The 33rd Drogheda Chess Congress was held recently over the June Bank Holiday Weekend (1st-3rd June) in St Mary's Parish Primary School. The event was the brainchild of the late Andrew Thomson, who took the Congress with him from Wexford when he relocated to Drogheda in 1998. Over the years, the format has evolved into the event we have today: a 6 round, 90+30, ICU & FIDE rated Swiss.
The Congress is split into four sections and are named for past members of the Drogheda Chess Club who made substantial contributions to the club's life. These are the Murray Challengers - named in honour of Jimmy Murray , the Fox Major - named in honour of Donnie Fox, the O'Boyle Championship - named in honour of Enda O'Boyle and the Thomson Masters - named in honour of the Congress founder himself.
In total, there were 133 entrants this year, equalling the turnout from last year, with players competing from a wide range of federations, including Egypt, Uzbekistan, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, India, Poland, Sri Lanka, and of course, Ireland. The Masters this year was particularly strong with such recognisable players as IM David Fitzsimons and FM Colm Daly being joined by FM Oleg Artemenko from Uzbekistan and WGM Shrook Wafa from Egypt. Added to the mix was last year's winner, CM Jacob Flynn, as well as other up-and-coming talents, and the result was a highly competitive section with an average rating of over 2000.
This year also saw generous sponsorship across all sections. Drogheda Credit Union sponsored the Thomson Masters and Murray Challengers. Fox Jewellers Drogheda sponsored the Fox Majors and Western Motors sponsored the O'Boyle Championship.
The Congress was also the first tournament held following the recent ICU rating adjustment. The rating band for each section was adjusted and everyone was eventually placed in their appropriate section.
In addition, all participants received a personalized name card (pictured) created by John Loughran, which, as well as looking good on the table, helped to add names to faces.
Live Boards
Starting from the 32nd Congress, the event is now broadcast to the world using DGT e-Boards. The Congress aims to have at least one of the top boards in each section broadcasted live. This year 14 boards were broadcasted - 2 in the Murray Challengers, 2 in the Fox Major, 2 in the O'Boyle Championship and all of the Thomson Masters.
Apart from Round 3 being unavailable (due to a temporary power outage!), and the odd e-Board quirk in other rounds, we are pleased to announce that nearly all boards and rounds were broadcasted successfully. These broadcasts are available on DGT LiveChess Cloud and lichess.org and can be viewed via the Congress Live Board page.
All games broadcasted were interesting. However some of particular note in the Masters:
Murphy vs Daly 0-1 (Round 2): The Congress doesn't have a bravery award but if it did it probably would have gone to Sean J. Murphy for venturing 1.Nh3!? against FM Colm Daly (and getting a playable position?). The opening goes by many names but perhaps the most common is "Amar", named for the player but more jokingly suggested by our own Tim Harding to be an acronym - "Absolutely mad and ridiculous".
Daly vs Fitzsimons 1-0 (Round 3): Unfortunately a temporary power outage knocked all of this round off air. However Colm Daly graciously forwarded on to us by request this game. Daly has won the Congress on many occasions - this game brought him towards another!
Fitzsimons vs Artemenko 0-1 (Round 4): Uzbekistan is a formidable chess nation these days. As well as capturing the last Olympiad they stormed the old walls of Drogheda and captured the Congress too! This was probably the game that sealed it for FM Oleg Artemenko. Commiserations to David, who still fought back to finish joint 2nd despite these two losses!
Photography
We were honoured that the Drogheda Photography Society accepted an invitation to photograph this year's Congress. We wish to extend our thanks and appreciation to all the photographers who did a fantastic job. We present a small sample below - all credit to 2 Tanks Photography.ie.
The full set of photos can viewed on Adobe Lightroom here or Facebook - Part 1 & Part 2.
The club itself was capturing the event as well. Our own Frank Pentony hit on an interesting idea of time-lapsing part of one of the rounds. So below we present a time-lapse of the lead up to and beginning of Day 2- Round 3.
Prize Winners
In each section, there were prizes awarded for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place overall, with prizemoney shared equally between those on equal points, regardless of tie-breaks - the prizemoney from the place below being amalgamated. A Grading Prize was awarded to one player with the best score, within each of the rating bands indicated on the Starting Rank Player List, who did not win another prize. Grading prizes were not shared but decided on tie-break. The winners are as follows:
Thomson Masters
1st (€500): (Joint 1st) FM Oleg Artemenko (pictured with organiser Frank Pentony) and FM Colm Daly (UCD) - 4½/6 - €400 each.
2nd (€300): Amalgamated with 1st place.
3rd (€170): (Joint 2nd) IM David Fitzsimons (Elm Mount), CM Jacob Flynn (Malahide), Oisin O’ Cuilleanain (KoÉ/Rathmines), Jason Liu (Gonzaga) and CM Adam Collins (Malahide) - 4/6 - €35 each.
Grading Prize (€120): (ICU Rating < 2000) Paibir Atharva - 3/6.
O'Boyle Championship
1st (€400): Emmet O'Rourke (DCU) (pictured with Enda O'Boyle's son Donal) - 5/6.
2nd (€250): (Joint 2nd) Jacob Nelson (DCU) and Mohammad Mahbuv Parouace (Dublin) - 4½/6 - €200 each.
3rd (€150): Amalgamated with 2nd place.
Grading Prize (€100): (ICU Rating 1800-1850) Rohan Salin (Elm Mount) - 3½/6.
Grading Prize (€100): (ICU Rating < 1800) Anastasiya Kelbas (Chess Kings) - 3½/6.
O'Boyle Championship Standings
Fox Major
1st (€300): Beckett Spence (Baburin Mount Merrion) (pictured with organiser Frank Pentony) - 5/6.
2nd (€150): (Joint 2nd) Rordan Fagan (Drogheda), Declan Voogt (Dungarvan) and Adam Bermingham (KoÉ/Rathmines) - 4½/6 - €85 each.
3rd (€100): Amalgamated with 2nd place.
Grading Prize (€80): (ICU Rating 1640-1700) Goutham Shivanna - 4/6.
Grading Prize (€80): (ICU Rating < 1640) Diarmaid Waldron - 4/6.
Murray Challengers
1st (€200): Vladislav Puchkov (Drogheda) (pictured with organiser Frank Pentony) - 6/6.
2nd (€100): (Joint 2nd) Kevin Haung (Elm Mount) and Thierry Brearley (Drogheda) - 5/6 - €90 each.
3rd (€75): Amalgamated with 2nd place.
Grading Prize (€65): (ICU Rating 1400-1550) Daoin Burns (Lucan) - 4½/6.
Grading Prize (€65): (ICU Rating 1400-1550) Diego Carreira - 4/6.
Grading Prize (€65): (ICU Rating 1000-1400) Armisad Zalli - 3/6.
Grading Prize (€65): (Unrated) Mark Roddy - 4½/6.
Grading Prize (€65): (Unrated) Andrew Connolly (Drogheda) - 4/6.
Acknowledgements
The Drogheda Chess Club would like to thank all those who helped organise and run the event, in particular Chief Organiser Frank Pentony and Chief Arbiter Henry Williams. We’d like to thank John Loughran, not just for his name cards but as a guiding hand throughout. We'd like to thank all our sponsors as well as the local restaurants and businesses in the area that provided discounts to players during the event. We'd like to thank everyone else outstanding who made this possible. The list is a long one, but you know who you are, we couldn't have done it without you. Finally, we'd like to thank the players, without whom there wouldn't be a Drogheda Chess Congress!
We hope to see you all again next year, on May 31st, 2025, for the 34th Drogheda Chess Congress.
See you there...