National Club Ch 23-24 April

Tim Harding

SIPTU have announced Luas strikes for the dates of the National Club Championship, 23-24 April.

Since the venue is the Red Cow Moran Hotel, which is hard/slow to get to by any means other than private car or Luas, I expect that this is going to cause serious difficulties for some players, and may lead to a reduced number of entries.

Any chance of a switch to a city centre venue?

sodacat11

The NCC is a "team" competition. Usually people on teams are friendly with each other and I doubt very much that there is a single team in Ireland that does not have access to at least one car. The Red Cow is a great venue, city centre ones like the Teachers Club are the worst imaginable.

sinbad68

Tim Harding wrote: »

SIPTU have announced Luas strikes for the dates of the National Club Championship, 23-24 April.

Since the venue is the Red Cow Moran Hotel, which is hard/slow to get to by any means other than private car or Luas, I expect that this is going to cause serious difficulties for some players, and may lead to a reduced number of entries.

Any chance of a switch to a city centre venue?

First, regarding SIPTU , This organisation's tactic & strategy of causing mayhem and maximum disruption to good ordinary citizens, would make any Anarchist group proud.

As regarding transport to the venue , it is supplied by several bus routes

http://www.redcowmoranhotel.com/transport

So Luas is Not a big issue , specially the fact that it is Red line Luas which is probably less safe than getting a hitchhike with a drunk driver.

sodacat11 wrote: »

The NCC is a "team" competition. Usually people on teams are friendly with each other and I doubt very much that there is a single team in Ireland that does not have access to at least one car. The Red Cow is a great venue, city centre ones like the Teachers Club are the worst imaginable.

Yes,You are right . I always felt team captains should make an effort to see if arrangement can be made for lifts between those who have cars and those who don't. Too often you see it in League games , late at night a player slowly makes his way on his feet in a cold rainy night in crime ridden streets while his team mate zooms past him in his car heading to the same part of town.

Anyway sodacat ,It looks like in a week we will be in the same room and according to my calculation you'll be sitting by the window and me at the back of the room near the door.

Tim Harding

#sodacat11: I think the Trinity team maybe owns between us max two cars and as we would all be travelling from different directions car-sharing is not an option. Other teams maybe have similar problems especially with the 0930 round.

#sinbad68: For people in SW Dublin the Luas ex Tallaght is the best option to/from Red Cow, and slow bus into town then another one out is hardly an adequate substitute. At least Teachers Club or similar just involves one bus for most people.

On the strike, the Ronald Reagan 1981 solution with regard to striking air traffic controllers is looking like the best option; how much training does one need to drive a tram? Maybe cancel the contract with the operating company at the earliest opportunity too. SIPTU's greed is not only very damaging to commuters and tourists; it is bringing the whole trade union movement into huge disrepute.

sinbad68

Tim Harding wrote: »

#sinbad68: For people in SW Dublin the Luas ex Tallaght is the best option to/from Red Cow, and slow bus into town then another one out is hardly an adequate substitute. At least Teachers Club or similar just involves one bus for most people.

There are four good counter arguments against your idea here

1.Change of venue is simply NOT going to happen at this stage

2. No clubs & very few players (if any) that going to play in NCC live in Tallaght area, Tallaght chess club effectively closed as could not put 8 players together for a team and merged with Inchicore.

3. If you google " bus from Tallaght to red cow " bus routes show up and No need to go to city centre . ( click on any of the plans shown in link below to see how )

https://www.google.ie/search?q=bus+from+tallaght+to+red+cow&oq=bus&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j69i57j69i60l2j69i59l2.1760j0j1&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=122&ie=UTF-8

4. Your discussion of change of venue to city centre will make sodacat angry !.

sodacat11

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR The NATIONAL club championship is for teams from all over Ireland, not just Dublin.

wine and final destination

The closing date for entry to NCC is really early so if you have not entered your team enter it before Sunday! If your team is interested register tonight or Tomorrow, I would recommend smaller clubs to participate too as some of the strongest teams from all around the Country have already entered and there are quite a few teams from Leinster and the other provinces trying to get their 6 man teams together! With this new team rating floor of 1450 most clubs should be able to get a team together, even if it is to participate or give younger players a chance to play some of the top players in the country the more teams that enter the better a tournament will be had by all.

