Ulster Masters finale

Senior Section

On the top two boards in Round 5 Gareth Annesley and Calum Leitch won respectively against Soren Jensen and Brendan Jamison, leaving them a full point ahead of Jensen, Gabor Horvath and Mark Newman going into the final round.

Normally players on the same points total play each other in a Swiss but the two leaders had already played earlier in the tournament - Leitch apparently had a winning advantage but Annesley conjured up a check and Leitch chose the wrong King move and went on to lose. Therefore they both floated down to players on 3 points, leaving five players still in with some sort of shout at winning the Alex Beckett Trophy. Making things interesting was that the leaders would both have to play the Black pieces, Leitch against Jensen and Annesley against Newman.

Horvath, the third player on 3.0 points, floated down to Robert Lavery and won to end the tournament on 4.0. Any chance of the defending champion making a successful defence was scuppered when Jensen-Leitch was agreed drawn in an endgame where neither player could risk more.

Now if Annesley could draw, his tie-break would almost certainly be better than Leitch's. However Mark Newman was not playing ball, having won an exchange and also having a dangerous passed pawn. Both players had little time left, Leitch was too nervous to watch his rival's game, fearing that Annesley would turn the tables but Newman found a quick way through to a victory.

So the 2014 Ulster Master title went to Leitch with Annesley having the consolation of taking second prize on tie-break from Horvath and Newman.

The Alex Beckett Trophy was in hiding on the day...

... but I was able to get this close-up of the impressive Des Forson Memorial Trophy

Intermediate Section

In Round 5 the sole leader Peter McGuckin lost to Pat McKillen. So going into the final set of games, McKillen, Matthew Chapman and Andrew Todd were in the lead on 4.0. McGuckin, William Storey and Martin Kelly, last year's Intermediate champion, were half-a-point back and still in with a chance for the prizes.

The three top games all ended in White wins. McGuckin beat Todd, but the young Bangor player had the consolation of picking up a grading prize. McKillen got the better of Chapman to secure outright victory and possession of the Des Forson Memorial Trophy for a whole year.

In the final game to finish in this section, Kelly had lured Storey into grabbing a poisoned pawn and went on to join McGuckin on 4.5, but there was to be no prize this year for Kelly with McGuckin's front-running securing second prize on tie-break.

Final Crosstables and photographs of the Senior and Intermediate winners

Ulster Masters prizewinners

(l to r) Leitch, Rush, Annesley, UCU Chairman Hindley, McKillen and McGuckin

Senior
First Calum Leitch
Second Gareth Annesley
Grading Stephen Rush

Intermediate
First Pat McKillen
Second Peter McGuckin
Grading Andrew Todd, Joshua Geary

Ulster Masters on the up

I paid a flying visit to the Ulster Masters today. The event has been moved a month earlier this year. and whether it was the change in date or the generally vibrant club scene at the moment, numbers were well up on the three previous editions.

Play in the Senior section during Round 4

There are 12 players in the senior section, headed by Ulster champion Gabor Horvath, defending the title he won in this event last year. In Rounds 1 and 3 he was held to draws by Brendan Jamison and Gareth Annesley. The latter went into Round 4 on 2.5 points, just ahead of a chasing posse of Horvath, Jamison, Soren Jensen, Calum Leitch and Mark Newman.

I arrived just as the Round 4 games were reaching a climax. First Jamison and Annesley drew in a Queen and 5 pawn ending. Then Jensen with Rook, Bishop and 2 pawns versus Newman's Rook and 2 pawns was saved any technical difficulties, when Newman, short on time, blundered away his Rook.

Final game to finish was between Lindores team-mates Horvath and Leitch. Horvath had an open h-file for his two Rooks aiming at Leitch's h7-pawn. Calum was trying to counter with his two Rooks and Queen lined up on the e-file. Gabor piled further pressure on the h7 pawn with a Knight going to g5. In a surprising but effective manoeuvre Leitch abandoned the pawn, moving his own Knight, stationed at f6, to g4 and then f2, which ultimately allowed a decisive penetration by his Queen and Rook, forcing resignation from the defending champion.

Going into Round 5 Annesley has been joined in the lead by Jensen and Leitch on 3.0 points, with Jamison on 2.5 and Horvath in a group of four on 2.0.

In the Intermediate section, 25 players are taking part. Top seed Peter McGuckin is in the lead after 4 rounds with 3.5, only half-a-point ahead of a group of six, comprising of John McKenna, Paddy Magee, Andrew Todd, Stewart McConaghy, Matthew Chapman and Pat McKillen.

Top boards in the Intermediate section during Round 4

In through the out door

A story often has two sides, as Michael Waters' comment to Whither Fisherwick tends to confirm. However, it's not my intention to get into any polemics. Rather it is to run with the idea of what should be the essence of local club chess today.

