Irish Chess Championships 2014

cdeb

At least the draws for the other tournaments have been updated.

Past sell by Date

I heard that you get paid <snip> to run this tournament, I think in this age of slavebridge labour, the ICU would be getting a better service than this.....come back e2e4 please...........

Mod edit - it's not fair to speculate on what people may or mayn't be being paid

Sparks

Really? I heard you got membership of the Illuminati for running the tournament. But you had to be a lizard person to apply to run it. I read it on the interwebs, it must be true...

mikhail

Sparks wrote: »

Really? I heard you got membership of the Illuminati for running the tournament. But you had to be a lizard person to apply to run it. I read it on the interwebs, it must be true...

It's a ten day event. Not unreasonably, the TC often takes a fee. I don't know who's running it this year or whether they've taken one - it varies.

EnPassant

The 3rd round draw for the Senior is up and the games for rounds 1 and 2 can be downloaded ...

Sparks

mikhail wrote: »

It's a ten day event. Not unreasonably, the TC often takes a fee. I don't know who's running it this year or whether they've taken one - it varies.

Yeah, but from what I remember from running clubs in TCD, while the college itself does get a fee for renting out the rooms and whatnot, the actual club doesn't make very much out of things at all. The shooting club is the largest club in TCD and in ten years the largest net gain I can remember us making from a match or a nationals was about 150 quid even with outside sponsorship (and the financial figures would be pretty much the same between shooting and chess).

So saying someone's making out like a bandit... well, Carl Sagan's maxim about extraordinary claims would apply

cdeb

He's not saying they're making out like a bandit; he's just saying that someone's getting paid to be Tournament Controller (which they are; I don't think it's fair to speculate on how much) and some things aren't working (weekender tables slow to update, only four live boards instead of 8, pgns not available). I think that's fair enough.

(TC = Tournament Controller, not Trinity College)

Worth noting that 1 and 3 have been rectified afaik, and we'll see how 2 goes today. So the problems have been noted and are being addressed, which I think is fair enough.

Sparks

The live games site has been reset for the 1400 start...

Sparks

cdeb wrote: »

(TC = Tournament Controller, not Trinity College)

Ahhh. Now it makes sense.

Sparks

...and they're off.

Zugszwang

Today could be a big day in determining the winner of the Irish, with Collins white against Fitzsimons on board 1 . Collins has easily beaten two players he might have dropped half points to, while Fitzsimons has dropped a half point already. It's a chance for Collins to swat away a rival while Fitzsimons absolutely needs a result to fight for the title.

I think other predictions have underestimated Collins chances of wining this event. He's closer to being a GM that any of the others are of being an IM! Over 9 games, this difference is very likely to tell, unless he's in poor form, and by all accounts he's not. I predict Collins will win the event on 7.5 or 8 points, though I'll eat my words if Fitzsimons wins today :-)

cdeb

Big win for Sam; moves to 4/4 now. Behind him on board 2, Stephen Brady and Colm Daly drew, so Stephen Jessel moves into second on his own, a half point behind Sam, with Brady, Daly, Short and Conor O'Donnell a half point back again. A point isn't a huge gap - a head-to-head win and it's gone - but it's certainly looking good for Sam so far, having just beaten the second seed. It looks like he'll be up against Jessel tomorrow, unless colours come into it (unlikely I think), in which case he'd have black against Colm.

EnPassant

The 5th round draw is up: Jessel v Collins on board 1.

There was an interesting finish in the Conor O'Donnell v Mel O Cinnéide game today - maybe 42 .. b5 might have prevented what happened.

L1m1tless

Collins looks to be on the back foot v Jessel

Sparks

A draw for Collins-v-Jessel in the end. Sam's playing Colm Daly tomorrow, I get the feeling a lot of people will be watching that one...

L1m1tless

Lucky escape, Jessel was almost +3 around move 36 but was in bad time trouble.

cdeb

A nice queen sac for mate for Sam. Hard to see who can stop him now. Stephen Brady is the only one of the top six he hasn't faced yet, and he's way behind, having lost today. Sam may well face a non-titled player in the next round.

