Ulster Championship 1952: A Welshman wins

Preamble

The 2014 Ulster Senior Championship, held over the August Bank Holiday weekend, was won by Gabor Horvath, who hails from Hungary but was eligible to compete for the title under a residence qualification. In 1931-1932 the local chess clubs went through a process of formally founding the Ulster Chess Union and establishing an Ulster Championship. Rule 1 of the Rules adopted in 1931 for the Ulster Championship stated:

“1. The championship shall be open to chess players born in the Province of Ulster, or who are, and have been, for more than twelve months resident therein.”

The rules have had the odd tweak since then but, as far as I am aware, twelve months residence has always been sufficient. Indeed a number of players, including (now IM) Brian Kelly, have qualified to play and win the title under the residence qualification.

A Time Traveller article, originally published in August 2002, had featured another Ulster Champion who had come to live in Northern Ireland.

Ulster Championship 1952: A Welshman wins

10 competitors entered the 1952 Ulster Championship. The 1951 champion W. D. Kerr was not defending his title, but two former winners, R. A. Heaney (1946) and G. A. Kearney (1950) were taking part. Perhaps the most interesting entry was that of Miss H. F. Chater, the first woman ever to enter the Ulster Championship. She was the aunt of the Vice-Chancellor of Queen's University, Sir Eric Ashby, and had come to Northern Ireland to live with her nephew. She was qualified to compete in the Championship by having been resident in Ulster for the required period of a year. As we shall see the eventual winner of the Championship also qualified by residence.

The tournament was a nine-round all-play-all. After seven rounds the leader was Robert Jones, who had only dropped half-a-point up to that stage. In Round 8 his two main rivals, Heaney and G. J. Boyd had to meet, with Heaney proving victorious. At the same time, Jones suffered a surprising defeat to Miss Chater and lost the lead to Heaney. However, the luck of the draw had paired Jones and Heaney in the last round, so it was still all to play for.

The Ireland's Saturday Night for 12th April 1952 takes up the story:

In the final for the Ulster Championship R. Jones, with a score of 6.5 met R. A. Heaney, who had 7.0 to his credit. The game was a Queen's Gambit Declined. Heaney, with Black adopted the Orthodox Defence, and a keen struggle resulted, which went to 66 moves, when Black resigned. Mr. Jones thus becomes Ulster champion at the first attempt. He won the Intermediate Championship earlier in the season, which is a record.

Final scores: R. Jones 7.5; R. A. Heaney 7.0; G. J. Boyd 6.5; T. C. Gallery 6.0; A. W. Turner and G. A. Kearney 4.0; F. E. Wallace and Miss H. F. Chater 3.5; J. B. Steen 2.0; J. W. B. Dodson 1.5.

The new champion is a Welshman, who taught in Eastbourne Grammar School until the war, when he joined up. After the war he came to Belfast, and is in business here. He is also studying at Queen's for his Arts Degree.

[Event "Ulster Ch"] [Site "Belfast"] [Date "1952.??.??"] [Round "5"] [White "Jones, R."] [Black "Turner, A.W."] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "D56"] [PlyCount "55"] [EventDate "1952.02.??"] [EventType "tourn"] [EventRounds "9"] [EventCountry "IRL"] [Source "David McAlister"] [SourceDate "2008.03.19"] 1. Nf3 d5 2. c4 e6 3. d4 c6 4. Nc3 Nf6 5. Bg5 Be7 6. e3 Nbd7 7. Bd3 h6 8. Bh4 O-O 9. O-O dxc4 10. Bxc4 Nd5 {A common variation of the Queen's Gambit Declined has been arrived at by transposition. Here White usually exchanges Bishops.} 11. Bg3 f5 12. Nxd5 exd5 (12... cxd5 {might have been better, leaving support for the f-pawn, which now becomes an object of attack.}) 13. Bd3 Nf6 14. h3 Ne4 15. Bh2 {Having refused an even exchange, White will not let his Bishop go for the Knight.} g5 16. Ne5 Qe8 17. f3 Nf6 18. Qc2 Nh5 19. g4 Ng7 20. f4 Bd6 21. fxg5 hxg5 22. Rf3 Bxe5 {The exchange brings White's dark-squared Bishop to the attack, which soon becomes irresistible.} 23. Bxe5 fxg4 24. Rxf8+ Qxf8 25. Rf1 Qe7 26. Bh7+ Kh8 27. Qg6 Be6 28. Qh6 {Black resigned as the threatened discovered check will be followed by mate.} 1-0

Game annotations from the Ireland's Saturday Night for 12th April 1952

Starting again

At the beginning of the new millennium, I started a website called the Ulster Chess Chronicle. It was a mix of chess results, news, articles and history. More recently I hived off the news into another blog, NI Chess News, and this also gave me an opportunity to add there a few personal comments on the NI chess scene.

