Kieran Cranny Blitz Round 2

There was another exciting round of battling chess last night in the Kieran Cranny Memorial blitz tournament.

Leon Fagan was missing (he came second in round 1) so it was up to Ken, Abul, and Cormac to push Tomasz. With Jack also in the field – a very strong blitz player – there was still lots of quality about. Cormac O’Brien started extremely well, including a clean win against myself, Tony, in round 2, but he faded as the competition wore on. Ken started extremely well and reached the impressive 5/6, but Tomasz was equally good, with 5.5/6. Jack, aside from a loss against John Gaffney in round 2, was doing well also, on 4.5/6. There was other excitement along the way – in particular, I remember Michael’s game against the young and fast-improving Peter Cooke from round 5: he eventually forced his opponent to concede on time – while he had only 3 seconds left himself!

So round 7 was looking likely to be the decisive round, with Jack facing Ken being the main game. Jack beat Ken to push ahead, while Tomasz continued winning by beating Ciaran Byrne. Abul lost to Peter Cooke, a major upset, so fell out of the reckoning.

In the last round, I (Tony) was three pawns up against Tomasz after a very complex Sicilian struggle, when Tomasz offered a draw, which was accepted. However, I had misread the time – I thought we had 16 and 11 seconds each, when in fact it was 16 seconds against my 1 minute and 11 seconds! Such is chess.

Overall, Tomasz ran out the winner for the second round in a row and now looks the comfortable favourite to win the competition. Ken is pushing him hard though and won’t give up! On the night, Jack pushed Tomasz all the way and almost caught him in the final round.

The entire night was very ably managed by Michael Kennedy again. The next round is on March 22nd and everyone is free to join up, even if you haven’t participated in an earlier round.

Table – Round 2
1 Skrzypnik, Tomasz 2057 7.5
2 Killane, Jack 1888 7
3 Moore, Ken 1657 6.5
4 – 5 Kalam, Abul 1993 5.5
Scannell, Tony 1866 5.5
6 – 8 Byrne, Ciaran 1328 5
Maher, John 1353 5
Kennedy, Michael 1838 5
9 – 12 Cooke, Peter 700 4.5
Gaffney, John 1409 4
O’Brien, Cormac 1475 4
McEvoy, Pat 1586 4
13-14 Osborne, James 1357 3
O’Brien, Pat 960 3
15 McCrann, Roland 1156 2.5
16-17 Cooke, Frank 846 0
Prost, Arthur 1000 0

Crosstable
1 Skrzypnik, Tomasz 2057 13:W 11:W 10:W 3:W 4:W 2:D 6:W 7:D 5:D
2 Killane, Jack 1888 6:W 9:L 13:W 10:W 5:W 1:D 3:W 4:D 7:W
3 Moore, Ken 1657 16:W 4:W 9:W 1:L 11:W 5:W 2:L 6:W 8:D
4 Kalam, Abul 1993 7:W 3:L 6:W 11:W 1:L 9:W 8:L 2:D 17:W
5 Scannell, Tony 1866 15:W 10:L 7:W 9:W 2:L 3:L 14:W 8:W 1:D
6 Byrne, Ciaran 1328 2:L 8:W 4:L 13:W 15:W 10:W 1:L 3:L 11:W
7 Maher, John 1353 4:L 16:W 5:L 15:D 14:W 13:W 10:W 1:D 2:L
8 Cooke, Peter 700 9:L 6:L 16:+ 17:W 12:L 11:W 4:W 5:L 3:D
9 Gaffney, John 1409 8:W 2:W 3:L 5:L 10:L 4:L 12:L 17:W 14:W
10 O’Brien, Cormac 1475 17:W 5:W 1:L 2:L 9:W 6:L 7:L 14:L 15:W
11 McEvoy, Pat 1586 14:W 1:L 15:W 4:L 3:L 8:L 17:W 13:W 6:L
12 Kennedy, Michael 1838 : : : 14:W 8:W 17:W 9:W 15:L 13:W
13 Osborne, James 1357 1:L 14:W 2:L 6:L 17:W 7:L 15:W 11:L 12:L
14 O’Brien, Pat 960 11:L 13:L 17:W 12:L 7:L 15:W 5:L 10:W 9:L
15 McCrann, Roland 1156 5:L 17:W 11:L 7:D 6:L 14:L 13:L 12:W 10:L
16 Prost, Arthur 1000 3:L 7:L 8:- : : : : : :
17 Cooke, Frank 846 10:L 15:L 14:L 8:L 13:L 12:L 11:L 9:L 4:L

