A great start for the Irish teams - though all went down to defeat, Ennis and Gonzaga lost by the narrowest of margins and St Benildus lost 4-2. By way of context, only ten of the 35 ties were closer than 4.5-1.5 - tight games are rare in the opening round where ratings gaps of 300 points are common.

Rory Quinn beat an IM with black, which was more than their own IM or Simon Williams GM could manage. Williams drew and Blair Connell won as white as Ennis lost 3.5-2.5 against a team of six IMs.

For Gonzaga, David Murray also got an IM result as black, a draw to which Colin Menzies and Gordon Freeman added titled wins with white.

St Benildus were only facing two titled players, though both were higher than any player Ennis or Gonzaga faced. Facing them were two of the youngest players in the whole tournament, Kavin Venkatesan (14) and Lara Putar (15). Both put in fighting performances which drew praise if no points, and it was left to John Healy with a win, and Kevin McHugh - a veteran of the club's 1985 campaign - and Brendan Cooney with draws to seal another great result for the Irish sides.

Tomorrow, Ennis play Viking - whose board 1 drew with Vishy Anand today - while Gonzaga face Differdange of Luxembourg and St Benildus face a Kosovan side, Dardania.