Rathmines Juniors Winning

A report by Maura Osborne
Read even more news for Junior chess club at their new website: www.rathminesjuniorchessclub.wordpress.com

The Leinster Junior Chess Championships took place over two weekends in the Stillorgan Park Hotel. Congratulations to all the Rathmines Juniors who took part, with great success.

U10′s 2nd place went to Matthew Gallagher, with Tom Grennell 3rd, Alex Mulligan 4th Stephen Higgins 5th, Cillian Scallan 6th on 4 out of 5 points. John Carton scored 3.5 out of 5.
U11′s Ist Place went to Michael Higgins with Fiachra Scallan in 3rd place.
U12′s Fiachra Scallan came 5th and David Halpenny 8th.
U14′s Peter Cooke, the first member of the Rathmines Junior Club came 1st. Michael Higgins 7th, Fiachra Scallan 9th and David Halpenny 11th.
U16′s Scott Mulligan came 8th

BODLEY LEAGUE
Following on from a great victory 3.5 to 1.5 away to Balbriggan, Rathmines Juniors had an another successful outing away to St. Benildus A.
The Bodley Team, Scott Mulligan, Liam Coman, Fiachra Scallan, Michael Higgins and Oscar Twomey had a fantastic 3-2 victory over St. Benildus A.
Leading the team on Board 1, Scott , won a piece early against Andrew Kyne-Delaney to get our first win of the night. this puts Scott on 3.5 out of 5.
On Board 2 Liam had a very exciting game, after losing a piece early he came back to a piece for 3 pawns but came under great pressure from the in form Tom Kearney. Tom went on to win a very complicated position.
Oscar Twomey, who was on 3 out of 3 in the Bodley, was paired with James Kearnes.In a very instructive game, James, after winning 2 pawns showed fantastic technique and end game play to convert his advantage.

Michael Higgins first match for the Bodley was pretty even for most of the opening but once in the middle game Michael outplayed his opponent and trapped his rook in the middle of the board, winning with a clever back rank mate threat.
Top scorer in the Bodley League on 4.5 out of 5, Fiachra Scallan. had the last game of the evening to finish clinching the win for Rathmines Juniors. In a very impressive performance he forced his opponent to resign in a King pawn ending with Fiachra having the only piece, a Knight, on the board.

A great night was enjoyed by everyone. Many thanks to our hosts and players.

Game of the Year 1962?

The Irish Times reports that they’ve found a silver chess trophy from 50 years ago, uncovered during a spring clean at Weir’s jewellers. Seems a pity to leave it unclaimed! The last winner was one V. Maher. Anyone have any remembrance of this trophy (I’m way too young to have a clue…)?

Rathmines Juniors Success

Great news from the Juniors at the Leinster Junior Championships.
Peter Cooke won the Leinster u14s title(jointly with Padraig Hughes)
Michael Higgins won the Leinster u11s title
Mattew Gallagher came 2nd in the u10s
Many of the Rathmines juniors were highly placed in the various age groups.

A full report will be coming shortly.

In the meantime, well done Juniors! You’ve done yourselves and Rathmines Junior CC proud.

Master Chess

Youtube now features all the old BBC series of Master Chess matches…some great all-time players, such as Karpov, Korchnoi, Short, Nunn, and Larsen. All circa 1981/1982. Well worth a look!

But I can’t figure out who this English player is…he seems like a lost genius…anybody know who he is and where I can get his games?