Hendersons claim RVH bragging rights in local derby at the Royal, by Chestnut69

Chestnut69 joins our little band of bloggers.

The battle of the RVH Division 2 sides was eventually won by the new kids, the Hendersons, over their club-mate rivals, the Ravens.

The two sides, with virtually the same line-outs, played out a bruising draw in November, but this time out the Ravens drew first blood and might have been fancying their chances of scooping the points after John Monaghan ran out winner against the "unpredictable" Phil "MLegsci" Morrison. Even the help of the faithful Henry the Horse couldn't help Phil regain his Williamson Shield form on this one as he succumbed early to a determined Monaghan.

Sean Linton fell to Anthony Thompson on board 3 soon after which gave the Ravens a 2-0 lead. Boards 1 and 2 were closer affairs but Richard Kaczorowski and Brendan O'Neill came out winners against Frank Carruthers and Guych Nuriyev respectively to draw the Hendersons level.

All eyes turned to board 4 where Ulster Junior champ Cathal Murphy, shrugging off his recent broken arm, was renewing acquaintances with Raymond Smith. As in the Ulster Ray replied to Cathal's e4 with his customary Modern/Pirc defence, and when he grabbed a pawn with Rook on move 20 may have felt comfortable. Cathal blocked in the Rook and followed up by taking it with his Queen, which Ray couldn't retake owing to a vicious discovered Rook x Queen with check, then taking a Knight. Murphy looked at a Rook sac on move 24 (which would in fact have led to checkmate) but thought it was too risky to play as he already had the advantage at this point. He went on to take the Knight with a check on move 25 and actually missed a mating chance on move 32. Even a clear rook and passed pawn down Smith fought on forlornly (sorry Ray) hoping Murphy with such a material advantage would stalemate. It wasn't to be as Cathal eventually prevailed with resignation on move 55 to give the Hendo's the points and more importantly the bragging rights.

Stalemate at Stormont by 'Rookie'

Return of a legend.  Former Irish News chess columnist ‘Rookie’ comes out of (far too early) retirement to present his inimitable view of the Ulster tournament scene.

Eighteen hours of drama, tension and confrontation near the Castle, where everything was black and white - no, not the political talks but the Williamson Shield at the Stormont Pavilion on January 30-31, 2010. Let’s look at the shock results in each round. 

Round one: the biggest shock of all involved a Whiteside win, not for Steady Eddie, but for Garry, playing the white side of a French. 

Round two: there were two surprises this time. Alex Beckett (1322) gave his opponent a filip to his morale when conceding the exchange and a loss to Phillip Morrison (1051), while Alan was burnt by Cathal’s “fried liver” attack.

Round three: the results here were predictable, except when Karina Kruk (1483) krumbled to a draw with Geoff Hindley (996).

Round four: here’s a storey - Peter Storey (721) who beat Alex a Beckett (1322), martyred by a knight. Meanwhile Martin “gunslinger ned” Kelly had the fastest draw in the West, sorry East Belfast, against Steady Eddie’s own Bangor opening:

Round five: the only shocks were two unlikely draws. R. Kaczarowski (1641) felt like a “new man” after his draw with Mark Newman (1781) and, by george, Jackson (1276) was happy after drawing with draw specialist Martin Kelly (1442).

Round six: the last round saw O’Brien (1149) “pearse” Alex Beckett’(1322)’s defence. Also, Kaczarowski (1641) ”knocked down” E. Walls’ (1882) defence to claim a shock third place on 4.5 points, a point behind joint winners, Fisherwick duo John Cairns and Michael Waters. Grading prizes went to John Phillips and Alan Burns on 4 points and Phillip Morrison on 3 points. Rumours that Alan’s final opponent, Martin Kelly, also aiming for a grading prize, was “tired and emotional” are wildly off the mark. 

Gareth Annesley on the 2010 Williamson Shield

Guest blogger Gareth Annesley gives his take on the 2010 Williamson Shield:

The annual Williamson Shield took place on the final weekend of January at its familiar location within the Stormont Estate, Belfast. Its perennial winner Stephen Scannell, the 'Phil Taylor' of Ulster chess minus the tattoos and beer belly (well tattoos anyhow..sorry Steve) was absent. Both 1st and 2nd seeds, Michael Waters and John Cairns, gladly filled the breach to pick up joint winnings on 5.5 with a handy £150 going into each of their back pockets, thus rewarding an arduous weekend's toil. Picking up the bronze was surprise package Ryszard Kaczorowski  who upset the high flying Eamon Walls in the last round, a player who earlier that morning snuffed out your blogger's lingering tournament hopes....nuff said.

