Armstrong A vs. Bray (corrected)

I don’t have the result card yet, but with 7 games played last night, Rathmines are leading 4-3.  drawing 3.5-3.5 (Peter Cafolla is due to play Colm Daly when the Olympiad is finished.)

Leon and Darren won. Leon had a small edge in a knight + pawn endgame but his experience counted as he entered a K+P endgame with the opposition – a seemingly subtle but actually very convincing winning advantage.

Correction: Darren frayed all our nerves with a time-scramble and very complex middle-game. He was attacking all over the board but it looked to have slightly misfired going into the final stretch. (he did!!) But he managed to pull off a bright rook capture to finish the game. (I’m sure Darren will say he had it planned all along!) The game was drawn! My mistake entirely, I was standing some bit away at the final moment and mistook the shake of hands for a resignation! Wishful thinking…Darren actually offered a draw and it was accepted, because white was very low on time.

Sam, Jack, Tony, and Killian all drew. DJ got into some terminal time trouble against Eric Bennet and was unable to extract himself (at one stage he had about 3.5 mins vs 1 hour for Eric!).
Here’s the scorecard for Armstrong Round 2 match: Bray vs Rathmines A 29-Sep-10:

Bd. Bray ICU# Rating Result Rathmines A ICU# Rating
1 Colm Daly 295 2284 ADJ. Peter Cafolla 159 2031
2 John Joyce 658 2150 0.5 – 0.5 Sam Osborne 6252 2071
3 Seamus Duffy 378 1953 0.5 – 0.5 Killian Delaney 5104 2016
4 Pat Reynolds 1430 1914 0.5 – 0.5 Darren McCabe 5722 1892
5 Eric Bennett 2741 1864 1 – 0 DJ O’Donoghue 5028 1867
6 Peter Igaz 12384 1782 0.5 – 0.5 Tony Scannell 1533 1822
7 Conor O’Driscoll 10792 1738 0 – 1 Leon Fagan 406 1818
8 Brian Gaines 466 1678 0.5 – 0.5 Jack Killane (SUB.) 740 1813
3.5 – 3.5

Olympiad Update (Wed 2.10pm)

Well done to Una O’Boyle, who has just turned around a game where she was a piece down with – seemingly – no hope! She persevered despite the odds and eventually produced a series of queen-side pawns which black’s knight was unable to stop. See game at: http://ugra-chess.com/liveboard?gameid=1000080533&tmnt=2

The Irish women’s team have produced probably their best display of the tournament so far with wins also for Elisabeth and Nicola and a draw on board 1 for Emily. This was a great result, well done!

The Irish men are losing to Colombia. Sam Collins drew when his opponent forced perpetual, so he keeps his unbeaten record and can still achieve a GM norm. His opponent today was another GM.

Armstrong B team win against Dublin

Rathmines ‘B’ vs Dublin, played Monday 27th September, 2010.

Tomas Skrzypnik 2048 0.5-0.5 Jonathan O’Connor 2111
John Aherne 1759 1 – 0 Lubmoir Mishkovski 2031
Tony Bermingham 1772 0 – 1 Martin Schmidt 2013
David Goggins 1751 0 – 1 Eddie O’Connor 1885
JOhn Burns 1736 0.5-0.5 Mark Collins 1877
Abul Kalam 1827 0.5-0.5 Colm Egan 1713
James Burke 1699 1 – 0 Hussein Baher 1543
Ken Moore 1604 1 – 0 Frank Brady 1499

Final score 4.5 – 3.5

Olympiad update (Monday 1.45pm)

The Irish women have run out 4-0 winners against Seychelles. The standard of play, particularly on boards 1 and 4, was abysmal. Just look at board 4, where Nicky Benson was four pieces up without breaking sweat and her opponent played moves like Ng3?? and h3?? in quick succession. Or on board 1, where Elisabeth was presented with a knight on d4 and took two chances to actually take it. Is there a symbol for shockingly awful moves aside from”??”? In fairness, you can only beat what is put in front of you, and the Irish women did themselves proud by comprehensively thrashing their opponents. It shouldn’t take away from the fantastic result.