I've now decided to re-start the history part here. Brand new posts on the history of Ulster chess will appear here, but my present intention is to incorporate all the old material here also - though I've not yet worked out how best to do that!

NICS June Rapidplay

Civil Service Chess Club yesterday staged the fourth and final event in its 2013-2014 rapidplay series at the Maynard Sinclair Pavilion. There's already a full report up at the UCU website; you'll also find links there to the results and the final Grand Prix standings over the four events. To that, I'll add here the final crosstable.

No Name                  Rtg  Total  1    2    3    4    5    6  

1  Nicholas Pilkiewicz   1862 5      8:W  7:W  2:W  4:W  5:W  3:L
2  Damien Lavery         1749 4.5   11:W  4:W  1:L  6:W  7:W  5:D
3  Robert Lavery         1481 4     10:W  6:L  4:L 11:W  8:W  1:W
4  David McAlister       1218 3.5    5:W  2:L  3:W  1:L  6:W  9:D
5  Mark Newman           1627 3.5    4:L  9:W  6:W  7:W  1:L  2:D
6  Steven Eachus         1645 3      9:W  3:W  5:L  2:L  4:L 12:W
7  Richard Gould         1555 3     12:W  1:L  8:W  5:L  2:L 10:W
8  Alan Burns            1339 3      1:L 10:W  7:L 12:W  3:L 11:W
9  Peter Wilson          1246 2.5    6:L  5:L 12:W 10:W 11:L  4:D
10 Adrian Dornford-Smith 962  2      3:L  8:L 11:W  9:L 12:W  7:L
11 Drew Ferguson         1251 1      2:L 12:L 10:L  3:L  9:W  8:L
12 Geoff Hindley         1010 1      7:L 11:W  9:L  8:L 10:L  6:L

As part of the organising team for these events, thanks to all those who competed throughout the series and we hope to do the whole thing again next season.

League retrospective and suggestions for the future

Belated congratulations to Fisherwick for winning the Silver King for the fourth time in a row and to Bangor for lifting the Strawbridge Cup. The general consensus is that this has been the most interesting League campaign in some time. I agree with that sentiment - everyone will have their own views about exactly why this was so, but for me the reasons were:

• the exciting tussle for the Division 1 title (despite - or maybe even enhanced by the bizarre events of the last two weeks);
• the arrival of a new powerhouse in the East (Lindores) and an enhanced and rebadged stalwart (Muldoon's) putting extra pressure on the imperious Fisherwick;
• the general increase in strength on the top boards of a number of teams, with a number of strong local players tempted out of retirement and an influx of foreign talent;
• the extraordinary and continuing ability of Ballynafeigh to add extra numbers to the overall equation (some of the other clubs are catching on here too);
• the revival of second teams at the coaxing of the League Controller.

The temptation might be to leave things exactly the same, but there is a danger that the success of this season means that we have outgrown the current format. The League season consisted of 25 weeks of play, which might well make it into the Guinness Book of Records. There was talk early in the New Year of having some extra team events in the Spring but, not surprisingly, these never eventuated. It was therefore not that surprising either that there were a few defaults late in the season.

So here, for what they're worth, is a set of proposals for the Belfast and District Leagues 2014-2015: 

• League competition again to be between all the Belfast and District clubs, but over a single round and with no split into two Divisions for the rest of the season. Each club would have to list five designated players. 
•  Therefore this competition would end about the end of January and the winner would receive the Silver King (Division 1 Championship). 
• Alongside the competition for the Silver King would be a revamped Strawbridge Cup which would be contested between reserve teams. As some clubs would not be able to field a team in this, the format would probably be a double rounder but whatever format was used, this also would finish approximately end-January. A club could play all but its five designated players in this subsidiary event. 

OK, we all know that, due to the way many of our clubs are organised, there is a considerable appetite for a lengthy League season. So what happens when February arrives? Here's part two of NI Chess News' prospectus. 

