Galway Chess Congress 2022: 11 to 13 March

Pete Morriss

This is advance notice that next year’s Galway Chess Congress will be held on the weekend of 11 to 13 March 2022. We very much hope that we will be able to hold it in person, at the Menlo Park Hotel, Galway, although of course there is no knowing what the covid situation will be then, and if it is not possible or advisable to hold it in person it will be held online, as it was this year. We aim to make a decision about this early in January 2022, and will post it here.

We do all hope that we will be able to welcome you all in person to the Galway Congress next March.

One does aspire to be present with bells on. For whom they may toll. We pause now for the Angelus.

Pete Morriss

Update: Following the government’s lifting of restrictions on 21 January, we can confirm that this event will be going ahead in person at the Menlo Park Hotel. It will take us a few days to set up the entry process, and then we'll be ready to take your entries. Looking forward to seeing you!

Pete Morriss

We are now accepting entries for the Galway Chess Congress, which will be held (in person) in the Menlo Park Hotel, Galway on the weekend of Friday 11 to Sunday 13 March. You can enter online on our website, where you will also find further information about the Congress.

You might like to note that the structure of the Congress will be slightly different from previous years. Since, at present, ratings are not an accurate guide to playing strength (being in most cases at least two years out of date) the tournament will this year take place in one section, with strong accelerated pairing in place to minimize mismatches in the early rounds.

We have also revisited our policy on prizes. Up to now, we have been giving quite a large number of prizes, some of them of quite low value. We have decided that this year we will replace these low-value cash prizes with trophies, which will provide more of a permanent record of the considerable achievement of winning a prize at the Galway Congress. The overall prize fund will remain the same, so that the cash prizes which we do give will now be larger: first prize, for instance, will now be €1000. Since the Congress is not divided into sections this year, everybody who enters will have the opportunity of winning that significant sum.

We look forward to welcoming you to Galway again after so long. Get entering now!

Pete Morriss

This is the last call for entries to the Galway weekend Congress, which starts this Friday (11 March). You can enter online here. Online entries will close 24 hours before the start of the tournament (that is, at 8 p.m. on Thursday), so don’t delay. You can find further information about the tournament on our webpage.

One point to add is that the first prize of €1000 is now guaranteed – unless there is some unexpected calamity, such as a new pandemic, that causes many current entrants to withdraw. The remaining cash prizes listed on the website will be assured if we get a handful of extra entries.

We are looking forward eagerly to seeing you all in Galway next weekend.

Pete Morriss

The Galway Congress was won by Richard Zienert, who came over from Germany for the tournament, and returned €1000 richer. Richard scored 5½ points out of 6; his one draw was with Denis Ruchko, who finished second equal, with Atharva Paibir, on 5 points.

Denis Ruchko also won the Reynolds Electronics Perpetual Trophy for the best Connaught player. The Hugh Finan Memorial Cup, awarded to the highest placed player rated under 1200, was won by James Scarry, who scored 4½ points.

Rating prizes also went to Rafael Ninan Renji, Andrey Ivanov, David Andreu, Jack Hennesy, Oscar Roe, George Fearnhead, Stanislaw Ulbrych, Craig Dubose, Paddy Connolly, Alice Twomey, Gourang Jiddewar, Bryn Edwards, and Alex Harney.

The full standings and crosstable are on our dedicated webpage, along with photos of some of the winners.