John Delaney Lecture

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, 13th October, 2011, at 8pm.

The topic will be “Beating the 1.e4 player – some practical ideas”.

All members are invited to attend!
There will be a nominal charge of €2. All proceeds will go towards Rathmines Junior Chess Club.
I hope to see you all there.

Michael Kennedy
President, Rathmines Chess Club

Captains meeting

There will be a meeting for all captains of teams on Monday 26th of September at 8.00pm. This is to choose teams for the up-coming league season, which kicks off soon.

Chess Lecture

Andrew McGrath
Secretary Rathmines Chess Club

Please note that Darren McCabe is giving a chess lecture this Thursday on
Rooks in the opening and middle game. This lecture follows on from Darren’s
successful lecture on bishops and knights in the middle game. The cost of
the lecture will be €5 and it will be a great lecture with plenty of detail
and examples.

The lecture will take place at 7.30 in the club on Thursday the 22nd of
September and will go on for approximately two hours. All are welcome to
attend.

Blitz Results – Another Belgian Victory!

Place	Name            	Feder	Rtg 	Loc 	Score	M-Buch.	Buch.	Progr.

  1  	Rogier, Jan     	BEL  	2107	2168	7.5  	   31.0	 38.5	  38.0
  2  	Janssens, Carlo 	BEL  	2106	2005	7    	   31.5	 39.5	  32.5
 3-5 	Meskens, Stefan 	BEL  	1848	1857	5.5  	   37.0	 48.5	  28.5
     	Killane, Jack   	     	2046	1756	5.5  	   36.5	 48.0	  26.5
     	Burns, John     	     	1936	1776	5.5  	   34.0	 42.0	  25.5
 6-7 	Verhasselt, Kris	BEL  	1959	1910	5    	   29.0	 37.0	  23.0
     	Moore, Ken      	     	    	1572	5    	   26.0	 32.0	  21.0
 8-9 	Aherne, John    	     	1987	1783	4.5  	   37.0	 45.0	  29.5
     	Burke, James    	     	    	1661	4.5  	   36.5	 44.5	  24.5
10-12	Gaffney, John   	     	    	1401	4    	   29.0	 34.5	  14.0
     	Maher, John     	     	    	1386	4    	   28.5	 36.0	  21.0
     	Osborne, James  	     	    	1436	4    	   25.0	 31.0	  17.0
 13  	Kennedy, Michael	     	1799	1793	3    	   28.0	 33.5	   9.0
 14  	McCrann, Roland 	     	    	1223	2    	   27.0	 34.5	  13.0
15-16	Moloney, Ian    	     	    	1702	0.5  	   31.0	 39.0	   3.5
     	Hall, Shane     	     	    	700 	0.5  	   28.5	 36.5	   3.5

No	Name            	Feder	Rtg 	 1  	 2  	 3  	 4  	 5  	 6  	 7  	 8  	 9  

1 	Rogier, Jan     	BEL  	2107	15:W	 5:W	 8:W	 6:W	 2:L	 3:D	 4:W	 9:W	16:W
2 	Janssens, Carlo 	BEL  	2106	 9:W	 3:D	 4:L	11:W	 1:W	 8:W	 5:D	14:W	15:W
3 	Meskens, Stefan 	BEL  	1848	12:W	 2:D	 6:L	 5:W	 7:W	 1:D	 8:D	 4:L	 9:W
4 	Killane, Jack   	     	2046	 7:L	12:W	 2:W	 8:L	 6:W	11:W	 1:L	 3:W	 5:D
5 	Burns, John     	     	1936	14:W	 1:L	 9:D	 3:L	15:W	 7:W	 2:D	 8:W	 4:D
6 	Verhasselt, Kris	BEL  	1959	11:W	 8:L	 3:W	 1:L	 4:L	14:W	 9:L	16:W	13:W
7 	Moore, Ken      	     	    	 4:W	 9:L	11:L	14:W	 3:L	 5:L	16:W	15:W	10:W
8 	Aherne, John    	     	1987	16:W	 6:W	 1:L	 4:W	 9:W	 2:L	 3:D	 5:L	12:L
9 	Burke, James    	     	    	 2:L	 7:W	 5:D	15:W	 8:L	12:W	 6:W	 1:L	 3:L
10	Gaffney, John   	     	    	 0: 	 0: 	 0: 	 0: 	13:W	16:W	11:W	12:W	 7:L
11	Maher, John     	     	    	 6:L	16:W	 7:W	 2:L	12:W	 4:L	10:L	13:L	14:W
12	Osborne, James  	     	    	 3:L	 4:L	14:W	16:W	11:L	 9:L	15:W	10:L	 8:W
13	Kennedy, Michael	     	1799	 0: 	 0: 	 0: 	 0: 	10:L	15:W	14:W	11:W	 6:L
14	McCrann, Roland 	     	    	 5:L	15:W	12:L	 7:L	16:W	 6:L	13:L	 2:L	11:L
15	Moloney, Ian    	     	    	 1:L	14:L	16:D	 9:L	 5:L	13:L	12:L	 7:L	 2:L
16	Hall, Shane     	     	    	 8:L	11:L	15:D	12:L	14:L	10:L	 7:L	 6:L	 1:L

Blitz Monday

A special blitz event is being held in the club on Monday 5th September, 8pm. We’ll have the four strong Belgian players (see below) so it’ll be well worth coming along.

Belgian Success

Rathmines held their season opening event on Saturday. We decided to both open the season and take the opportunity to welcome our guests from Belgium – Stephan, Jan, Kris, and Carlo. Stephan, of course, is an ex-member of Rathmines and much welcome back to the club. We had three teams for the event, but played it out like a large Swiss tournament, with 4 rounds of rapid-play 25 min games. It was a very relaxed and enjoyable occasion. We then retired to Monsoon Indian restaurant for a meal and then drinks in Slattery’s pub.

There will be a blitz event held in the club on Monday night, everyone is welcome! The Belgians will be back and we hope that we’ll get some players back from the City of Dublin tournament to make it competitive.

Michael, our club president, did lots of organising, such as decorating the club in flags and buying gifts for the Belgian players. The event could not have taken place without Michael’s efforts, so many thanks!

Doubtless because of our friendly nature, we (ahem…) let the Belgian’s win! It might have been something to do with their superior ratings and playing ability, but I doubt it.

But we put up a stern fight, most notable being Jack’s win over Jan in round 3. In  the end Opwijk won with 11/16, followed by Rathmines A on 8 and Rathmines B on 5.

Here’s the winning team of Stephan, Carlo, Kris, and Jan (l-to-r):

 

Here’s Stephan just before our game in round 2:

 

 

Players gathering before the event begins:

 

Overall best individual was Kris Verhasselt with 3.5/4

Season Opener on Saturday

Don’t forget, 2pm Saturday, team tournament!!

Read all details here.

And we’ve booked Monsoon Indian restaurant for early evening, so please do join us there if you can, afterwards.