Moving on I would like to briefly examine a  couple of critical positions from my weekend games which I think the reader may find of interest.  First off was my Saturday evening game with John Cairns.

After a slightly unorthodox version of the Pirc (leaving theory on move 7) a situation arose where black has bagged 2 pawns, with white having compensation in the shape of a disorganised black piece arrangement and an exposed king.  In the diagram below white has just played 23 Nf3 hoping to win the g pawn and open the g file for his heavy pieces in the process, as you can see from the arrows.

Cairns-Annesley 23.Nf3

Black, as most engines point out, should have ignored this and swapped off the menacing white bishop on e5, instead of defending with Bh6 as played in the game. Cairns, I'm sure, after playing the immediate 24.Nxg5! had in mind the motif shown below, which leads to material meltdown for black!

In the game I avoided this scenario by playing 25...e6 and 26..Kxf7 however with 26.h4 and 27.Rxg5 black regains his piece and opens the g file as intended.  As you can see from the remainder of the game black's position is collapsing and resignation soon follows in swift order. Although disappointed, due to being on the wrong end of a crush, I was impressed none the less by the ruthless economy of the white attack.  

For all you lovers of the 'chess study' type of positions I think you may find the finish to my round 5 game against William Storey amusing. As you can see from the diagram below white has just played Kg5?..allowing white to play g7.

It soon become apparent to William that his king has prevented his rook from guarding against the queening on g8 by placing itself on the g file. Therefore he decides to keep checking the black king, so the question for my readers is... Which square does the white king have to go to in order to keep alive winning chances?

Don't look down until you have it!

 

 

Yes you guessed it... a8!  From here black has run out of checks and is helpless to prevent white queening and winning. As my king was making its away across the board a knowing smile from Denis Wilkinson, who was spectating on the sidelines, indicated that he also knew the destination of the white monarch. A scenario which makes an exception to the rule that an outside passed pawn is deadly for the opposition, in this case black can only rue that it was still alive to give shelter to the white king!

Barring this piece of chess farce it was a forgettable tournament for myself as I was very lethargic throughout large parts of the tourney, this I can only put down to the early rises which have been foreign to me due to unemployment in the previous months... excuses, excuses. As the tourney included several rating prizes there was plenty of incident and drama in the final rounds with Alan Burns defeating Martin (the big one partner) Kelly to claim one of these.  At one stage the 'at times mercurial' Burns had a material advantage so large against the 'distracted' Kelly, it looked as though he'd emptied a spare set of black pieces onto the board whilst Kelly wasn't looking. A swindle not too improbable taking into account Kelly's state at the end of a long tournament. Elsewhere there was a last round defeat for Kevin Agnew against the lone belle of Ulster chess, Karina Kruk, in a minor piece endgame. This may signal an increase in chess dvd endgame nights in the Agnew household (if your reading Paul Mac).

This ends my blog on the Williamson Shield 2010 and I hope to do more in the future.

Game of the Year

From all the tournament games I observed this year, the one below is the one that left the biggest impression on me. White's 18th move introduced a tactical thunderstorm. Both players negotiated their way through it wonderfully well, before Black eventually slipped up.

Gareth Annesley - John Cairns
Ulster Championship (Round 4), 30 August 2009

Download the annotated game

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 b5 6.Bb3 Bc5 7.c3 Qe7 8.d4 Bb6 9.Bg5 d6 10.a4 Rb8 11.axb5 axb5 12.h3 h6 13.Bh4 g5 14.Bg3 g4 15.hxg4 Bxg4 16.Bh4 exd4 17.Bd5 Ne5

18.Nxe5!?

18.cxd4 runs into 18...Nxf3+ 19.gxf3 Bh3 20.Bc6+ Kf8 21.Re1 Rg8+ 22.Kh2 Bc8 (22...Ng4+ 23.Kxh3 Nxf2+ 24.Bxf2 Qe6+ 25.Kh4 (but not 25.Kh2 Qg6 and it's mate in two) 25...Qf6+ 26.Kh3 Qe6+ is only a perpetual check) 23.Rg1 Qe6 (threatening mate on h3) 24.Rg3 Nh5 25.Rg4 Rxg4 26.fxg4 Qxg4 27.Qxg4 Bxg4 28.d5 Bd4 and Black is a clear pawn up. 

