O'Hanlon Cup 2013 - 14

Airbender

O'Hanlon Cup has officially kicked off on Saturday 28th with a match between Ballinasloe and Celbridge. If anybody has any results from the O'Hanlon, please post them here.

RQ_ennis_chess

Ballinasloe beat Celbridge 4.5 -1.5... 3 wins and 3 draws for Ballinasloe

cdeb

Dún Laoghaire 4-2 Benildus

Bit of a surprise unless Dún Laoghaire have strengthened since last season (when they were third in the BA).

Airbender

Does anybody know the result from Bray vs Phibsboro?

Chessrookie

Cdeb,

Dun Laoghaire have the potential for a good season in the O Hanlon.

On top of the squad that came third last year in the BEA they effectively have 3 new players in their squad. One of these players played the second half of the BEA last season after coming joint first in the Leinster U16s in January, and is improving rapidly.

They also signed the two Shankill Stokes Cup players from last season. With these three players for the full year, plus an already good squad, they could surprise this season.

Ciaran

cdeb wrote: »

Dún Laoghaire 4-2 Benildus

Bit of a surprise unless Dún Laoghaire have strengthened since last season (when they were third in the BA).

Dun Laoghaire were reasonably strong according to Desmond and Stephen last night. I forget the details but I think they had a 1300 on board 3 or something.

mikhail

Surely so did Benildus? Dylan and Stephen are both 1300s, and there's at least two more in the squad.

Ciaran

As I say, I forget the details. They didn't seem hugely disappointed though.

prey

Bray v Phibsboro 2½-3½

Irish Warrior

Inchicore 1 - 5 Blanchardstown

L1m1tless

Elm Mount 3.5 Curragh 2.5 about the expected result

Airbender

Any results from Cavan vs Finglas?

cdeb

Benildus 4½-1½ Cavan

L1m1tless

Curragh 1 Ballinasloe 5

With a 2100 :eek:, a 1800, two 1500's and a 1400. Surely they will win Division 4.

cdeb

Who are the two new players? They had the 1500s on 1 and 2 in round 1.

Are the leagues particularly strong this year? Seems every division has two or three teams you'd think should be winning the next division up at least.

Airbender

Well, Wicklow (1900+ and three 1400+) are competing in the Bodley, Round Tower (2000+, 1800+ and 1700) in the BEA Cup, and Ballinasloe (see above) in the O'Hanlon. I will be surprised if they fail to win these divisions.

cdeb

There's always a freak team in the Bodley; usually new (or returning) clubs like Wicklow and Gonzaga.

But in addition to what you've noted, you've got Trinity with a 1900 on board 8 in the Armstrong, you've got Elm Mount who have about five new players in the top two divisions this year, Dún Laoghaire have basically a new team at O'Hanlon level, Skerries have two 1600s in the BA (and yet neither won); there seem to be lots of teams who've strengthened.

Is it just that more people are playing the game?

L1m1tless

The two new guys are Rory Quinn and John Cassidy I think. Its gonna be a few years before all the teams with ringers are in the proper divisions.

Chessrookie

Very interesting to see Rory and John playing the O Hanlon. I think there was a strong rumour last year that Ennis chess club were going to enter the Bodley, but if they can hook up with Ballinasloe as they seem to have done, they will fly through the O Hanlon and Ennis. the question will be whether the 2 guys play the away games in Dublin or just the home matches.
If John Delaney plays with Blanch this year, and they have Sean Mc on B2, that's two very strong O Hanlon teams.
The Bodley will almost be two tiered this year. Wicklow are an Ennis team with an Armstrong B1. Gonzaga have a ton of quality players. Benildus have loads of experience at Bodley and really good players. The longer time control will suit their better players much better this year. Their Challenge is do they play two even teams or do they land one team? Then there will also be a bunch of teams that are very young/inexperienced also in the mix.

cdeb

Chessrookie wrote: »

Their Challenge is do they play two even teams or do they land one team?

I don't thin it makes too much difference really; we'd have to expect to fall short of both Gonzaga (remember our top three junior players are playing on teams outside of the Bodley, giving Gonzaga an advantage there straight off) and Wicklow (who are, as you say, an Ennis team)

Only the division winners get promoted, I assume, to keep the two-up-two-down going. So second place is no good.

