This was the ninth in a series of chess tournaments run by transition year students at Gonzaga College, Ranelagh, Dublin 6. The goal is not just to provide a traditional weekend event, but to raise as much money as possible for charity, in this case the Habitat for Humanity Project in Madagascar. The recession made sponsorship that bit harder to obtain, so thanks to AIB and Rocca Tiles for coming through, but there was a welcome bucking of the trend in that entries were up on the previous year. Playing in a chess tournament is clearly the cheapest way to spend a cold weekend in Dublin!
The tournament was held over the weekend of 29-31 January 2010. The chief organisers were Cormac OBrien, Ross Byrne and Tim Wyse, with assistance from Daniel Lynch. Next year there will be a new group of organisers involved, of course, and they will have big shoes to fill.
One departure from previous years was the move to the new sports hall at the back of the building which has hosted the tournament in the school for so many years. It proved to be an ideal venue for chess, warm and spacious and, most of all, inspiring many great chess games (and no errant mobile phones!).
The top scorers in each section were as follows:
- Masters: 1 David Fitzsimons 6/6; 2 Rory Delaney 4; 3-4 Gerry OConnell, Mark Collins 3½.
- Championship: 1-2 Eric Bennett, Matthias Rahneberg 4½/6; 3-5 Pat Twomey, Balazs Bedi, Sean Nolan 4.
- Major: 1 Tom OSullivan 5/6; 2-4 Anthony Baker, William Ffrench, Justin Corry 4½; grading prize Nicola Benson 3½.
- Challengers: 1 Neil Mullooly 6/6; 2-4 Pat OBrien, Bekim Davitt, Andrew Staunton 5½; grading prize Patrick Kavenga 4; ladies prize Sinead Duffy.