(After 18.cxd4) 18...Bxd4 19.Qxd4 Bxf3 also looks dangerous but after 20.Qa7 (20.gxf3 Nxf3+ wins the White Queen) 20...Rc8 21.Qb7 0-0 22.Nd2 (22.gxf3? Nxf3+ 23.Kh1 Nxh4) 22...Bg4 23.Rfc1 White's queenside pressure provides reasonable compensation for the pawn.

18...Bxd1 

18...dxe5 19.Bxf6 Qxf6 20.Qxg4 and Black loses a piece.

19.Bc6+ 

The obvious follow-up 19.Bxf7+ seems to leave Black slightly better after 19...Qxf7 20.Nxf7 Kxf7 21.Rxd1 (21.Bxf6 Kxf6 22.Rxd1 Ke5 23.Nd2 dxc3 24.bxc3 with some advantage for Black) 21...Nxe4 22.cxd4.

Two other possibilities after 19.Bxf7 are:

a) 19...Kf8 20.Ng6+ Kxf7 21.Nxe7 Be2 22.Bxf6 (22.Re1 d3 23.Bxf6 Kxf6 24.Nd5+ Ke5 25.Nd2 Rhf8 26.Nxb6 Rxb6 looks fine for Black) 22...Kxf6 (22...Bxf1 23.Bxh8 Rxh8 24.Nd5 Bd3 25.Nxb6 cxb6 26.cxd4 Bxe4 27.Nc3 is a bit better for White) 23.Nd5+ Ke5 24.Nxb6 Rxb6 25.cxd4+ Kxd4 26.Re1 with an equal position;

b) 19...Kd8 20.Nc6+ Kd7 21.Nxe7 Kxe7 22.Rxd1 Kxf7 23.Bxf6 Kxf6 24.cxd4 and White emerges a pawn up;

Although 19.Nc6 allows Black to save his Queen by 19...Qd7 20.Nxb8 Qg4 this might give White the best chance of a win after 21.Bxf6 0-0 (the only move not to lose) (21...Rg8 22.Bc6+ Kf8 23.Nd7+ Ke8 24.Ra8#; 21...Rh7 22.Bc6+ Kf8 23.Nd7+ Kg8 24.Ra8#; 21...dxc3 22.Bc6+ Kf8 23.Nd7+ Kg8 24.Ra8+ Kh7 25.Rxh8+ Kg6 26.Bxc3) 22.Nd2 (22.Nc6 would however be a big blunder as then Black mates after 22...Bf3 23.g3 Qh3) 22...dxc3 23.Raxd1 cxd2 24.Nc6 Qe2 25.Bd4 Bc5 26.Bxc5 dxc5 27.Ne5 and White will get the d-pawn after Nf3.

Instead of 22…dxc3 in the 19.Nc6 line, Black could try:

a) 22...Be2 (perhaps the best move here) 23.Nc6 Qf4 (if Black takes the Rook with 23...Bxf1 24.Rxf1 dxc3 White has 25.Ne7+ Kh7 26.bxc3 Qf4 27.e5 and the threat of Be4+ wins back the exchange) 24.Ne7+ Kh7 25.e5 Bd3 26.Nf3 Bxf1 27.Rxf1 dxc3 28.bxc3 dxe5 29.Bxe5 Qa4 30.Re1 f6 31.Be4+ Kg7 32.Bd4 with an unbalanced position;

b) 22...Bc2 23.Nc6 Qf4 24.Bxd4 Qxd2 25.Bxb6 cxb6 and White is probably a little better here.

19...Kd8

Worse for Black would be 19...Kf8 20.Bxf6 Qe6 (20...Qxf6 21.Nd7+ Kg7 22.Nxf6) 21.Nd7+ Kg8 22.Rxd1 dxc3 (22...Rh7 23.Rd3) 23.Nxc3 Rc8 24.Bxh8 Kxh8 25.Nxb5 (25.Bxb5 Bxf2+ 26.Kxf2 c6 27.Bxc6 Rxc6 28.Ra7 is also good for White) 25...Qb3 26.Nxb6 cxb6 27.Nd4 Qxb2 28.Rab1 Qc3 29.Rxb6. 

