Summary
The Four Cups
- France retain the Glorney, with Ireland 4th
- Netherlands win the Gilbert, Ireland 5th
- Netherlands win the Robinson, Ireland 4th
- Netherlands win the Stokes, Ireland 3rd
Player per team prizes
- Glorney : Daniil Zelenchuck 5/5
- Gilbert: Kynesha Ryder 2/5
- Robinson: Eoin Farrelly 3.5/5
- Stokes: Kavin Venkatesan 4.5/5
Full results here
Glorney TV was back in action for 3 of the five round with live commentary by FM Tom and Alice O'Gorman on Tom's twitch channel. You can listen/view back here
PGN files and game playback of the Glorney and Gibert cups are available on here and/or here. There were no live boards for the Robinson and Stokes but we hope to see the pgns included in due course.
Ireland were confirmed as hosts for 2019, France for 2020.
Glorney Cup 2018 report
The team arrived in UWS Paisley from Dublin on Sunday. The players excited, parents anxious. Mention of ‘6 person shared rooms’ had evoked images of hostelling in 1980s Ireland ! Fears were immediately allayed on arrival and we each assigned our own ensuite room.
Day 1. The local seagulls made plenty of noise Sunday night but the team were ready to go. France , the favourites and ultimate winners, were first up, a very strong team whose 5 players all out-rated our board 1 ! The team lost 3-2 , a very creditable performance given the strength of the opposition. Next up was Scotland, tough opponents also and playing with home advantage. We went down 1.5 -3.5. David Fitzsimons was on hand afterwards for some welcome after game analysis and advice.
Day 2 The local seagulls made plenty of noise Monday night too but eager to put defeat behind us we headed out fuelled only on croissants to take on Wales. Wins from Daniil, Dermot and Darragh and a draw from Jacob saw Ireland win 3.5-1.5. Enough time for lunch, more analysis with David and a even game of badminton and then it was England next. a repeat result from earlier saw another 3.5-1.5 win for Ireland. Daniil was on 4/4.
Day 3 More seagull noises overnight. The last match was against the Netherlands who were leading on 15pts to France’s 13.5. A draw from Darragh was followed by wins from Dermot and Daniil (5/5!) We lost on boards 1 and 2 tying the match and 2.5 - 2.5. France had a 4-1 win against England which saw them take the cup on a complicated 3rd tiebreak by just the half point match score Ireland had taken off the Dutch.
So 2 wins,2 losses and a draw was not a bad result against a very strong field. Thanks to David for the support, Tom and Alice for the entertaining live commentary and to Scotland for putting on a great tournament. Roll on next year when we will be hosting.
Of Seagulls and Sausages, The Gilbert Cup 2018 report
Monday dawned grey but warm, Eibhia having only arrived hotfoot from Barcelona in the wee hours, the three girls from Connaught were ready and mostly raring to go.
The accommodation was top notch, clean and comfortable but seemingly underneath Scotlands largest seagull colony! After a breakfast of the worlds densest sausage, the girls could be forgiven a slow start against a Very Strong French side.
Conditions in the playing venue were excellent very spacious and lovely wooden boards and pieces for all games which always makes you feel special. The analysis/nervous parents area was very comfortable bright and airy and far from the worst place to anxiously await our childs return, as an added bonus you could barely hear the seagulls.
Results were mixed but considering we were outranked in nearly every game, Ebhia, Kynesha and Aoife certainly did themselves proud and can be assured that they represented Ireland extremely well. A massive thank you must go to David Fitzsimons and Scott Mulligan for the post-game analysis. They were both there with positive words of encouragement after every game win, lose or draw. Also thanks to Desmond for his infectious enthusiasm and pre-game pep talks.
Robinson Cup 2018 report
From Sunday 15th July, the Robinson team of Utkarsh Gupta, David Remenyik, Adam Murphy, Eoin Farrelly, Eoin Hunter, Adam Collins arrived in Paisley with the challenge of retaining the Robinson Cup.