sinbad68

With 6 boards per team instead of 8 which is the case in Armstrong, Gonzaga's advantage over their rivals will be greatly reduced and with few rounds in this competition this is a much more open competition as previous NCC has shown and any of 4 teams could win it, if Trinity bring out their best 6 from Armstrong, Gonzaga would have No edge over them . This drop of average rating to 1450 seems designed to help Enniscorthy enter NCC . One surprise is that Benidus with two teams in Armstrong did not enter !, my guess is that, it is too close to exam time for their Juniors and as for the adults, with their recent dismal results, they were simply not in a mood to play. What is happening to Adare team with new rules?

Tim Harding

sinbad68 wrote: »

With 6 boards per team instead of 8 which is the case in Armstrong, Gonzaga's advantage over their rivals will be greatly reduced and with few rounds in this competition this is a much more open competition as previous NCC has shown and any of 4 teams could win it, if Trinity bring out their best 6 from Armstrong, Gonzaga would have No edge over them . This drop of average rating to 1450 seems designed to help Enniscorthy enter NCC . One surprise is that Benidus with two teams in Armstrong did not enter !, my guess is that, it is too close to exam time for their Juniors and as for the adults, with their recent dismal results, they were simply not in a mood to play. What is happening to Adare team with new rules?

I too am surprised Benildus have not entered. They have several players who are not at school.

Trinity have entered but cannot be at full strength because it is too close to undergraduate exams so in fact Gonzaga's advantage is greater than in the Armstrong - especially if they include French GM Sebastian Maze who has, I'm told, played the three necessary Armstrong games required to qualify. (Including round 11 in advance which IMHO should not be allowed - rule change required here!)

Of course Trinity and Elm Mount and others will do our best to make a fight for first place but I fear all nine entrants other than Gonzaga are really playing for the second qualifying place in the ECCs.

cdeb

Tim Harding wrote: »

I too am surprised Benildus have not entered. They have several players who are not at school.

More just that with the Irish Juniors, Galway, the last day of the leagues, the NCC and Malahide all in successive weeks, something has to give way.

sinbad68

Tim Harding wrote: »

Of course Trinity and Elm Mount and others will do our best to make a fight for first place but I fear all nine entrants other than Gonzaga are really playing for the second qualifying place in the ECCs.

With only 4 rounds, Results may be closer than you think and Gonzaga are not guaranteed to win the competition despite having a GM,The guy sitting on board 6 is as important as the guy on board 1. I said "IF" Trinity brought out their best 6 they are a match for Gonzaga and if not , different story.

cdeb wrote: »

More just that with the Irish Juniors, Galway, the last day of the leagues, the NCC and Malahide all in successive weeks, something has to give way.

Interesting theory,NCC is more prestigious than Malahide or Glaway. I am confident If benildus advertised for players on their site for NCC they would get enough volunteers to send two teams instead of one !. The more plausible theory is that their titled players are feeling and due to recent results and Not in the mood for play and the club decided they couldn't really send a team with their titled players missing.

cdeb

sinbad68 wrote: »

Interesting theory,NCC is more prestigious than Malahide or Glaway.

Is it? Bit of a subjective view there. Seeing as the first team organise the NCC entry amongst themselves (for obvious reasons), for the rest of us, Malahide or Galway is a more important tournament.

sinbad68 wrote: »

I am confident If benildus advertised for players on their site for NCC they would get enough volunteers to send two teams instead of one !

Why would we advertise on our site?

In any event, you can't send two teams.

sinbad68 wrote: »

the club decided they couldn't really send a team with their titled players missing.

Who are our titled players (plural)?

Tim Harding

cdeb wrote: »

...

Who are our titled players (plural)?

Quite, I thought that was a strange remark too.
Benildus has one titled player: FM Stephen Brady. Possibly Mel could claim a CM if he was ever above 2200 FIDE in recent years.
Were any of the others ever above 2200?

cdeb

Zdravko was at one stage actually.

I think Gerry may have brushed it once, but back in the 90s. He was 2180 when selected for the Elista Olympiad.

Mel is currently 2231 FIDE, and has been above 2200 since 2000 at least, but he has no title.

Don't think anyone else did, but could be wrong.

Anyways, for me, the main talking point out of all this will be to see what sort of team Adare manage with the new rules. The Munster leagues website is fairly out of date, but here's who played for them in the first four rounds of the leagues. A decent team, for sure, but not one that you would imagine would trouble Gonzaga or Trinity in particular. But I don't know who has played for them since.

Is it three league games that's the minimum requirement to play in the NCC?

Tim Harding

cdeb wrote: »

Anyways, for me, the main talking point out of all this will be to see what sort of team Adare manage with the new rules. The Munster leagues website is fairly out of date, but here's who played for them in the first four rounds of the leagues. A decent team, for sure, but not one that you would imagine would trouble Gonzaga or Trinity in particular. But I don't know who has played for them since.

Is it three league games that's the minimum requirement to play in the NCC?

Yes. See the rules adopted at last year's egm.
So Adare seem to be restricted to those players who have played at least three league games for them in the 2015/16 season.
As you say, that website is hopelessly out of date. Can anyone please supply a more up to date resource to see who is qualified for the Munster clubs?

Yesterday Gerry Graham told the team captains that he would publish the team lists and first round draw next Saturday. Perhaps he needs the time to check the eligibility status of some nominated players, not necessarily only from Adare.

sinbad68

cdeb wrote: »

Is it? Bit of a subjective view there. Seeing as the first team organise the NCC entry amongst themselves (for obvious reasons), for the rest of us, Malahide or Galway is a more important tournament.

A competition with it's top two going to European club championship is more prestigious than these two locally held tournaments.

cdeb wrote: »

Why would we advertise on our site?

In any event, you can't send two teams.

Well you have to inform your members some how, method is irrelevant, I was just mentioning site as one of methods which has been used by benildus in the past.
I am well aware that only one team per club can be sent and was just implying that level of interest would attract more players than was needed for one team. If a tiny club like Enniscorthy can send a team to Dublin, I am sure Benildus could put 6 players together if they wanted to

cdeb wrote: »

Who are our titled players (plural)?

One is Stephen Brady as was mentioned and the other was Gerard O'connell who has the title of Leinster Champion 1992 ( if memory serves me right ). I mentioned " Titled players" and did not say "Fide titles" , come to think of it, players who hold an official position in a club or ICU can also be described as having a Title.

The word "Title" has so many meanings

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/title

wine and final destination

I too think it's a shame that Benildus can't send a team as this should be one of the premier team events of the year with teams having a chance to play teams outside their own league and province! The reward for the top two teams certainly is more prestigious than a plastic trophy or a few hundred Euro in prize money, in my opinion anyway. Regardless of Sinbads interpretation of titled players which people may agree or disagree with, Benildus do have 3 very strong players in the top 30 in the country as well as some very promising juniors top to mention 2 Armstrong squads of decent club players! Hopefully next year they may be able to enter a team as the more strong clubs that play the better it will be for the competition!

cdeb

Hey - sinbad will have you believe winning Malahide gets you a title!

Better than an expensive holiday a team with me on it isn't going to win.

wine and final destination

Most people enter tournaments not with the idea of winning but simply because they enjoy playing chess! I know you enjoyed this season in the Armstrong but I'm sure you didn't believe you would win the league but participating in top team events Is enjoyable and the NCC is the top teams in the country not just Leinster which makes it such an enjoyable event for everyone! I really would prioritise it over any individual event other than the Irish. Plus the Format allows for quite a few upsets giving weaker teams a much better chance of causing an upset! A few years ago Gonzaga were top seeds and finished 4th behind 2 teams from Munster and 1 team from Connaught and at least 2 of those teams would be weaker than a Benildus team on paper!

cdeb

wine and final destination wrote: »

Most people enter tournaments not with the idea of winning but simply because they enjoy playing chess!

