The Masters
Coming to the end of November in Ireland can only mean one thing to chess players, it's time for the annual Kilkenny Chess Congress and the weekend of the 23rd-25th saw this event staged in the Club House Hotel in Kilkenny. The masters event had a total of 32 players, five of whom were Grandmasters. Gawain Jones (2567) GM (picture, right) was top seed, the first time he's held that honour in an Irish Masters tournament. Alexander Baburin GM, Mark Hebden GM and Stuart Conquest GM were the 2nd to 4th seeds, all regulars at Kilkenny while Peter Wells GM, 5th seed, was making his first visit to Kilkenny.
Among the other titled players were Irish International Masters, Sam Collins, Mark Orr and Mark Heidenfeld. The first round threw up only one game that went against seeding, Anthony Fox beat one of the many visiting players from Holland, Ivo Timmersmans (2227) but the game of the round had to be Gawain Jones impressive endgame technique against the strong Dutchman Bram Van Dijk, not many players would have the known that the endgame reached in the diagramed position at move 39 is probably a provable win for Black (game)!
One of the dangers of the weekend chess circuit in Ireland is the late nights and Jamie Flynn from Limerick had the idea of running a Texas Hold'em poker tournament on Friday night, after the chess had ended! It started at 11:45 and didn't finish until about 4:00am, not a great idea when the next round begins at 9:30am. This event was won by Paul Reilly while yours truly came second and Rory Quinn third.
Round 2 saw the first titled players clashing, board 1 featured Gawain Jones against Alex Lopez FM from Cork, Gawain won to safely stay on maximum points. Sam Collins held Alex Baburin to a draw on board 2 while both Mark Hebden and Stuart Conquest joined Gawain on 2/2 at the expense of Karl McPhillips and Stephen Jessell respectively.
The pairings for round 3 looked really interesting:
- Stuart Conquest GM - Gawain Jones GM
- Alexander Baburin GM - Mark Hebden GM
- Peter Wells GM - Manuel Weeks
- Mark Orr IM - Sam Collins IM
- Mark Heidenfeld IM - John Anderson
Mark Heidenfeld beat John Anderson while Mark Orr mated Sam Collins's King in a classic attack down the h-file (game). On board 3 a titanic struggle between the English GM Peter Wells and the Australian Manuel Weeks (picture, right) ended in a win for Peter but could so easily have been different (game).
A very imaginative game by Manuel which deserved a better result. This game is a perfect example for the argument for changing the time controls in Irish Masters events to a Fischer type incremental time system.
On board 2 Alex Baburin beat Mark Hebden in a very tight struggle while the top board pairing, Conquest - Jones was drawn.
Round 4 paired Gawain Jones (2½) against Peter Wells (2½) and a fairly quick draw was agreed. The next three board also shared the point, taking rather more time to do so but on board 5, Mark Hebden was bouncing back from his defeat by Alex Baburin by beating Sam Collins. This set up the following clashes for round 5:
- Alex Baburin - Gawain Jones
- Peter Wells - Mark Hebden
- Stuart Conquest - Mark Heidenfeld
- Stephen Jessel - Mark Orr
But before round 5 could begin, Jamie Flynn organised another Texas Hold'em tournament, which went on almost as late as the previous one, this time the winner was Stephen Stokes, runner up - Alex Lopez. I think you can take it that if Jamie Flynn is playing in a weekender, there will be a poker tournament as well as the chess!
Back to the more serious matters, Stephen Jessel held the in-form Mark Orr to a draw, while the point was also shared on board 3. Things were quite different on board 2 though, Peter Wells (picture, right) saw his chance to clinch the lead (game).
As board 1 was a draw, this left Peter Wells with a lead going into the final round, the pairings looked like this:
- Alex Baburin (3½) - Peter Wells (4)
- Gawain Jones (3½) - Mark Heidenfeld (3½)
- Karl McPhillips (3½) - Stuart Conquest (3½)
- Mark Hebden (3) - Mark Orr (3½)
Mark Hebden recorded a win on board 4 and while it was great to see a local Kilkenny player on board 3 in the final round, Stuart proved just too strong for Karl. Gawain Jones won on board 2 but it was probably fitting that the very last game to finish in Kilkenny 2007 was the one deciding the destination of the trophy. Alex was pushing hard for a victory in a knight and 3 pawns vs bishop and 3 pawns ending with both players having less than a minute on the clock. The time scramble ended with a victory for Alex (game). This left a 3 way tie for 1st place (Jones, Baburin and Conquest) with the tie-break giving this year's title to Gawain Jones (see picture right). Full table.
The Major
The Major section was a hard fought event which, amazingly was won jointly by the 23rd and 12th seeds respectively who each scored 5 points. John Healy's rating is only 1686 while Swiss Perfect gives his rating performance as 2113. Mark Collins has a rating of 1818 and a rating performance of 2052. 1-2 John Healy, Mark Collins 5; 3-5 Eddie O'Connor, Gerard MacElligott, Bernard Boyle 4½. Grading section winners: 1 Oisin Benson, 2 John Alfred, 3 Gerry Behan, 4 Joe Reid. Full table.
James Mason
The James Mason, for players between 1200-1600 and was also won jointly: 1-2 Stephen Murphy, Chris Millar 5; 3-5 Denis O'Connell, Steven Stokes, Jamie Flynn 4½. Grading Section winners: 1 Denis O' Connell, 2 Martin Bourke, 3 Edward Hunphery, 4 Thabani Balang, 5 Ronan Magee. Full table.
Special mention must be made here of Ronan Magee, as he is only 8 years of age, and was playing in his first over 1200 National event - his rating performance for the event was 1625! He's one to watch for the future.
Challengers
The Challengers is for players under 1200 and was the only section this year to be won outright: 1 Michael, O'Toole 5½; 2-4 Anthony Breen, Sarah Jane Hearne, Eamonn Flannery 5. Grading Section winners: 1 Marc Lincoln, 2 Stephen Cowpar, 3 Conor Barrett, 4 Luke McCluskey, 5 Michael Coll, 6 Conor Dowling, 7 Conor Pender. Full table.
Special Award
At the well attended prize giving, not only were the winners awarded their respective gains but a rather special award was given by the Chairman of the Irish Chess Union, Philip Hogarty to honour the recipient's livelong commitment to, and achievements within, Irish Chess. He not only was instrumental in organising the Telecom Eireann Open in 1992 and the Zonal the following year, but he was also the first Irish born player to beat a grandmaster in over the board play in 1966. He is of course, Eamon Keogh (picture right). See also this news item and this game, the first win by an Irish player over a GM, from the 1964 Olympiad.
Thanks Lads
All in all, the 31st Kilkenny Congress was a great success and a very special tribute should be paid to Jack Lowry, Maurice Buckley and Alan Dooley for their enormous efforts in organising this annual Chess feast. [Many thanks also to Gerry Graham, the tournament controller, ed.]