Galway Chess Club

The final standings and cross-table of the Galway Chess Congress are available on our Congress page.  The top section was won by FM Rory Quinn, on tie-break from FM Colm Daly, with IM Oleg Gubanov third.  Section B was won by Emma Fougerat, Section C by Vivaan Verlekar, Section D by Robert Nielsen, and Section E by Alexander Zubrzycki, on tie-break from Rurai Goodfellow.  There were also second and third prizes in each section, and many rating prizes: see here for the full list.  160 people played, which is the highest number we have had for several years; of these 33 were playing in their first tournament.  So it seems that the enthusiasm for playing chess in the west of Ireland has not waned now that life is back to ‘normal’ after covid.

Our next monthly (or near-monthly) blitz tournament will be held on Thursday 16 March, in our usual venue, the Bridge Centre (upstairs), St Mary’s Road. Please be there between 7.30 p.m. and 7.45 p.m. to enter. It will be in our standard format: 7 rounds, played at 5 minutes per player for the game, plus a 5 second increment per move. We expect the event to finish about 10.30 p.m., and we will provide all equipment. As always, newcomers are very welcome, and if you have any queries do please email us at galwaychess[at]gmail[dot]com .

Our last tournament, on 23 February, saw another close finish, with the winner again only emerging in the last round. This time the winner was Alex Drimbarean, on 6 points. Alex lost only to second-placed Brian Gallagher, who however dropped points against other players to finish with 5½. The rating prize, for the best result by a player in the lower half, was won by Seth McGrady, who was playing in his first tournament and finished with the outstanding score of 4 points, despite playing both the top two finishers.

We will be running a rapidplay tournament every three or four weeks throughout the spring at our usual venue of upstairs in the Bridge Centre, St Mary’s Road. The format will be the same as the autumn one, i.e. you will play three games in an evening, and your scores over the weeks will be added up at the end to determine who is the overall winner. You will have 15 minutes to make all your moves in each game, plus a 10 second increment per move.  The first three rounds will take place on 2nd March; please be there by 7.45 p.m. to register. It doesn’t matter if you might not be able to make every round: those who turn up on the night will play, and those who don’t, won’t! Entry is free to club members (and potential members) and prizes will consist in the glory of being acclaimed by your peers and mentioned on this website. We will provide all equipment.

This tournament might be particularly suitable for beginners and players new to tournament chess, who might find the speed of our blitz tournaments too fast for them, though established players are of course very welcome as well and we expect you to enter. As usual if you have any questions or suggestions, do ask here or email us at galwaychess[at]gmail[dot]com.

Our next blitz tournament will be on Thursday 23 February, in our usual venue, the Bridge Centre (upstairs), St Mary’s Road. Please be there between 7.30 p.m. and 7.45 p.m. to enter. It will be in our standard format: 7 rounds, played at 5 minutes per player for the game, plus a 5 second increment per move. We expect the event to finish about 10.30 p.m., and we will provide all equipment. As always, newcomers are very welcome, and if you have any queries do please email us at  galwaychess[at]gmail[dot]com .

Our last tournament, on 2 February, saw a close finish, with the winner eventually decided in the very last game to finish, when Denis Ruchko failed to beat Karolina Bronnikova (and indeed he was fortunate to get a draw). So the winner was Pete Morriss, with 6 points out of 7 and Denis Ruchko was the runner-up on 5½. The rating prize, for the best result by a player in the lower half, was won by Gavin Hicks, with an excellent score of 4 points.

If you’d like to get some practice in before our Congress on the 10th-12th March in the Menlo Park Hotel (details here, https://galwaychess.ie/galway-chess-congress-2023/) please see below

Sligo Spring Tournament 3-5th Feb at the Diamond Coast Hotel, Enniscrone. More details here https://www.icu.ie/events/1591

Ennis Congress 24th-26th Feb at the West County Hotel, Ennis. More details here https://www.icu.ie/events/1635

Our next blitz tournament will be on Thursday 2nd February, in our usual venue, the Bridge Centre (upstairs), St Mary’s Road. Please be there between 7.30 and 7.45 to enter. It will be in our standard format: 7 rounds, played at 5 minutes per player for the game, plus a 5 second increment per move. We expect the event to finish about 10.30, and we will provide all equipment.

