Bunratty International Chess Festival 2017

tedjennings

Hi, all

it's that time again....

Bunratty International Chess Festival

17th - 19th February 2017

We are now taking on-line entries (at a discount) using the Stripe Payment system.

This is fully secure as we have a SSL certificate and now use https://

We accept all major Credit/Debit cards.

https://bunrattychess.com/

See you all there.

Ted Jennings.

tedjennings

Hi, all
A little note about booking a room at the hotel.

Bunratty Castle Hotel
The hotel management have reserved the entire hotel for Bunratty ‘17 Because of this you cannot book a room on the internet as it will always show that the hotel is full but there are still rooms left.
People can either email info@bunrattycastlehotel.com to reserve a room at our advertised rates making sure to say that they are playing in the Chess, or ring 0035361478700 during normal business hours and ask for reservations, again specifying that they are with the Chess.


Ted.

sodacat11

About three years ago I booked my stay in the Bunratty Hotel for the chess through bookings.com and I got two nights B&B Plus one evening meal (which came to over 40 euro) for the same price as chess players were paying just for B&B. I have noticed in some other hotels at other tournaments that the rates for rooms and sometimes even food seem to increase when there is a tournament on. Surely with the large numbers of people that attend these tournaments we should be getting a discount and not paying more?

Tim Harding

I emailed the hotel more than a day ago and they still have not replied.

Bunrattyman

Sodacat11 seems to have got great value 3 years ago, however, a lot of hotels were a lot cheaper 3 years ago than now. The Bunratty Castle Hotel are offering heavily discounted prices for the Chess players, their normal rates are much higher than the rates for Feb 17th to 19th, not lower. There are not many hotels of this standard you can stay in for € 45 per person sharing, or € 65 for a single room, including breakfast.

Tim, I agree it's not acceptable that the hotel have not yet replied to your email please forward it to me and I will make sure your query is answered immediately.:)

sodacat11

The Bunratty Castle is not bad value for the chess considering that they have a nice leisure centre and that they do a carvery for us. There are other hotels that I would like to see give better value, particularly in places like Cork and Galway . The Cork Metropole has a completely exorbitant single room charge for example.

I note with interest the proposed Easter all play alls in Tralee. I love this format but have been unable to email the organiser as my mails keep coming back to me so if Rory is reading this please put me down for the over 1900 section.
I didn't want to say "put me down for a C section" but if I don't lay off the mince pies soon that may be exactly what I need.

Bunrattyman

Today Jon Speelman confirmed he's returning to Bunratty after a absence of over a decade. Also, he may not yet be the last GM entry for the upcoming Bunratty Masters so watch this space !:)

tedjennings

Hi, all

Just to let you know that the hotel is now fully booked for the event.
There are other B&Bs in the area so go for it!!

Ted.

Tim Harding

I did get my booking sorted out in time thanks to Ted's intervention.

Now a discussion was started by mistake in the Galway congress thread and the organisers of that event have rightly asked it be moved here to where it belongs.

I was responding a few days ago to something written there by sodacat11 about whether players rated in the 1900s should avail of the option to float up to the Masters:

sodacat11 wrote:

Quite honestly I would prefer not to have the choice and to have to play in the [Bunratty] Challengers along with all the other 1900+ players who will enter the Masters but should really be in the Challengers.

And I responded:
Personally I would prefer more clarity in Bunratty's Terms and Conditions than is provided by the line

Bunratty website terms and conditions wrote:

Players with a FIDE rating of over 2000 may play in the Masters.

Probably that should be "should" ? If a player with a 1900+ ICU rating but over 2000 FIDE were to win a prize in the Challengers I foresee there could be complaints.

[A point with which sodacat11 concurred.]

I agonised over my entry for a while but decided to enter the Masters though I certainly don't expect to do very well. Playing two or three games in a day, even in the Challengers (with all those talented juniors), at my age is not likely to be easy but I prefer the toughest available opposition while I am still playing some overseas events.

However, I would like the organisers to be more careful with the seedings of overseas players. I hope they get them all right when the February lists are published. Last year when I played the Cork congress and Ennis congress the latest ICU ratings of many early entrants were not used and consequently the seedings (and so many high board pairings) were skewed.

Last time I played Bunratty (2015) some UK players were down with converted English ratings which were significantly different from their FIDE ratings. For example in the current entry list they have Aidan Rawlinson down as 2045 but his FIDE rating is 2213, whereas Malcolm Pein's son Jonathan is listed with his FIDE rating 2019.

In general, I think Irish tournament organisers should NOT go by the ratings players declare for themselves but ALWAYS verify with the latest information before making the round one draw.

mikhail

I have a clubmate with an ICU rating in the 1600s, and a FIDE rating of over 2000. The latter is based on a small number of games, but is not provisional. It warms my heart to think that in whichever section he plays, sodacat will have cause to complain.

Bunrattyman

Just a point of clarification on the Bunratty Terms and Conditions re players "playing up". The current relevant rule is quoted below;

14. Players will only play in the section that their latest published ICU rating (usually the February list for ICU and Feb 1st for FIDE) indicates they should play in. Live lists are not considered. Players with a rating within 50 points may request to play up. Players with a FIDE rating of over 2000 may play in the Masters.

