Rory Quinn's Report

The following report has been copied (with permission) from Rory Quinns Ennis Chess Club Blog.

I think it gives a nice overview of the tournament. Thank you Rory.

The following pages list all the prize winners in both competitions along with photos from the presentations etc.


Paul Walsh Wins Munster Championship

Well done to Paul Walsh who won the Munster Championships last weekend on 4.5 from 5. I came second on 4 and FM Philip Short and Orison Carlile tied for third on 3.5.

Mel O Cinneide had been originally listed in the entries but apparently had not recovered in time from a bug to be able to play. This meant the tournament was a little weaker than initially anticipated but as anyone who played will tell you all the games were hard fought. Paul Walsh was a deserving winner and played very solidly throughout. He came within 8 minutes of spontaneously combusting on the Sunday morning against me though as he turned up at 10.22 with the default time at 10.30 having slept in. In the end I was the one who spontaneously combusted and Paul took the point in convincing fashion. A win in the last round against Philip Short wasn’t enough for me to catch Paul as he ground out the win he needed against John Cassidy.

The current joint Irish Champion Philip Short was probably a little disappointed with his showing as he was clear favourite before the event and significantly higher rated than the rest of the field. I think that in our game, to put it in poker parlance, he went all in pre flop knowing he likely needed a victory to tie for first. It felt like he overpressed and I was able to take advantage. It was great to see Philip playing in this event again though and hopefully he will continue to play in it. If Alex Lopez, Mel and a few others such as Kieran Moynihan all played it would make for a very interesting event.

The grading prize in the senior section went to Eric Salsac who played very well and posted a rating performance over 500 points higher than his current rating. I played Eric in round 3. I had one eye on the clock during this game as I was hoping to finish in time to see Little Green Cars play in Limerick :-) Mission accomplished but only thanks to a late blunder by Eric in a tense Sicilian where it looked like he was starting to gain the advantage.

In the lower section, the Joe Browne Cup was won by Diarmuid Reidy with Jonathan Kiely in second and Aaron Daly in third. The grading prize was won by Neil Kirby. The whole event went really well and was very enjoyable to play in. Gerry Graham did an excellent job as arbiter and all the Munster Chess Union committee deserve great credit for putting the effort in to re establish this event as a major one in the chess calendar.


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