Our players did us proud last night, when they achieved a 2-2 draw against former world chess champion, Veselin Topalov. All the games lasted more than 3 and half hours. Mark Quinn lost with black, Alex Lopez and Sam Collins drew, and Alex Baburin levelled the match by beating Topalov.
Unfortunately, due to firewall problems it was not possible to broadcast the games, which was a terrible disappointment to quarter of a million fans across the world. We will have the games up shortly and a report with photos before the end of today. There will be another message when they are available.
ECU President Silvio Danailov met with Phil Hogan, Irish Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government. Minister Hogan promised to support the Irish Chess Union's bid for recognition of chess as a sport. He also promised to help secure the votes of the 13 Irish MEPs in a vote for chess in schools program at the European Parliament.
Created 2011-10-04 ◦ Last updated 2014-07-23 ◦ Editor JOC