddy lost a game, I wrote: ”Lambe gets the chop”, whereas when he won, I noted: “Lambe is outstanding in his field”!

Rookie

Summer Tournament

2010-04-20T15:49:00.002+01:00

With the League season nearly at an end, players' attention will switch to the Ulster Chess Union Summer Tournament. Last year the usual venue at Civil Service was not available to the UCU and we were fortunate that at the last moment the North Belfast Chess Club stepped in to the breach.

After lengthy negotiations by UCU Board Member Geoff Hindley, we are able to return to the Maynard Sinclair Pavilion this summer. The tournament is scheduled to run every Wednesday evening from 5th May to 29th September, except for the week of the UCU AGM (likely to be held on 2nd June at North Belfast).

Expect more details to be available soon at the UCU website.

UCU Leagues on a knife edge, by Rookie

2010-04-15T21:19:00.002+01:00

Both leagues are going down to the wire. With 13 games played, three and a half points separate first and second in each league (see up to date tables at the UCU website). League one leaders RVH Hawks “soar” above second-placed QUB, who are just feeling “sore”. The big two meet at Queen’s next Thursday in a final showdown, postponed games permitting.

League two leaders Malone face second-placed Bangor Wannabees in a delayed match at Fisherwick some Wednesday in the near future. I shall publish the date as soon as possible. Interestingly, the Bangor captain stated one of his players couldn’t play from now on, as he did not play chess during the summer for religious reasons! Meanwhile, Randalstown overtook RVH Ravens to avoid the wooden spoon by drawing on Tuesday past against RVH Hendersons. Though without a win all season, Peter Wilson’s team did not ”peter” out. With players like Frenchman,David Baras, they did not “embarrass” themselves!

Now for a “tale of two cities” - Dublin and Belfast, which host quickplay tournaments on the weekend of 24/25 April 2010. First, on Saturday 24 April, the Phillip Hogarty Memorial Rapidplay takes place at Academy Plaza Hotel, off O’Connell St, Dublin. For details, ring Darren McCabe at 00 353 87-6938736. It is named after a former ICU President, who died in a tragic road accident on New Years Day 2008 at the age of 19.

On Sunday night, from 7.15-10.45pm,on 25April,the popular fun tournament, the Bar Blitz, takes place again in the Parlour Bar, behind Queen’s Students Union. Let’s hope I’m not “blitzed”at it, if I hope to do a report on it. Just turn up for it. Check out more details at http://chess.club.qub.ac.uk/qubblitz.htm.

When Paddy Lambe played Adrian Skelton in Belfast years ago, I commented in the “Irish News”: ”make no bones about it; they have threatened muttony if I write anymore about them”!

Finally, here is possibly the most analysed game of the 1950s between two men who had been or were about to be world champions. There was a lot of blood spilt, metaphorically speaking, in Bled!!

Malone on the brink

2010-04-09T14:30:00.017+01:00

Last night, bottom team Randalstown gave title contenders Bangor Wannabees a scare before the latter were “stung” into action to squeeze a narrow win which sets up the last game of the season against Malone.

WANNABEES	VS	RANDALSTOWN
P.MCGUIGAN	DRAW	D.BARAS
A.MCCONNELL	DRAW	S.EACHUS
P.MCLOUGHLIN	0-1	P.WILSON
R.PROCTOR	1-0	S.DOWNES
R.HENDERSON	1-0	P.MAGUIRE
RESULT	3.0-2.0
+BONUS	5.0-2.0

Malone can afford to lose 5-2 and still win League Division Two for the first time since 2005/6 - they were second for the last three seasons. Randalstown can avoid the wooden spoon by at least drawing with Hendersons in their last match - if they beat them 7-0, they would finish sixth!

