Gonzaga Tournament Still Cancelled for 2022?

spidersweb

"[Provisional] The Gonzaga Charity Classic 2022 sponsored by CPL & MHL

Location Gonzaga College SJ, Sandford Road, Ranelagh, Dublin 6. Start date 2022-01-28 End date 2022-01-30 Prize fund €3,500 Sections Masters, Championship, Challenger Contact Gonzaga Organisers CategoryIrish. "

With just days to go and a few days since the lifting of Cpvid19-84 resrictions, is it really the case that this event is not going ahead? Curious indeed. Both Ennis and Galway organisers have to their credit been quick off the mark to declare they are back I wonder agsin is it safe to assume that Gonzaga 2022 is just not going to go ahead?

cdeb

Not going ahead afaik.

In fairness, given restrictions were (unexpectedly) lifted on Friday, it's very short notice to get things sorted in a week. Plus the TY students usually arrange it and sort foreign titled players too, so it sounds completely impractical to get everything done in a week (and that's even before you look at whether the school would have allowed it)

spidersweb

That is all fair enough but why on earth they could not simply put out a statement to that effect themselves is just hard to grasp. It took you minutes and they would have known how things were looking for some time.

Anyway, looks like things will not be back to normal for years. Probably be 2025 when it starts to be normal again?

Taking things down and discarding such things that involve human time, efforts, and goodwill is one thing, building them back up and having active and rooted involvement from people taked much longer and is fraught with complications (apathy, plus incompetence too sometimes) and difficulties.

Unfortunate to see this event lost again for 2022 as it was becoming a staple strong event with multiple well supported sections too.

Brave New World – Here we are now I guess.

cdeb

Well it was never opened for entry, so nothing to announce really. It as only ever a reserved weekend on the ICU calendar.

spidersweb

Disagree. Cost nothing to simply confirm and clarify that there is nothing happening by way of change of status because there is no intention to change it from provisionally gong ahead to not happening at all.

Matter of how one sees things and of not great import really. Won’t be Easter till there is any chess in Dublin again I guess.

No mention anywhere of the fact that the recent GM norm event in Dublin was a success either . The IM norm was a balls up fair enough, but these things happen, especially in Covid19-84 times. Would have thought the GM norm event was worthy of a positive mention on the ICU website, but again, in these times I guess it is next to impossible get much going by way of interest and enthusiasm, or positive feedback.

No Chess Lgs, No Chess events (aside from blitz- which is at least something|) in Dublin for some time then. Ah well.

Cest La Vie!

Retd.LoyolaCpt

To respond to all of this briefly as I can; Gonzaga cancelled/postponed., no report on the GM norm as I haven't had time with work and having had a bad run with the flu in January and in general I've made a decision to focus less on after-event reports as my time is very limited now. Any time I do have for chess I think is better spent planning the next events or consulting with new organisers (I'm helping with Bolger, and Sligo to a lesser extent for instance).

There's no official organiser of Gonzaga this year so I'm defacto I guess as the consultant. Its obviously rolling 4th years each year so not condusive to run at short notice and item was only placed in calendar as placeholder based on past info. I'll remove now.

zeitnot

Report on the GM norm event available here: https://www.irlchess.com/irishnygm2022_allfiles/pairings_irishnygm2022.html

See also cover post at https://www.irlchess.com/2022/01/14/irish-new-year-gm-norm-event-2022/ and follow-up post at https://www.irlchess.com/2022/01/15/murphy-fitzsimons-irish-new-year-gm-2022/

Outstanding work by the organisers, by the way. It was unfortunate that the IM norm event fell one short, but the circumstances really are extraordinarily challenging right now. (I had a lot of air travel over Christmas and New Year, with a corresponding amount of COVID testing. Would have been very awkward if any tests had come back positive.) Any event at all involves some risk of last minute cancellation or onerous new restrictions.