Galway Chess Club

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.

The second instalment of our Rapid tournament (rounds 4 to 6) takes place on Thursday 20 October; please be there by 7.45 to register. If you played in the first session you will know what to expect. If you didn’t, you are very welcome to join on Thursday and start in round 4 – just turn up at the chess club (upstairs in the Bridge Centre, St Mary’s Road) by 7.45. There will be three games in the evening; each player has to make all their moves in 15 minutes plus an extra 10 seconds per move. Entry is free to members; if you are not a member yet, you can join the club on the night.

After the first three rounds, the tournament leaders are Karolina Bronnikova and Pete Morriss, both of whom have scored three wins. But there is still a long way to go.

Our next blitz tournament is on Thursday 13 October, at our usual venue: upstairs in the Bridge Centre, St Mary’s Road. Start time is 7.45, and we expect to finish about 10.30. There will be 7 rounds, with each player getting 5 minutes per game for their moves, plus an increment of 5 seconds per move. Entry is free to members; if you are not yet a member, you can join on the night. Enter on arrival. Latecomers can join the tournament, but will have missed the first round or two.

Our last tournament, held on 15 September, resulted in a three-way tie for first place between Pete Morriss, Adriana Palao, and Alex Drimberean who all scored 6 points out of 7 – winning one and losing one against each other, and beating everybody else. The rating prize went to Scott Reilly, on tie-break, with 3/7.

We’re looking forward to seeing you on the 13th.

We will be running a rapidplay tournament on Thursday evenings, every three or four weeks between September 22nd and Christmas. You will have 15 minutes to make all your moves in each game, plus a 10 second increment per move [Edit: not 10+15 as I erroneously wrote originally]. The first three rounds will take place on 22nd September; please be there at 7.45 p.m. to register. Points scored will be carried forward, with rounds 4 to 6 taking place in mid to late October. 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. As usual if you have any questions or suggestions, do ask here or email us at galwaychess[at]gmail[dot]com.

The Limerick Open 2022 is being held Nov 4th-6th in the West County Hotel, Ennis. Further details on the Limerick Website http://www.limerickchessclub.net/tournaments/limopen2022.htm

Our 2022-23 season is opening with a blitz tournament on Thursday 15 September, at our usual venue of upstairs in the Bridge Centre, St Mary’s Road, Galway. Start time is 7.45 p.m., and we expect it to finish about 10.30. There will be 7 rounds, with each player getting 5 minutes per game for their moves, plus an increment of 5 seconds per move. As this is part of our regular season, entry is free, and there will be no prizes other than the glory (which, of course, is priceless).

New club members, and potential members, are very welcome. Enter when you arrive by 7.45. We will provide all equipment.

Our last blitz tournament in August was won by Denis Ruchko and International Master Oleg Gubanov, who tied first, both scoring 6 points out of 7. The rating prize, for the best performance by a player rated in the bottom half, was won by Marina Petrenko, with 4 points. I think this is the first time we have had a titled player at one of our blitz tournaments; we look forward to welcoming Oleg back, and hopefully we’ll get more! But if you are not an international master, please do not be put off: the tournament is open to lesser mortals including beginners, and the format is such that whatever your standard we will find you opponents so that you should have interesting games. If you are new to us and have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask here or email us: our address is galwaychess[at]gmail[dot]com.

We look forward to seeing you on Thursday.

The next in our summer series of monthly blitz tournaments will be held on Thursday 11 August, in our normal room: upstairs in the Galway Bridge Centre, St Mary’s Road.  Starting time is 7.45 p.m., and the expected finishing time is about 10.30.  The format is 7 rounds, with each game played at a speed of 5 minutes for the game plus a 5 second increment per move.  We will provide all sets and clocks.  As this is not part of our regular season, there will be an entry fee of €5 to pay for the hire of the room, with any surplus returned in prizes.  To enter, just turn up on the night with your €5.  You do not need to be a club member.

We had a good turnout for our July blitz (both in terms of numbers and quality) and we are looking forward to seeing even more of you in August.

A date for your diary: next year’s Congress will take place on the weekend of 10th to 12th March 2023, in the Menlo Park Hotel again.  Further details will be announced nearer the event.

The 2022 Galway Rapidplay. held on Saturday 18 June at the Galway Bridge Centre, attracted 90 entries – about twice our previous highest number.  Nearly a third of these were playing in their first tournament, which indicates the enthusiasm that there is for chess at the moment.  If this continues, then Irish chess would seem to be in a very good place.