20.Nd7 Nxd7 

20...Bg4 leads to a White win after 21.Nxb8 (but not 21.Bxf6 Bxd7 22.Bxe7+ Kxe7 23.Bxd7 Kxd7) 21...Qe5 22.Bb7 Bd7 (22...Qf4 23.g3 Qf3 24.Nd2 Qd3 25.Bxf6+ Ke8 26.Ra8 and mate is inevitable) 23.Ra8 Ke7 24.Nxd7 Kxd7 25.Rxh8.

20...dxc3 fails to 21.Nxb8 (also possible was 21.Bxf6 Qxf6 22.Nxf6 cxb2 23.Ra2 Be2 24.Nd7 Bxf1 25.Nxb8 Bc4 26.Rxb2) 21...Ba4 22.Nxc3 and Black will not be able to untangle himself, e.g. 22...Ba7 23.Nxa4 bxa4 24.Rxa4 Bxb8 25.Ra8 and the threat of mate forces a large material advantage.

Alternatives to 21…Bxa4 also do not work:
a) 21...c2 22.Nd7 Qe6 23.Bxf6+ Qxf6 24.Nxf6 c1Q 25.Ra8+ Ke7 26.Nd5+ Ke6 27.Rxh8 Qxc6 (27...Qxb1 28.Re8#) 28.Rxd1;
b) 21...cxb2 22.Ra8. 

21.Bxe7+ Kxe7 22.Rxd1

22...dxc3

Better is 22...Ne5 23.Bxb5 dxc3 24.Nxc3 c6 25.Be2 Bc5 when Black's pieces are more active and the b-pawn is weak.

Another good possibility for Black, with the advantage of a couple of little traps, was 22...d3 23.Bxd7 23...Kxd7 24.Rxd3 Ra8 25.Rxa8 Rxa8.

Here are the ways White could go wrong after 22...d3:
a) 23.Bxb5? Bxf2+ 24.Kxf2 Rxb5 25.b4 f5 26.exf5 Rxf5+ 27.Ke3 Ne5;
b) 23.Rxd3? Ne5 24.Bxb5 Nxd3 (24...Bc5 might be even better) 25.Bxd3. 

23.Nxc3 b4 24.Nd5+

White's greater activity compensates for the pawn minus.

24...Kd8 25.Nxb6 Rxb6 26.Bd5 Ke7 27.Ra7 Rc8 28.Rc1 c6?!

And Black finally cracks under the sustained pressure. 28...Nc5 was the correct move.

29.Bxf7 Kxf7 30.Rxd7+

White has regained his pawn and will now pick up either the e- or h-pawn as well. 

30...Ke6 31.Rh7 c5 32.f4 Rf8 33.Rxh6+

33...Rf6 34.Rh4 Ra6 35.e5 dxe5 36.fxe5 Kxe5 37.Rxc5+ Kd6 38.Rb5 

Not surprisingly the players were very short of time now and were no longer recording moves. Annesley succeeded in converting his advantage into a win. 1-0

QUB April blitz

After organising the QUB Rapidplay Open and a simul by German expert Chris Cohrs, Chris Millar returned to the blitz version of the game last night. The format was a 5-round Swiss with each player having 10 minutes for each game.

After his last three events had featured the organising team trapped in a lift, a last minute emergency change of venue and a final round fire alarm, Chris was convinced that another disaster (or series of disasters) lay in wait. In order to keep his blood pressure somewhere near normal levels, he had persuaded Eamonn Walls to go through the harrowing process of making the booking this time. "Nothing could have prepared me for this" was how the latter reportedly viewed the experience.

On the night Millar was obviously taking no chances. When I arrived at the venue there was a formidable presence of people in yellow livery with the legend “event staff”. Of course it’s possible they had something to do with the simultaneously run Maximo Park gig in the Mandela Hall, next door to the chess in Bar Sub. I was hoping I might get to hear a sneak preview of their new single ‘The Kids Are Sick Again’ out 4th May, but alas the soundproofing in the cavernous basement of the Students’ Union defeated me.

Still the evening still has the usual accompaniment of background music. I identified an Oasis track playing during the fourth round and no less than Prince closed out proceedings with ‘Purple Rain’.

