INTRODUCTION

A mere ten years ago, the thought of a grandmaster visiting Ireland to play in a weekender was unheard of. Ireland’s top players had to pack their bags and travel to foreign lands to get the opportunity to play real class opposition. Now things have changed, the Kilkenny Congress and the Bunratty Chess Festival regularly provide this opportunity to Ireland’s elite. Indeed the Irish and Leinster Chess Unions have even managed to stage major rated tournaments, providing a chance for many players to earn FIDE ratings and norms.

However, the first Bunratty Chess Festival, held in 1994, was a much more modest event than we are used to today. There were no visiting titled players and only 62 competed in one open section. The winner was Colm Daly from Dublin. Things began to improve in 1995, Alexander Baburin had settled in Ireland and managed to win the event ahead of English grandmaster Danny King.

The 1996 festival was the first to be sectioned and the Masters event was confined to players over 1900. The total entry was on a steady climb at this stage and almost 150 players attended. The Masters was now attracting strong players and it resulted in a tie for first place between Danny King and John Nunn. On the way to coming joint first, John Nunn won the following excellent game against Andy Hammond, the then "Combined Forces Chess Champion" of Britain.

Hammond, Andy—Nunn, John

Despite this wonderful game, Danny won the title on tiebreak.

In 1997, the Bunratty set a new record for itself with 182 players attending. This was to be Jonathan Speelman’s year, as well as tying for first place with Danny King and Mel O’Cinneide, he also produced the following fantastic game:

Speelman, Jonathan—Rowson, Jonathan

To avoid a tiebreak deciding the destination of the Tipperary Crystal trophy, we introduced our policy of a blitz game play off. Danny and Jon’s tiebreak scores were identical, placing both ahead of Mel O’Cinneide, so a 5-minute game was hastily arranged. Jon managed to steal King’s crown to win the 1997 Bunratty Masters.

By now we were starting to get tight for space, 196 players competed in the 1998 event. Again there was a tie for first place between John Nunn and fourteen-year-old international master Luke McShane. There was another blitz match to decide the title and a huge crowd watched a very exiting, very fast game. When the dust had settled, John’s flag had fallen while Luke had a full four seconds left, and so Luke won the 1998 Bunratty Masters.

Last year’s event was the biggest yet, 216 competed for the five titles on offer, Masters, Challengers, Major, Minor and Veterans, each with it’s own Tipperary Crystal trophy. There was no need for a playoff as Sergey Tiviakov won the Masters outright. He had competed at the Kilkenny Masters not long before, without much success. At the Bunratty prize giving ceremony, upon receiving his trophy, he asked, "is this mine to keep". When he was told it was, he smiled and said, "I think I won the correct Irish tournament".

This year’s Masters sees Tony Miles, Jonathan Levitt and Mark Hebden visiting us for the first time, all more than welcome. John Nunn is also returning for a third shot at the title which he has so far tied for twice, but not yet won. Luke McShane is also joining the fray along with lasts year’s winner of the Sunday night blitz, Matthew Turner. Mark Orr, Ireland’s first international master, completes the line up of titled players in this year’s Masters. There will be plenty of "home grown" Irish players present, besides Mark, to upset the aspirations of our titled visitors and it must be remembered that this year the event is on the English "Terence Chapman Group Plc" sponsored British Grand Prix. This should add a bit of excitement to the competition as both Mark Hebden and Matthew Turner are chasing the £5,000 first prize.

Whatever happens, it is the sincere hope of the organisers that all competitors in the Bunratty Chess Festival 2000 enjoy themselves and come back again and again to one of Ireland’s best tournaments.

BUNRATTY MASTERS 2000

ROUND 1

There were few upsets as the top half of the draw took on the bottom half. The four grandmasters (John Nunn, Tony Miles, Mark Hebden and Jonathan Levitt) won with varying degrees of ease, but on board five the 1998 champion Luke McShane IM fell victim to an unexpected combination in the Sveshnikov Sicilian, which was unleashed by top Irish junior player Sam Collins. Sam had won free entry to the tournament by winning a series of rapid chess tournaments with a score of 18/18! Gerry O’Connell had White against a Budapest, and won a piece after only six moves; usually Black wins quickly in the Budapest. It was an easier draw for Gerry than last year, when he arrived late to find that he had black against GM Sergei Tiviakov. He played his favourite Dragon against Dragon expert Tiviakov but sadly lost.

ROUND 2

Three of the GM contingent maintained their winning ways, but Jonathan Levitt could only draw against Joe Ryan. Meanwhile Sam Collins showed that his first round win was no fluke by beating the 1994 champion Colm Daly in a game of opposite side castling where Black’s attack broke through first. Stephen Scannell wore a teeshirt with the legend "Black as Night, Strong as Sin, Sweet as Love, Hot as Hell" but despite this ambitious declaration of intent only scored three draws from the day's play.

ROUND 3

A short draw on the top board between John Nunn and Matthew Turner allowed Mark Hebden to take the lead by beating Tony Miles. He was joined on 3/3 by Sam Collins who continued his good run by beating IM Mark Orr. The opening in this game, and in Brady-Ryan from the same round was the currently trendy 3…Be7 in the Tarrasch French, but Black lost both games, so it remains to be seen how long 3…Be7 is trendy. Meanwhile Paul Delaney was involved in his third Open Sicilian in a row. The score: 3/3 to the white pieces. John Hurley won a spectacular game by employing a Kasparov recommended move against Mel O'Cinneide.

Top scorers in the other sections:
• Challengers: Gordon Freeman and Jack Short;
• Major: Shannon Clements and Tom Fitzpatrick;
• Minor: D J O'Donoghue, Walter Fitzgibbon, John Bourke, Georgie Casey, James Coakley (all on 3/3).

ROUND 4

Sam Collins came up against his first GM of the tournament and succumbed to the positional skills of Mark Hebden in a Tartakower QGD. Jon Levitt's Winawer French was treated harshly by John Nunn. Tony Miles offered an early draw to Luke McShane but Luke tried too hard to win and ended up losing. On the lower boards, English visitor proved his participation in the Masters was justified by moving up to 50%. At 9 years and 2 months old, David is the youngest ever qualifier for the British Championships and clearly has a great future in the game.

After the exertions of the day, the four Evangelists (Matthew T, Mark H, Luke McS, and John N) repaired to the hotel restaurant for some well-earned sustenance, to find it was completely booked out. Only divine intervention in the form of Chief Controller Gerry Graham ensured that the visiting masters did not go hungry.

ROUND 5

After a long night's sleep the players returned to the fray, but must have been equally refreshed because the top three boards (Nunn v Hebden, Collins v Turner and Miles v Levitt) all finished drawn. Uri Rochev moved up to join the leaders by beating Stephen Brady. David Howell made it 3/3 over the last three rounds by defeating Irish international Mel O'Cinneide in a difficult English opening.

That left the scores at the top: Hebden 4.5; Nunn & Turner 4; Miles, Rochev & Collins 3.5 going into the final round.

ROUND 6

The first board clash between Mark Hebden and Matthew Turner finished in a draw after 21 moves. John Nunn took the chance to join Hebden on 5 points by grinding out an endgame win over Uri Rochev. Sam Collins inexplicably lost a pawn against Tony Miles and lost quickly.

Final standings: Masters: Challengers: Major: Minor: