Irish Chess Championship 2023

Whose stupid idea was it to accelerate the pairings in the 5 round weekender resulting in an 1100 rated player scoring 5/5 and winning big prize money without having to play even one decent player??????

Oh no, I see it really did happen! That is indeed ridiculous.

Several motions to agm about the running of the Irish Championships are required and ensuring this cannot happen again must be one of them.

Other essential motions which I expect sodacat and others will support:

1. All rounds in the Irish Championship to start at the same time each day, preferably 2pm; no early starts.
2. Reduce default time to 30 minutes
3. No discretionary half-point byes
4. Nobody who withdraws from the championship may enter the open weekender. (That didn't happen this year but it did in 2022.)

I would vote against motion 1. I polled players about this in 2015 and 2016 and it was preferred to have rounds later in the day. As organiser/arbiter, I prefer the last round starting earlier; it allows for travel home at a reasonable hour, allows time for playoffs, and allows time for a reasonably timed prize giving to coinside with the weekender.

I would vote against motion 2. I don't see much difference between 30 minutes and 60 minutes - but would prefer less defaults.

I would vote against motion 3. I see no problem with half point byes in round 1 and 2. That would be my counter motion; half point byes are permitted in rounds 1 and 2; but a player may only receive 1 half point bye. My example here would be Peter Carroll this year who was away until Monday - by getting 0.5, he wasn't totally out of contention while also definitely not gaining strategically.

Motion 4 was added to the T&Cs after last year - general rules; item 8.

There was a reminder about this before every single round; apparently it even became a joke in the playing hall it was mentioned so often. I don't think rules should be based on such exceptions - this has been the schedule for 5-7 years now. On the example you gave on Svidler's rant; I think he was right in that scenario - the round time there was moved by a full 5 hours from 3pm to 10am. The last round was moved here by 2.5 hours - for the reasons I previously gave. Some consideration has to be given to the actual organisation of these events - not just the players.

indeed I was the first to spot the evaluation dropping to 0 but I thought it was a crazy computer glitch...

You act like this is a money making exercise which I or the ICU earn any money from.. the event annually costs (or loses, whichever vernacular you prefer) between 3 and 7 grand - while I have never taken a payment for it. This is probably one of the few years that the blitz made some modest money - and gernally in those instance the prize fund is raised. Maybe not you, but many people like that particular event. But in future, I'll let the organiser know to aim to maximise the ICU losses and minimize the number of events to make you happy if you want.

"As for the player who didn't start until round 3, if you cannot be there for round 1, don't enter." - of course, lets encourage people not to enter. Why didn't I think of that?!

If you're done making petty remarks - maybe you could actually try to give reasons that your motions are needed. Your comments and motions often sound overly-reactionary and overly-officious in my opinion. I don't see much need for change (corrected sentence)- other than a new volunteer to organise, more volunteers to assist the chief arbiter and clarity on half-point byes; I've already offered my motion on the latter.

In R4 of the Open Weekender, four players on 3/3 played opponents on 1/3

In R3 EIGHT players on 2/2 played opponents on 0/2

That is not a Swiss pairing where players play those in their score group where possible.

Such pairings increase the number of players on full points.

Acceleration is meant to reduce the number on full points.

I think Pete Morriss has some understanding on how this could happen - he knows more about computer pairing programs than I do.

However, I did Swiss pairings by hand before computers. And such pairings would never be allowed.

Accelerated pairings are Q1 v Q2 and Q3 v Q4

But players are still paired within their own score group. A player might need to be floated up or down a half point. But not four players floated down two points. I really can't understand it :-(

As always I think that the Irish Championship should be strictly for players rated above 1900 (ICU or FIDE) NO EXCEPTIONS.

Again, motion 4 is already in the rules after last year as I pointed out earlier and would have been policed had it arisen this year.

I'm not strong on point 2 - but I just don't see it as necessary; what's it curing? It would have caused one important default this year. 1 hour allowed the arbiter to call the player and get them there on time - pretty sure this thread would be on fire if it had been a straight 1-0.

😉😀

Your point has got to be one of the silliest I've ever heard in this blog. You might as well argue that it was right to let a donkey run in the Derby because it got in the way of Aidan O'Brein's horse and influenced the result.

NB Before Corkcity chess or Loyola get on to the RSPCA I'd like to point out that no donkey actually ran in the Derby and O'Brien's horse won.

technically this thread is still applicable to the Women's championship....I notice that Diana Mats has a full point lead on 4/4 and looks on course to become the new Irish women's champion and that will be authentic this year as she has now changed her federation to Ireland.

Congrats on both counts!

although I note the participation of 2 non IRL players...presumably the same rules regarding IRL do not apply to the womens ch.

https://chess-results.com/tnr807479.aspx?lan=1

Have Diana Mats, and the other Ukrainian and the Serb who played in the women's championship actually lived in Ireland for two years?

Last year there were no non-IRL players in the women's championship but Mats played the main championship when UKR.

Mats cannot play in the Olympiad for Ireland until she has lived here for four years, if I read the regulations on the ICU website correctly.

It is rather curious that she played in the recent IM Norm League as a UKR player and that the FIDE rating of the event has not yet been completed. Presumably she had to complete all her games in that tournament before she could transfer?

On the other hand, the runner-up Antonina Gora (originally Polish but transferred to IRL) has certainly been living here for several years. I played her in the Armstrong in 2018 and she wasn't a newcomer then.