Approximately 210 School teams took part in our annual schools leagues, down c20 teams on last year. However, our new Celtic Chess Challenge (individual competition) had c30 schools taking part, so overall chess activity was up on last year.
Teams consist of 4 individuals so that 4 juniors and a driver can fit in one car.
All 4000+ department of Education listed schools were written to and invited to participate, so we can say it was a true Irish schools competition.
Activity was up in the main Cities - Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway, while other counties were generally down. Some counties with only one team were allowed straight through to regional or Irish Finals.
This year we changed the Finals format to allow individual winners to shine through. The tournament finals were run as individual tournaments at various locations, and team scores were the sum of each individual's game score. Some schools only put in Individuals, rather than teams. This approach allowed us to Rapidplay-rate all the finals. See Ratingsvault (swissperfect based) for ratings.
Many hundreds of school children now have a rating from the Irish Chess Union.!! More information is available on ChessZ.
Results of Novices and Under-10's competitions can be found on our website.
All regional/national finals used chess clocks with 15 minutes each - minimum rapidplay times.
SECONDARY SCHOOLS:
Three leagues were on offer - Novices, Champions and Girls-only. Novices Leagues winners do not go forward to Irish Finals.
The finals of the Champions and Girls-only leagues were held in Limerick in May.
Champions League: Castletroy College/Limerick came first with Caimins College/Shannon in 2nd place. Stephen Hanly/Shannon won the Irish Champions individual event.
Girls-Only League: Villiers School/Limerick came first with Ursuline Convent/Cork in 2nd place. There was a tie for first place in the Individual between Emily Alfred/Villiers and Carol Delaney/Castlecomer College. Emily won the Blitz play-off making her the Irish Secondary Schools Girls champion.
Limerick and Cork supplied most of the Girls teams with a few from Connacht, only one from Leinster, and none from Ulster.
PRIMARY SCHOOLS:
Four leagues were on offer; Under-10s, Novices, Champions and Girls-Only. Most teams went for the Under-10s and Novices, with the under-10s being particularly popular in Limerick. Only Champions and Girls-only leagues went to regional and Irish finals.
Four regional finals were run prior to the Irish finals which were held in Limerick. The top two teams in each league were allowed play in the Irish finals, as well as the individual winners.
Munster Finals: This were held in The John Barleycorn Hotel in Cork city. Tiernaboule/Killarney won both Champions and Girls-only with an almost perfect score. Tommy Carroll and Mairead Foley, both from Tiernaboule, had to play their team-mates in a blitz final for the individual Munster titles. Scoil-Ide/Limerick came second in both events.
Connacht Finals: These were held in The Galway Bay Hotel in Salthill. In the Champions league, Knocknacarra/Galway came first followed closely by Ballinlass NS/Galway. There was a tie for first place in the Girls-only Finals between Templemary/Mayo and St Josephs/Sligo - Templemary won the Blitz playoff. Ruth Cormican from Clarinbridge and Patrick Dervan/Knocknacarra won the Individual events.
Midlands Finals: These were held in the Bridge Hotel in Tullamore. In the Champions League, St Mary's/Westmeath came first with The Rock NS/Laois a close second. Muaz Faheem won the individual title. In the Girls-only league, Presentation/Westmeath came first with Scoil Bhride/Offaly 2nd. Niamh Mooney won the individual title.
East Leinster and Ulster Finals: These were held in Cassidy's Hotel/Dublin. It was very difficult finding a moderately priced Hotel in Dublin, compared to the rest of the country. This delayed the finals and resulted in a lower turnout. Both Girls-only and Champions League were run off as one event. In the Champions League, Dulargey NS/Louth narrowly beat St. Aidans/Dublin for first place. Qi Jie Lam/Castleknock Educate Together/Dublin won the champions Individual title. The Girls-Only was won by Scoil Cholmcille/Dublin followed by April Cronin's 3-girl team from St Catherine's NS/Dublin. Cliona Murphy/Dunshaughlin was the highest placed girl.
Irish Finals: These were held in Limerick at the Kilmurry Lodge Hotel in Castletroy in June. Tiernaboule/Killarney won the Champions Leagues followed by Scoil-Ide/Limerick. Tommy Carroll/Kerry is the Irish Individual Champion. Again, Tiernaboule/Killarney won the Girls-only League followed by by Scoil-Ide Girls/Limerick. Ruth Cormican won the individual Title and is Irish Primary Schools Girls Champion 2006. If you check her name on Ratingsvault, you will find she has won every junior rapidplay she's played in, 16 straight games in total.
All team winners and their managers won 100 Euros each in gift vouchers. Hundreds of players won medals and/or trophies across all leagues.
PLANS FOR THE FUTURE:
ChessZ tries to introduce something new each year in order to keep growing chess among young players.
One of it's primary aims is to introduce children to the Irish Chess Union and it's International activites. This is happening NOW with the introduction of the Rapidplay Ratings System which we have worked with the ICU to launch. (We wonder what's the point of introducing tens of thousands of children to chess, if they never get the chance to join the ICU and develop their full potential?)
Invitations will be going out to schools over the next few weeks, with another new initiative for the 2006-07 season!