The 5th Ennis Open was held in the Auburn Lodge Hotel in Ennis over the weekend of May 20th to 22nd and it certainly announced its intention to join the top events on the Irish weekender circuit. With just about 90 players in 2 sections, thanks to the LCU (Bryan Tobin in particular) all boards, sets and clocks were provided in this enjoyable event.

The tops seed in the open included 3 grandmasters, Vlad Jianu from Romania, Gawain Jones and Aaron Summerscale, both from the UK. Jan Sodoma, Petr Nueman Colm Daly were also on hand to ensure that our grandmasters didn't have it all their own way.

In the first round of the open, all the top seeds came through unscathed with the exception of Liam Murphy (1615, Adare) who was beaten by a young local player, Robert Wall, playing in his first senior open event, a nice way to start for the Ennisman.

Left to right above – Vlad Jianu plays White, watched by Jan Sodoma – Gawain Jones plays Black with Jan Heinrich beside him – Aaron Summerscale ponders his next move.

On top board in round 3, top seed (by Irish ratings, not FIDE) Vlad Jianu faced Gawian Jones's girlfriend Sue Mororoa and was lucky to survive this encounter. I haven't examined the game but according to the bar experts later on (and there were many) Sue must have missed a win before succumbing to a tactic in the time scramble. While Sue was busy with that game, Gawain was occupied with the following game of his own against Colm Daly.

The masters didn't start clashing until round 4 when Vlad beat Petr Neuman and Gawain Jones outplayed Jan Sodoma in what looked to me like a fairly even queen and 4 pawn each ending but what do I know, eh.

The game of the event was the top board clash of Gawain Jones and Vlad Jianu in round 5, Gawain seemed to get the better of the opening with good attacking prospects down the open h file when he assayed a "speculative, but promising looking" sacrifice, which didn’t quite work, eventually got in to a materially unbalanced endgame. It's an exciting game, see what you think yourself.

A more detailed report of this and other rounds can he read on the Ennis Chess Clubs website, maintained by Rory Quinn, pictured right.

The draw for the final round pairings looked like this:

Local reporter Rory Quinn managed to beat Seamus Duffy while Colm Daly overcame Ronan Magee. Pete Morriss gave Petr Neuman a good game but was ultimately outplayed by the visiting international master. In the battle of the Jan's on board 3, Sodoma managed to overcome Heinrich so all the players on 3½ played hard to reach 4½, no draws here. That was not the case on the top 2 boards where quick draws were agreed to leave the final results looking like this (cross table):

Under 1400

The Under 1400 was a major success for the local club member, Herickson Da Silva (pictured right) with Shay Scott in clear second place and third place shared by Adare Juniors, Diana Mirza and Jeffery Alfred along with Desmond Martin from Portmarnock. Best unrated player was Jean Marie Perinetti of Ross Chess Club. Cross table.