The Irish men are struggling against Kyrgyzstan. Fitzsimons resigned early, Daly is lost already. But, Sam Collins is a pawn up, with 2Rs+B vs. 2Rs+B. Not sure he can win it though. Heidenfeld is also a pawn up in a rook endgame and has a well-placed king and two passed pawns, so it looks promising. We need to see Collins and Heidenfeld win their games to salvage a 2-2 draw.

In another game, Adams beat Carlsen in the England vs. Norway match! Quite a shocking display from Carlsen who looks very off-form for the world #1, following his other loss against Jobava. Another victim of the Irish party?

Olympiad update (Sunday)

Sunday is a rest day. In round 6 Ireland’s women will play the Seychelles. Ireland badly need a win to lift themselves off the bottom of the table, but they’re finding some form with 3.5/8 points in their last two matches. Let’s hope they’re not all “hoarse” on Monday. A delightful photo of Una O’Boyle with Gary Kasparov is on the icu website at http://www.icu.ie/articles/display.php?id=279. I wonder if chess knowledge can be passed by osmosis?

Ireland’s men play Kyrgyzstan, who are all 2300 rated. Ireland have won three of their matches by 4-0 whitewashes, so here’s hoping for another good result. In my report of yesterday, David Fitzsimons was still playing, but he subsequently went on to win. He’s on 2.5/3 now for a great debut on board 4. Ireland lie in 53rd place, well above their pre-tournament ranking of 75th.

The games can be watched live at the official website (or on various other services, but this will cover both the Irish men and women):

http://www.ugra-chess.com/results.php?ln=en&tmnt=1&rn=6

Olympiad, Saturday

Another brilliant day for the Irish men’s team, currently at 3-0 (this is 1.30pm) with David Fitzsimon’s game still ongoing and looking, to me, at least a draw.

Here’s an interesting photo of the Russia 1 vs Ireland game taken by a Papuan New Guinea team member. They actually played Ireland in round 2 coincidentally.

Today’s result, 3-0 with one to play.
41. Ireland (MP:4, Pts:10) Hongkong (MP:4, Pts:8)
1. Astaneh Lopez, Alex 1-0 Tsang, Hon Ki
2. Heidenfeld, Mark 1-0 Borigas, Edgardo
3. Daly, Colm 1-0 Kuan, Julian
4. Fitzsimons, David ??? Chan, Kwai Keong

Ireland’s women are now finding their way, playing opponents at their own level (or slightly above) and beginning to put some results together. Nothing is more disheartening, I believe, than playing against other teams, day after day, that out-rank you by several hundred points. But they now have a mini tournament of their own against roughly equivalent opponents, which will allow them to get some results.

Today, they got three fine draws and could well have won the match if Una O’Boyle had followed through on a promising sacrifice. I don’t know how much of it she calculated, but her Nxe4 combination, although objectively incorrect, created great complications. Within a few moves, the combination looked fully justified! It requires bravery to dive into these kinds of combinations and Una certainly deserves our praise for trying inventive chess. And for entertainly yours truely for a couple of hours!!

The position after her sacrifice:

After 20. Qe4? her opponent was looking extremely nervous. Indeed, Una’s attack is beginning to bear fruit. Fritz (who else?) thinks 20…Bf5! gives Una rough equality, after some dangerous tactics with her queen spearing down on the king on f2. Una’s Kf7 is more natural and is not bad either, but perhaps a little slow. And white’s 23. Nd5? was probably a mistake too, but Una misplayed the position with Qa5. It is a hugely complicated game and well worth a longer examination. And a pity it ended in Una losing, because it deserved more.

