Mulcahy Memorial Chess Tournament held in the ‘Aula Maxima’ University College Cork 2023
The Mulcahy Memorial Chess tournament held recently in UCC was a resounding success. The tournament first held in 1969 commemorates Dr Noel Mulcahy, a UCC graduate, lecturer and one of the strongest chess players to come out of Ireland, who died tragically in 1968.
The 2023 edition of the ‘Mulcahy’ returned to its roots in UCC, at the invitation of the UCC Chess club, and was held in the spectacular setting of the Aula Maxima. Over 70 players contested the tournament and giving it an international flavour were chess players from the Netherlands, Serbia, Egypt, Germany, Croatia, India, Israel, Switzerland, Austria, France, Poland and the Ukraine.
IM Alex Lopez was hoping to win his 14th Mulcahy but out to thwart his efforts were CCYMS player Sasa Gavrilovic and Cork chess club players Sean J Murphy, Piotr Leichert and Henk De Jonge. A number of upsets in round one saw youngster Torran Millar beat the experienced Barry Foran, UCC student Cathal O’Regan beat Paddy McCarthy and John Lucey (1036) beat one of the top seeds Piotr Leichert (1858). After three rounds there were eight players on full points the already mentioned Lopez, Gavrilovic, Murphy and joining them were CCYMS player Paul O’Donovan, Ukrainian youngster Lukian Hushpit, UCC student Adam J Deane and two ladies Aliona Mihaylova and HR Manasa.
Round four saw Mihaylova losing to Lopez in a closely contested match, Gavrilovic beating Hushpit, Murphy defeating Deane and Manasa winning against O’Donovan. These four on full points were closely followed by De Jonge on 3.5 and a slew of players with three points. Sunday morning and round five saw Gavrilovic play Murphy and Ms Manasa take on Lopez on board one. Manasa was the surprise of the tournament and if she beat Lopez and won the Mulcahy we might see a sequel to the film ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ being made. Alas, it was not to be as Lopez managed to win the game but not without Manasa putting in a very strong effort. On board two a thrilling game ensued with the game swinging first to Murphy and then to Gavrilovic but in the end a draw was probably the fairest result. This meant that going into the last round Lopez was a half a point ahead of his nearest rivals Gavrilovic, Murphy and joining them was De Jonge, who was having a great tournament.
Lopez was white against Gavrilovic and Murphy was white vs De Jonge and the permutations meant that any of the four could win the prestigious Mulcahy trophy. Further down the table many players were contesting the grading prizes in the three bands. Due to the increase in contestants the prizemoney was increased significantly and it was all to play for in the final round.
On the top two tables Murphy managed to beat De Jonge while Gavrilovic had selected to play the Budapest gambit against the champion, and it turned into a very complicated but interesting game. With all the games finished except the top board a large crowd had gathered to watch Lopez and Gavrilovic play out the endgame. Lopez got the advantage in an open endgame and managed to squeeze the full point from this highly contested game which drew an applause from the appreciative spectators. Len Hackett, Declan Voogt and youngster Nitish Arun won the grading prizes. Prior to the prizegiving Pat Twomey thanked the UCC Chess club, Christine O’Donovan (Deputy head of sport UCC), Maurice Buckley and everyone for their support of the tournament. In making the presentation to Alex Lopez Pat said he had now won the Mulcahy perpetual trophy on the fourteen times he entered the tournament. In these fourteen tournaments Lopez had played 84 games winning 75 of them, drawing 9 of them and losing none. A record that will take some beating. Following the prizegiving the tournament was brought to a close but we look forward to seeing it again in UCC in 2024.
The full list of prize-winners were:
1st Alex Lopez 2nd Sean Murphy Joint 3rd Lukian Hushpit and H.R Manasa Grading Prizes ‘A’ Len Hackett; Arthur Moull; Akshay Ranade. Grading Prizes ‘B’ Declan Voogt; Alexey Marchenko; James Melay. Grading Prizes ‘C’ Nitish Arun; Frederic Lefebvre; Joel Gillanders.