For sure.

But that brings me back to my original point anyway, whatever about others. For me, I didn't even consider the NCC as I've never been selected for it, and so I entered Malahide instead. To play the NCC as well would mean four weekends in five gone to chess.

It's a pity we don't have a team in it alright. But that's the way.

wine and final destination

In fairness there's a few strong teams who can't make it, a few of which are frequent playing teams like Ennis and Galway! sometimes it's just not possible to get a team together! Given the tournament congestion at this time of year as you pointed out it might be worth investigating whether it would be better to play the NCC at a different time of year? That said 10 teams is a good turn out!

cdeb

Ten teams is a good turnout alright. But more importantly, I think if the rule changes mean that the tournament regains some of the respectability it lost in recent years, it'll be a very good year for it and it'll be stronger again next year. Teams importing players turned it into a bit of a farce of a tournament.

sinbad68

cdeb wrote: »

Hey - sinbad will have you believe winning Malahide gets you a title!

Yes, Winning Malahide gets you the Title of " Leinster chess champion " and it is a very tough title to get.

Fide has cdeb and others believe it is okay to call 1500 rated players " Chess Masters" and give them a Fide title if they are female but Mel O'Cinneide of Benildus who is rated well over 2200 doesn't deserve a title and is NOT a chess master !.

sodacat11

Sadly the NCC has been tainted in the eyes of many people because of certain clubs importing mercenaries to further their own selfish ambitions, so much so that the title National Club Championship is now almost a misnomer. If St Benildus don't wish to enter a team then that's their choice and they shouldn't be criticized for it. We may not have a government but the last time I looked this was still a democracy.

Tim Harding

sodacat11 wrote: »

Sadly the NCC has been tainted in the eyes of many people because of certain clubs importing mercenaries to further their own selfish ambitions, so much so that the title National Club Championship is now almost a misnomer. If St Benildus don't wish to enter a team then that's their choice and they shouldn't be criticized for it. We may not have a government but the last time I looked this was still a democracy.

I hope that this is the year that Adare will be knocked off their perch and won't even qualify for the ECC, making two places open for genuine clubs. Then in future other clubs will be inclined to give it a try.

Adare may even have a genuine team without imports this time but I'm not sure about that. Team lists are not posted yet but I hear they are seeded 3 which suggests they may have more than the resident Romanians. If so, they must have brought them in for Munster league matches whose results are missing on that website mentioned earlier.

Or it may just be that some of the Armstrong clubs are not at full strength.

Of course Adare do have some useful resident players. Diana Mirza just put the boys in their place by winning the Irish Under-16s.

At any rate it does look like being a genuine Irish tournament this time, though it's a pity there is no northern participation.

cdeb

The seedings are up on the ICU website now -

1. Gonzaga
2. Trinity
3. Adare
4. Blanchardstown
5. Bray
6. Rathmines
7. Balbriggan
8. Elm Mount
9. Enniscorthy
10. Ballinsloe

So still a strong Adare team, as the initial rounds of the Munster leagues suggest. (The website I linked, incidentally, isn't being used any more for the Munster leagues)

Blanch at 4 and Elm Mount down at 8 slight surprises - but again, one absentee from the regular league team can swing the team average a fair bit (in Elm Mount's case, up to 100 points if David Fitzsimons isn't playing, for example)

reunion

cdeb wrote: »

So still a strong Adare team, as the initial rounds of the Munster leagues suggest. (The website I linked, incidentally, isn't being used any more for the Munster leagues)

This is the site of individual board results in the munster league

Tim Harding

Thanks for that link. I see that Adare have used 11 players in the 10 rounds of the Munster league this season; only their top board played every match.

With only five playing each match, they had to make changes in order to qualify as many as possible for the NCC but only eight appear eligible (so far). However the schedule on the site shows that two more rounds will be played this weekend.

Three of the eleven (Duffy, Sudolski, and Poisseroux) have only played two rounds each so are apparently not going to be on their team unless they play at least one of this weekend's rounds.

