Congress 2011 Report

The Galway Chess Congress for 2011 was staged over the weekend of the 14th – 16th October 2011. Once again it was a wonderful success with over 160 players playing in 3 different floors of the Salthill Hotel.

The winner of the Masters section was GM Gawain Jones, who’s now in the top 100 in the world and who was clearly the class act in the field. Second was the young Killkenny man Ryan-Rhys Griffiths on 5.0/6.0. He finished ahead of IM Alex Lopez and GM Baburin on 4.5/6.0.

Local man, Anthony Aherne was playing Gawain in the final round.

Gawain Jones accepts the trophy from organiser Indy Banerjee

Masters Crosstable is available.

The Major section (1800 – 1400) was won by local player John Cormican who scored a perfect 6.0/6.0. Second was Westport man David Baird.

Major Crosstable is available.

Winners John Cormican and Gawain Jones

The Minor section was won by Sam O’Neill on 5.5/6.0.

Minor crosstable available

In his acceptance speech Gawain thanked the organizing committee who spent several months preparing this event. They were Pete Morriss, Indy Banerjee, Fiona Cormican and Fintan Hegarty.