January’s blitz saw our largest turnout so far this season, with a good mix of established members and newcomers. The winner – who led throughout – was Alla Bronnikova with 6½ points (only conceding one draw, to Brian Gallagher), and second was Alex Drimbarean, on 6 (losing to Alla, and winning all his other games). The rating prize, for the highest placed player seeded in the bottom half, went (on tie-break) to Bryn Edwards, who scored 4 points, coming 5th, ahead of several much higher-rated players.

Entries are now open for the Galway Chess Congress, which will be held in the Menlo Park Hotel from Friday 10th to Sunday 12th March. Go to this link for full information on this tournament, and to enter. Looking forward to seeing you there!

The January blitz tournament will take place on Thursday 12 January, in the Galway Bridge Centre, St Mary’s Road. (We meet upstairs.) Registration will be from 7.30 p.m. to 7.45 p.m. – there is no need to enter in advance. There will be seven rounds, with each player having 5 minutes to make their moves per game, plus an increment of 5 seconds per move. We expect the tournament to finish about 10.30.

The December blitz saw a good turnout, considering the awful weather, including several people we haven’t seen for several years, and were (as always) happy to welcome back. The winner was one such returnee, Oissine Murphy, who showed he hasn’t lost his skill by scoring 6 points out of 7. Second was Pete Morriss on 5½. The rating prize went to Scott Reilly, with 3 points. And the award for the most appropriately seasonally-attired player was won by Shawna Scott.

Our Autumn/Winter Rapid Tournament was played over 12 rounds on four dates between September and December 2022. A total of 33 people played in the tournament; although only one person played in all twelve rounds, that was not a problem as we were happy for players to drop in as they felt like it. Several new players used the tournament to play their first games of competitive chess, which was part of our aim; we hope that they enjoyed it, and we welcome them back to our future events.

The overall winner was Alex Drimbarean, with 10 points. Second was Pete Morriss on 8½, and third Karolina Bronnikova on 6 – although Karolina couldn’t play in either of our last two sessions, which was unfortunate as she was leading at the half-way stage. The Rating Prize was won by Scott Reilly, with 4 points. The enthusiasm prize, for playing in all twelve rounds, goes to Jarek Wieczorek.

Full scores are as follows. The number in brackets is the number of games played. Note that players were allowed two half-point byes for games missed, so it was possible to get more points than games played. (Otherwise, standard scoring was used, of a point for a win, half a point for a draw, and nothing for a loss.)

10: Alex Drimbarean (11)
8½: Pete Morriss (11)
6: Karolina Bronnikova (6)
5½: Ross Du Berry (6)
5: Jarek Wieczorek (12), Gavin Hicks (6), David O’Connell (6), Dara Jennings (6)

4½: Alla Bronnikova (6), Andrew Barber (6)
4: Scott Reilly (6), Gourang Jiddewar (9), Shane Whyte (6), Paul Ward (6), Bryn Edwards (6)
3½: Andrew Finnerty (8)
3: Martin Marcant (6), Jack Sheridan (6), Valerie Nestor (3), Frank Healey (7), Diego Pereiro Rodriguez (3), Jack Hanna (3), Jake Blackhurst (3), Siofra Finnerty (6)
2: Donal O’Donnell (3), Adrenne Reigh (3), Barry Breen (6), Maureen Gallagher (3), Shawna Scott (6)
1: Muire McLoughlan (3), Kiaran Finn (3), Rhys O’Halloran (2), Karel Mampouma (1)

The final three rounds of our autumn/winter rapid tournament will be on Thursday 1 December. Please arrive to register by 7.45 p.m. The current leader is Alex Drimbarean, but he could still be caught by any of half-a-dozen players. If you haven’t played in this yet, you are still welcome to join in; you won’t be in contention for first place, but you will still have some (hopefully) enjoyable games. The rate of play is 15 minutes per player for the game, plus an increment of 10 seconds per move. As usual, it will take place in our club room, upstairs in the Bridge Centre, St. Mary’s Road.