It will be interesting to see which seven players Adare actually have nominated for the NCC and who is omitted (or just unavailable on the weekend).

Probably Tirziman will be playing for Adare but he also plays for Blanchardstown in the Leinster leagues.

I am puzzled why that site doesn't display ratings for some of their players. It's FIDE ratings that apply for NCC seedings.

Top board Oissine Murphy appears in ICU ratings at 2088 and is presumably the MURCRHADHA, Oissine who is 2024 FIDE.

Sylwester Sudolski (POL) has 1888 FIDE but is not in the ICU live ratings.

Drahoslav Stejskal (CZE) is 1872 FIDE and 1881 ICU.

Tim Harding

Team lists are now posted.

Oissine Murphy is NOT playing for Adare and it looks as if it's Elm Mount's second team.

Most strange: are Balbriggan really going to default board 6 in every match or will an exception be made to allow them to find another player?

sinbad68

Tim Harding wrote: »

Most strange: are Balbriggan really going to default board 6 in every match or will an exception be made to allow them to find another player?

If a club doesn't have 6 players to field a full team in this competition, they have NO business entering it in first place and Organisers should have Not allowed the entry.

cdeb

Were Balbriggan the last team to enter?

Maybe the ICU just decided a 5-man team was better than having an odd number of teams.

sinbad68

cdeb wrote: »

Were Balbriggan the last team to enter?

Maybe the ICU just decided a 5-man team was better than having an odd number of teams.

No!, better to have odd number teams than make a mockery of the competition by allowing incomplete teams, you could also avoid odd number by eliminating the team with lowest average rating from the competition. The problem is, many organisers are too eager to please and compromise too much. This lowering of average rating for entry may look good on the surface, but is off-putting for some higher rated players to from teams in the future (specially teams that are unlikely to come in top two)knowing they could be facing teams that have every board filled by a player who has a mickey mouse rating.

cdeb

So your preferred choices, in order, seem to be -

1) Tell Ballinasloe they're not wanted after all, even though they've paid to enter and have made plans accordingly
2) Have one team getting six walkovers each round
3) Have one team getting one walkover each round.

Makes no sense.

sinbad68

cdeb wrote: »

So your preferred choices, in order, seem to be-

It is amazing how my words gets twisted in this place , I was just giving examples of options, not providing preferred choices. FYI, cdeb , my preferred choice in case of odd number of teams, would be for the organiser to attempt to find another team to even the numbers, Advertise for late entry & Contact clubs that have not entered and waive the entry free.

cdeb wrote: »

Makes no sense.

You like using that phrase, Since we are talking about odd numbers in a tournament & making sense, let me ask you a question.
In Irish championship last summer, Did it make sense to allow entry to a Benildus player in the competition ( the only unqualified player in the competition) which created an odd number and 9 different players had to sit out for a day as a result? ( ANSWER )

You've repeatedly say my comments " Makes No sense ". If all of my comments did make sense to you, then you should sit a Mensa test.

cdeb

sinbad68 wrote: »

I was just giving examples of options, not providing preferred choices

You clearly said the options I listed at 1 and 2 were preferable to option 3. That's nonsense.

sinbad68 wrote: »

my preferred choice in case of odd number of teams, would be for the organiser to attempt to find another team to even the numbers, Advertise for late entry & Contact clubs that have not entered and waive the entry free.

Do you know if that didn't happen?

In Irish championship last summer, Did it make sense to allow entry to a Benildus player in the competition ( the only unqualified player in the competition) which created an odd number and 9 different players had to sit out for a day as a result? ( ANSWER )

Given the only alternative was to tell someone who had entered and made plans for playing a good two weeks previously, before some other players had even entered, that actually they were now being kicked out of the tournament, then of course it made sense.

You can't take someone's entry to a tournament and turn around a couple of weeks later to kick them out. Not in the NCC as per your suggestion, and not in the Irish.

wine and final destination

I don't think balbriggan will finish last which would mean that they deserve to play, yes it's unfortunate that there will be one w/o per round but at least 116 games will be played as opposed to 96 over all, we will see tomorrow evening but I reckon they will fair better than some teams! Regardless it all starts today and I hope it's as enjoyable and exciting as previous tournaments!

cdeb

Scores are being updated here.

