Tralee Classic

sodacat11

I am surprised that the Tralee Classic http://www.icu.ie/events/877 isn't being better supported so far. All play all events of this type for all standards of player are a relatively rare occurrence in Irish Chess and the ICU deserves praise for this innovative idea.
I think all play alls are the truest and fairest type of tournament and would love if we had more of them.

sodacat11

I have been trying to contact the organiser of the Tralee Classic (Rory Delaney) by email, text and phone but without any success. Could someone that has contact with him please tell him that I am withdrawing from the Tralee tournament as there are only four entrants in what is supposed to be a ten player group. Thanks

sodacat11

Very disappointing entry overall for what could have been a great tournament. I think that Tralee is just too awkward a venue for most people.

Retd.LoyolaCpt

Information (including pairings) on the GM Norm Section can be found here: http://www.icu.ie/articles/658
Name Title Federation Rating
Sebastien Feller GM FRA 2575
Vladislav Nevednichy GM ROM 2547
Matthew Turner GM SCO 2524
Lucas Van Foreest IM NED 2477
Yang-Fan Zhou IM ENG 2476
Hugo Ten Hertog IM NED 2457
Sam Collins IM IRL 2450
Alex Lopez IM IRL 2417
Charles Storey FM ENG 2255
Carl Strugnell FM WLS 2224


Information (including pairings) on the IM Norm Section can be found here: http://www.icu.ie/articles/659
Name Title Federation Rating
Miroslaw Grabarczyk GM POL 2435
Petr Neuman GM CZE 2435
Conor O'Donnell FM IRL 2370
Gavin Wall IM IRL 2346
Colm Daly FM IRL 2321
Killian Delaney IRL 2257
Reinhold Mueller FM GER 2248
Henry Li IRL 2232
Alistair Hill ENG 2209
Conor E. Murphy ENG 2077

Tim Harding

Retd.LoyolaCpt wrote: »

Information (including pairings) on the GM Norm Section can be found here: http://www.icu.ie/articles/658
Name Title Federation Rating
Sebastien Feller GM FRA 2575

Very disappointed that ICU saw fit to invite recently reinstated chess cheat Sebastien Feller to be top seed in their GM tournament.

OK maybe he has "served his time" (3-year ban) but couldn't you have found another GM of similar rating instead?

One thing is certain: Feller will never be invited to a tournament in England after his cheating cost them a vital point at the 2010 olympiad.

Tychoo

Any player that has served a ban has the right to play again. In soccer players get banned all the time for their actions on the pitch.

ComDubh

I tend to agree with Tim. A closer analogy is an athlete who has taken performance enhancing drugs. Many people simply won't trust an athlete after that. Michelle Smith may be Ireland's most successful Olympian, but few celebrate this fact because she's a drugs cheat.

Tim Harding

The Tralee tournaments are scheduled to start today at 6pm.
The ICU website says that chess24 will show the GM event live but it's not listed yet on chess24 (as of 1430).

Can somebody please post a link later if they find the games online?

Also ICU has not yet posted the required scores for GM norms (and IM norms in the second event). I guess they will do that once the arbiter(s) have confirmed all players have arrived and started the event.

Round 1 pairings:
FM Charles Storey (ENG) - FM Carl Strugnell (Wales)
GM Vladislav Nevednichy (ROM) - IM Sam Collins (Ireland)
IM Lucas Van Foreest (NED) - GM Sebastien Feller (FRA)
GM Matthew Turner (Scotland) - IM Hugo Ten Hertog (NED)
IM Yang-Fan Zhou (ENG) - IM Alex Astaneh Lopez (Ireland)

Round 1 in the IM event:
Killian Delaney v Henry Li (both Ireland)
IM Gavin Wall (IRL) v GM Miroslaw Grabarcyzk (POL)
FM Reinhold Mueller (Germany, but living here) v Alistair Hill (ENG)
FM Conor O’Donnell v FM Colm Daly (both Ireland)
GM Petr Neumann (CZE) v Conor E Murphy (ENG)

Friday, Saturday and Sunday rounds start at 10am and 4pm; Monday rounds somewhat earlier.

Does anyone know if the C and D events are actually happening or were they cancelled due to insufficient interest?

macelligott

Tim, I saw somewhere the norm requirements for both tournaments was 6.5/9
I can't find any live transmission on www.chess24.com :-(

sodacat11

ComDubh wrote: »

I tend to agree with Tim. A closer analogy is an athlete who has taken performance enhancing drugs. Many people simply won't trust an athlete after that. Michelle Smith may be Ireland's most successful Olympian, but few celebrate this fact because she's a drugs cheat.

