John Loughran has written to update the page on the British European Airways Cup here, which had not been updated since 2016. In addition to adding recent winners, John corrected the entry for 1992, which was previously “Jobstown (?)”, to Elm Mount, based on the winner engraved on the trophy. John is having the trophy repaired and the names of all winners added, and he provided a photo, for which many thanks: The page as originally posted and as updated by John had some gaps, denoting years where no one seems to know who won. However, after consulting the archives I received from John Gibson ..read more

The National Club Championship took place at the Talbot Hotel Stillorgan over the weekend, ending today. Congratulations to Elm Mount, who won for (I think) the first time ever. The event attracted 15 teams, and was hotly contested all along. Going into the last round, five teams were in strong contention: the leaders Malahide, with 7 match points, followed by Elm Mount, Ennis, Galway, and Gonzaga with 6 match points each. In the last round, Ennis beat Malahide 3½-2½, and Galway beat Gonzaga by the same margin. Elm Mount beat the out-of-contention St. Benildus, also by 3½-2½, to finish in a th ..read more

Congratulations to Tom O’Gorman, who recorded his second IM norm last weekend, at the Sheffield Masters 2024. He finished clear first with 6½/9. His only loss was to Trisha Kanyamarala, who finished with 4½/9, in round 6, leaving him requiring three straight wins in the last three rounds. Pein – O’Gorman, Sheffield Masters 2024 38. ? In the penultimate round, he had Black against Jonathan Pein. In the diagrammed position, 38. Kd2 is equal, but Pein played 38. b8=Q??, and after 38… Nxb8 39. Bxb8 Ke3 he was unable to stop the f-pawn and resigned a few moves later. [Click to replay the full game ..read more

The “Varsity” matches between Oxford University and Cambridge University go back to 1873 in an almost complete sequence, broken only by World Wars. The latest in the sequence took place last month at the Royal Automobile Club, Pall Mall in London. Oxford top board Tom O’Gorman won his game, and thereby completed a remarkable record: he becomes the first player in the entire series to score 4/4 with all games on board 1. He is only the sixth player ever to score 4/4; this was achieved twice in the twentieth century and three times in the nineteenth. Congratulations! All four of his games are av ..read more

The third event in the recent Dublin International Festival was the 65+ Championship. This attracted 21 players, including two from Iceland (there was a sizeable Icelandic contingent across the entire Festival), and resulted in a four-way tie for first, on 5/7, between Gerry MacElligott (first on tie-break), Pete Morriss, Tim Harding, and Tony Doyle. Congratulations to all. Eamon Keogh was the early leader with 3/3. He won his round 2 game against Frank McMahon after an interesting struggle. McMahon – Keogh, Dublin International 65+ 2024 11. ? In the diagrammed position, White would be winning ..read more

The recent Dublin International Festival also featured two age-restricted tournaments, the 40+ and 65+ championships. The 40+ championship attracted 18 players, and with one exception the field was relatively evenly matched, with over half the players having FIDE ratings in the 1700s and 1800s. The exception was John Delaney, top seed by a margin of almost 300 points FIDE (almost 500 points ICU), and he duly finished first with 6½/7, a point ahead of John P. Aherne, who was in turn a point ahead of Fred Armstrong, who took third place. Delaney did not have it all his own way, though, and in pa ..read more

The recent post about the DCU Majors 2024 gave the Bartczak – Spence game as the most interesting, with plenty of play left in the final position. I thought Black “should be able to draw”, but the line I offered also left plenty of play. Delving deeper turned up some interesting points. Bartczak – Spence, DCU Majors 2024 Final position; White to play From the final position, I think best play goes 31. Rxc2 Ba6+! 32. Ree2! Rxe2 33. Rxe2 c5! (slightly more accurate than 33… Bxe2+ 34. Qxe2 c5 as I gave before, since then Black has to work out the consequences of 35. Qa6) 34. Kf2 Bxe2 35. Qxe2 a5 ..read more

The third of the three sections at last weekend’s DCU Congress 2024 was the Challengers, for players rated under 1200 ICU and under 1650 FIDE, or unrated. 55 players actually played (as in the Open, there were five more who were paired for round 1 but played no games). The winner was Chima Mgbemena with full points, though he was fortunate to win his last round game against Malachy O’Neill, where he was queen for bishop down in the final position. A full report has been added to the Tournament pages here ..read more

The DCU Majors 2024 was the second of three sections of the DCU Congress last weekend. A full report has been added to the Tournament pages here. This section was the smallest of the three, with 29 players. Ruarai Goodfellow of U.C.C. took clear first with an unbeaten 4/5, ahead of six players tied for second place, half a point back. The most interesting game available was the round 2 top board clash between Korneliusz Bartczak and Beckett Spence. Bartczak – Spence, DCU Majors 2024 28… ? In the diagrammed position Black could have won quickly via 28… Qxc4+! 29. Kxg2 Qxa2+ 30. Qe2 Qxe6, when a ..read more

The DCU Congress attracted 180 players across three sections at the weekend, and the newly introduced Blitz attracted 59. A full report on the Open has been added to the Tournament pages here. 20 games are available via live boards, though a few of these were truncated. The event was open to all ICU members, and attracted a mammoth field of 96 players. Due to some snafu, IMs Artur Davtyan and Oleg Gubanov were listed in the field and paired for the first round, but played no games. This left as top seeds Tarun and Trisha Kanyamarala, Stephen Jessel, and Zalan Nemeth. Three players tied for fir ..read more