If we concentrate on extremely lengthy competitions (however popular), is there sufficient variety and enough space for clubs to provide their own product to attract newcomers, returners or even current players looking for something different.

So, whatever the precise circumstances of Fisherwick taking a new path, here is an opportunity to see if renewal and regrowth will work by concentrating on building a sound club structure and offering more variety. Waters' final throwaway line might even be the most revolutionary thought. Will the first club to open its doors on a Saturday hit the jackpot?

Whither Fisherwick

It's not surprising that people are annoyed about Fisherwick's sudden jumping ship from the UCU Leagues. There's also talk about ulterior motives. Before everyone gets worked up into a frazzle, it might just be worth pointing out a few things.

Nobody complained when Fisherwick used to run its open-to-all club championship during the League season - and nobody does now, when its near-neighbour does the same thing now. If Fisherwick CC wants to run its own competition(s), let them get on with it. If the UCU is confident that it's putting together a good programme of events, what is there to be concerned about? If Fisherwick's events go down like a lead balloon, nothing will have been lost. On the other hand if they complement the UCU ones, that will be a bonus and the UCU might even learn something useful.

Fisherwick CC has made (and can still make) a significant contribution to Ulster chess. It has had a long-held reputation as a strong club in both quality and quantity but it might now need a period of regrowth. About eights years ago Fisherwick opted not to play in the Silver King (though in those days they still had a "second" team) but the following season they were back. Let's hope that will happen again (and indeed encourage them to re-engage rather than treating the club as some sort of pariah).

All change

After Fisherwick's sudden exit from Division 1 subsequent to the fixture list being published, League Controller Calum Leitch has acted very swiftly to the collateral damage, in particular the issue of too many byes week-on-week in both Divisions.

Fruithill has been moved up to compete for the Silver King producing a sensible 7-8 split between the Divisions. The League Controller has also rejigged fixtures to eradicate those pesky byes that had suddenly appeared like green balls on an Australian beach.

While I'm on record about the Leagues being overlong, I would concede that it was also logical in the changed circumstances to add a third round of fixtures in the Strawbridge Cup so that the two Divisions now dovetail nicely together.

Interesting times

About a week ago the new fixtures for the 2014-2015 local league season were posted at the Ballynafeigh CC website. Of course, we were used to official UCU announcements appearing there when its supremo was also the League Controller. Obviously old habits die hard.

A couple of days later the fixture list then appeared at the Lindores CC website, home of the dynamic duo who have taken over control of UCU team and individual tournaments. Obviously continuing the privatisation of their predecessor.

Finally the Division 1 and Division 2 fixtures did appear at the official website. A day or so later there was even an announcement there which, however, bizarrely referred the reader back to the Ballynafeigh CC website for the details.

Anyway the good news was that (despite the hibernation of Lagan CC) with the revival of the Queen's University Chess Club (or to be precise, now re-branded Society) and an extra couple of "second teams", total entries amounted to 16.

When planning this piece, I was going to inquire what was wrong with 8 teams in each Division rather than the announced 7+9 (with the top Division adding a third round of fixtures). Under the UCU plan there will be a total of 21 weeks for Division 1 and 18 for Division 2.

With an even split of teams we could have had a double-rounder for each Division over only 14 weeks. The advantage of this would have been to leave time for some further team competitions with a different format (eg all-NI, rapidplays, handicap, knock-out) which the chattering classes seemed keen on in the Spring.

Still, the announcement over at Fisherwick CC puts this all into perspective. Despite being the reigning Silver King champions and announced as an entrant on all those outlets mentioned above, Fisherwick CC "will not be participating in the Ulster Chess Union organized Belfast & District Chess League 2014-15". However, this is not some Lagan-style hiatus because a full programme events is planned, including "inter club competition."

"Cat among the pigeons" springs to mind.

Cathal Murphy bags the City Of Dublin Junior chess title

A quartet of Ulster players took part in the recent City Of Dublin championships at the Gresham Hotel in O’Connell Street. Two of The three musketeers Murphy and Kelly (Morrison sat this one out) were joined by another regular southern traveller Gareth Annesley  and southern debutant Siebran Westra.

Cathal and Martin both decided to play in the junior section and strictly to their southern ratings of 1190 and 1160 respectively. Cathal  topped the 55 player section, finishing on 5.5 from 6, while Martin finished just out of the prizes with a respectable 4 from 6, just managing to hold on to his “unbeaten” record against Irish females with a win over Katherine Bolger in round 1.

