The Philip Hogarty Memorial event is held each year at the Limerick Open and is a perfect opportunity for players of all ratings to have a chance to meet the higher rated players and try to beat them as its one of only a very few rating unrestricted events still being held in Ireland. This years top seed was Alex Lopez FM from Cork and he raced to 3 out of 3. In round 4 he met Kilkennys top Junior, Ryan Rhys Griffiths and was held to a draw. In round 5, he beat D.J. ODonoghue but in round 6, he lost to Rory Quinn of Ennis, which allowed Ryan to win the event on his own with a fine score on 5.5 / 6. Swissperfect gives Ryans rating performance as 2348 so this well deserved victory is one of the best performances from Ryan in a while and, hopefully, is the first of many more performances from the young Kilkennyman. Joint 2nd 4th were Alex Lopez, Rory Quinn and Nick Larter all on 4.5 / 6. Considering Nicks rating of 1715, this was a great score. The best under 1800 player grading prize went to Paul Carey of Limerick. Click here for crosstable.
The Under 1400 event was dominated by two players, Stephen Danaher from Shannon and a player from Dingle playing in his first ever rated event, Fionn O Neill. They jointly won the event on 5.5 out of 6, ahead of John McKenna ( the ICUs Junior officer ) Peter Doyle, Tim Dineen and a young Cork Junior, Keegan O Mahoney, all on 4 / 5. A blitz play-off was required to decide the winner and Fionn won this to take the title for this year. Click here for crosstable.