Next Blitz: Thursday 24 November

Our next blitz tournament will be on Thursday 24 November, at our usual venue of upstairs in the Galway Bridge Centre in St Mary’s Road. Enter when you arrive, between 7.30 to 7.45 p.m. Later entries will be included in round 1, if possible; if not possible, then in round 2, or whichever round starts after you show up. As usual, there will be 7 rounds, with each player having 5 minutes, plus 5 seconds a move, for the game. We expect to finish about 10.30 p.m.

Blitz tournaments continued whilst the website was out of action in the past month. The October Blitz was won, most convincingly, by Brian Gallagher, with seven straight wins. Second equal were Jason Rawlinson and Ross Du Berry, both on 5 points put of 7. The rating prize went to Gourang Jiddewar, on 3½ points.

The first of our two November Blitzes (held on 3 November) was much more competitive, with four different players holding an outright lead at some point. In the last round, Jason Rawlinson surged into first place, with 5½ points. Second equal, all on 5 points, were Karolina Bronnikova, Alex Drimberean, and Alla Bronnikova. (For the curious, Karolina and Alla are daughter and mother, respectively.) The rating prize was won by Shane Whyte, who scored 4 points – which was highly commendable in this strong field.