Galway Chess Congress 2017: March 10 - 12

Danville

I think THE major problem for Galway is that it has not settled on a year-on-year weekend. Indeed trying to shoehorn itself into the busiest period in the weekender events calendar is not going to work. Galways best chance IMHO is to settle on a weekend in October. Someone already mentioned six weekenders in an eight week period. Remember we are depending on a relatively small pool of tournament players to support all events. I have only played Galway once, in October, planned to go again the following October but it was not held. I/we all know more or less when all the main weekenders are on,( and plan accordingly), except Galway as it flits about and so cannot expect players to give it their number one preference. I would like to support it, and expect I will support it regularly when and if it finally settles down in OCTOBER.

brilliantboy

Danville wrote: »

I think THE major problem for Galway is that it has not settled on a year-on-year weekend. Indeed trying to shoehorn itself into the busiest period in the weekender events calendar is not going to work. Galways best chance IMHO is to settle on a weekend in October. Someone already mentioned six weekenders in an eight week period. Remember we are depending on a relatively small pool of tournament players to support all events. I have only played Galway once, in October, planned to go again the following October but it was not held. I/we all know more or less when all the main weekenders are on,( and plan accordingly), except Galway as it flits about and so cannot expect players to give it their number one preference. I would like to support it, and expect I will support it regularly when and if it finally settles down in OCTOBER.

According to the ICU ratings website numbers are down overall from 155 in 2011 to 98 this year. However this year's numbers weren't wildly different from 2014, the last time the tournament was held in October.

The decline is most apparent in the Masters section, down from 44 in 2011 to 16 this year. Free/reduced entry this year wasn't incentive enough it seems. Maybe they want to be paid to attend? :rolleyes:

Pete Morriss

Here is a brief report on the Galway Congress, with prize-winners. A fuller report is available here.

Just under a hundred players took part in the 2017 Galway Congress. The numbers were reduced a little as inexplicably the Leinster Schools Chess Association chose to schedule its finals on a date that clashed, thus depriving many of the most active juniors in Leinster of the opportunity of playing in one of Ireland’s leading tournaments. There was also a comparatively small field in the Masters section, despite it being very strong at the top with two GMs and three IMs. Nevertheless, the hundred who did play seemed to enjoy themselves, and the building work in the hotel was scarcely noticeable: if we had known that the resulting disruption would be so insignificant, we wouldn’t have compensated by reducing the entry fees!

The prize winners were
Masters: First: GM Oleg Korneev (Spain); Second: IM Alex Lopez (Ireland); Third equal: GM Alex Baburin (Ireland) and IM Craig Pritchett (Scotland); Grading: Peter Cafolla; Connaught Champion: FM Philip Short
Major: First: Christopher Young; Second equal: Anastasia Mohylna, James Danaher, Robert Murtagh, Jason Rawlinson, James Naughton; Grading Prize 1: Adam Murphy (also second equal); Grading Prize 2: Eoin Hunter
Minors: First: Hugh O’Connor; Second equal: Aidan O’Sullivan, K S Gopal, Dylan Murphy; Grading Prize 1: Andrejs Kozlovs (also second equal); Grading Prize 2: Jack McIntyre.

Endgame

Pete Morriss wrote: »

The Drogheda Congress has been on the June bank holiday for several years. It is not on the Calendar for 2017, so perhaps they are not holding it? It would be good to know.

For what it is worth, quite a few people have told us that they didn't play in our Rapidplays in June because they didn't want to risk missing the Irish summer; whether they are to be believed is, of course, another matter.

Gentlemen, the Drogheda congress will be taking place this Bank Holiday w/e continuing 30+ years of the event. There is a placeholder on the ICU website, only was submitted last week though. The usual venue, the Boyne Valley hotel is unavailable due to extensive renovations/remodelling hence the lack of official announcement as early as would normally have been done. Venue still TBD.

2bts

see http://www.icu.ie/events/901