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Irish Championships 2021

sodacat11

With the latest predictions about vaccine rollouts the possibility of the Irish Championships being held this year is very real. It will be great to get back to playing live over the board real chess with proper time limits again.

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DmanDmythDledge

Very difficult to predict but it seems like a good chance things will be better this August than last August

Retd.LoyolaCpt

Very tentative but here’s hoping; dates and venue:
https://www.icu.ie/events/1409

Will post a note later tonight or tomorrow on the site with our summer/Irish plan.

FairCityFanboy

If this can't go ahead will it be online?

sodacat11

FairCityFanboy wrote: »

If this can't go ahead will it be online?

NO, it would be ridiculous to hold it online. It is too easy to cheat online.

cdeb

Yeah, online is fairly meaningless really.

I presume the thinking at the moment is that there won't be able to be any events before the end of July? (Which I could well understand)

Nice to have something to look forward to - even for those of who are ineligible

Hopefully with the vaccine rolling out (and seemingly working), we're into the beginning of the end of all this now.

Edit - in fact, my question is answered on the ICU site. Efficient! And a very thorough answer.

Retd.LoyolaCpt

Initial details here with some initial entries: https://www.icu.ie/events/1409

Plan as mentioned above is here; https://www.icu.ie/articles/938

RooksPawn

Any plans for a Senior Championship?

With priority vaccination for 70+ well advanced now, maybe something would be possible in June or July to warm us up before the Championships proper?

Retd.LoyolaCpt

RooksPawn wrote: »

Any plans for a Senior Championship?

With priority vaccination for 70+ well advanced now, maybe something would be possible in June or July to warm us up before the Championships proper?

That’s one of the events we’d try to get in over summer if possible.

Eugene Donohoe

Retd.LoyolaCpt wrote: »

That’s one of the events we’d try to get in over summer if possible.

That would be sweet

Eugene Donohoe

Retd.LoyolaCpt wrote: »

Initial details here with some initial entries: https://www.icu.ie/events/1409

Plan as mentioned above is here; https://www.icu.ie/articles/938

That's really great. Thanks for your work in these uncertain times.

Retd.LoyolaCpt

A reminder that terms and conditions for the Irish Championships be found here: https://www.icu.ie/articles/670

I'm proposing two amendments for this year (from last year) and am open to player feedback on these, or if there are any other changes that players would like to see.

a. In 2020, we had the attached note: (However, for 2020, this will be simplified to 135 minutes + 35 second increment for all moves). We believe this is unnecessary for 2021 and so would revert to the standard time control.

b. We are amending the following from: "Players rated above 1900 on either of the two lists above are permitted entry. All others must apply for wildcards to the event if they wish to play unless they won a qualifying event or are a past champion. See appendix 1 below."

to

"Players rated 1900 or above at any stage since January 2020 on either of the two lists above are permitted entry. All others must apply for wildcards to the event if they wish to play unless they won a qualifying event or are a past champion. See appendix 1 below."

After 3 days, we have 15 Confirmed Entrants (by ICU rating; FIDE will be used for pairings):

2343 IM David Fitzsimons

2311 FM Conor O'Donnell

2307 IM Mark Quinn

2296 FM Tarun Kanyamarala

2280 FM Stephen Brady

2261 FM Colm Daly

2178 WIM Trisha Kanyamarala

2158 FM John Delaney

2148 CM Shane Melaugh

2131 FM Daire McMahon

2035 Peter Carroll

2032 Kavin Venkatesan

2009 John McMorrow

1914 Peter Cafolla

1880 WFM Diana Mirza

dave grant

We here in Ballyroan Community Chess Club would like to thank the ICU for giving the club the opportunity to host this years Irish Championship. We are working to make the competition as safe as possible for the competitors and to also reassure each player the venue itself will be maintained at the highest standard of cleanliness with full Covid protocols in place. We would appreciate any feed back from last years players/visitors to our venue to aide us make this years competition even better. We would like you to be honest and frank as we are confident we can fulfill the needs of the players.

sodacat11

dave grant wrote: »

We here in Ballyroan Community Chess Club would like to thank the ICU for giving the club the opportunity to host this years Irish Championship. We are working to make the competition as safe as possible for the competitors and to also reassure each player the venue itself will be maintained at the highest standard of cleanliness with full Covid protocols in place. We would appreciate any feed back from last years players/visitors to our venue to aide us make this years competition even better. We would like you to be honest and frank as we are confident we can fulfill the needs of the players.