Shortly afterwards, we realised that while the Robinson team were in Paisley, West Scotland, the Robinson Cup was still in Dublin! Emergency plans were put in place to retrieve the Cup from Dublin and transport to Paisley!
On Monday morning, we took on the challenge of a good French team and emerged with 2 points. After a quick turnaround, we posted a great result of 5-1 against Scotland.
On Tuesday morning, despite ‘no Irish breakfast’, the team took on Wales and achieved another win - 3.5-2.5.
Tuesday afternoon saw us facing our toughest opponents yet in a very strong English team. The team managed one point from the match – but we knew then, having seen the results of the Dutch team as well, that the Robinson Cup would not be coming back to Ireland this year. Our emergency logistics manager in Dublin had retrieved the Cup and it would be flown to Paisley on Wednesday!
On Wednesday morning, the team were inspired by Desmond’s words of ‘play the game of your life’. We were facing the Netherlands, who were battling England at the top of the table for the Cup. England had amassed an impressive 18 points to date, with the Netherlands on 17.
The full Irish squad lined up for their final match against the Dutch. Thomas(Stokes team) proudly led the boys in green into the playing hall to the applause and pride of the Irish contingent.
Given the strength of the Dutch team, we know every half point would be very hard won. And so it proved. Last to finish of all 60 boards was Adam. In a theoretically lost Q v R+1P ending and his Dutch opponent needing only a draw for his team to pip England for the trophy but seemingly not aware of this, they both battled on, each with 1-2 mins on their clocks (+30s per move) until the draw was finally agreed.
A great tournament was had by all and a special word of thanks to our very supportive, patient & encouraging head of delegation, Desmond Beatty and coaches, IM David Fitzsimons and Scott Mulligan. Thanks also to Neal Kirby (side show Bob) who kept us all on the straight & narrow throughout.
Stokes Cup 2018 report
Our Stokes team this year consisted of:
Con Kirby (Limerick) Benjamin Murray (St. Benildus) Kavin Venkatesan (St. Benildus) Patryk Brozynski (Malahide) Zhengjun Wang (St. Benildus) Thomas Cooney (St. Benildus)
Our team, which was rated sixth of six by the tournament officials (due to only Con having a FIDE rating), started with a match against a tough French side, full of experienced internationals. Outranked across all boards (a common situation in this tournament) we scored a very respectable 2.5 out of 6 with Patryk winning and three draws.
Monday afternoon saw us take on Scotland who had lost 5-1 to the Netherlands in the first round. The match saw our first match win with a result of 3.5 - 2.5 with wins for Patryk and Kavin and, most importantly (for the parents, at least), the two wins and three draws meant that each off our players had gotten off the mark for the tournament.
Round three on Tuesday morning had us against Wales who had lost 6-0 and 4-2 in their first two rounds. The form of those previous games was confirmed with our 5-1 victory including four wins and no losses. This left us in third and dreaming of pushing on although we had the two teams ahead of us left to play.
Before our match on Tuesday afternoon, lunch was interrupted by an international soccer match breaking out on the grounds of the University Campus. Whether this would help our cause in round 4 was a matter of debate amongst the parents watching from the sideline but our result against England, with two wins and a draw making up our 2.5 out of 6, left us heading into the final day in third place but still in with a shot of the leaders, the Netherlands.
Wednesday morning saw the team in great spirits and calculating the required scores needed to win the tournament. Unfortunately the ask of 5.5 out of 6 (against the leaders and strongest team in the tournament) proved to be too much and we finished with an excellent 2.5 out of 6 to leave us in 3rd place on 16 points behind the Netherlands on 21.5 and England on 21.
A special mention must go to our board 3, Kavin Venkatesan, who was undefeated and scored 4.5 out of 5 for a TPR of 1694.
Great fun was had by all and a lot of experience was gained across the board. Bring on home advantage in Ireland in 2019!
