The Mulcahy cup was held over the weekend at UCC. Over 50 people turned up to play in this open format six rounder tournament with top seed being Alex Lopez FM. A good blend of talent was on show right through the grading bands with some close calls for higher seeds in the early rounds. Players travelled from Dublin, Waterford, Clare and Limerick to this tournament which is evidence of the popularity of the tournament's format.
Friday evening began on a more sombre note. News was reaching all corners of the world that former world champion Bobby Fischer had passed away. As a mark of respect for one of the all time chess greats and for Philip Hogarty who recently died, a minute silence was observed.
Play got under way and there were a few close calls amongst round 1 but things went according to most plans. From the outset Alex Lopez was proving his class. Cork players Arnaud Aoustin, Brian Galligan and Kieran Moyhnihan with Rory Quinn of Ennis were in the hunt for most of the tournament. A flurry of Pauls were also in Contention with messrs Kiely, Walsh and O'Donovan in the running also.
A number of promising juniors in Kieran O'Riordain and Hugh Doyle were scaring the elder folk, with Hugh taking an impressive 1800+ rated scalp in Gerry McCarthy. While I personally think the best performance of the weekend was Lennox's chipper in getting me fed in record time in between rounds, Pat Colman certainly deserved the best chess performance by rating. Pat finished on 4/6 and his rating performance was over 200 points above his 1180 rating. Well done Pat!
In the end, despite a very close calls, Alex Lopez came through in the end. Brian Galligan (Cork) turned in a solid unbeaten performance to finish joint second with Kieran Moynihan (CCYMS). Grading prizes went to James McKeon (Cork) 1950-1600, Denis O'Connell (Cork) 1600-1250 and to Pat Colman (Limerick) 1250-unrated. As Pat Colman won the grading prize, the next best performance rating was by Hugh Doyle (Cork).
Full report with some games and pics will follow in a few days on the Cork Chess website. Thanks to D.J. O'Donoghue, Peter Doyle and of course Lennox's for their part over the weekend.
Hope to see you all for the next Cork tournament, the Cork Congress 28th - 30th March.