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

Blitz, Williamson, and Black is the new Black

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

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.

[Event "UCU League prelim"] [Site "?"] [Date "2011.12.08"] [Round "7"] [White "Kelly, Martin"] [Black "McWhinney, Ashley"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C29"] [PlyCount "45"] [EventDate "2011.10.??"] [EventType "team"] [WhiteTeam "Malone"] [BlackTeam "Bangor"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. f4 Nc6 4. fxe5 Nxe5 5. d4 Ng6 6. e5 Ng8 7. Nf3 Bb4 8. Bc4 h6 9. O-O d6 10. Bxf7+ $1 Kf8 ({If} 10... Kxf7 11. Ng5+ ({or} 11. Nh4+ { wins.})) 11. Bxg6 Ne7 12. Ng5+ Kg8 13. Nf7 Qd7 14. Nxh8 Kxh8 15. Rf8+ Ng8 16. Bf7 dxe5 17. Rxg8+ Kh7 18. Qd3+ Qf5 19. Qxf5+ Bxf5 20. Rxa8 exd4 21. Nd5 Bc5 22. Kf1 c6 23. Nf4 1-0

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