Irish Championships 2021

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

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?

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

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

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.

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?

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

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.

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.

1 GM, 4 IM’s, 1 WIM, 8 FM’s, 2 CM’s, 1 WFM, 1 NM.
29 entries.
Looking good so far!

HaraldSchmidt wrote: »

I took a photo of my mother's vaccination card. It's a piece of cardboard with a sticker on it. I could easily make a copy of it, sticking my name and date of birth on it, and nobody would know the difference.

This is why in the USA, at least, they are giving out some crytographically secure proof of vaccination. It may still be fakeable, but not by anyone at home with a printer and a supply of stationery.

Evidently you have a fundamental belief in the veniality of your opponents. Do you think they all cheat?

I reckon that something electronic and secure will be put in place by the time international travel resumes on a large scale. The certificates (or whatever they loom like) will be based on the information in the HSE records, collected by GPs and vaccination centres, and the cards in the meantime will be accepted by whoever wants proof.

mikhail wrote: »

Evidently you have a fundamental naivety about the honesty of your opponents. Do you think none of them cheat? :pac:

I would guess blunder checking your moves would be nigh on undetectable in online chess, you play your own moves but simply blunder check them before playing. I would guess that's the approach used by many of the undetected cheaters that are out there? thoughts?

mikhail wrote: »

I was just teasing Rookspawn for his confrontational post, and this is a bit off topic, but to answer your question I don't think it'd be undetectable. It probably depends on your propensity to blunder and centipawn loss threshold for changing your move. The higher the former and the lower the latter, the more your average centipawn loss will be statistically strange. I've played through a few games flagged publicly as engine-assisted, and they don't look that strange. I can't imagine how much higher my rating would be if I never made a move that lost more than, say, 0.5 pawns, but you're probably talking hundreds of points. That'll get spotted. Spotted slower than just copying the engine, sure, but it's not invisible.

It would only prevent you blundering tactics I would guess, and one move blunders, but if you keep playing your own candidate moves with that sort of sanity check, I am not sure how detectable it would be, you would still lose your fair share of games, but it would defo prevent 1-2 move blunders that would otherwise cost you a game.

I think blatant cheating is obvious, as is taking far too long for simple captures and obvious responses etc. when validating obvious moves with an engine, but if done in a minor way it would likely would be hard to detect especially in longer format games.

The amount of obvious cheating on chess.com verges on the ridiculous, Eric Hansen played at least 2 blatant cheaters in Arena Kings last week, New accounts at IM / GM Elo's and you can see how their play deteriorates from a high level to 1200 level as time runs low, and engine validation becomes impossible due to the time it takes.

I count ten former champions entered in this years event. Most probably a record!

Champions in bold.

Collins, Sam E. IM 2456
Baburin, Alexander GM 2416
Murphy, Conor E FM 2394
Quinn, Mark IM 2370
Kanyamarala, Tarun FM 2369
Heidenfeld, Mark IM 2360
O`Donnell, Conor FM 2331
Fitzsimons, David IM 2324
Brady, Stephen FM 2292
Daly, Colm FM 2285
Ryan, Joseph FM 2271
Doyle, Anthony 2206
Delaney, John FM 2191
Kanyamarala, Trisha WIM 2180
Melaugh, Shane CM 2161
O'Connor, Jonathan 2153
McMahon, Daire FM 2115
Carroll, Peter CM 2059
Venkatesan, Kavin 2011
McMorrow, John 1997
MacElligott, Gerard CM 1966
Cafolla, Peter 1958
Peoples, Jonathon 1953
Keogh, Eamon 1944
Mirza, Diana WFM 1933
Lyons, Brendan 1931
Quigley,Colm 1924
Aherne, John P. 1903
Nolan, Conor 1884
Kevin O'Flaherty 1884
Adam Collins 1887

40 entries as of this morning (10 champions in bold). Not expecting too many more, maybe 10-12. Entries now open for the two weekenders.

Collins, Sam E. IM 2456
Baburin, Alexander GM 2416
Murphy, Conor E FM 2394
Quinn, Mark IM 2370
Kanyamarala, Tarun FM 2369
Heidenfeld, Mark IM 2360
O`Donnell, Conor FM 2331
Fitzsimons, David IM 2324
Delaney, Killian FM 2300
Brady, Stephen FM 2292
Daly, Colm FM 2285
Ryan, Joseph FM 2271
Doyle, Anthony 2206
Delaney, John FM 2191
Kanyamarala, Trisha WIM 2180
Melaugh, Shane CM 2161
O'Connor, Jonathan 2153
McMahon, Daire FM 2115
Carroll, Peter CM 2059
Venkatesan, Kavin 2011
McMorrow, John 1997
MacElligott, Gerard CM 1966
Cafolla, Peter 1958
Peoples, Jonathon 1953
Casey, Eoghan 1952
Duffy, Seamus 1945
Keogh, Eamon 1944
Tirziman, Rudolf 1941
Mirza, Diana WFM 1933
Lyons, Brendan 1931
Putar, Lara 1930
Quigley, Colm 1924
Putar, Leon 1918
O'Gorman, Alice 1907
Scott, Luke 1906
Aherne, John P. 1903
Collins, Adam 1887
Nolan, Conor 1884
O'Flaherty, Kevin 1884
Moran, Darragh 1859

sodacat11 wrote: »

We certainly have a field worthy of a 100th Irish Championship only Lopez, Jessl, Li and defending champ O'Gorman missing but still plenty of time for them to enter.

I have their odds of playing at something like:
Lopez - 25-50%, Jessel - 0-10%, Li - 25-50%, O'Gorman - 50-75%.

Of the unentered, I have 7 probable, 14 maybe, 10 unlikely (then 120 odd that are eligible but presumably won't play)

cdeb wrote: »

Does this mean there's around 200 players eligible? 40 entered, 30 hopefuls, and 120 others? That's mad. I presume the "others" includes lapsed players, etc? I didn't think it was that high at all.

Edit - actually, to answer my own question, the FIDE rating list for Ireland - including inactive players - has Richard O'Donovan in 100th with a rating of 2052. So I could well see there being another 100 players down to 1900.

The Nov 2019 ICU rating list had 1386 players, and was the biggest in recent times. 124th was the 1900 cut-off. So I guess the difference is inactive players, foreign IRL players who've returned home, and 1900 FIDE being lower than 1900 ICU.

my list is very rough but yes, about 225 eligible. The pool of players who would/could realistically play is maybe 100-110.