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The August Blitz was won by newcomer Ronaldo Alonso, with 5½ points out of 7. Second equal were another newcomer, Oleksandr Skorobogatko, and very-much-not-a-newcomer Michael O’Donnell, who both scored 5 points. (Ronaldo and Oleksandr are both new to Galway Chess club, but are experienced players in their countries of origin, Brazil and Ukraine, respectively. We look forward to seeing them regularly at the club.) The rating prize, for the best-placed player seeded in the bottom half, was won by Cillian Bracken, on 4 points.

The July blitz tournament was a truly international one, as we were delighted to welcome visitors from the Czech Republic and Barcelona – and even Mayo – which made it a somewhat stronger tournament than we usually have.  The winner, with an excellent 6½ points out of 7, was Christopher Woods (Mayo) and second was Viktor Zigo (Czech Republic) on 5½.  The rating prize, for the highest-placed player seeded in the bottom half, was won by Aidan Kiely (Galway) who scored a commendable 3½ points.

Our June blitz was won by Chris Jonker, who won all his games – a rare event in our blitz tournaments. Second was Alex Drimbarean. The rating prize (highest finish of someone rated in the lower half) went to Adrienne Reich, who also came outright third – an excellent result.

Our season-ending blitz tournament, held on 16th May, was won by Pete Morriss, who scored 5½ points out of a possible 7. Second was Lorcan Heron, on 5 points; he would also have won the “most promising junior” accolade, if we had one. The rating prize, for the highest-finishing player rated in the bottom half, was won by Jayden Kilmartin, who scored an excellent 4 points, including wins against the three highest-rated players in the tournament (but somehow he couldn’t beat most of the lower-rated ones!).

The 2023-4 Galway Winter League (our club championship) was won by Anand Kumar after an exciting and tense play-off against Chris Jonker. Both had scored 5½ points out of 7. I will post the full results, and list of prize-winners, shortly.

Galway Chess Club came second in the National Club Championship, held in Dublin on the weekend of 26-28 April. In fact we came first equal with two other teams (Elm Mount and Ennis), winning four matches and losing one. Although we beat both Elm Mount and Ennis (who didn’t play each other), the tie-break system used was game points scored, and in this we came second, just losing out to Elm Mount because they played much weaker teams than we did.  Our team consisted of Anand Kumar S, Maryna Petrenko, Pete Morriss, Diego Pereiro Rodriguez, Brian Gallagher, and Alex Drimbarean. Our match results were:

Round 1: Galway 3½ – Elm Mount 2½

Round 2: Galway 4 – UCD 2

Round 3: Galway 5½ – Ennis ½

Round 4: Galway 2 – Malahide 4

Round 5: Galway 3½ – Gonzaga 2½

Full individual results for the whole tournament can be found here.

The April Blitz Tournament, played on April 11th, ended with joint winners, Pete Morriss and Chris Jonker both scoring 6 points out of 7.  The rating prize, for the highest-finishing player rated in the lower half of the entries, went to Lorcan Heron, who also came fourth equal, on 4 points.  This was an excellent performance, as Lorcan left before the last round (for which he gets no points) and won all his games except against the two who finished in joint first place.

Our Spring Rapidplay tournament was completed on Thursday 4 April. The winner was Pete Morriss, who scored 8 points out of a maximum of 9. Second was Eoin Callinan on 7 points, and third John Farrell with 5½. The rating prize, for the best performance by a player in the lower half, was won by Adrienne Reich, on 4 points.

The blitz tournament held on Thursday 7 March, played at our faster rate of 3 minutes plus 2 seconds increment, was won by Brian Gallagher with 8 points out of 9. Second equal were Sam Cassels and Pete Morriss, on 7 points. The rating prize was won by Badr Salah who scored 6 points (which also made him fourth equal). There are two things here worth commenting on. First, Sam came all the way from the USA to play in this tournament. (OK: to be more truthful, he was here anyway, on holiday. We will be happy to welcome him back to the club when he returns to Ireland, which we hope is soon.) Second, Badr’s performance to win the rating prize was outstanding: he played all of the top three, and beat two of them, and did so convincingly.

The winner of the February Blitz, played on 8th February, was Simon Iwasaki, who scored 6/7. Second was Pete Morriss on 5½. The rating prize was won by Scott Reilly, with an excellent score of 5 points, whilst an honourable mention must go to Sophie Maher, who scored 4 points.