I thought that everything last year was perfect, I couldn't fault anything. Ample free parking, easy to access from M50, lovely venue, canteen facilities, players well apart in a well lit quiet comfortable room. Everything as safe as could be regarding Covid. I love it as a venue.

Eugene Donohoe

I was there to do photos for the ICU and thought all of your covid precautions were perfect plus very friendly and welcoming. Excellent all round!

zeitnot

Eugene Donohoe wrote: »

I was there to do photos for the ICU and thought all of your covid precautions were perfect plus very friendly and welcoming. Excellent all round!

The photos for the last several years have been outstanding as well.

Eugene Donohoe

zeitnot wrote: »

The photos for the last several years have been outstanding as well.

Thanks for that.

Retd.LoyolaCpt

Several former Irish Champions in the 100th Irish field already. The clubhouse leader in terms of earliest winners entered is Anthony Doyle who’ll be playing 47 years after his win. 18 entries currently.

2419 FM Conor E. Murphy

2343 IM David Fitzsimons

2311 FM Conor O'Donnell

2307 IM Mark Quinn

2296 FM Tarun Kanyamarala

2280 FM Stephen Brady

2261 FM Colm Daly

2178 WIM Trisha Kanyamarala

2158 FM John Delaney

2148 CM Shane Melaugh

2131 FM Daire McMahon

2046 Anthony Doyle

2035 Peter Carroll

2032 Kavin Venkatesan

2009 John McMorrow

1966 Adam Collins

1914 Peter Cafolla

1880 WFM Diana Mirza

Retd.LoyolaCpt

Two more former champions entered (and a new top seed), and three other takes us to 23 in total.

From conversations with a few dozen eligible players, I would categorize the likely entries in 4 tiers:
21 current entries (may lose 1-2 if restrictions don't allow for travel)
14 likely entrants (lose 5 if restrictions don't allow for travel)
24 haven't heard back from but have played an Irish in last 5 years. (lose 1 if restrictions don't allow for travel)
12 who are about 10-20% likely to play. (lose 1-2 if restrictions don't allow for travel)

So an eligible playing pool of 71 with travel, maybe 61 without travel. Hard to predict of course but I'd be surprised if we'd a turnout under 40.

2439 IM Sam E. Collins

2419 FM Conor E. Murphy

2343 IM David Fitzsimons

2311 FM Conor O'Donnell

2307 IM Mark Quinn

2296 FM Tarun Kanyamarala

2280 FM Stephen Brady

2261 FM Colm Daly

2178 WIM Trisha Kanyamarala

2158 FM John Delaney

2148 CM Shane Melaugh

2131 FM Daire McMahon

2046 Anthony Doyle

2035 Peter Carroll

2032 Kavin Venkatesan

2009 John McMorrow

1966 Adam Collins

1960 Jonathon Peoples

1938 CM Gerard MacElligott

1914 Peter Cafolla

1880 WFM Diana Mirza

1858 NM Eamon Keogh

1763 John P. Aherne

sodacat11

Was there some kind of survey sent out? if so then I didn't get it.

Retd.LoyolaCpt

sodacat11 wrote: »

Was there some kind of survey sent out? if so then I didn't get it.

