Following up on the article from yesterday - here are some updates from the various events concerning Irish Chess this week/weekend.
First Saturday GM Tournament
David Fitzsimsons kicked off the First Saturday GM Tournament in Budapest, Hungary with a terrific win with black against GM David Berczes. He followed that up with a draw with white against Bogdan Lalic. He continues his hunt for an IM norm today against IM Thomas Engqvist of Sweden. David requires a score of 5.5 out of 9 to add to the norm he earned at the 2016 4NCL.
The Irish Chess Championships 2016
The Irish Chess Championships 2016 started on Saturday with a couple of early upsets as noted yesterday. Round 2 went slightly more to form as there were wins for Stephen Jessel, Killian Delaney, Colm Daly and Diana Mirza. However, there were some minor shocks with wildcards Paul O'Neill and Shane Melaugh defeating Ross Beatty and Rudolf Tirziman respectively while Luke Scott (following his draw with 6-time Irish Champion Colm Daly in round 1) defeated Eamon Keogh. The only other result saw the only draw from round 2 between Gerry O'Connell and Anthony Fox. Those results leave only Jessel and Delaney on full points going into round 3 and they face off on board 1. Daly and Fox will battle it out on board 2 while Luke Scott is rewarded for this strong play through two rounds with a match against O'Connell. The games are viewable from today on Chessdom with engine analysis. A round be round review is available to read through here.
In The Irish Chess Championships 2016: Intermediate. Elo: 1500-1900 section, after round 3 the leaders and top seeds, Gabor Bolkeny and Donatas Jocius, faced off in a clash which looked like it may decide the overall winner as they stood a clear point ahead of the rest of the competition and so it proved. Donatas won that match and took a draw in his final match against Sergey Beryozkin to ensure he claimed the title with a score of 4.5/5. Gabriel Mirza claimed the scalp of top seed, Bolkeny in the final round to snatch second place. Third place was shared by Beryozkin, Conor Nolan and Mihailo Manojlovic.
In The Irish Chess Championships 2016: Junior. Elo <1500 section, the title was shared by Sean Cullen and Robert McLoughlin on 4.5/5 while Diarmuid Ready finished a half a point behind on 4/5 to claim third on his own.
Congratulations to all the winners!
The 2016 Community Games
As noted in yesterday's report, Malahide retained their Leinster title in the Community Games and from that winning team - pictured above, Aisling Ni Laighleis (daughter of 2014 Irish Women's Champion, Gearoidin Ui Laighleis) has written a report on the event.
The World Team Championship 65+ 2016
Irish team report from the World Team Championship 65+ 2016 written by Tim Harding is now available and gives an account of the Irish team's exploits in the first 7 rounds. The team unfortunately lost their 8th round against a strong German team 3.5-0.5 with only Ray Byrne securing a draw. However, they then regrouped in time to ensure a great draw against another strong German team; Tim winning while Ray and Patrick drew.