We do need the bottom four in each Bodley to be relegated to form a Division 7 next year; the teams are there for it now and I think it'd be beneficial. It'd give more to play for in the Bodley for starters, and there's a decent gap between the top and the bottom teams in the Bodley; a Division 7 would make for more closely-matched games.

EnPassant

cdeb wrote: »

Only the division winners get promoted, I assume, to keep the two-up-two-down going. So second place is no good.

I would have assumed that the top two in each section would play-off for the two promotion places. I think that was how it used to work previously when divisions had north and south sections.

Presumably this will be announced well in advance. How did the play-offs work last year - were the 2nd placed teams involved?

Airbender

EnPassant wrote: »

I would have assumed that the top two in each section would play-off for the two promotion places. I think that was how it used to work previously when divisions had north and south sections.

Presumably this will be announced well in advance. How did the play-offs work last year - were the 2nd placed teams involved?

Last year four teams got promoted from the Bodley, this year there will be only two. What you suggest makes a perfect sense. Otherwise Wicklow and Gonzaga are as good as promoted, and the other teams will have absolutely nothing to play for.

phnompenhchess

CowboyDreams wrote: »

The two new guys are Rory Quinn and John Cassidy I think. Its gonna be a few years before all the teams with ringers are in the proper divisions.

John played one game for Ballinasloe last season against Finglas (me as it happens). I drew with him and the match was drawn 3-3. It is easy to win promotion from the O'Hanlon with two relatively strong players as both Finglas and Balbriggan proved in 2008/2009.

RQ_ennis_chess

Ballinsaloe beat Curragh 5-1...4 wins and 2 draws

Sparks

Writeup on O'Hanlon Round 2 (Benildus-v-Cavan) on the Benildus website:

The week in review

...

On Saturday, meanwhile, the O’Hanlon were also playing promoted opposition for the second time in a row – Cavan this time, who arrived without a completely new team a la Dún Laoghaire! Cavan only travelled with five players, which gave Desmond Beatty an early (walkover) win and a free afternoon. And when Dan O’Brien was gifted a free piece within 8 moves, things were looking good...continues

Irish Warrior

Finglas 2½ - 3½ Inchicore

RQ_ennis_chess

Ballinalsoe 4.5 -1.5 Blanchardstown.
Wins for Ballinasloe on boards 1,3,4 and a draw on 5. Blanchardstown defaulted on board 6. By the way does anyone know if O Hanlon games are FIDE rated if both players have a FIDE rating?

cdeb

Don't think so; the time control is too short. It's only Armstrong and Heidenfeld games that are FIDE rated as far as I know.

EnPassant

According to the FIDE rules: for a tournament with at least one 2200 player, the time limit must be 120 minutes per player for the tournament to be rated.

There is at least one 2200+ plus player in both the O'Hanlon and Ennis so I don't think either can be FIDE-rated as the time-limit is 105 minutes per player.

http://www.fide.com/component/handbook/?id=161&view=article

cdeb

Actually, I see Gearóidín Uí Laighleis v Tomas Geza from the Ennis last year was FIDE rated, so the rules must have changed on that last year. And I got points for the 2011/12 Ennis as well. Dunno when that changed!

So don't see any particular reason why the O'Hanlon would be any different. Obviously with EnPassant's post above being considered too.

EnPassant

cdeb wrote: »

Actually, I see Gearóidín Uí Laighleis v Tomas Geza from the Ennis last year was FIDE rated, so the rules must have changed on that last year. And I got points for the 2011/12 Ennis as well. Dunno when that changed!

So don't see any particular reason why the O'Hanlon would be any different. Obviously with EnPassant's post above being considered too.

There were no 2200+ players in the Ennis those years - in fact, there were no 2000+ players at all in the Ennis in the previous 2 seasons!

I don't know what checking FIDE do and if they would just not rate a tournament that didn't match their criteria.

I can't remember what was agreed at the last LCU AGM but presumably if the Ennis was FIDE-rated last year then the plan would be to carry on with it this year, although that may not now be possible.

RQ_ennis_chess

Well there is a 2200+ in the O Hanlon (John Delaney) but the time control is 105 minutes. Anyone know for sure if this precludes it being FIDE rated? Seems strange that games from the Ennis were rated before if thats the case

EnPassant

If you go to the FIDE site you can see that the top 3 divisions of the Leinster League are to be rated but not the O'Hanlon or below.