Overall Standings
1 Skrzypnik, Tomasz 2057 7 7.5 14.5
2 Moore, Ken 1657 6 6.5 12.5
3 Kalam, Abul 1993 6 5.5 11.5
4 Scannell, Tony 1866 5.5 5.5 11
5 O’Brien, Cormac 1475 6 4 10
6-8 Byrne, Ciaran 1328 4 5 9
Gaffney, John 1409 5 4 9
Maher, John 1353 4 5 9
9 Cooke, Peter 700 4 4.5 8.5
10 McEvoy, Pat 1586 4 4 8
11-13 Killane, Jack 1888 0 7 7
O’Brien, Pat 960 4 3 7
Osborne, James 1357 4 3 7
14-15 Fagan, Leon 1790 6.5 0 6.5
McCrann, Roland 1156 4 2.5 6.5
16 Ahern, John 1760 5.5 0 5.5
17 Kennedy, Michael 1838 0 5 5
18 Kouhtev, Atanas 1367 4.5 0 4.5
19 Cooke, Frank 846 3 0 3
20 Kavanga, Patrick 1000 2 0 2
21 Mowlds, Dee 700 1 0 1
22-23 Boyle, Paul 1150 0 0 0
Prost, Arthur 1000 0 0 0

The good, the bad, and the ugly

It’s that time again, when we look at the league tables and decide whether we are close to winning, comfortable mid-tablers, or destined for life in a lower division. It’s quite an exciting time for many of Rathmines’ chess teams – so let’s do a quick round-up.

In the Armstrong, it has been a grueling and dispiriting campaign. In what has felt like an endless series of disappointing results, almost nothing seems to have gone right for us. This was illustrated again last Monday, when we played a postponed match against Gonzaga. First, Abul was defaulted when his phone went off. I suffered while trying to work out a complex middlegame – I was almost an hour behind on the clock at one point – but had managed to reach a theoretically drawn endgame. But with seconds remaining on the clock, I just couldn’t hold it. It is entirely my own fault, I should have saved some time and then found some simple moves to draw the game.

As a result of all of these (and many other) disasters, we lie in a very dangerous position, 10th, with just a half-point separating us from relegation. On the plus side – or maybe not? – we face the two teams right below us in the league table, Celbridge and Elm Mount B, in the last two games of the season. Gripping or what? However, Tomasz Skrzypnik has joined us just after Christmas and has contributed a measure of quality to the team.  Indeed, he scored our only win of the match against Gonzaga.

In the Heidenfeld, the Rathmines A team have been doing superbly. So much so, that they led the league table for most of the season, until their most recent and uncharacteristic 1-7 defeat to Drogheda. That defeat has boosted Drogheda above them in the table and also put Malahide into first place. Rathmines can still win the league, with some good results. They face Bray/Greystones and Tallaght in those last two matches, who are in 8th and 9th positions respectively. Unfortunately, it looks like Rathmines B are in danger or being relegated. And – in an interesting twist – they face Drogheda in the final round. Can they do the A team a favour?

In the O’Hanlon Cup, Rathmines are in a clear first place and look set for promotion at least. This is division 4, so it looks like we’ll have two teams in division 3, Ennis, next year (from none this year). Notably, there have been great individual performances from the Ennis team, featuring John Maher on 6.5/8, John Gaffney on 6/8, and James Osborne on 6/8. Sadly, Paul Mogerley was playing for the Ennis team before his untimely death.

In the BEA, Rathmines are sitting comfortably enough, in mid-table.

(There are insufficient results posted for the Bodley Cup to make an accurate assessment of where we stand, although we were only on 2.5 points after 3 matches…).

Blitz Round 2

The next round of the Kieran Cranny Blitz Tournament is happening this Monday, 22nd February. Be sure to join in, even if you didn’t attend Round 1! Just drop in on the night and we’ll add you to the line-up.

