Irish Championships Rd 3
7-10
10-07-2012

It was a day for rook endings. Stephen Brady weaved his magic, and from your chairman's cursory look at the game (all games here), Colm Daly played too passively, and Stephen just won.

David Fitzsimons had the more active rooks against Gordon Freeman, and turned this activity along with a more active king and a passed c-pawn into a win.

Gerry O'Connell with Black against John Redmond won a pawn at the expense of a bad Bishop. Rather than passively hold the pawn, he chose to give it back to reach what he hoped was a drawn R+P ending. However, he got his rook out of play on g6, and John was able to use his passed a-pawn and active King to bring home the full point.

In Cafolla-Mindaugas, Peter looked to be better for a long time, but for once, when the doubled rook ending appeared, he had too many pawn weaknesses to play for a win, and the game ended in the day's only draw.

The rook ending theme continued in Killane-O'Rourke, however this time, Jack had an extra Rook!

King-Gedvilaite was the only game to get rid of the rooks. In the opposite coloured Bishop ending, Melvyn should have forced Monika's d-pawn to a white square, and then put all his pawns on black squares. Instead, he allowed Monika to create a passed h-pawn to go with her passed d-pawn, and soon after he had to resign.

In Courtney-Firstov, John was imbued with the spirit of Philidor and played with his pawns in the opening. Unfortnately for him, Yuri's muse was more modern, and he opened up in the centre and the King-side winning a piece and the game on move 18.

Created 2012-07-10 ◦ Last updated 2014-07-23 ◦ Editor JOC


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