No survey this year - just details of the event and venue. Some people write back with their likelihood of playing or suggestions etc. I'll send on just so you don't feel left out but nothing you don't already know (but you and a couple of others were already entered by the time I was emailing out for an idea of numbers).

macelligott

There were 32 entrants permitted to play last year. I wonder will the ICU be able to accept more entries this year? Perhaps there is another room that could be used? Positive virus results are currently very high 😕 I hope that this doesn’t derail the event. There is no clear plan yet indicating when indoor gatherings will be allowed - and, indeed, how many will be allowed to gather indoors. My advice to those thinking of playing: don’t wait too long to enter or you might not make the final cut.

DmanDmythDledge

Case numbers are up but that’s likely down to increased testing from the walk-in centres - positivity rate is gradually decreasing again. Once no setbacks with vaccine supplies, I think we can be reasonably optimistic for end of summer time.

I wonder could numbers be extended if conditions re having the vaccine or, if not, have evidence of a test in the days before the tournament begins. Problem with the latter would be continuous testing would be required throughout the tournament due to the length of it.

RooksPawn

Everything should be much clearer by the end of June - either much better or (in the case of new variants resistant to vaccines) much worse.

Personally, the thought of having to wear a mask throughout a potentially 5-hour session fills me with horror. Maybe the fully vaccinated might not have to wear masks?

cdeb

Wearing masks isn't all about protecting you though

macelligott

Entries so far including FIDE ratings:
Sam E. Collins IM 2456
Conor E. Murphy FM 2394
Mark Quinn IM 2370
Tarun Kanyamarala FM 2369
Conor O'Donnell FM 2331
David Fitzsimons IM 2324
Stephen Brady FM 2292
Colm Daly FM 2285
Joe Ryan FM 2271
Anthony Doyle 2206
John Delaney FM 2191
Trisha Kanyamarala WIM 2180
Shane Melaugh CM 2161
Daire McMahon FM 2115
Peter Carroll CM 2059
Kavin Venkatesan 2011
John McMorrow 1997
Gerard MacElligott CM 1966
Peter Cafolla 1958
Jonathon Peoples 1953
Eamon Keogh NM 1944
Diana Mirza WFM 1933
John P. Aherne 1903
Adam Collins 1887

HaraldSchmidt

RooksPawn wrote: »

Everything should be much clearer by the end of June - either much better or (in the case of new variants resistant to vaccines) much worse.

Personally, the thought of having to wear a mask throughout a potentially 5-hour session fills me with horror. Maybe the fully vaccinated might not have to wear masks?

But, how would you prove that you have been vaccinated? I think until the number of people vaccinated is high and the number of new daily infections is low, everybody should wear a mask.

macelligott

Additional entries have been slow to materialize, but we now have 27 entries.
32 was the maximum allowed last year. Though I believe the ICU hopes to be able to accommodate more entries this year.
It's good to see, also, there will be a <1300 tournament in the same venue the weekend before the championship.

sodacat11

HaraldSchmidt wrote: »

But, how would you prove that you have been vaccinated? I think until the number of people vaccinated is high and the number of new daily infections is low, everybody should wear a mask.

We had this debate last year with some people saying that wearing masks was uncomfortable, gave you asthma, stopped you breathing, made your ears fall off, trapped germs etc etc but as far as I know none of the competitors in last year's championship suffered any long term health problems as a result of wearing a mask. Wearing a mask is not ideal but it is a very small price to pay for being able to participate in a real live over the board tournament again.

Retd.LoyolaCpt

macelligott wrote: »

Additional entries have been slow to materialize, but we now have 27 entries.
32 was the maximum allowed last year. Though I believe the ICU hopes to be able to accommodate more entries this year.

This time two years ago we had 17 entries so we're in good shape. One entry per week between now and the event and we're at 42 so I wouldn't really expect any flurries of entries except maybe around the times that entry rates are due to rise.

RooksPawn

HaraldSchmidt wrote: »

But, how would you prove that you have been vaccinated? I think until the number of people vaccinated is high and the number of new daily infections is low, everybody should wear a mask.

Proof of being vaccinated is not a problem. Everybody vaccinated in Ireland receives a card showing exactly what they got (including batch number) and when. By the time of the Irish Championships a phone app or some other kind of electronic certificate will probably be in place.