Irish Chess Journal Irish Chess Journal Contents
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
The Irish Chess Journal Irish Chess Journal Contents Published biannually by the Irish Chess Union and News 3 distributed online from www.icu.ie . Unfortunately, no titles to report this time, but there's a pleasant lack of scandal too, so we're left with a fairly tame news section Looking to contact the ICU? by Irish chess standards! Secretary: [email protected] . Gonzaga 6 Membership officer: Michael Crowe, [email protected] ; At last, someone was able to stop Semyon Mkrtchyan's 086 3964558; 1 Templeview Lawn, Clare Hall, Dublin 13. formidable run of tournament victories. Gordon Freeman is Journal Editors: [email protected] ; 087 7547436; c/o John champion of Gonzaga. Healy, 23 Lakelands Close, Kilmacud Road Upper, Leinster Championships 9 Stillorgan, Co. Dublin. Karl McPhillips' good tournament form continued as he earned the title of Leinster Champion ahead of several titled players. Editors: Kevin Burke and John Healy. Mark Quinn reports from the Christmas-time tournament. Three Wise Men 14 Photography: Michael Germaine, Ciaran Ruane. Three men were made ICU life members last September. Robbie Lunn , Sam Collins , Mark Quinn and John Healy , former Contributors: John Alfred, Alexander Baburin GM, Sam students of Jack Hennigan, Gerry Murphy and Frank Scott, tell Collins IM, Rory Delaney, Ronan Duke, Oliver Dunne, us about the men who shaped how they view the royal game. David Fitzsimons, Pat Fitzsimons, Gordon Freeman, Gerry Kilkenny Congress 17 Graham, Mark Heidenfeld IM, Tom Hickey, Seán Loftus, With so many big names at Kilkenny, it was always going to be Robbie Lunn, Justin Mulrooney, Mel Ó Cinnéide, Mark tough to call. Ciaran Ruane reports on Mark Hebden's victory, Orr IM, Mark Quinn IM, John Redmond, Ciaran Ruane. as he held off Baburin and even world number 9 Michael Adams to win the 2006 Kilkenny Masters. Additional thanks to : Michael Germaine, Helen Milligan, Leagues 22 Herbert Scarry, Peter Scott. We cast an eye over the all of the leagues. No, really, all of them this time. The editors would like express our gratitude to everyone Galway Congress 25 who contributed to this issue, and apologise if we've The Galway Congress built on last year's very successful tournament. The top section even finished in a four way tie! forgotten anyone! Ronan Duke reports. Disclaimer Braille Chess Assoc. of Ireland Open 2006 28 Seán Loftus reports from the Blarney Park Hotel, which hosted The opinions expressed herein are strictly those of the this BCAI biennial open last September. contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the th Irish Chess Union, its officers or members. 11 Individual W.Ch. for the Blind 29 Justin Mulrooney reports from Goa, India, where he was guide to Michael Delaney. Symbols used in this magazine + Check Tournament Roundup 29 # Checkmate Including the Limerick Open, the City of Dublin, the North !! Excellent Move Munster Championships and the East Coast Open. ! Good move Of Machines and Men 32 !? Interesting move You'll never feel shame for a blunder again. A quick review of ?! Dubious move World Champion Vladimir Kramnik's match with Deep Fritz. ? Bad move European Club Cup 35 ?? Blunder A short report on Kilkenny, Galway and Belfast's participation ¹ Better is in the recent European Club Cup. = Equal position Tactical Problems 36 Themed in honour of world #9 Michael Adams' appearance in 8 Unclear position ² White is slightly better Kilkenny. ³ Black is slightly better Book Review 37 ± White is better We review John Watson's new book, “Mastering the Chess Openings, Volume 1.” µ Black is better +- White is winning FIDE and Domestic Ratings Lists 38 -+ Black is winning The January 2007 domestic and FIDE rating lists. (N) Novelty Upcoming Events 44 (D) Diagram There's no detail on the Irish Championships yet, but otherwise, here's the low-down on tournaments from now until August. Page 2 The Irish Chess Journal The best way to subscribe to the ICU is online because News machines can accurately accomplish in seconds what humans can take weeks to do, and not always reliably. ICJ Online! If you're reading this, you presumably already know, but Women's Officer Appointed this issue of the Irish Chess Journal will be published Gearóidín Uí Laighléis was recently appointed Women's online. At a recent meeting, the ICU executive decided that Officer for the ICU and she would like to hear from all future issues of the Irish Chess Journal will be made active (and not so active) women chess players. Please available online only. The current (February 2007) issue of forward your email address to her to join her mailing list. It the biannual magazine will not