TEAM	PLAYED	POINTS
MALONE	13	65.0
WANNABEES	13	61.5
WINSTON	14	60.5
BOMBARDIER	14	55.0
FORTWILLIAM	14	54.0
HENDERSONS	13	31.0
RAVENS	14	26.5
RANDALSTOWN	13	24.5

Malone bounce back against Bombardier

2010-04-02T16:39:00.003+01:00

LEAGUE DIVISION TWO (AT BOMBARDIER, 31/3/10)

BOMBARDIER	VS	MALONE
M.NEWMAN	0.5-0.5	S.FLANAGAN
P.MCNAUGHTEN	0.5-0.5	S.FERRIS
S.MCCONAGHY	0-1	D.RUBEN
E.BOOKLESS	0.5-0.5	N.MCFARLAND
B.MCKITTRICK	0-1	B.JAFFA
TOTAL	1.5-3.5
+BONUS	1.5-5.5

Just before Easter, Malone had an “eggcellent” result when they made “shorts”hrift of bombardier. but Bangor Wannabees were “raven” about their 6-1 win over RVH Ravens last night which somersaulted them from fifth to second in the League with a game in hand against bottom team Randalstown next Thursday.

LEAGUE DIVISION TWO (AT BANGOR, 1/4/10)

BANGOR WANNABEES	VS	RVH RAVENS
P.MCGUIGAN	0.5-0.5	F.CORROTHERS
R.PROCTOR	1-0	G.COLLINS
P.MCLOUGHLIN	1-0	R.SMITH
A.MCCARTER	1-0	J.MONAGHAN
B.BELSHAW	0.5-0.5	P.LOGAN
TOTAL	4.0-1.0
+BONUS	4.0-1.0

It means Malone only need a draw to win the League when the top two teams meet in a rearranged fixture sometime in April. Having said earlier that Wannabees would stay Wannabees this season, I’ll have to eat my hat if they end up winning the league this year!

TEAM	PLAYED	POINTS
MALONE	13	65.0
WANNABEES	12	56.5
WINSTON	13	54.5
BOMBARDIER	13	54.0
FORTWILLIAM	14	54.0
HENDERSONS	13	31.0
RAVENS	14	26.5
RANDALSTOWN	12	22.5

Rookie

Vasily Smyslov - strategist or tactician?

2010-03-31T16:58:00.006+01:00

Last weekend, Vasily Smyslov passed away in Moscow at the age of 89. He was the seventh world champion in 1957/58, beating and then losing to Mikhail Botvinnik in consecutive years. In 1984, aged 63, he lost 8.5-4.5 to Garry Kasparov in the candidates’ final to decide who played Karpov for the world title. In 1997, aged 76, he shared second place at Malmo. He is primarily thought of as a major strategist, but he was “vasily” underrated as a tactician, who employed sharp combinations when necessary, as in the miniature below!

Also, last weekend saw the international chess congress take place in Cork, with 139 players, including 3 GMs.-Bulgarian champion Dejan Bojkov pipped Croatian Bogdan Lalic and Russian-Irish Alexander Baburin to the title-a result that for former winner Lalic was nothing to “crow at”!

Finally, the winner of the recent Fisherwick tournament was, among the Seniors, Ian Woodfield ahead of Norman McFarland, while in the Juniors, R. Gupta and H. Reddy were “ever reddy” to take the spoils!

P.S. Years ago, when local young player Damien Artt from Belfast won his game, I commented in my newspaper article: “D. Artt hits the bullseye”.

Rookie

Vasily Smyslov 1921–2010

2010-03-28T16:51:00.004+01:00

The 7th official World Chess Champion Vasily Smyslov died yesterday at the age of 89. The photograph above was taken at a simultaneous exhibition given by Smyslov in the Great Hall at Queen's University Belfast on Wednesday 15th January 1969.

Rookie reports on a Malone reverse

2010-03-27T00:47:00.007Z

UCU LEAGUE DIVISION TWO (AT FORTWILLIAM, 24/3/10)

FORTWILLIAM	VS	MALONE
D.HOUSTON	1-0	S.FERRIS
S.WOOD	1-0	S.FLANAGAN
J.WOOD	1-0	D.RUBEN
E.MORGAN	0.5-0.5	N.MCFARLAND
DEFAULT	0-1	B.JAFFA
TOTAL	3.5-1.5
+BONUS	5.5-1.5

Come in, Houston. We have a problem! David Houston responds to his captain’s plea and Houston “Texas” Sam Ferris’s patient play to win on board one. With Stephen Wood shaving a narrow victory over Sam Flanagan on board two, his brother John was “ruben” salt in to the wound by beating David Ruben on board three. Ed led at the start on board four but Stormin’ Norman fought back to draw. Bernard Jaffa “appealed” to the captains for a point on board five, when no-one turned up against him after an hour. Malone’s defeat means three other teams can still catch the leaders on the line - Wannabees, Bombardier or Winston. After last year’s last round defeat to champions, QUB B, will Malone always be the bridesmaid, never the bride?

