The 30^th Annual Kilkenny Chess Congress was run over the weekend of November 24^th to 26^th. There were four competitions: the Challengers, the James Mason, the Major and the Masters. The first two competitions were held in the Club House Hotel while the top events were held across in Butler House.

Jack Lowry, the chief organiser of the event for more years than he cares to remember, once again managed to get the current world number 9, Mickey Adams GM to come to Kilkenny; naturally, he was top seed. Mickey has won this event before but so had the second and third seeds, Mark Hebden GM and Alexander Baburin GM. Fourth seed was one of two twins playing in the event, Valeri Atlas IM from Austria, fifth was Gawain Jones IM followed by Mark Heidenfeld IM and Valeri's twin brother Dimitry. These two were really identical, right down to their haircut, they could easily have played each others games and I don't think anyone would have been any the wiser. In total there were 26 players in the Masters and in the first round, which always pits the top half against the bottom half of the draw, there was only one game that went against seeding. Local hero, John White ( 2041 ) was paired against the 10^th seed, Bram Van Dijk from Holland and John won. This may have come as a surprise to many but not to the members of the Kilkenny Chess Club; they recently qualified to play in the European Club Championship in Austria and their top scorer in the event was John. He's obviously in very good form as the following game from round 3 shows.

Mark Orr showed he's not completely past it yet with the following game.

Mickey Adams (right) has been in the top ten in the world for over a decade, but, as Mark Heidenfeld showed in the second round, it is possible to get a result, maybe not quiet the result he'd dreamed of, but a result, none the less. I wouldn't dream of trying to comment on a Mickey Adams game so I give it without notes.

Because of this result, Mickey was relegated to board two while board one saw Valeri Atlas beat Gawain Jones to reach 3/3. Local player Karl McPhillips had white against Michael Adams and after a tough game, he managed to achieve a theoretically drawn position, albeit a difficult one. It was rook and three pawns against rook and three pawns but as all three of Karl's pawns were isolated, great technique was required to prove the draw. Unfortunately, this proved too much for Karl in the time allowed and Mickeys experience saw him through to reach 2½/3, a score now shared by Dimitry Atlas after beating Rory Quinn from Ennis. In round 4, Michael Adams beat Valeri Atlas in the following nice game.

In the picture below of the Atlas twins, Dimitry is probably the one nearer the camera but, who knows.

Sunday morning saw the top pairing of Mark Hebden against Michael Adams. Mark had obviously prepared well for this game as was evident from his attire, he had not forgotten to wear his Kilkenny Chess Club jumper. Michael Adams, also the proud owner of the much coveted garment, had forgotten to wear his, I wonder if this had any bearing on the result.

Wow, this result was a sensation and effectively ended Mickey's hopes in the event.

In the final round, Valeri managed to beat Mark Orr to reach 3½ while Dimitry was held to a draw by Bram Van Dijk from Holland, leaving him on 4. Andrew Mendelson should have had a draw against Alexander Baburin but made an error in the time scramble to allow Alex to clinch the full point and reach 4 also. Michael Adams was just too strong for Gawain Jones but the clash on the top board was a fierce battle with chances for both sides. Here is the game that decides the title of Kilkenny Masters Champion 2006.

So Mark Hebden, seen below wearing his the Kilkenny club jumper, won the Masters on a very impressive score of 5/6.

An interesting pairing on boards 6 and 7, local players John White and Ryan-Rhys Griffiths were paired against Arno Weber and Kees de Kruif respectively giving us, as Jack Lowry pointed out, a Kilkenny vs Holland match. As John White won and Ryan Rhys Griffiths drew, Ireland won the mini-match 1½-&frac1;.

You may be forgiven for thinking that the only good games were played in the Masters, that's not the case. In the Major, Limerick man, Jamie Flynn played a nice queen sac in the following game - this game is rich in tactics.

Of course there were 4 events in all and I give below the list of prize winners in each section.

Masters: 1st Mark Hebden, GM (England), 2nd - 3rd Michael Adams, GM (England), Valeri Atlas IM (Austria, but originally Russia). Best untitled Irish player: John White, Kilkenny.

Major: 1st - 3rd Eddie O' Connor (Dublin), Gerard MacElligott (Dublin), Danny Mallaghan (Belfast). Grading sections: top: John Donoghue (Cork); 2nd: Mark Collins (Dublin); 3rd: Hammad Khonji; 4th: Stephen Roe.

James Mason: 1st Colin Menzies (Limerick), 2nd Stephen Stokes (Bray), 3rd Michael Normoyle (Shannon). Grading sections: top: John Curtis (Inchicore); 2nd: Paul O' Donoghue (Cork); 3rd: John O' Connor (Cork); 4th: Gregory Baily (Rathmines).

Challengers: 1st Brendan Mulvey (Limerick); 2nd - 6th Eoin McSweeney (Cork); Bernard Walsh (Dungarvan), Andrew O' Donoghue (Cork), Edward Doyle (Royal Lopez), Fergal Kelly (Thurles). Grading sections: top: Tony Deane (Ballinasloe); 2nd: David Finnan, 3rd: John McKenna (Ballinasloe); 4th: John Gordon (Dungarvan); 5th: Brendan Cuffe (St. Benildus); 6th: Juhua Lili (University of Limerick); 7th: Stephen Timmoney (Dublin).