54. Aruba (1/3) Ireland (1/3)
1. Caton, Stacey ½-½ Shaughnessy, Elizabeth
2. Dania, Manuelle S ½-½ Hearne, Sarah-Jane
3. Arbona, Avila Zaily 1-0 O’Boyle, Una
4. Oduber, Tiffanie A. ½-½ Benson, Nicola

Thanks to John Delaney!

The first of what we hope will be a series of lectures on chess began last night. John delivered an interesting (and some would say controversial) defence of g3 in the Open Sicilian. It was a wonderful start to the series and we want to say thanks for John!

If you’ve any suggestions for a chess talk, feel free to add a comment to this post.

Olympiad update

Ireland’s women kicked off against Korea, with Una taking a break today. We’re already 1-0 down unfortunately.

Match 53. Ireland Korea
1. Alfred, Emily – Byun, Sungwon
2. Shaughnessy, Elizabeth – Kim, Taegyeong
3. Hearne, Sarah-Jane – Park, Jin Woo
4. Benson, Nicola 0-1 Oh, Min Ah

Ireland’s men are playing Jamaica
Match 45. Ireland Jamaica
1. Collins, Sam E – Elliott, Warren
2. Astaneh Lopez, Alex – Rowe, Duane
3. Heidenfeld, Mark – Matthews, Shane
4. Daly, Colm – Porter, Russel

UPDATE (3.50pm)
Ireland fought back really well against Korea and earned a great 2-2 draw, our first match points of the competition! Sarah-Jane and Emily won nice games and let’s hope it gives them a much-needed boost of morale.

Match 53. Ireland Korea
1. Alfred, Emily 1-0 Byun, Sungwon
2. Shaughnessy, Elizabeth 0-1 Kim, Taegyeong
3. Hearne, Sarah-Jane 1-0 Park, Jin Woo
4. Benson, Nicola 0-1 Oh, Min Ah

In even better news, the Irish men’s team white-washed their Jamaican opponents, who were no slouches, most of them being 2200-type players. Sam Collins is doing particularly well, with 3.5/4 now and Lopez might be back on track for an IM norm (although I haven’t investigated the requirements, so perhaps not…)

Match 45. Ireland Jamaica
1. Collins, Sam E 1-0 Elliott, Warren
2. Astaneh Lopez, Alex 1-0 Rowe, Duane
3. Heidenfeld, Mark 1-0 Matthews, Shane
4. Daly, Colm 1-0 Porter, Russel

John Delaney – reminder

We are delighted to announce that FIDE Master, former four-time Irish Champion and Rathmines club member John Delaney will give a chess talk in the club on Thursday, 23rd September, 2010, at 8pm. The topic will be the Open Sicilian with g3 (from White’s perspective).

All members are invited to attend!
There will be a nominal charge of €2. All proceeds will go towards junior chess development.

Yesterday, Una O’Boyle drew against her much-higher rated Icelandic opponent to hand Ireland their only points of the Women’s Olympiad so far. She reached an endgame two pawns up, but with opposite bishops. These are notoriously hard to win and the draw was a fair result. Today, Ireland play New Zealand, with Una on board 4.

Match 45. New Zealand v. Ireland
1. Milligan, Helen – Alfred, Emily
2. Maroroa, Sue – Shaughnessy, Elizabeth
3. Chen, Eachen – Hearne, Sarah-Jane
4. Fairley, Natasha – O’Boyle, Una

View all the games live here.

Incredibly (because there are over a hundred teams competing) Ireland play New Zealand in the Men’s section today too:
Match 47. New Zealand – Ireland
1. Smith, Robert W – Collins, Sam E
2. Steadman, Michael – Astaneh Lopez, Alex
3. Croad, Nicolas – Daly, Colm
4. Han, Daniel – Fitzsimons, David

Russia (gulp!) vs. Ireland

Ireland drew top seeds Russia in the opening round of the Chess Olympiad (open section). Ireland either got the short straw or the long straw, depending on how one views these things. Russia, obviously, with their incredible chess history and their number one ranking were the most exciting draw imaginable, but also the most daunting.

