Ulster Masters

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

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

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

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

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

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:

[Event "Nemtzov Cup"] [Site "Belfast"] [Date "2011.05.15"] [Round "5"] [White "McMaster, Richard"] [Black "Annesley, Gareth"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [Annotator "McMaster"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "8/8/6P1/8/2p4P/1pr5/1k1K4/6R1 w - - 0 1"] [PlyCount "11"] [EventDate "2010.05.15"] [Source "ChessBase"] [SourceDate "1997.11.17"] {Here is a little analysis of the final round game between myself and Gareth Annesley that went to the wire.} 1. Rb1+ $1 {An idea of Martin Kelly's.} ({ Alternatively going down the line that was played} 1. g7 Rd3+ 2. Ke2 Rd8 {and not now} 3. g8=Q {which only draws} ({but} 3. h5 $1 c3 4. h6 c2 5. h7 c1=Q 6. Rxc1 Kxc1 7. g8=Q Rxg8 8. hxg8=Q Kb2 9. Qc4 {with the win!})) 1... Kxb1 2. Kxc3 Ka1 3. g7 b2 4. g8=Q b1=Q 5. Qa8+ Qa2 6. Qxa2+ {and the white h-pawn wins.} 1/2-1/2

UCU March Rapidplay

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

[Event "UCU Spring Rapidplay"] [Site "Belfast"] [Date "2011.03.13"] [Round "6"] [White "Brown, Jonathan"] [Black "Lavery, Damien"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "A57"] [PlyCount "62"] [EventDate "2010.04.24"] [Source "ChessBase"] [SourceDate "1997.11.17"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 b5 4. cxb5 a6 5. Nc3 g6 6. e4 d6 7. Nf3 Nbd7 8. a4 Bg7 9. Qc2 O-O 10. Rb1 Ng4 11. Nd2 Bd4 12. Nd1 f5 13. exf5 Nde5 14. Ne4 (14. fxg6 { exposes the f-pawn -} Bxf2+ 15. Nxf2 (15. Ke2 Nxg6 {(threatening 16...Nf4+)} 16. Ne4 Bd4 {and White's King lacks a safe haven}) 15... Nxf2 16. gxh7+ Kh8 17. Rg1 Bf5 18. Qc3 Bxb1 19. Nxb1 {- and now} e6 20. dxe6 Qh4 {looks very dangerous }) 14... Bxf5 15. f3 Bxe4 16. Qxe4 Nf6 17. Qc2 Nxd5 18. Bg5 Qa5+ 19. Bd2 Nb4 20. Qb3+ Kh8 21. Bxb4 cxb4 22. bxa6 Nd7 23. Bb5 Nc5 24. Qc4 e5 25. b3 Rad8 26. Qe2 Ne6 27. g3 Qc7 28. h4 Bc3+ 29. Nxc3 Qxc3+ 30. Kf2 Nd4 31. Qe3 Rxf3+ 0-1

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

Bunratty live

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

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

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!