            The tournament was won by top-seed Colm Daly, who dropped just half a point – to Conall Hegarty.  Second equal, half a point behind, were S Anand Kumar and Rory Quinn.  In recognition of the large number of entries, we drastically increased the number of rating prizes and junior prizes, in each case from the advertised one up to four.  Rating prizes winners were: under-1500: Paul Ward and Jaiten Saini on 5 points; under-1000: Christopher Woods, also on 5 points; and unrated (for which there were two prizes): Gerard McLoughlin (again on 5 points) and Brian Gallagher (4½).  Under-18 prize-winners were Lukian Hushpit and Christopher Woods again (both on 5 points), with a four-way tie for the third prize between Maryna Petrenko, Patrick O’Keeffe, George Stack, and Patryk Brozynski (all 4½ points).  The under-12 prize was won by nine-year-old Vivaan Verlekar (4½ points).  Last, but definitely not least, the prize for the best female player was won by Alice O’Gorman, who was also fourth equal on 5½ points.  Unusually for such category-prizes, it was decided in a head-to-head last round match-up between the two leading candidates, Alice and Maryna Petrenko, in which Alice prevailed.

            Photographs of the prize winners, plus full standings and cross-table, are available here.

The Winter League has now finished, and here are the final results. As previously reported, the tournament was won, after a tie-break finish, by Jason Rawlinson. Second equal were the two vanquished players in the tie-break – Pete Morriss and Andrew Barber. The first Rating Prize was won by Gourang Jiddewar, playing in his first tournament, with an excellent 5 points. The Second Rating Prize resulted in a five-way tie on 4 points; the cash prize was won by Bryn Edwards, also playing in his first tournament, who had easily the best tie-break of the five. Trophies went to Gourang and Bryn, and Frank Healy, Micheal Karapish, Cavanaugh Conneely, and David Piercy – all except David were also playing in their first tournament, so the new members did very well.

Below is the full cross-table for the tournament

No Name                     Total  1    2    3    4    5    6    7  

1  Rawlinson, Jason         5.5   26:W 13:W  2:W  6:W  3:D  4:L  9:W
2  Morriss, Pete            5.5   18:W 20:W  1:L  8:W 11:W  6:W  4:D
3  Barber, Andrew           5.5   14:D 11:D 13:W 20:+  1:D 18:W  6:W
4  Pereiro Rodriguez, Diego 5     13:L 23:W 11:D 10:W 14:W  1:W  2:D
5  Jiddewar, Gourang        5     19:W 12:L 15:W 11:L  -:W 13:+  8:W
6  Edwards, Bryn            4      9:W 26:+ 18:W  1:L  8:W  2:L  3:L
7  Healy, Frank             4     17:L 25:+ 26:+ 14:L 12:W  9:L 16:W
8  Karapish, Micheal        4     22:W 24:W 10:W  2:L  6:L 19:+  5:L
9  Piercy, David            4      6:L 16:- 24:W 16:W 21:+  7:W  1:L
10 Conneely, Cavanaugh      4     12:W 15:W  8:L  4:L 18:L  -:W 22:+
11 Delee, Bill              3.5   21:D  3:D  4:D  5:W  2:L 20:+ 12:L
12 Frost, Robert            3.5   10:L  5:W 16:W 21:L  7:L 14:D 11:W
13 Du Berry, Ross           3      4:W  1:L  3:L 19:W 17:+  5:-   
14 Scarry, James            3      3:D 21:W 20:L  7:W  4:L 12:D  
15 Gallagher, Maureen       3     25:+ 10:L  5:L 24:+ 19:L 16:L 17:+
16 Galvin, Eoin             3     23:L  9:+ 12:L  9:L 22:W 15:W  7:L
17 Twomey, Alice            3      7:W 18:L 21:L 23:+ 13:- 22:+ 15:-
18 Blackwell, James         3      2:L 17:W  6:L 22:W 10:W  3:L  
19 Whyte, Shane             3      5:L 22:W 23:+ 13:L 15:W  8:-   
20 Istuk, Niko              2.5   24:W  2:L 14:W  3:-  -:D 11:-   
21 Maurer, Tobias           2.5   11:D 14:L 17:W 12:W  9:-  
22 Reilly, Scott            1      8:L 19:L  -:W 18:L 16:L 17:- 10:-
23 Feerick, Cyril           1     16:W  4:L 19:- 17:-   
24 Donlon, Pete             .5    20:L  8:L  9:L 15:-  -:D   
25 Alsaleh, Mohammed        0     15:-  7:-  
26 Cunningham, David        0      1:L  6:-  7:-