Although Cathal won his first five games, two of these, against grading prize winner Suzanne Barry and second placed Adam Murphy (grand prix and Vienna attack respectively) were on a knife-edge throughout with several tactical and checkmate threats and positions played out (see below)  Barry actually missed 38...Qf3+  leading to mate in 3, while Cathal missed 22.Qxf8, while under time pressure against Adam Murphy, but went on to win and then closed out the tournament with a win against unknown Polish player Filipski and a closing draw against John Halpenny.

Gareth and Siebran finished with 3.5 and 2 respectively in a tough under 2000 Major section. Siebran started brightly with a win over Denis O’Connell, but suffered two losses and was then drawn against Gareth in round 4 and managed to succumb to Annesley “G-force”.  Gareth himself recovered from a slow start to finish on a respectable 3.5 with wins over Siebran, Tom O’Gorman and three draws.

Chess “analysis” was continued late into both evenings in Doyle’s bar, as a great weekend was had by all.

Full results and cross tables can be found on the ICU website.

Any comments and analysis on the appended games are more than welcome.

[Event "City of Dublin Junior"] [Site "Dublin"] [Date "2014.09.13"] [Round "2"] [White "Murphy, Cathal"] [Black "Barry, Suzanne"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B23"] [WhiteElo "1190"] [BlackElo "970"] [PlyCount "81"] [EventDate "2014.09.12"] [EventType "swiss"] [EventRounds "6"] [EventCountry "IRL"] [SourceDate "2014.09.22"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. f4 d6 4. Nf3 Bg4 5. Bc4 e5 6. O-O exf4 7. d3 g5 8. Qe1 Bg7 9. Bd2 Bxf3 10. gxf3 Qd7 11. Kh1 O-O-O 12. Rb1 Ne5 13. Bd5 Qh3 14. Qf2 Ne7 15. b4 b6 16. bxc5 dxc5 17. Qe2 Kb8 18. a4 Nxd5 19. Nxd5 Rd6 20. a5 Nd7 21. axb6 axb6 22. Rb3 Kb7 23. Rfb1 Re8 24. Nc3 Ne5 25. Na4 Nd7 26. Nc3 Be5 27. Nb5 Rg6 28. Ra3 Bb8 29. d4 cxd4 30. Qc4 Rc6 31. Qxf7 Rec8 32. Nxd4 $2 Rd6 33. c3 Rf8 34. Qc4 g4 $2 35. Qa6+ Kc7 36. Nb5+ Kd8 37. Nxd6 Bxd6 38. fxg4 $2 f3 $4 39. Bg5+ Ke8 40. Qc8+ Kf7 41. Qxd7+ 1-0

[Event "City of Dublin Junior"] [Site "Dublin"] [Date "2014.09.13"] [Round "4"] [White "Murphy, Cathal"] [Black "Murphy, Adam"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C25"] [WhiteElo "1190"] [BlackElo "1050"] [PlyCount "59"] [EventDate "2014.09.12"] [EventType "swiss"] [EventRounds "6"] [EventCountry "IRL"] [SourceDate "2014.09.22"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. f4 Bb4 4. Nf3 d6 5. Bc4 Nf6 6. O-O Bg4 7. d3 Nd4 8. fxe5 dxe5 9. Bxf7+ Kf8 10. Bb3 Bc5 11. Kh1 Nxf3 12. gxf3 Bh3 13. Re1 Qe8 14. Be3 Bxe3 15. Rxe3 Qg6 16. Qg1 Qh5 17. Qf2 Ke7 18. Rg1 g6 19. Ree1 Rhf8 20. Qc5+ Kd7 21. Rg3 Ne8 $2 22. Nd5 $4 Rf7 23. Nxc7 Rxf3 24. Ba4+ b5 $2 25. Bxb5+ Kd8 26. Nd5 $1 Rxg3 27. Qe7+ Kc8 28. Qxe8+ Kb7 29. Qc6+ Kb8 30. Qc7# 1-0

A small announcement

In 1999 I started the Ulster Chess Chronicle to provide a contemporary record of Ulster Chess on the internet. My interest in chess history soon meant that I started writing about past events and players too. After a while the website became a little unwieldy and with off-the-shelf templates like blogger available, I started NI Chess News, so that hopefully it would be a bit easier to edit for me and to navigate for readers.

I've decided now to incorporate the contemporary material accumulated over 15 years at the Chronicle into this website and to create a new Ulster Chess History website for the historical material. Some reports and articles will go to the Ulster Chess Union website which seems only fair because the Chronicle also hosted official pages before the UCU got its own internet presence.

So, for the next while NI Chess News will resemble a construction site, so please be patient while I'm at work on all this. In the meantime you'll notice a change of colour scheme here as I try to replicate the Ulster Chess Chronicle look.

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