Chessbase article reporting on round 1

Sam Collins drew with Alex Grischuk – a quite remarkable result against a top-ten player (rated #7 in the world with 2760). Replay game here. Actually, the opening move of the entire tournament fell to Grischuk vs. Collins (board 1 of table 1!!). See it on video at the bottom of this report, including a brief view of the Irish team as they faced Russia before the start.

The other games are available here.

In the women’s section, Rathmines’ own Una O’Boyle is competing for a second Olympiad. After her brilliant success in the last one, we’re all hoping she’ll play well again. She lost her first game against a very strong opponent, and is now currently playing (at 11.53am on Wednesday, Irish time) against an opponent from Iceland. Good luck to Una!

Update, @1.43pm: Una looks to be winning! Opposite colour bishop ending after Rc4 (seems necessary to prevent Rc7) and then Rxc4, Bxc4. So, these can be hard to win of course, but she certainly has good connected pawns…

Ennis Civil War results

Here’s the scorecard from the Ennis R1 Rathmines A vs Rathmines B:
Bd. Rathmines A ICU# Rating Result Rathmines B ICU# Rating
1 Pat Cosgrave 4978 1478 1 – 0 John Crowley 277 1614
2 Pat Freer 460 1399 0 – 1 Dave O’Connell 3647 1492
3 James Osborne 6055 1356 1 – 0 Atanas Kouhtev 5571 1354
4 John Gaffney 10737 1355 1 – 0 Joe Flood (SUB.) 443 1238
5 Thomas Gruel 12273 1355 1 – 0 Andrew McGrath (SUB.) 6937 1115
6 Ciaran Byrne (SUB.) 2314 1318 0 – 1 Adrian White (SUB.) N/A N/A
4 – 2

Note that the subs used in this match will be declared for our lower teams in time for the first round of BEA or Bodley.
Note also that the captain of our A-team is James Osborne and the B-team captain is to be decided.

Here are the declared teams for Rathmines in the Ennis:
Rathmines A ICU# Rating
1 Pat Cosgrave 4978 1478
2 Pat Freer 460 1399
3 John Maher 834 1396
4 James Osborne 6055 1356
5 John Gaffney 10737 1355
6 Thomas Gruel 12273 1355

Rathmines B ICU# Rating
1 James Burke 1819 1699
2 Philip Doyle 367 1695
3 John Crowley 277 1614
4 Peter Lynch 813 1556
5 Pat McEvoy 10307 1539
6 Dave O’Connell 3647 1492
7 Atanas Kouhtev 5571 1354

Season starts

The season got off to a start last night, Thursday 16th September with the Rathmines A. vs Rathmines B fixture in the Armstrong. Both teams look new and fresh this year with the return of Sam Osbourne on board 1 for the A team (Sam has been a member of long standing, but has returned from playing with St Benildus recently), and new members DJ O’Donoghue and Tony Bermingham. And we have kept Tomasz Skrzypnik, who joined us at the tail end of last year. We welcome all these new players because it is probably the first season recently where we’ve added so many good players in one go, rather than losing them! Unfortunately, it looks like we will be missing John Delaney, our senior champion and ex-Irish champion, for the season. But our best wishes are with him and we hope to see him soon. In fact, do not forget, he will be giving a lesson for club members next Thursday 23rd (see below).