TEAM	PLAYED	POINTS
MALONE	12	59.5
BOMBARDIER	12	52.5
WINSTON	12	51.0
WANNABEES	11	50.5
FORTWILLIAM	13	50.5
HENDERSONS	13	31.0
RAVENS	12	22.0
RANDALSTOWN	11	19.0

Daly Retains QUB Rapidplay Open Title: Rookie Reports

2010-03-22T23:19:00.002Z

In this column, Colm appears not “Daly” but annually as he has won the QUB Rapidplay in the last two years. The £1000 prize fund attracted 44 players, including at least 8 from Dublin, who found it hard to train, as a bomb scare meant they had to go part of the way by bus!

Round one: No real shocks, although Martin Kelly had Gonzaga’s 1991 rated player David Murray in a hurry to scramble a win from a lost position.

Round two: There were surprise draws for Aaron ”sweater” McCully (1331) over Carl Jackson (1671) and Robert Lavery (1040) over William Storey (1368) - but that’s another story. Spring is in the air as I spotted two robbins on one of the boards - Kiran Robbin beat Kevin Robbin!

Round three: On board two, in a battle of the Dubliners, Gordon Freeman played Oisin Benson and threw Oisin out with the “washing”. Home’s where Michael Holmes felt like going after losing to Kevin Fitzpatrick, 720 points below him. Martin Kelly beat the splendidly named Gianluca Sarri - who’s sorry now?

Round four: Shane Lee (1633) from Finglas was certainly not “fingerless” as he manoeuvred the pieces expertly to beat Oisin Benson (2085) while Robert Lavery ”bobbed”up again to beat Sean Linton (1354).

Round five: Shock winners in the last round (which allowed them to share second place on 4/5 with three others) were Lukasz Kwiatek (1830)-his “key attack” demolished Sam Osborne (2099) - and Shane Lee who beat Gareth Annesley (1965) “and slay” him, he did! In all the hurlyburly, I nearly missed the win by Thomas Hurley (850) over William Storey, as I was too busy beating fellow blogger, C.J. Murphy, to claim the intermediate grading prize. [Crosstable and list of prizewinners posted here - DMcA]

Congratulations to the brilliant team of Chris Millar,David McAlister and Eamonn Walls for running the event so well and to ever polite winner Colm Daly, who promised to bring even more from the south next year.

If you are thinking of taking the reverse journey to the Cork Congress this weekend, visit www.corkchess.com. By coincidence, years ago, when reporting on the Mulcahy Memorial Congress in Cork at Christmas, I said it was a good place to see “chessnuts boasting over an open fire”!

Finally, here is the vital sixth game of the Tal-Botvinnik clash where Tal’s knight sacrifice is still controversial!

Rookie update on League 2

2010-03-18T21:49:00.005Z

Malone gave the V sign against Winston (no, not that one, but the one Churchill used for victory!) on St.Patrick’s Day. As it was a feastday in a church, I decided to play two Sams on the top two boards (get it?) who drew their matches. The third match showed Moorcroft needs more craft in his game. Board four saw Walter ”falter”, while on board five Jaffa was “pipped” at the post.

UCU LEAGUE DIVISION TWO AT FISHERWICK, 17/3/10

MALONE	VS	BANGOR WINSTON
SAM FLANAGAN	0.5-0.5	EDDIE WHITESIDE
SAM FERRIS	0.5-0.5	JAMES O’FEE
DAVID RUBEN	1-0	MARTIN MOORCROFT
NORMAN MCFARLAND	1-0	WALTER WILSON
BERNARD JAFFA	0-1	KEVIN AGNEW
TOTAL	3-2
+BONUS	5-2

TEAM	PL	W	D	L	PTS	%
MALONE	14	10	1	3	67.0	75
WANNABEES	14	10	3	1	66.5	82
WINSTON	14	8	2	4	60.5	64
BOMBARDIER	14	8	1	5	55.0	61
FORTWILLIAM	14	6	4	4	54.0	57
HENDERSONS	14	3	2	9	34.5	29
RANDALSTOWN	14	0	4	10	28.0	14
RAVENS	14	1	3	10	26.5	18