That was not the only incidental entertainment Millar had laid on. Showing on the big screen was the Champions League encounter between Manchester United and Porto. I am reliably informed that those at Old Trafford were denied the opportunity of watching the chess on the big screen there, which may well explain the disappointed look on Sir Alex Ferguson’s face.

Of course with the music in the background, the football sound commentary was off but somebody had helpfully pressed ‘888’ to provide simultaneous sub-titling. This rather confused QUB B captain Damien Cunningham, who thought some maniac texter had hacked into the television signal.

All this for a fiver while it cost 20 quid to get into Maximo Park but now, in the words of the late, great Harry Golombek, I must turn my attention to the chess.

26 hopefuls turned out, with the usual sizeable contingent from the host club. They would be looking principally to Ulster champion Stephen Scannell and Walls to uphold the honour of the University club while Fisherwick’s John Cairns, joint winner this season of both the Ulster Rapidplay Championship and the Williamson Shield, was the best candidate for honours among the ‘blow-ins’.

The first couple of rounds saw a jockeying for position among the leading candidates for first prize and the first big surprise came in round 3 when Bombardier’s Mark Newman defeated number 1 seed Scannell. In round 4 Newman went on to draw with Walls while Cairns beat Cunningham. Going in to the final round Cairns was in the lead with a perfect 4 out of 4 with Newman and Walls half-a-point behind – only these three remained in contention for first prize.

In the top board game number 3 seed Walls defeated number 2 seed Cairns and Newman joined the University student on 4.5 by defeating Cunningham. Now there would have to be an Armageddon game to decide the overall winner. But before reporting on the outcome of that, here is a wrap-up of the other prize-winners. Karina Kruk took the ladies’ prize after an Armageddon decider against Ciara Pugh, with the latter having the consolation of winning the prize for the best unrated player. Winner of the best new-comer award was Jason Spence, a protégé of the legendary member of the 4 Horsemen, Martin Kelly – both master and pupil finishing in the group finishing equal 6th with 3 points. Immediately ahead of that group were three players finishing on 4 points – Scannell, Cairns and Shane Keers. The former Sullivan Upper player Keers, now in his second year at the University, was playing his first competitive chess in about 2 years, so hopefully this excellent comeback, which netted him the under 1800 grading prize, will encourage him back in to regular competition.

Finally to that Armageddon decider between Walls and Newman which would determine who would win first prize and who would have to be content with the runners-up prize. The rules were that White got 6 minutes on the clock and Black only 5, but White had to give draw odds. Walls won the toss for colour and chose White, but both players were happy because Newman had intended to take the Black pieces anyway. So Walls had to win to take first prize whereas Newman only needed a draw for overall victory. Walls seemed to have a positional advantage out of the opening but then made a curious blunder throwing away a piece for a pawn. However he still had a time advantage and kept himself in the game by creating a passed b-pawn while on the other side of the board he had a 2-pawn majority. So it was 5 pawns to 2 but with Newman also having a Knight, which however quickly became overloaded with work trying to prevent charging pawns on both wings. Just as Walls was about to promote one of them to a Queen, Newman’s flag fell and Millar declared Eamonn Walls winner of the QUB April blitz.

Ulster Rapidplay Championship 2008

Since the Ulster Championship proper migrated to warmer climes in 2005, the rapidplay version has occupied the Christmas/New Year slot. The fourth in this series, all held at Belfast Boat Club, was played 28th December 2008 and featured Stephen Scannell, winner for the last two years plus Gareth Annesley and John Cairns, two of the three joint champions from the 2005/6 event. Also among the top seeds were Michael Holmes, making a welcome return to tournament chess, and Timothy Douglas, home from Germany for the holiday season.

There were also a number of young players who regularly compete in the monthly Saturday Children's tournaments at Methodist College. Amongst these was Harshith Maruthireddy, recently arrived from Wales, where he was Cardiff and Valleys under 9 and under 10 schools champion for the last two years. The young players showed they were not out of their depth as early as Round 1 when Radhika Gupta, winner of an important girls' competition in Manchester earlier this year, and Kiran Robbin recorded victories over battle-hardened adult opponents.