• The top four teams in the Silver King would take part in a new competition - let's call it the "Top 4" or maybe the "Premiership" - in a double rounder over 6 weeks of competition. Not dissimilar to the part 2 of the League as presently organised, but with all the teams starting from scratch. Maybe we could make this over 4 or 6 boards just to change the dynamic a little bit. 
• The remaining clubs (plus perhaps any second teams from the Top 4) would compete in a separate competition. We could perhaps revive the "UCU Plate" name and trophy, last played for about a decade ago, for this. 
• Finally, to accommodate the increasing numbers of newbie adult players and also to help existing lower-rated "reserve" players, we could add a second subsidiary event for all clubs - an under 1500 Cup, limited naturally enough to players rated under 1500 (and unrated ones). 
• So that clubs would be encouraged to enter these new competitions without worrying about having the numbers to fulfill fixtures, players would be able to compete without restriction in all three competitions (except - with the aim of creating a reasonably level playing field - for the designated players in the Premiership). Also, we might arrange these "sub-Premiership" competitions into 4 player events to assist with numbers. 
• Finally - as I've probably cut off at least 6 weeks of the season - if there's sufficient appetite for it, we could make good use of the remaining time by reviving some sort of province-wide Cup competition.

So, if you haven't lost your way, or the will to live, through all these suggestions, I encourage the UCU universe to have a look at these ideas. Any improvements or alternatives are welcomed.

City of Belfast postponed

Just in case you haven't seen this elsewhere, the 2014 City of Belfast Championship, due to take place this weekend at Ballynafeigh Community Centre, has had to be postponed for two weeks to allow for emergency maintenance at the venue. New dates are 7th-8th June, still at the Ballynafeigh clubroom, with the same format as previously announced by the UCU.

UCU Rapid and Spring Simul

The Ulster Chess Union has recently announced two events for the post Easter period. First up will be the Ulster Rapidplay Championship which first moved to a Spring date two years ago. Last year's renewal was held on Easter Monday and saw a significant increase in numbers. Let's hope that this year's slightly later date continues that healthy trend.

The other event is the Grandmaster Spring Simul. Over the years, when club players were asked what they would like to see the UCU organising, a substantial number suggested a simultaneous exhibition by a GM. Of course good players don't come cheap and you'll only get sufficient numbers turning out if the GM opponent is a well-known figure. Last year, Damien Cunningham took the plunge and came up with former World Championship Challenger Nigel Short. Definitely a good choice and the event got an impressive amount of TV coverage. Even a year later, acquaintances are mentioning that they saw me on TV playing chess - always good for the ego! This year the simul-giver is another English GM - Gawain Jones, well known to Irish players, having lived in Ennis, County Clare for part of his teenage years and still a regular (and very successful) competitor in Irish events. Can he match Short's whitewash of last year?

High speed chess

I dropped in at the Maynard Sinclair Pavilion towards the end of the 3rd NICS Rapidplay and was witness to some high velocity activity. Hoping to take some photographs of the beginning of the final round, I had positioned myself beside the top boards. Immediately after my first attempt, I heard Adrian Dornford Smith say sorry to me for having moved across my sightline. He kindly posed for a close-up to make amends.

However when I checked the "spoiled" pic, there was no sign of Adrian, just a very blurry image. Has Adrian discovered how to move faster than the speed of light? Unlike Adrian, physics is not my strong point but I seem to remember there was once a theory that if you ran backwards sufficiently quickly you could travel back in time. It appears fast-draw Ferguson has been working on this.

Here Drew (spot his speedy right hand) is just completing his journey backwards in time to a point where Ian Woodfield has played his first move but is yet to press his clock. Meanwhile Paul Anderson and Mike Redman are trying to work out what has just happened with their clock display.

Anyway, back to a more conventional report: top seed Redman put in a blitzkrieg of his own on his six opponents to finish with a 100% score. Here's the final standings direct from the Controller's laptop (BTW Mark, ever thought of cleaning the screen?)

Click on the photos to get full-size images

More musings on the Leagues

To postpone or not to postpone
And what should the penalty be?

Fisherwick still go on their imperious way in Division 1, but Lindores continue to dog their footsteps. Their recent drawn encounter at the East Belfast coffee house still leaves everything to play for. Lindores are definitely pulling out all the stops - not content with dragging former Williamson Shield winner Fred MacDonald from retirement to fill Board 3, they then found another person to fill that space - no less than 2012 Ulster Masters champion Alan Delaney, who seems to have been carelessly left unattended by another Belfast club.