Very true.Anyone who would go to the elaborate lengths that Feller did to cheat should never have been reinstated. Can someone like that be trusted not to take a bribe from a player needing a win to get a norm?

Tim Harding

I see the C and D sections are indeed being played. They started C with only 9 players (Bernd Thee got a bye) but Maurice Coveney has joined the event now. One result is missing from round 1 in that event; maybe it's going to be played later because of a delay in someone arriving.

It's a pity that there don't seem to be live boards after all.

Alex Lopez (in A) and Henry Li (in have got off to promising starts but Sam lost his first game so his norm hopes badly need a revival in round 3.

macelligott

While "Norms" would be great, we can't expect them automatically. What we can hope for is rating gains for the Irish players.

Tim Harding

Great day for Alex Lopez. In the morning he won against the unfortunate Charles Storey and in round 7 he has beaten GM Nevednichy. For a GM norm he needs a win and a draw tomorrow.
He has Black against teenager Lucas van Foreest whose own norm chance has gone after two losses today, and in the last round he will have White against Scottish GM Matthew Turner.
Lopez and Turner currently share the lead on 5/7.
As of the latest info online, Storey (0/6) is still playing against Ten Hertog (2/6).
FM Carl Strugnell of Wales could still get an IM norm but to do so he needs to beat Yang-Fan Zhou and Sam Collins.

In the B group, GM Grabarczyk is running away with it, having 5.5/6 with just a draw against the other GM, Petr Neumann. Clearly this is not the way to get invited to future IM norm events!
No result is up yet for the game between Neuman (3.5/6) and Reinhold Mueller (3/6).

Conor O'Donnell (on 4/7) could still get an IM norm but would have to beat Neuman with White in the morning. If he manages that the last round game against Murphy looks eminently winnable although Conor would have Black.

cdeb

Tim Harding wrote: »

Conor O'Donnell (on 4/7) could still get an IM norm but would have to beat Neuman with White in the morning. If he manages that the last round game against Murphy looks eminently winnable although Conor would have Black.

Slight correction - Conor is on 4½/7; the mark for all norms is 6½ (except for the IM norm in the GM section, which is 4½)

Just to avoid any confusion.

macelligott

It is a pity that not only were the games not broadcast live (as advertised), but also only rounds 1 & 2 of sections A & B have, as yet, been published. I'm surprised nobody could be found to input the games into a data base.

EnPassant

Section A and B final results are on chess-results.com
http://www.chess-results.com/tnr275063.aspx

Tim Harding

No games for download on chess-results, though, maybe they will eventually turn up on TWIC?

ICU is at the very bottom of the learning curve in how to do such things as arrange live coverage and making games available.
In the end at least one person is happy: Carl Strugnell of Wales who made the IM norm in the A section, while Alex Lopez and Conor O'Donnell probably gained a packet of FIDE rating points.

Also it was good experience for Henry Li and Killian Delaney to play a round-robin master tournament. Not many people get the opportunity. However to get +4 for an IM norm in such company is almost impossible unless the titled top seeds are more accommodating to norm-seekers.

macelligott

Tim, re your comment: "norm in such company is almost impossible unless the titled top seeds are more accommodating to norm-seeker".
I wouldn't like to see Irish chess go down the route of inviting "more accomodating" opposition. I would prefer any Norms achieved by Irish players were genuine. I believe in some Eastern European tournaments games are sometimes thrown if there is a monetary incentive. That is not the direction I would like Irish chess to go in. I congratulate the ICU for their integrity in not inviting "more accomodating" opposition!

Tim Harding

macelligott wrote: »

Tim, re your comment: "norm in such company is almost impossible unless the titled top seeds are more accommodating to norm-seeker".
I wouldn't like to see Irish chess go down the route of inviting "more accommodating" opposition. I would prefer any Norms achieved by Irish players were genuine. I believe in some Eastern European tournaments games are sometimes thrown if there is a monetary incentive. That is not the direction I would like Irish chess to go in. I congratulate the ICU for their integrity in not inviting "more accommodating" opposition!

Of course I don't think ICU should be trying to fix norms for players but also I don't see why they invited two GMs to the IM-norm tournament, apparently GMs keen to win back some of the rating points they had lost elsewhere.
Two IMs of similar rating were all that was needed to make a tournament of the right category.

brilliantboy

Tim Harding wrote: »

apparently GMs keen to win back some of the rating points they had lost elsewhere.

Well, when the alternative is being "accommodating" and losing even more rating points then that's understandable.

Tychoo

The question now is will the ICU run a similar event in the future?

Perhaps they should run a review of the event and identify where there was weakness and put better controls in place for future events.