I wonder how many games Colm Daly has scratched through being late in his time?

sinbad68

@ Tim Harding

I said

sinbad68 wrote: »

With 6 boards per team instead of 8 which is the case in Armstrong, Gonzaga's advantage over their rivals will be greatly reduced and with few rounds in this competition this is a much more open competition if Trinity bring out their best 6 from Armstrong, Gonzaga would have No edge over them .

and you replied

Tim Harding wrote: »

Trinity have entered but cannot be at full strength because it is too close to undergraduate exams so in fact Gonzaga's advantage is greater than in the Armstrong

Now that the competition is over, lets look at the outcome, despite Gonzaga having a very strong team and Trinity being weakened by absent players, Gonzaga & Trinity Tied on 3.5 match point with Gonzaga getting a total of 18.5 points vs Trinity 18 points.
Gonzaga came from well behind to draw their match with Trinity and save the day and won the competition by the skin of their teeth. Yes for the record, I was proven RIGHT.

sinbad68

This year, European club championship is being held in Serbia. Year after year major European championships are being held in Eastern part of Europe, caucuses & Russia, while what was regarded as Western Europe gets very little despite large population !, Is there a visa problem( very unlikely )? or are vested interests are at work. I think ICU should contact British , German, other western European nations and either singly or collectively approach Fide and European body and inquire about this UNFAIR distribution of competitions.

sinbad68

Yes, Look at ICU calendar list ( World, Olympiad, European) events, it is the same Year after Year !. We are in Czech republic alot and constantly in the Balkans and keep going to Baku!, Unless the Germans, French, British and the Irish and other western European countries stand up and say to Kirsan and his buddies " Enough is Enough" Nothing will change.

sinbad68

Yes,This is Fide calendar for upcoming events( scroll down to European section )
.
http://www.fide.com/calendar.html

Look at European section, ALL of it in Eastern Europe ! ( is Armenia really a European nation ? ) and next year events not much better. Those in control, look at western Europe leaders like Angela Merkel & Enda kenny and see feckless muppets and think to themselves, their chess federations must be run by same kind of people and they could do what they like and no one will say anything and western part of Europe gets screwed.

Look at Corruption perception index map in link below (scroll down and zoom on Europe)

http://www.transparency.org/cpi2015

and you'll see, that the least corrupt European countries miss out on staging events ? why ?

And as for Ireland sending 3 teams, it is not that they love Ireland , it is based on more people---> more hotel rooms booked & more fees & kickbacks.

It would be nice if a major European event was held in Ireland. When was the last time Ireland held an important European event, importantly when is the next one ?

Tim Harding

Your rants are becoming tedious, sinbad.

Yes Armenia is in Europe (it's west of the Urals), and it is the venue for the upcoming EU Individual Seniors Championship. I agree it is not an ideal venue - difficult and expensive to travel and too strong opposition when you get there!
Very few players from western Europe will probably go since they didn't provide information, though I asked twice (once by email, once in person at last year's Worlds where there was one Armenian player in my hotel).

Azerbaijan and Georgia are also (just) in Europe, also future venues for major FIDE events. To get there, as with Armenia, it's probably necessary to go via Moscow or maybe Dubai.

The reason these countries get so many events, though, is I think not FIDE corruption but that western nations (especially UK and Ireland) do not have the money to submit bids.
The eastern countries can offer cheaper conditions (for players coming from the poorer countries), have State support and probably companies to offer sponsorship because chess has a higher profile in that part of the world.

Fortunately many of the senior and some other (e.g. amateur and junior) events do get bids from Greece and they are well supported because of the nice climate, relatively low prices, friendly people, good food and excellent organisation by Nikos Kalesis and his friends.

sinbad68

@ TIM

Thanks for explanation,I get it now , Eastern European countries & federations have all the money,sponsorship, ect and can stage events and Western Europeans are broke and have No money to stage anything.