I think this is clear enough, players with an ICU rating of over 1950 ( not 1900 ) may request to play in the Masters but players entering using their FIDE rating will have to have a rating of 2000+ in order to play.

I take Tim's point about the converted ECF grades but I can also assure Tim that each and every player who enters Bunratty has their rating checked and verified. Irish players are imported directly from the icu rating list while foreign players FIDE ratings are checked. However, I have to admit that, in the past, foreign players who were on the ICU database have been simply imported ( meaning that their ICU rating is applied ) while those not on the database are listed with the FIDE rating. This is not consistent and in order to be consistent, I should probably use FIDE ratings in the Masters for as many players as possible.

Thoughts anyone?:D

Before you all rush to type, please bear something in mind, the players ratings listed currently on the website will not be the ones used for round 1, for clarification on this, read rule 14 above !

sodacat11

mikhail wrote: »

I have a clubmate with an ICU rating in the 1600s, and a FIDE rating of over 2000. The latter is based on a small number of games, but is not provisional. It warms my heart to think that in whichever section he plays, sodacat will have cause to complain.

If people in this country complained a bit more maybe we wouldn't have things like the housing and health crises that we do now.
On the positive side I am pleased to have warmed your heart.

Ficheall

sodacat11 wrote: »

If people in this country complained a bit more maybe we wouldn't have things like the housing and health crises that we do now.

Are you honestly comparing the inefficiency of overpaid government officials to the difficulty volunteering event organisers have in trying to find a satisfactory compromise that keeps all awkward participants happy?

sodacat11

Ficheall wrote: »

Are you honestly comparing the inefficiency of overpaid government officials to the difficulty volunteering event organisers have in trying to find a satisfactory compromise that keeps all awkward participants happy?

I was talking about complaining in general. Anyway, I would hardly call anything I said about the Bunratty Congress "a complaint". I just think it would be better if all tournaments set rating floors and stuck to them. This "within 50 or 100 point rule" is a nonsense. Just look at the dearth of 1900+players in the Challengers to see my point. I was probably going to play in the Challengers but if all my rating peers are going to opt for the Masters then I will probably end up doing so too, assuming that I don't lose a hatfull of rating points in the Gonzaga tournament.

Ciaran

mikhail wrote: »

I have a clubmate with an ICU rating in the 1600s, and a FIDE rating of over 2000. The latter is based on a small number of games, but is not provisional.

No longer the case unfortunately.

tedjennings

Hi, all

It has just come to my notice that there is a problem entering Bunratty on the web site at the moment.
As webmaster I apologize for this and am looking into the problem.
I have contacted our IP service and hope to have the problem rectified ASAP.
Once again apologies,
Ted.

tedjennings

Our IP supplier have sorted the problem.
Ted.

sodacat11

Great line up for Bunratty in all sections but how come so few of our titled Irish players in the Masters? I would have thought that they would relish the strong opposition even if there was little chance of winning any prize money. It would be nice to see some of these guys putting our domestic tournaments ahead of the 4NCL or any Mickey Mouse online events.

reunion

Bunratty site wrote:

Opening Ceremony will take place in the Castle Room at 7:30pm

Be there to see something new this year!

I wonder what the something new would be! (granted I didn't know there was an opening ceremony so that's new for me )

Ficheall

What happened in the Short-Baburin game?

L1m1tless

still playing as far as I can tell

Ficheall

L1m1tless wrote: »

still playing as far as I can tell

Ah, right - the 'live board' must have been showing a test game last night - black won after 11 moves in a standard French..

Tim Harding

Ficheall wrote: »

Ah, right - the 'live board' must have been showing a test game last night - black won after 11 moves in a standard French..

That isn't what happened in Short-Baburin but Nigel did win and he also beat Alex Lopez in round 6 to win with 100%. Alex finished on 5 which was an excellent result.

brilliantboy

I notice that the tournament has been rated now and a player who played in the Major section (for players rated 1200-1600 lest we forget), Brian Fitzpatrick, has lost a whopping 106 points from his 2088 rating.

Is this a case of mistaken identity, a bug in the system, or what is going on? I certainly wouldn't want to be the poor sod who finds out someone else has been losing games in his name

Tim Harding

brilliantboy wrote: »

I notice that the tournament has been rated now and a player who played in the Major section (for players rated 1200-1600 lest we forget), Brian Fitzpatrick, has lost a whopping 106 points from his 2088 rating.

Is this a case of mistaken identity, a bug in the system, or what is going on? I certainly wouldn't want to be the poor sod who finds out someone else has been losing games in his name

According to the Bunratty website results, the Brian Fitzpatrick in question had a pre-tournament rating of 1256 and rather curiously an F flag (for female).
He/she scored one draw four losses and a bye for a TPR of 1007.

So it does look like mistaken identity and the live ratings have been taken down. I see just now:

We're sorry, but something went wrong.

We've been notified about this issue and we'll take a look at it shortly.

tedjennings

Hi, all
The Masters games are now available on the bunrattychess web site
Ted.