Just a reminder of the leaders after round 1:

1 Skrzypnik, Tomasz 2050 7
2 Fagan, Leon 1790 6.5
3-5 Moore, Ken 1657 6
Kalam, Abul 1993 1993 6
O’Brien, Cormac 1475 6
6-7 Scannell, Tony 1866 5.5
Ahern, John 1760 5.5

And there are prizes for best intermediate and best junior players too, so plenty still to play for.

Heidenfeld stumble

Here’s the scorecard for the Heidenfeld match Drogheda vs Rathmines A. The final game was played on Monday.

Drogheda ICU no. Rating Result Rathmines A ICU no. Rating
1 Kieran Rogers 1738 0.5 – 0.5 David Goggins 1817
2 Donal O’Boyle 1725 1 – 0 Michael Kennedy 1838
3 Rick Goetzee 1688 1 – 0 Leon Fagan 1790
4 Pat Coleman 1665 0.5 – 0.5 John Burns 1744
5 Joe Reid 1580 1 – 0 Pat McEvoy 1586
6 Philip Mitchell 1413 1 – 0 Una O’Boyle 1165
7 Alan Dee 1430 1 – W
8 Brendan Corrigan 1382 1 – W
7 – 1

Report from Michael Kennedy:
The original fixture was hit by snow conditions. The only game played during the snow was Burns – and he did well to get a draw when he got himself into a bad French and survived a dangerous attack on his K. The rest of the games were sensibly postponed. The controller was leaning on us for a while to play the game, so last Saturday was selected as the first gap in the calendar. I had one week notice to organise the team. Unfortunately, a bunch of our guys couldn’t make it and had valid excuses.

Goggins was our only other player to score after a theoretical duel with Kieran Rogers in an offbeat Caro-Kann. According to Kieran, the 19 book moves included a knight sac on move 15. I had no idea David was such a bookish player, or maybe he was just OTB inspiration. As for Una, she was playing on her own turf against her brother’s team, but found it tough going against a player rated 300 points higher. Pat lost to a guy with roughly the same rating as himself, so we can’t grumble too much there. In my game, Donal got himself into a bad Scotch 4N’s and lost a couple of pawns. I later turned down his draw offer and with my clock running down I made a mess of it by allowing his rooks to penetrate. He took his chance in clinical fashion. Leon’s game was played in Rathmines last night. He flicked out the Bird, but his opponent reacted calmly and there followed a tight struggle. It resolved into a pure R+Ps ending where Leon was a P down. Unfortunately, the adage that all R endings are drawn didn’t apply. Leon had to play accurately to have a chance. In the end it was an impressive win from Goetzee who seems vastly underrated at 1688.

Going into the final 2 rounds I’d say we still have a chance of finishing second, as Drogheda has a tough match away to a strong Phibsboro team ahead. Our chance of achieving this hinges upon player availability.

Parking

Notice to All Club Members

Club members with cars are reminded that there are yellow lines in parts of Grosvenor Road. Recently a visitor was clamped (and it wasn’t me). Should you wish to park on the yellow lines be advised to carry a mobile phone and a credit or debit card to avoid further embrassment, financial cost and possibly a visit to Wapping Street.

Peter Bishop,
Secretary

Note: Parking on Grosvernor Road is free after 6.30pm on week nights, but can be scarce.

Heidenfeld A team keep getting strong results

	Rathmines A	ICU no.	Rating	Result	Wicklow	ICU no.	Rating
1	David Goggins	497	1817	0 – 1	Seamus Duffy	378	1852
2	Leon Fagan	406	1790	0.5 – 0.5	Sean Cullen	4633	1532
3	Lukasz Goralski	10298	1787	1 – 0	Eddie Humphrey	630	1429
4	James Burke	1819	1718	1 – 0	Fergus O’Conchobhair	1196	1413
5	John Burns	137	1744	1 – 0	Philip Maguire	10080	1385
6	Philip Doyle	367	1697	1 – 0	Jim McNamara	10260	1341
7	Pat McEvoy	10307	1586	1 – 0	Tony Cleere	4786	1218
8	John O’Connell	1232	1452	1 – 0	Sinead Duffy	12185	800
				6.5 – 1.5

Match was played on Thursday night.