You are also right about Armenia being west of the Urals ( standard you use to define Europe boundaries)

https://www.google.ie/search?q=map+of+ural+mountains&espv=2&biw=1018&bih=523&tbm=isch&imgil=9A30Ps_OfE2ysM%253A%253B9acsrp2S0j6XpM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fkids.britannica.com%25252Felementary%25252Fart-88887%25252FUral-Mountains&source=iu&pf=m&fir=9A30Ps_OfE2ysM%253A%252C9acsrp2S0j6XpM%252C_&usg=__DxONwxS7IOayDKgDLlXWDPkmcew%3D&ved=0ahUKEwi7p423tKzMAhWFHsAKHU44Ag8QyjcIMg&ei=IG0fV7uXF4W9gAbO8Ih4#imgrc=9A30Ps_OfE2ysM%3A

but since the mountain range southern endpoint latitude line is well north of Armenia and doesn't go through it then using same principle, Syria, Jordan and parts of Saudi Arabia which are further west of Urals than Armenia are also in Europe !.

Perhaps proximity to The Urals is the reason behind Russia & Qatar being awarded the world cups by FIFA ?

Anyway, how was your performance in NCC ?

Tim Harding

sinbad68 wrote: »

@ TIM

Thanks for explanation,I get it now , Eastern European countries & federations have all the money,sponsorship, ect and can stage events and Western Europeans are broke and have No money to stage anything.

Basically that is it, I think. It's not that all western European countries are broke of course (ha ha) but rather that such money which is available for sponsorship seems to go to elite round-robin events, national championships (in some cases) and big Opens.

sinbad68 wrote: »

You are also right about Armenia being west of the Urals ( standard you use to define Europe boundaries)
...
but since the mountain range southern endpoint latitude line is well north of Armenia and doesn't go through it then using same principle, Syria, Jordan and parts of Saudi Arabia which are further west of Urals than Armenia are also in Europe !.

Perhaps proximity to The Urals is the reason behind Russia & Qatar being awarded the world cups by FIFA ?

Nice joke. Here too I have to agree that the border between Europe and Asia in the east/south-east isn't something that can be defined only in terms of physical geography but also there are historical/cultural factors.
There is some discussion of this at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe

Still, I think I'm probably right to say that in the Soviet period, the Urals (specifically the watershed) was considered the boundary between the European and Asian parts of the RSFSR (Russian republic), while the southern republics with Turkic peoples were considered Asian. Of course the ethnic balances in many of those republics became greatly rebalanced by Stalin's resettlement policies.

sinbad68 wrote: »

Anyway, how was your performance in NCC ?

Kind of you to ask. As the oldest competitor (I think) it was never my intention to play more than one game a day unless absolutely necessary.
As you may have heard, I was nominated number 1 for Trinity because there is no 150-point rule in the NCC and we expected Gonzaga to nominate a French GM. (We were right about that but eventually he did not come.)
So I started in round 2 and managed to win with White against Anthony Fox (Adare). Then I had Black in round 2 against IM Sam Collins (Gonzaga) and drew that game.
The match was very tense as we led 2.5-0.5 at one point but in the other games there were great complications and the final result probably reflected the positions that were on the board after two hours.
I did not play round 4. Maybe I should have played against John Delaney but he was also in excellent form in this event and I doubt if the final result would have been different. (He drew with Sam, Colm Daly and Karl McPhillips and won his other game.)

I have to say that our captain Stephen Moran had a fantastic result winning all his four games although he was in severe zeitnot a couple of times, and also Ioana Gelip on board 3 was very impressive. After only drawing in a long game against Balbriggan (credit to her opponent there) she had quick wins against strong opponents in the other three rounds, which settled the nerves of the other players a lot.
After all, we only missed first by half a game point. I think that if Adare had scored 1 point instead of half a point against Gonzaga in the last round then we would have been first on tiebreak.