Still, to get back to the question at the top: a little of the momentum has gone out of the top tier with the recent postponements of Muldoon's v. Lindores and Fisherwick v. Ballynafeigh 2. Our local players are not professionals and there will be occasions when ordinary life gets in the way and a team captain is left scrambling about for players. However the default position ought to be that if you can get 5 bodies out, whatever their standard, the match must go ahead.

There will be occasions when a team captain really can't get a full squad out, and the Controller will consider it reasonable to grant a postponement. However, just to make sure these occasions are few and far between, should there not be some sort of penalty for an "offending" team? Might I suggest that the team responsible for the postponement shall not be entitled to any bonus match points when the match is eventually played.

One more suggestion: if the Controller agrees to a match postponement, in the spirit of openness and transparency, he should place the reason for it on the official UCU website.

Pictures from the Williamson Shield

Rumours before the event suggested that this weekend's Williamson Shield was headed for a good turnout. I decided to head over to the Maynard Sinclair Pavilion, home of the Civil Service Chess Club, just in time to catch the beginning of Round 5 and found a packed playing-room. Add this to the extra numbers seen in this season's Leagues and it seems clear that the local chess scene is on the up.

45 players had entered the lists, ten more than 2012' s successful centenary edition, and the organisers decided to separate off the top ten (unfortunately later reduced by two) to compete for the Shield itself, while the remaining 35 formed a second section for Intermediate and Junior players. Look out for the results soon at the usual sources.

Click on the images below to view full size pictures

Waiting to start

Games underway

Opening moves

Top boards

Butterflies And Hurricanes

Change everything you are
And everything you were
Your number has been called
Fights and battles have begun
Revenge will surely come
Your hard times are ahead

Best,
You've got to be the best
You've got to change the world
And use this chance to be heard
Your time is now

Some musings on the League's floating players

The perennial underdogs of Ballynafeigh 3 recorded their first ever victory this week. Just in case you might have missed this important occasion, it was trumpeted on both the Ballynafeigh and UCU websites. A source close to the League Controller had the following to say:

"The entire Ballynafeigh 3 team is a by-product of the Ulster Chess Union's floating system where players under 1350 can gain valuable match experience by being permitted to play for different teams within the same club in the same week, thus effectively doubling their opportunities of a seat at a board under competition conditions. This has meant inexperienced and novice players get the over-the-board match practice they need to progress at a much faster rate than would have been possible under a more rigid system. One of the better ideas to come out of the UCU in many a year."

As the man in the Marmite advert says, this attempt to foster new growth "must be applauded. Literally." However the system is actually a little more rigid than the League Controller realises. Let's have a quick look at the Rules:

"4.f. The Secretary of each club must submit to the League Controller 7 days in advance of the start of the League season a list of players (to be called the squad list) who will play for the club. Any team failing to do so before League fixtures begin will be penalised 5 League points.

4.g. If a club enters more than one team, the Secretary of that club must also specifically allocate 5 named players from the club's squad list for each team. Players specifically allocated to a particular team within a club shall not represent any other team of that club.

4.i. No player with a rating over 1350 may play for more than one team within the competition. Junior players, not specifically allocated to a particular team under 4g., are permitted to float and this permission is granted solely on a players rating (i.e. less than 1351) and not age."

The "junior floaters" of Ballynafeigh 3 have been playing for their 1 and 2 sister teams throughout the season in such an indiscriminate manner that it seems that the League Controller must have forgotten about the rule that junior players are only allowed to float if they are not specifically allocated to a particular team. I would be very surprised if a list of designated players for Ballynafeigh 3 could be produced without breaching the Rules or otherwise failing to produce 5 eligible players each week.

Moreover, the plot thickens. Now Ballynafeigh 4 have entered the fray and another 5 players should be designated. Even allowing for the frequency of new member uptake at Ballynafeigh, they'll be very hard-pressed to do that. Its newly-appointed supremo Dennis Wilkinson (a warm welcome back to one of the great captain/managers), had a busy first week because he also turned out for Ballynafeigh 2s, so even he can't be part of any list.

So, under this laissez-faire system, can we expect the Division 2 teams to live in a fantasy world, where, like Alice, they can't distinguish between the Tweedledum and Tweedledee of Ulster chess.

Ballynafeigh 3 and 4 with Alice