Sparks

Didn't think you'd see such a clear tactic at that level allright instead of agreed draws or resignations. What odds that he'll be over 2500 by the end of the championships?

cdeb

Good point. I think all the ratings on the site are FIDE ratings, in which case he's up about 9 points so far. That's 2497. Nasty! Though it's a 25 point gain this year so far, which is a lot.

Of course, the norms still have to come too. I think he has two at the moment?

But it's still a positive for him to be playing so well.

mikhail

cdeb wrote: »

Of course, the norms still have to come too. I think he has two at the moment?

Yes, he needs one more. A clubmate of his was talking about this with me, and reckoned that if he breaks the 2500 mark in a tournament, he'll likely get a norm too. I don't think it's possible to get a norm in the Irish Ch, at least not a GM norm.

That said, I presume that if he breaks 2500 here the rating requirement is satisfied forevermore, and he just needs another norm.

cdeb

mikhail wrote: »

That said, I presume that if he breaks 2500 here the rating requirement is satisfied forevermore, and he just needs another norm.

Ah. I had reckoned he had to have three norms and a 2500 rating at the same time. So this is still big then. Best of luck to him

Also, it was mentioned at the LCU AGM that the last time the LCU had the funds they have now (low five figures), they held a norm tournament in Dún Laoghaire. That'd be interesting!

Ciaran

mikhail wrote: »

That said, I presume that if he breaks 2500 here the rating requirement is satisfied forevermore, and he just needs another norm.

I think even hitting 2500 in the middle of a tournament is enough, that'd probably require winning the next two games I reckon.

Sparks

If he managed that, in the middle of a PR photo backdrop like TCD, that's got to make a positive story in the news for Irish Chess, no?

cdeb

He has Paul Wallace (2170) next. On Sam's form, he really should win.

mikhail

Sparks wrote: »

If he managed that, in the middle of a PR photo backdrop like TCD, that's got to make a positive story in the news for Irish Chess, no?

I think he'd need to have the GM title in the bag to get much media attention. If the new ICU PRO is media savvy (have they filled the vacany Una left yet?), his hitting 2500 might make for a story somewhere.

Sparks

mikhail wrote: »

I think he'd need to have the GM title in the bag to get much media attention. If the new ICU PRO is media savvy (have they filled the vacany Una left yet?), his hitting 2500 might make for a story somewhere.

I don't think they're quite as fussy as that if they want to run a story (and the largest Irish chess championships in a few years in the heart of the city against a pretty backdrop would fill up some human interest column inches if nothing more). They'd slot it in as the lead point in a report on the championships, especially if he wins.

At the least, someone should pick a sunny ten minutes, drag a table and a chess set and Sam to Front Square and get a photo or two against a good-looking backdrop, for future use if nothing else (if he gets the norm while abroad in the hopefully near future, whomever is the ICU PRO probably won't have time to get a nice posed photo when they go to the newspapers).

cdeb

cdeb wrote: »

He has Paul Wallace (2170) next. On Sam's form, he really should win.

Sod's law; he looks at best level; maybe even slightly worse in a rook ending. Would scupper 2500 hopes for now - maybe for the tournament - and would give others an opportunity to catch up.

Stephen Jessel has already won and, if Sam were to draw, they'd be tied at the top.

Zugszwang

Wallace has been playing excellent stuff this tournament and I'm not surprised to see him halving comfortably with Collins. I thought from the start that Collins was clear favourite in this event as any other contender would have to both get a result in their game with Collins and match the blistering pace that Collins would no doubt set against the other opponents. I'm eating my words now as Jessel has managed to do just that so far, albeit with a giant dollop of luck against Brady. Tomorrow Collins faces an easier task as White against Murray than Jessel, who is Black against Daly. However it looks like being a tighter finish than many would have imagined!

Ciaran

Did Jonathan O'Connor lose on time? The position is a bit scary but hardly worth resigning (computer thinks he's nearly winning anyway). I hope Jessel wins now, that'd be a gutting way to miss out on the joint title.

Zugszwang

Yes, he lost on time. The position had become very sharp. The engine may say White is clearly better, but OTB is another matter completely. I doubt Jessel feels gutted to be honest.