Six rounds with 30 minutes each player per game were on the menu but I only arrived to spectate midway through Round 5. A quick glance at the results showed that Scannell was in the lead with 4/4 with Holmes, Cairns, Ulster Schools Champion Ananda Srinivasan, Douglas, Mark Newman and Annesley, all with 3 points, in hot pursuit. My attention was drawn to the board one game between Holmes (white) and Scannell - this was a cagey encounter with Holmes probably having a slight advantage due to his better-placed bishops. Scannell started to drift behind on the clock, and this was to prove decisive with Holmes winning on time. In the meantime, Cairns had defeated Srinivasan, while Annesley had got the better of Douglas. Newman, although floating down to the players on 2.5 points, was now out of the running after losing to Calum Leitch.

The final round saw four players - Annesley, Cairns, Holmes and Scannell - entering it in the lead on four points. Cairns checked what would happen in the event of a tie. When told that title and prize money would be shared, I anxiously asked him if we might see two quick draws on the top boards, but he assured me that this was most unlikely - and so it proved, but here was also to be a final twist to the tale.

Leitch defeated Douglas on board three with a sacrificial attack that caught his opponent's King in the centre to finish on 4.5 and with a chance of sharing the title if the two top games ended in draws. This however did not seem very likely. Cairns Grand Prix Attack against Holmes's Sicilian Defence produced a won King and pawn endgame for Cairns, but he wandered too far up the board with his King and suddenly there was a pawn race. Both players were now blitzing out their moves and when the smoke cleared each had only King and promoted Queen left. A draw was agreed, so they joined Leitch at the top of the leaderboard. Cairns was visibly disappointed to have let his opportunity to slip.

Now all attention was on Scannell versus Annesley. The latter's Pirc Defence had not gone well and at one point Scannell was ten minutes up on the clock with a strong kingside attack. However Annesley did not panic and Scannell then consumed a lot of time looking for the knock-out blow. Suddenly Annesley got counterplay on the queenside and with an active Queen and Rook, it was now Scannell's King that was under pressure. However Scannell remained with just enough threats of his own to stay in the game and a number of pieces got swapped off. There were now no obvious winning attempts for either player with both having less than a minute left on the clock. Annesley - with slightly more time and marginally better position - offered a draw.

Scannell is famous for grinding out wins in unpromising positions, but even he was not prepared to hazard the lottery of just aimlessly blitzing out moves until one of the players' flags fell (well that's a piece of artistic licence because they were actually using a digital clock). He accepted the draw offer and Cairns immediately commented, "That makes me feel a lot better now." So it all ended in an unlikely five-way tie, with Holmes, Scannell, Cairns, Annesley and Leitch all finishing on 4.5 points.

Srinivasan and Richard Gould shared the under 1600 grading prize while the rapidly improving Aaron McCully took the one for under 1300s. Kevin Robbin, a P7 pupil at St Brides, Belfast and younger brother of Kiran, won the prize for the best unrated player. Full standings and crosstable are at the Ulster Chess Chronicle.

Annesley wins Kilkenny Major

Kilkenny used to be the biggest annual congress in the whole of Ireland, but in recent years it has ceded that title to Bunratty. Indeed this year only 205 competed in Kilkenny's four sections, quite a bit down on the usual numbers - signs of the credit crunch biting? Still there was still a good sprinkling of GM talent in the Masters, won by English GM Tony Kosten.

There were two Belfast players in the 44-player Major for those rated between 1600-1999. Gareth Annesley (pictured left) started the final round half-a-point behind the leader Liam Porter but then beat him to secure undisputed first place with five points from his six games. Danny Mallaghan failed to repeat his 2006 victory in this event, losing his final two games to finish on 2.5.

The only other Northern raider was Cathal Murphy, competing in the under 1200 Challengers. He finished on four points, with both his losses being against two of the joint-winners.

You can find a report on the event and crosstables for all four sections at the Irish Chess Union website.

QUB October Blitz

University chess impresario, Chris Millar, put on another super show last Wednesday. He hosted a 5-round blitz (10 minutes each player) tournament in the Bunatee Bar, located in the bowels of the QUB Students' Union. Next door to the Bunatee Bar is the Mandela Hall, which over 30 years ago and then still named the McMordie Hall, I can recall as the venue for the Ulster Championship. Alcoholic refreshments, music playing in the background and atmospheric lighting made the October Blitz as different as night and day to those cerebral affairs from the 1970s.

The tournament saw a heavyweight cast of many of Belfast's best players taking part, but they were augmented by a large presence from the host club, many of whom were competing for the titles of QUB Freshers' Champion and QUB Womens' Champion. Ulster chess has always suffered from a scarcity of female players, so it was good to see so many of them competing in this event.

