Irish Chess Championship 2023

Interesting to see that table after all these years, not a single weak player in sight. You will notice that the ratings shown were ICU ratings and not FIDE which tend to be higher. If you compare the ICU ratings of this years Ch with that of 1985 you will see which was the stronger. The Irish Championship used to be a really special tournament before entry restrictions were relaxed to allow just about every Tom Dick and Harry rated over 1800 who knew the en passant rule was allowed to play in it.

Ask Colm to give me a call if you see him there again. Tell him my scrabble is now at a level to give him a run for his money.

He only needed

We haven't had round 5 yet.

But otherwise you are right; in fact I think his round 1 win already took Kavin above 2300, and if not, his round 2 win certainly did.

Two crucial games coming up in round 6 involving the four players on 4/5: Baburin v O'Connor and O'Donnell v Venkatesan.

Does anyone know why Shane Melaugh is not paired for round 6? He is on three and a half points out of five but should presumably score nothing?

And have you taken an antigen test? Covid is on the rise again, it says on the news, and I hear there were some cases at the recent British Championships due to one or two players with symptoms infecting opponents.

A few years ago, I also had to take a bye in the Irish championship (also round 6, I think) in order to attend my cousins funeral.

This could be codified in the terms and conditions going forward but its not covered as of now; hence, arbiter's call.

For context, there have been several half point byes granted in rounds 5-8 over the last few years.

I recently played in the over 50's british ch but I was dosed up on anti biotics as the glands in my throat swelled up....I withdrew after 5 rounds because of miserable performance (2 draws and 3 losses) and a train skrike that was taking place in round 6....last week my throat infection reappeared and I am now on super strong anti biotics (625mm tablets of co-amoxiclav) ...my throat infection has subsided.

As an older player now I can pass on my experience. Do not play chess if you are unwell...it will just make you more unwell.

It seems Seamus Duffy has not withdrawn after all but will play Brendan Lyons in round 8 while Muhtarim is not paired.

A motion for agm to outlaw discretionary byes in national championships seems required. There have just been too many of them this year.

Seamus has yet to score anything at the board but maybe he can put that right tomorrow by taking on Brendan's suspect Black repertoire.

Jonathan O'Connor has been having a terrific tournament but can he stop Conor taking the title tomorrow with a round to spare?

There have certainly been some very strange games on the lower boards in several rounds. Apart from board 13 (not 12) where White won quickly after blundering a piece with 24 Nd6 (why didn't Black stop the nonsense with 28...Nb6 and 29...Nd5 ?), there was board 15 in round 6 yesterday. Maybe somebody who was there can explain?

On Lichess, 53 cQ=Q was suddenly changed to c8=R and the underpromotion made the win uncertain instead of immediately resignable.

A few moves later the game suddenly ended 1-0 after a Black move. Presumably this was on time? My guess about the underpromotion is that White put an upturned rook on c8 and the arbiter intervened? If so, you would think that any player experienced enough to be in the national championship should know you cannot do upturned rooks any more and that if necessary you can pause the clock to get a real queen.

I’m not playing today. Sore throat and headache- I hope not Covid 🙄

Jonathan O'Connor had a once in a lifetime chance to win the Irish Championship today yet he agreed a daw AS WHITE after 19 moves🐤🐔 I just don't get it.

Last round top pairings: Baburin v Collins; O'Donnell v Crowley; Venkatesan v O'Connor.

Yes, that ending was fascinating to watch. At the start, the tablebase shows, Jacob could have postponed giving up the N for the h5-pawn but it's understandable he wanted to start the count. Objectively 60 Ke4 was best but Kg4 only cost 4 moves (losing in 77 whereas only 50 allowed).

White's first big mistake was 79 Kc2?? which loses in 39 compared with 79 Kb2 (loses in 67), Ka4 (61) or even Ka3 (59).

In these kind of endings it's easy for either side to "waste" a move or two, or sometimes even five, by humanly-imperceptible inaccuracies without changing the expected result but occasionally there is a big moment when the precise move is required.

After Alex found 79...Kc4! (others would have let the opponent off) White couldn't really afford any more slips.

81 Kc2? cost 5 more moves, though with perfect defence thereafter it is still theoretically possible to reach the safety of move 110.

Finally 88 Ka2?? lost in 13 theoretically and Alex played the final phase more or less perfectly. With 88 Kc1! the tablebase shows a thin line of perfect play that would save White under the 50-move rule.

Well done Alex but I do feel rather sorry for Conor who is now slightly behind on tiebreaks.

At least Conor will be fresher tomorrow and arguably has the weaker last round opponent.

Chess-results does not have a mind of its own. It applies the tiebreaks specified by the Chief Arbiter when he sets up the program in the Swiss Manager pairing system, the outputs from which are uploaded to chess-results.com.

So it could happen that the initial set-up was done incorrectly but I cannot say whether that is the case here.

There was a case earlier this year in the English Championship Seniors 50+ where the tiebreak specified by the arbiter did not match what had been announced on the tournament website; under one system Hebden would have won and under the other Arkell would have won.

They agreed to share the title.