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2006 Bunratty Festival results

Clive Hutchby

Thrilling Masters competition goes right down to the wire

Wow! What a finale to this year’s Bunratty Chess Festival. Five players tied for first position in the MASTERS section before English IM Simon Williams triumphed in a dramatic five-minute blitz shootout, playing his favourite Dutch Defence to beat GM Alex Baburin in a thrilling playoff final.

Dozens of players congregated around the board, or watched the giant screen in the neighbouring bar, as Williams began a brave kingside pawn advance against Baburin’s king. It looked dangerous, but Williams was handicapped by having his queen’s rook and queen’s bishop undeveloped for a long time and Baburin defended coolly. However, five minutes was hardly any time to solve the problems that Williams was creating, and the relentlessly countdown of the clock finally undid Ireland’s only resident grandmaster.

It wasn’t much of a present on Baburin’s birthday, although festival organisers helped cheer up the popular GM with a special gift at the closing ceremony to mark his 39th.

Earlier, Baburin, Williams, GM Jonathan Speelman, IM Sam Collins and IM Craig Hanley had tied on 4.5/6 in the tightest ever Bunratty Masters competition in its 13-year history. Unlucky Collins had the worst tiebreak score and was dropped from the four-man playoff, which saw Speelman and Hanley eliminated in the semi-finals by Williams and Baburin respectively.

In the CHALLENGERS section, Cork Chess Club’s David Path won with 5.5 points from 6 games thanks to a last-round win as black against Sarsfield’s Paul Walsh, who had earlier reeled off five straight victories. Path’s club colleague DJ O’Donoghue won his final game in a tense time scramble to tie with Walsh on 5 points. The result widens O’Donoghue’s lead at the top of the ICU Section 2 Grand Prix.

The Cork connection continued with a grading prize for Stephen Short (4.5/6), and there was a remarkable performance from Kilkenny junior Aravind Menon, rated just 1577 but able to enter one section up because of representing Ireland at international level. Despite taking a first-round bye, he went undefeated in the five games he played (three wins and two draws) to finish on 4.5/6 and take the second grading prize. No doubt his rating will improve spectacularly with many more similar results.

The MAJOR section was won by Patrick Launders with 5.5/6, who held off the determined challenges of Philip Hogarty and Michael O’Donnell (both 5/6). Hogarty’s performance sees him climb to third place in the ICU Section 3 Grand Prix, which is still headed by Cork’s David O’Mahoney. Grading prizes went to John O’Connor, Ronan Sweeney and Ciaran Ruane

Another Kilkenny junior, Robert White, achieved an impressive result in the Major section. He won a special prize of a beautiful wooden board and set (supplied by John Alfred) for the best performance compared to rating (1279 rating with a 1671 performance). It was a pretty good weekend all round for the White family – Robert’s father John, playing in the Masters, scored an excellent 3/6

In the same section, Dublin’s Andrew Mendelson, rated 1999, was having the time of his life after victories over Karl McPhillips (211 points higher) and Yury Rochev (369 points higher) in the first two rounds – but he then ran into GM Jonathan Speelman in round three (a mere 540 points difference), who won with a classy positional exchange sacrifice, and then a brutal attack from IM Gawain Jones (419 points gap) in round four. The Ennis-based 18-year-old sacrificed a knight on the 9th move against Mendelson’s Caro-Kann. It’s tough at the top!

In the MINOR section, there was a standout result by Brendan Whelan to win with six straight wins. His closest rival, Darren Kelly, scored 5.5/6, a result that chief arbiter Gerry Graham said “would have won most sections.” There was a four-way tie for third place, with Michael Bradley, Eoghan Danaher, Brendan Mulvey and Michael Tierney all on 5/6. Grading prizes went to Fintan Hegarty, Stephen Cowpar and Robert McKenna, with unrated prizes going to Jason Culloty and Piotr Gammon. Special prizes of gift vouchers (donated by Alex Baburin) went to Gregory Bailey, Ashley Campion, Ruth Cormican and Alasdair Walsh.

At the closing ceremony, Gerry Graham said he was delighted with the number of players that took part (around the 280 mark) and thanked the other members of the team behind the tournament – Paul Carey, Ted Jennings, Brian Scully, Imelda Graham, Nora Richardson and Fiona Scully. He said, “It’s a bit like a duck on a pond, and we know we’ve done our job well if you don’t notice us.”

Mayor of Limerick Diarmuid Scully (Brian Scully’s brother) described the Bunratty Chess Festival as “a major sporting event in the midwest region.”

Perhaps he should tell the Irish government that, considering it shows little interest in giving chess sporting status in this country, despite the International Olympic Committee recognising chess as a sport!

The Mayor called for a major sponsor to support the festival, joining current sponsors the Dunne Group Hotels. “It’s the 13th of these great events, and if we’re to celebrate a 26th, 39th or 52nd then we’re going to need long-term sponsorship,” he said.

Christy Power, manager of the Bunratty Shamrock Shannon Hotel, thanked players and organisers for choosing his hotel as a venue for the event. “We very much love having you here every year,” he said.

And that was it, apart from a few diehards hanging around for a blitz tournament as most of us faced a long drive or rail journey home. Or a shorter (but more expensive) flight from nearby Shannon Airport.

This was my first Bunratty tournament, but I can tell you it won’t be my last. The event has a kind of magical attraction, somehow.

And better players than me agree with that! Before the first clock had ever been started, I spent some time chatting to legendary English grandmaster Dr. John Nunn about what makes the festival so special. “It’s just Bunratty!” he said. “This is the first tournament I’ve played in since Bunratty 2005. It’s great to be among friends, playing chess and enjoying some good company.”

Nunn has retired from competitive chess after a glorious career which saw England make a serious challenge to Soviet chess supremacy at the Olympiads, and is now chess director of Gambit Publications, one of the best of the chess-publishing groups.

He can still play a bit, though. Nunn finished on 4/6, with Alex Baburin denting his hopes with a fifth-round victory against him. But the doctor showed his forensic chess talents with a third-round slaying of Gawain Jones’s Sicilian Dragon. The rating difference between the two players? 199 points. Which proves it’s just as tough at the top even if you’re a teenage international master.

Nearly all the Masters section games were made available to players after the event thanks to the efforts of Herbert Scarry. They’re available on a CD-ROM in PGN format – him for more details.

Results:

Created 2006-02-21 ◦ Last updated 2014-07-23 ◦ Editor VB

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