Bunratty 2014

cdeb

The list of entrants so far is on the site. 9 GMs so far, including a WGM - I think that's close on a record? No sign of Levon Aronian though; there was talk that he'd been signed up for this year. Maybe he was in for the Classic, which has been cancelled (sounds like the venue was double-booked?)

Shame the weekender clashes with school mocks; it's going to miss a few players in the lower two sections because of that. Still, can't avoid everything.

Missed Gonzaga last week, so looking forward to this!

Yreval

I'll be there again this year, having had a great experience at last year's event.

I haven't been playing too well lately but I'm still looking to improve on my joint 9th in the Major from last year.

EnPassant

Live Games are here now : http://www.bunrattychess.com/home/livegames.php

There are 3 games from the top section and board 1 from the other 3 sections.

checknraise

Looks like Jonathan is going to beat Gavin Wall is a nice game but the most impressive game of the lot is from the Minors with black playing much better than many 1600's would!

mikhail

Results are online: http://www.bunrattychess.com/home/results.php

Gerry Graham's report with photos and some games is also up: http://icu.ie/articles/display.php?id=412

The cross-tables are uploaded on ratings.icu.ie, but are currently flagged as unprocessed for ratings purposes.

cdeb

Spoke to Gerry Graham about Aronian - apparently with the candidates tournament on next month, he had to pull out to focus on that. Shame about that, but maybe next year!

mikhail

Since I last posted, ratings.icu.ie has updated. All results from the weekend have been processed. Hell of a site, that.

cdeb

Yup.

Screwed once again by playing (and beating) a foreign player with no ICU or FIDE rating, so he's deemed to be rated at his performance (1300) rather than his rating (1600)... :mad:

Oh well. Just means I'm under-rated and dangerous.

How was the winner of the major allowed to play in it given he's been over 1600 for two years now?

Also, fairly sure the under 1250 grading prize in the majors was awarded incorrectly? Looks like it should have gone to Alex Byrne rather than Eric Salsac?

mikhail

cdeb wrote: »

How was the winner of the major allowed to play in it given he's been over 1600 for two years now?

It's hard to find his rating - he's not on any list, and even searching with his icu number on the ratings site turns up nothing. Only by following his history from the tournament backwards can you see anything. I presume he gave the controllers an estimated rating and he either didn't turn up in their database or they didn't bother checking. He seems to be an occasional player who doesn't bother joining the union (which meant 50% prize money when I was a kid). Seems kind of crappy on the guys he beat to the prizes though.

cdeb

You just put his name into the tournaments section of the ratings site and it throws up all his tournaments since the site went live. The most recent one is, by definition, his current rating. Takes seconds.

The Bunratty results site shows a rating of 1541, which is presumably what they went off to allow him in. Though I'm fairly sure he was on the draws as his current ICU rating (i.e. 16xx)

He's not on any ICU ratings list alright, which presumably means he's never joined the ICU?

Don't mean to take away from the tournament, obviously, which was, as usual, excellent.

reunion

cdeb wrote: »

Also, fairly sure the under 1250 grading prize in the majors was awarded incorrectly? Looks like it should have gone to Alex Byrne rather than Eric Salsac?

14.5 was the tie break for Eric with 13.5 for Alex Byrne (sum of your opponents score minus the highest and lowest value). So Eric indeed deserved the grading prize.

cdeb

Alex's tie break is 15.5.

reunion

cdeb wrote: »

Alex's tie break is 15.5.

Hmm I don't know how I calculated 13.5...

Yeah it would seem that the tiebreak would mean Eric shouldn't have gotten it...

I wan't there so I'm not sure the tie break used but my guess is it was Buchholtz

cdeb

You've the tie-break correct alright; I asked the controller about it at the end of the last round.

Anyways, given Alex is playing one year and has hit 1300, I think he'll win bigger prizes in the coming years, so it's not a major issue. But just strange that he seems to have missed out on this given the computer placings clearly show him with the best tie-break. (And nothing against Eric obviously! )

Yreval

Less than happy with how I played, but this was another very enjoyable tournament - much kudos to the organisers.

brilliantboy

The case of Valentine Kalinins (IRL registered and living/working/playing chess here for years) who it seems should have won the best Irish non-IM/GM prize has been raised on IrishChessCogitations.
It brings to mind the previous debate on who should be considered Irish for the purposes of the Irish Championship.

mikhail

That seems kind of petty. It's up to the organisers to define the scope of that prize. Valentine is a regular at Kilkenny and a very active player in this country.

mikhail

mikhail wrote: »

That seems kind of petty. It's up to the organisers to define the scope of that prize. Valentine is a regular at Kilkenny and a very active player in this country.

It seems I misunderstood. Valentine was denied the prize as he isn't Irish-born. I had thought Irish-born players were complaining about him getting the prize.

I still think the organisers have a right to define the scope of the prize, but I'd certainly be more sympathetic to the complaints this way around. I don't see why they don't have an U2300 rating band or something. It's much clearer than contentious questions of nationality.

Irish Warrior

cdeb wrote: »

You just put his name into the tournaments section of the ratings site and it throws up all his tournaments since the site went live. The most recent one is, by definition, his current rating. Takes seconds.

The Bunratty results site shows a rating of 1541, which is presumably what they went off to allow him in. Though I'm fairly sure he was on the draws as his current ICU rating (i.e. 16xx)

He's not on any ICU ratings list alright, which presumably means he's never joined the ICU?

Don't mean to take away from the tournament, obviously, which was, as usual, excellent.

I've been told that the winner of the majors has been disqualified and the players who finished joint 2nd are to play off in a blitz for 1st.

flipsake

Irish Warrior wrote: »

I've been told that the winner of the majors has been disqualified and the players who finished joint 2nd are to play off in a blitz for 1st.

I can confirm that this is in fact the case Irish Warrior. There will be a blitz play-off for the trophy and Major title between the 2 joint 2nd finishers in Dublin Chess Club on Wed feb 26th at 8pm. Apparently it will be live on the Bunratty website. The ammended result also affects 3 of the 5 players who finished on 4.5 and did not win a grading prize. I understand they will be upgraded to joint 3rd.

Yreval

WGM Alina L'Ami has a two-part report on the event on Chessbase, here and here. Or, for an alternative take on things you could have a look at the Ballynafeigh website.

Ballynafeigh Chess

The wrong grading prize allocation is very unfortunate, the true winner can never receive his award at a ceremony in front of his peers.

cdeb

Confirmation of the play-off in the Major.

Also, grading prize 3 has changed from Eric Salsac to Alex Byrne. Not sure what happens there. I presume Eric still keeps his prize though. Would be a bit harsh to take it off him!

flipsake

Just wanted to pay my respects here to the Bunratty organising committee and acknowledge the fair, professional and generous manner in which they dealt with the whole rating discrepancy issue with the original winner of the Major section. It is very reassuring to feel heard and to feel that the correct action is taken, regardless of whether it's at a grassroots level or at master standard.
As for cheating, don't get me started.
Karma and chess - now that's another story!...