The third qualifying place going to Bray is a joke because they did not have to play either the top two teams. Really Blanchardstown were the third best team although they had to play without their board 2 on Sunday when he was called in to work.

corkcitychess

Tim Harding wrote: »

The third qualifying place going to Bray is a joke because they did not have to play either the top two teams. Really Blanchardstown were the third best team although they had to play without their board 2 on Sunday when he was called in to work.

Surely the draw was done on a swiss pairing programme? It cannot be Bray's fault that they did not play the top two seeds. I offer my hearty congratulations to the minnows Bray on their outstanding achievement in finishing in 3rd place ahead of much higher seeded teams.

Tim Harding

corkcitychess wrote: »

Surely the draw was done on a swiss pairing programme? It cannot be Bray's fault that they did not play the top two seeds. I offer my hearty congratulations to the minnows Bray on their outstanding achievement in finishing in 3rd place ahead of much higher seeded teams.

There were ten teams and all five first round matches were decisive, meaning that one team that won had a downfloat for round two to a losing team.
Bray (who had the lowest seeded opponents in round 1) benefited from this and they were paired with Rathmines. That match was drawn (great credit to Rathmines), as a result of which in round 3 Bray played Blanchardstown, losing 2-4.

In the last round the four highest seeded teams played each other while Bray got another soft pairing, this time against Elm Mount, who were fielding their second team.

So in fact Bray not only had the easiest first round pairing. In all three subsequent rounds they had a downfloat to a team with a lower score. This may well be the fault of computer Swiss pairings because in the days of manual pairings floats were taken into account.

Congratulations to Bray are therefore NOT in order, though doubtless some of their individual players performed creditably. Not, though, their top board who made a minus score (including a default).

reunion

Tim Harding wrote: »

Congratulations to Bray are therefore NOT in order, though doubtless some of their individual players performed creditably. Not, though, their top board who made a minus score (including a default).

I don't think commenting on any individual player's performance in a team based tournament is fair or wise.

RQ_ennis_chess

reunion wrote: »

I don't think commenting on any individual player's performance in a team based tournament is fair or wise.

Commenting on individual players performance is common in team sports in fairness. Sports journalism would hardly exist if it weren't!
You are right in that it's not nice to pick on someone but if you behave badly to others then that's what you get back I guess.

reunion

RQ_ennis_chess wrote: »

Commenting on individual players performance is common in team sports in fairness. Sports journalism would hardly exist if it weren't!
You are right in that it's not nice to pick on someone but if you behave badly to others then that's what you get back I guess.

Yeah that's true in actual team sports. Where the performance of 1 person affects someone else playing at full potential. But you don't get that in chess. Every team competition is just individual games really.

sinbad68

Tim Harding wrote: »

As you may have heard, I was nominated number 1 for Trinity because there is no 150-point rule in the NCC and we expected Gonzaga to nominate a French GM. (We were right about that but eventually he did not come.)
So I started in round 2 and managed to win with White against Anthony Fox (Adare). Then I had Black in round 2 against IM Sam Collins (Gonzaga) and drew that game.

Well done that was a good performance, why there is No point gap rule?!, what is stopping mickey mouse rated players sitting on board 1 and annoying titled players ?!

Tim Harding

sinbad68 wrote: »

Well done that was a good performance, why there is No point gap rule?!, what is stopping mickey mouse rated players sitting on board 1 and annoying titled players ?!

I wasn't involved in the drafting of the rules nor at the egm in 2015 that voted for them, so I don't know whether it was discussed.

The ECC itself, for which this is a qualifying rule, does not have a rating gap rule and the same is true of many other international team events. SO perhaps that is why ICU did not include such a rule.
http://www.europechess.org/regulations/tournament-regulations/european-club-cup-and-european-club-cup-for-women/f-2-organisation/

The tactic of sacrificing top board in a team tournament probably would not work in many circumstances but we didn't see it that way as essentially we were just targeting our principal rival. I used to have a much higher rating and reckoned I had a decent chance of scoring something against all the top boards except Maze, and that he might not want to play against such a low rated opponent. (Also I used to have a much higher FIDE and ICU rating, and an IM title for correspondence play, so I think "mickey mouse" is a bit harsh.)