The link is here: http://ratings.fide.com/tournament_list.phtml?moder=ev_code&country=IRL

Valentin Kalinins (2204 FIDE) is playing for Aer Lingus in the Ennis

cdeb

Bray 2-4 Dún Laoghaire.

Hope to get the league table updated at the weekend once I work out how the software works!

Airbender

Is it a new software that's being used this year?

cdeb

Nope; a new controller.

Inchicore 3-3 St Benildus.

Airbender

Good luck to the new controller!

L1m1tless

Curragh 5.5 Celbridge .5

cdeb

Getting an error message when I try update the tables; have e-mailed Peter Scott about it but looks like the site mightn't be updated this weekend. The is how things look at the moment anyway -

Pos	Team	        MP	GW	GD	GL	Pts
1	Ballinasloe	3	12	4	2	14    
2	Dún Laoghaire	3	9	5	4	11 1/2
3	Blanchardstown	3	9	3	6	10 1/2
4	Elm Mount	3	7	6	5	10    
5	St Benildus	3	8	3	7	9 1/2
6	Curragh	        3	7	4	7	9    
7	Inchicore	3	7	1	10	7 1/2
8	Celbridge	3	4	5	9	6 1/2
9	Bray/Greystones	3	4	4	10	6    
10	Cavan	        2	5	2	5	6    
11	Phibsboro	2	5	2	5	6    
12	Finglas	        3	4	3	11	5 1/2

Phibsboro v Cavan was played yesterday, but no result yet.

Sparks

Writeup on the Benildus-Inchicore match on the Benildus website here:

O’Hanlon stay mid-table

An understrength O’Hanlon picked up a respectable draw away to Inchicore last night to maintain their position in mid-table.

With no Odhrán, Stephen or Desmond, and the Bodley A even struggling to provide players, we had to dig deep to fill out the team, eventually throwing in Alex Byrne, whose first tournament was a 0/6 score in Gonzaga this year. However, after a win for the Bodley on his Benildus debut last Saturday when 500 points outrated, he followed that up with another win last night – 560 points outrated this time! – when picking up first two two pawns for an exchange, then three and, though it was never straightforward, he was able to convert the full point late on in the evening. ...continues

cdeb

League table updated on LeinsterChess.com, so that should update regularly now as soon as I get results from both sides.

cdeb

Cavan ½-5½ Phibsboro

cdeb

St Benildus 3½-2½ Elm Mount.

In the last game, we had a choice between forcing Elm Mount to settle for a perpetual, or walking into a king and queen fork. Guess which way that went!

Still a great result for us as we were outrated on all bar board 5.

RQ_ennis_chess

Ballinasloe 6-0 Finglas

Irish Warrior

Phibsboro 1 - 5 Inchicore

cdeb

Some turnaround for Phibsboro! 5½-½ winners to 5-1 losers in a week.

Echecs

cdeb wrote: »

Getting an error message when I try update the tables; have e-mailed Peter Scott about it but looks like the site mightn't be updated this weekend.

Has Peter fixed it?

cdeb

Yes; there's been an update since then. Current delay is trying to sort a difference in the Cavan v Phibsboro scoresheet, and Cavan are quite hard to get a hold of!

For what it's worth, the league table as I have is -

Pos	Team	        MP	GW	GD	GL	Pts
1	Ballinasloe	4	17	6	1	20    
2	Blanchardstown	4	12	4	8	14    
3	St Benildus	4	11	4	9	13    
4	Elm Mount	4	9	7	8	12 1/2
5	Inchicore	4	11	3	10	12 1/2
6	Phibsboro	4	10	5	9	12 1/2
7	Dún Laoghaire	3	9	5	4	11 1/2
8	Celbridge	4	6	6	12	9    
9	Curragh	        3	6	6	6	9    
10	Cavan	        3	5	3	10	6 1/2
11	Bray/Greystones	3	4	4	10	6    
12	Finglas	        4	4	3	17	5 1/2

Echecs

Which means that Blanchardstown beat Celbridge 3.5-2.5, right?

cdeb

Yup.

Echecs

Right. I take it, Phibsboro beat Cavan 5.5-0.5?