My own tournament started with a tough game against one of Ulster's best fast-time-limit players, Stephen Morgan. I managed to get some play going on the queenside, but all this did was to force Stephen to launch a kingside attack, which ended in him checkmating me. Still my concentration levels must have been good, because I wasn't aware of the music.

The rounds came thick and fast and it was hard to keep up-to-date with who was going best, but one thing was clear - with 36 players in the mix and even with an accelerated draw, dropping a point would be fatal to chances of overall victory. Come the last round, fittingly there were only two players on maximum points, so it was to be a shoot-out for the first prize between Morgan and Ulster champion, Steve Scannell, with the latter coming out on top to add one more to a long list of tournament victories.

My own last round game was against QUB fresher, Nina Harker, and in a reversal of my first round game, this time it was my opponent who had the queenside pressure which I countered by securing checkmate on the other side. Despite this loss Harker then went into an Armageddon tie-break, a Millar speciality, against Ciara Pugh to decide the QUB Women's title, while most of the other players watched on. No pressure then! Pugh emerged as the victor after a tense, hard-fought game. The QUB Freshers' title went to Scott Colhoun, whom I seem to remember playing a few years ago at Hillsborough Chess Club, before its move to Derriaghy.

Millar had already staged a blitz tourney in the Students' Union during the summer and after this second successful outing he promises more to come. Bring them on!

Leagues 2007-2008

For the first time in many years Bangor does not have a team in Division 1 of the UCU Belfast & District Leagues with three of its players - Steve Scannell, David Grzymek and Damien Lavery - defecting to the newly promoted QUB squad. The latter pulled a surprise in week one with star Leinster player Karl McPhillips featuring on board 1 and Ulster champion Scannell only on board 2. However a default on Board 5 by Grzymek, due to a misunderstanding over dates, saw them lose 3-2 to defending champions Clifton House.

Perennial contenders Fisherwick withdrew at the last moment from last season's top division, but are back this year and have started strongly. A number of former Civil Service players have formed a new club called Lagan, playing out of Belfast Boat Club. News reaches me that it's a tight squeeze to fit everyone into their matchroom, so those players who like to get up and wander about will either just have to sit where they are or risk causing chaos.

Concerns about numbers led to a decision by the UCU to amalgamate Divisions 2 and 3, but in the end 10 teams have entered the second tier leaving the overall number of teams only one down on last season. Fears that Portadown might not enter turned out to be unfounded and they have returned to their old venue at the Town Hall after a season at the local Rugby Club. Considering the size of its membership it was surprising that RVH only fielded one team last season, but I'm pleased to report they have entered 2 teams in Division 2 this time. With so many teams it will be a long, hard battle to come out on top. Because of their strength in depth, the probable favourites are Fisherwick B.

Irish Championships

These are being held in Dublin from 30th June to 8th July. About 3 years ago the Irish Chess Union decided to open up their championships to non-Irish players in an attempt to attract grandmasters and increase GM and IM norm opportunities.

With significant sponsorship, this year's event has realised that ambition with the English GMs Stuart Conquest, Mark Hebden and Nick Pert competing alongside the Lithuanian GM Eduardas Rozentalis. Ulster IMs Brian Kelly and Mark Orr are both playing in the event. Kelly needs one final norm for his GM title and is currently leading on 3/3 after beating Orr in Round 3. There have been plenty of shocks already with Hebden and Rozentalis both losing to untitled Irish opponents.

Less of a surprise was the performance of QUB captain Chris Millar in the Irish Junior Championship held over the first weekend of the Championships. Fresh from his victory in the Henderson Cup at the Belfast Boat Club only 2 weeks earlier, Millar squeezed into this under 1500 event as number 2 seed, due to his ICU rating being lower than his UCU one of 1536. He started with 4 straight wins and had the luxury of being able to agree a draw in the fifth and final round to clinch an outright first place.

Calum Leitch competed in the Irish Intermediate (under 1900) and "played some of the best chess I've ever played" but unfortunately lacked that bit of luck every player needs. His final score of 2.5/5 didn't reflect the quality of his chess, a point confirmed by Millar in his article on the event on the QUB Chess Club website.

You can follow the action at the Irish Chess Union's official website. Former Irish champion Colm Daly is not only competing in the championships but also reporting on them. Colm's articles are always well worth a read.