Gonzaga Classic 2016

Carl Jackson


The Gonzaga classic was held a little earlier than usual this year on the weekend of the 22nd of January. Gonzaga has a great tradition of large numbers in attendance and this year was no different with 159 people participating in 3 sections. This year the Master section was over 1700 Fide which allowed some lower Irish rated players the opportunity to match wits with some higher rated opponents.

Defending champion Conor O'Donnell returned as top seed to try and retain his title but would not have it all his own way as he faced a strong field including some of his Gonzaga team mates as well as players from Benildus and Trinity who are the other front runners in this years Armstrong league.

A couple upsets in round 1 saw Mustakim-Ul Haque beat Killian Delaney, Dean Copeland beat Tom O'Gorman and with a further 5 draws it showed that lowering the rating entry this year was justified.

Round 2 saw Conor O'Donnell take on his Gonzaga club mate John McMorrow but was in no mood for club loyalty and saw John off comfortably. The biggest upset of round saw the ever improving young Henry Li beat the experienced Gerry O'Connell.

A draw on board 1 in round 3 between Stephen Moran and Conor O'Donnell meant that the winner of the all Gonzaga encounter between Henry Li and David Murray would see an outright leader. Henry had won their previous game but Dave was able to get the upper hand in this match to take a half point lead into Sunday.

Round 4 saw David Murray draw with the very solid Stephen Moran giving Conor a chance to catch up if he could beat Raavshan Khaydarov which he managed. This left Dave and Conor leading the chasing pack of Stephen Moran, Marin Vlaicevic, Killian Delaney, Tom O'Gorman and Bart Cichonski by a half point on 3.5. Board 1 saw Conor O'Donnell take on another Gonzaga team mate David Murray and in an interesting symmetrical game a draw was finally agreed, this meant the 2 would finish on 4/5 and a victory for any of the chasing pack would allow them to catch up but with draws on all three next boards it meant that Conor and Dave would finish joint 1st. However The title of Gonzaga classic Champion had to be decided so a blitz play off followed where Dave was victorious making him the 3rd Gonzaga club member to win the classic in as many years and the 5th Gonzaga player overall. 3rd Place was shared between Stephen Moran, Marin Vlaicevic, Franklin Nunes, Gerry O'Connell, Killian Delaney, Bart Cichonski and Tom O'Gorman.

Here's a game annotated by the winner: Li, Henry—Murray, David B.

In the Championship section there were 6 rounds and it was won by Kevin Burke of Benildus with an impressive 5.5/6. The large score being even more impressive given the fact that he had to play 4 people who finished joint 2nd. Second place was shared between Ciaran Ruane, Sergey Beryozkin, Robert Murtagh, Julien Carthy, Mihailo Manojlovic, Daniel Dwyer, Mariusz Lokasto, Paddy Divilly and Peter Cooke.

The winner of the challengers section was Darragh Moran with an equally impressive 5.5/6, second place was shared between Padraig Dwyer, Mahfuzul Haque, Luke Hayden and Zalan Nemeth.

Congratulations again to all the group winners and everyone who participated in this years Classic.


Created 2016-02-10 ◦ Last updated 2016-02-11 ◦ Editor CJ


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