be printed and posted to doesn't matter what your rating is! She can be emailed at members as it has been in the past. [email protected] . Instead, the journal is available as a single downloadable pdf file, which can be read by freely available pdf readers. Britain's Chess Charity The journal is open access, available to non-members to Last November, the British parliament passed the Charities download. It's hoped that this will help promote the game Bill, which, among other things, changed the definition of in this country, as well as raising the profile of many sport to include non-physical games such as chess. This tournaments. move means that chess can now receive government This policy change will save approximately €6,000 from funding and chess organisations can apply for charity the ICU's annual budget, equivalent to about a third of the status. union's annual income. In a year which sees Ireland hosting the Glorney and Faber Cups, the annual U19 team Rating Foreign Tournaments competition contested by Ireland, England, Scotland, If you notify the ratings officer in advance, you can have Wales, France and the Czech Republic, it is necessary to your results in foreign tournaments count towards your tighten our belts. ICU rating. However, a recently introduced rule is that you A poll on the icu.ie website found that a majority of must now pay a €10 fee. Olympiads and other events where members are in favour of this move. 31% were in favour of players are selected to play for Ireland are exempt. keeping the hard-copy edition, 23% were in favour of having the journal on-line but available to members only Munster Chess Union AGM and 46% were in favour of the format chosen, with the At its AGM in Mallow on September 12, Munster Chess journal available to anyone who visits the website. Union elected the following officers: Chairman - Ray O'Brien Grand Prix Suspended Secretary - John Alfred It was also decided to suspend the Grand Prix for this Treasurer - Kevin O'Shea season. The Grand Prix awarded points to players who did PRO - Tom Hickey well in a number of tournaments around the country. At the Munster delegate to ICU - John Cassidy end of the season, the six players with the most points in Leagues Controller - Frank Noonan each of the three rating bands won cash prizes. The only contentous motion at the AGM was one 'That the The Grand Prix was set up to encourage people to play in MCU objects to bringing in players from outside the more tournaments. It particularly provided a boost to the Munster League'. The motion, which was passed, referred top sections of some smaller tournaments, as strong players to the issue of players being parachuted in by teams to help fought for points as much as the tournaments' prizes, but its promotion or title hopes. cost-effectiveness has been questioned, as has the merit of awarding prizes to people who are already doing well in Results of league matches should be e-mailed to Frank tournaments. The suspension of the Grand Prix saves a Noonan at [email protected]. John Alfred's site further €3,000 on the ICU budget. www.chessz.com and others, will display league table results. Website PIN Expiry Postponed Following complaints about lengthy delays in receiving pin There has been a delay in the membership secretary numbers, MCU called for the discontinuation of the responding to some postal subscriptions, which means system. Many Cork and Limerick players never received some ICU members don't have their PINs yet and the their PINs and were unable to access the ICU website last normal expiry date for 2005-06 PINs is tomorrow (2006- season. Clubs who have news about meeting dates and 12-31). To compensate for the delay, all members venues and/or club competitions, etc., should send them to registered on the web site with a 2005-06 PIN have had the Tom Hickey at [email protected] or call 086- expiry date advanced one month, to 2007-01-31, by which 1245670. time the problem will hopefully be resolved. Page 3 The Irish Chess Journal Cork Chess Club Championships Glorney team winning their match 5 – 0. Fed up with championships where too many people failed In round 2 the Irish Glorney team put the mornings to turn up for games, members decided the best way to disappointing result behind them by crushing Wales 4½-0½ fight indifference was to charge people to play! The result with wins for David, John McMorrow, Liam Normoyle and was a 30% increase in membership and over 40 entries in Oisín Benson plus a draw for Dara Murphy. The Faber the seven round club championship which has 400 euro for team also beat the hosts by 2-1 with draws for Emily and the winner and many other prizes. After two rounds six Catherine and a second successive win for Sarah.