Here’s the scorecard for Armstrong Round 1 between the two teams:

Bd.	Rathmines A	ICU#	Rating	Result	Rathmines B	ICU#	Rating
1	Sam Osborne	6252	2071	1 – 0	Tomasz Skrzypnik	FIDE ID 1118234	2048
2	Peter Cafolla	159	2031	1 – 0	Mindaugas Janusaitis	12148	1846
3	Killian Delaney	5104	2016	1 – 0	Abul Kalam	16042	1827
4	Jack Killane (SUB.)	740	1813	1 – 0	John Aherne	9	1759
5	DJ O’Donoghue	5028	1867	1 – 0	Tony Bermingham	60	1772
6	Tony Scannell	1533	1822	1 – 0	David Goggins	497	1751
7	Michael Kennedy	3955	1821	0 – 1	John Burns	137	1736
8	Leon Fagan	406	1818	0.5 – 0.5	Ken Moore (SUB.)	16385	1604
				6.5 – 1.5

As can be seen, the top 6 boards were a white-wash for the A team.

The declared teams for A and B are:

	Rathmines A	ICU#	Rating
1	Sam Osborne	6252	2071
2	Peter Cafolla	159	2031
3	Killian Delaney	5104	2016
4	Darren McCabe	5722	1892
5	DJ O’Donoghue	5028	1867
6	Tony Scannell	1533	1822
7	Michael Kennedy	3955	1821
8	Leon Fagan	406	1818

	Rathmines B	ICU#	Rating
1	Tomasz Skrzypnik	FIDE ID 1118234	2048
2	Mindaugas Janusaitis	12148	1846
3	Abul Kalam	16042	1827
4	Lukasz Goralski	10298	1782
5	Tony Bermingham	60	1772
6	John Aherne	9	1759
7	David Goggins	497	1751
8	John Burns	137	1736

Next up is the Ennis A vs. B next Monday night, 20th. The Leinster Leagues have an excellent web site where you can consult the latest results and fixture list.

John Delaney (FM) Chess Lesson

We are delighted to announce that FIDE Master, former four-time Irish Champion and Rathmines club member John Delaney will give a chess talk in the club on Thursday, 23rd September, 2010, at 8pm. The topic will be the Open Sicilian with g3 (from White’s perspective).

All members are invited to attend!
There will be a nominal charge of €2. All proceeds will go towards junior chess development.

Ratings, September 2010

ICU No. Name Rating
318 Delaney, John (FM) 2238
159 Cafolla, Peter  2031
5104 Delaney, Killian  2016
5722 McCabe, Darren  1889
12148 Janusaitis, Mindaugas 1846
16042 Kalam, Abul  1827
1533 Scannell, Tony  1822
3955 Kennedy, Michael J. 1821
406 Fagan, Leon  1818
740 Killane, Jack  1813
10298 Goralski, Lukasz  1782
12360 Skrzypnik, Tomasz  1770*
9 Aherne, John P.  1759
497 Goggins, David  1751
137 Burns, John  1736
1819 Burke, James  1699
367 Doyle, Philip P.  1695
277 Crowley, John  1614
16385 Moore, Kenneth  1604
813 Lynch, Peter J.  1556
10307 McEvoy, Pat  1539
3647 O’Connell, David  1492
3335 Bishop, Peter R.  1454
460 Freer, Patrick  1399
834 Maher, John  1396
6055 Osborne, James  1356
10737 Gaffney, John P.  1355
12273 Gruel, Thomas  1355
5571 Kouhtev, Atanas  1354
1371 Pierce, Nicholas  1353
1232 O’Connell, John  1344
1674 Whelan, Niall P.  1333
748 King, Liam  1327
2314 Byrne, Ciaran J.  1318
6250 Walsh, Kevin  1280
443 Flood, Joseph A.  1238
10357 McCrann, Roland  1234
5196 O’Boyle, Una (WCM) 1200
6937 McGrath, Andrew  1115
10735 Wilson, Robert  1083
10474 Cunningham, Edward 1068
12057 O’Brien, Pat  1060
12348 Kavenga, Patrick  1011*
12169 Cooke, Peter  927
10771 Cooke, Frank  796
12349 Power, Mark  746*
6904 Mowlds, Dee  733
3312 Hall, Shane  700

BBC World Radio documentary on chess – worth a listen!

The Friday Documentary
Sun, 12 Sep 2010
Will computers end the mystique of chess?