Intro

This year the World Youth Championships are taking place in Halkidiki, Greece. Ireland is sending players for most of the categories.

The boys team includes Sam Osborne who will be hoping to have a good tournament as this is the last year that he will be eligible to play. Also in the u-18's is Ryan Rhys-Griffiths, who is the highest-rated player in the squad and will be hoping to have a good performance after a string of good results in the summer, notably in the British Championships where he became the u-18 Champion. Mark Berney is our u-16 player, who is playing for the first time in an event of this calibre, but I'm sure he'll be up to the task! Oissine Murphy is our u-14 player, a player who is already showing a lot of promise at a very young age. Ronan Magee is our under-12 player, and having previously come as high as joint 4th in a European Youth Championships, he will no doubt have high ambitions to put in a strong performance and finish high up the rankings. Finally, our u-10 player is Jeffrey Alfred, who is representing Ireland at this level for the first time, but certainly not for the last time.

As for the girls, we have no u-18 player this year, but still we have quite a strong team with Sarah Jane Hearne playing in the u-16 category. She's coming off a very successful Olympiad campaign, where she had one of the highest performances of the team and also received the WCM title. In the u-14 section Sinead Duffy is playing her first World Youth Championships, while the u-12 representative is Sarah Jane's younger sister, Catherine Hearne. Finally, in the u-10 section we have Diana Mirza, who is in the same boat as our boys u-10, representing Ireland for the very first time.

Most of the players are accompanied with their parents, and the Head of Delegation is Barbara Magee. The coach (and writer of the diary!) is Alex Lopez.

Halkidiki, and getting there!

Most of the players on the team met up for the first time in London Gatwick Airport, where we all spent one night before the 3 hour flight to Thessaloniki in Greece. On arrival, we were picked up and taken by coach on the 1.5 hour flight to the venue, a seaside resort which boast lavish surroundings, and which has more swimming pools Unfortunately, it's in dire need of renovation, and where this has proven to be a real problem has been the extremely poor internet connection, which has turned normally simple things like checking opponents games into a complete nightmare, with the WiFi losing signal every couple of minutes!

Aside from this pretty major grievance, everything else seems to be going reasonably smoothly -- the rooms are spacious enough, there is a great selection of food, and the draw is being posted the night before, making it easier for everyone to start their pre-game prep! The organisers did have some problems with the playing hall(s), since originally their plan was to place everyone in the massive main hall, but this idea had to be abandoned when a record nearly 1500 players showed up to participate! I have heard that the previous record was under 1000 -- and it's hard to explain such a huge increase! I guess maybe people liked the idea of having two weeks of sun in late October, or maybe in recessionary times chess suddenly gains in appeal! Whatever the reason, the Porto Carras resort of Halkidiki is bursting at the seams with chessplayers, so much so that the tournament organisers had to set three playing halls instead of one, with chess players staying at several different hotels, and the organisers eventually waiving their demands that players who could not find accommodation in the Porto Carras resort would not be able to participate.

However, all this has come at a price, and some teams have been left in the unpleasant position of having a 20-minute bus ride to the venue. Fortunately, the Irish team are only a few minutes walk away, and settling into the rooms has been a smooth affair.

Tomorrow is the first day, and best of luck to all the players, who will be looking to kick off the tournament with a strong showing!

Day 1

Today was absolute chaos, as the organisers did not fulfil their promise of putting up the first-round pairings by the announced time of 12pm. Instead, the players did not get the chance to start preparing against their opponents until 1pm when the draw was finally put up, which made everyone's job extremely challenging.

The first day was always going to be tough, but the Irish players generally played well, and we enjoyed pretty decent success in the boys group! Mark Berney had a very high-rated opponent, who was rated 2272, but I was pleasantly surprised when in under an hour he arrived back to the hotel and casually informed me that he had won. Okay, perhaps I should mention that his opponent had failed to show up, but still, Ireland got the first win of the entire tournament, so things could have been worse!

The other wins of the day came from Ryan Rhys-Griffiths, who convincingly beat his 1900 opponent, and Ronan Magee, who didn't give many chances to the Canadian u-12 Champion. Everyone else faced much higher-rated opposition and weren't able to achieve any scalps yet, but it's early days!

Day 2

Today there wasn't the mayhem surrounding the 1st day, and with the draw having gone up the night before, our players were able to prepare far more extensively. The result of the day was certainly encouraging, as Ireland won both their games in the u-10's, with Jeffrey Alfred winning in the boys section and Diana Mirza getting her first victory for the girls u-10. That was certainly a good ice-breaker for our youngest representatives!

Ronan Magee beat a 2000+ rated player on the black side of a crazy Najdorf, with both sides attacking but Black having control for most of the game. A strong result, and Ronan became the only Irish player to remain on full points, as Ryan Rhys-Griffiths lost to his 2424 M opponent. Meanwhile, Sam Osborne had a pretty good result, clawing back from a dodgy opening position to draw against his 2245 opponent from Switzerland. In fact, at one point during the time scramble, he missed a winning line in a highly complex position. Still, Sam was understandably in good spirits after the result.

Everyone else lost their games, and the toughest pill to swallow was Oissine Murphy's marathon 6-hour game, which ended up with him losing a rook ending that seemed impossible to hold.

Tomorrow, the team will face some tough opposition, notably Mark Berney who is playing a 2163, Sam Osborne who is playing a 2227, and Ronan Magee who, on 2/2, will be playing on one of the higher boards of the u-12 competition against a strong Indian player, with a rating of 2059.

Day 3

The Irish players chalked up 3 points between them today. The sole win of the day came from Oissine Murphy, who bounced back after a bad start, winning his game convincingly to get off the mark. Perhaps the most eagerly anticipated game of the day was Ronan Magee, who was joint 1st in the u-12's on 2/2. He faced a 2000+ Indian player as Black, and the result was a satisfactory draw. This was Ronan's second black in a row, which makes his score all the more impressive. The two u-18's both drew. Ryan Rhys-Griffiths drew against his Croatian counterpart with a 2132 rating, but Sam Osborne continued his good run by holding a 2227 Vietnamese player to a draw. In fact, to say he held him to a draw would be an unfair appraisal of the game, as at one point he was very close to winning. Of note also is that Jeffrey Alfred, our u-10, was paired against an FM!! In fact, the American's rating is a 'modest' 1850 or so, but having won the u-8 World Youth section the previous year, he gained the title automatically. Jeffrey did not manage to get a scalp on this occasion unfortunately!

In the girls section, the only draw of the day was by Catherine Hearne, who drew with her Scottish opponent. The girls sections seem to be incredibly tough, and as an example, Diana Mirza who was on 1/3 was paired against a 1700 opponent in the u-10 section. Unfortunately, this meant another tough loss for her. Sarah-Jane Hearne had a wonderful Olympiad campaign, but here the opposition has been constantly tough, and unfortunately she was unable to obtain anything against her 1700 opponent and has had the roughest start to the tournament of the squad. Still, in such a long tournament there's plenty of time to recover!

Day 4

4/10 today, things are getting better! A real bag of mixed results, as Ronan Magee finally stumbled on the White side of a closed Sicilian against his 2053 opponent. Still, he's on 2.5/4 and a good showing on tomorrow's double day could well leave him back in contention. Oissine Murphy in the u-14's followed up his first win yesterday with a draw against a 1932 opponent today and was understandably happy with his game against his Slovak opponent. However, without question the result of the day was Mark Berney's, who was beaming after beating his 2307 FM opponent. Considering Mark's current rating is just under 2000, this is perhaps the biggest scalp of the tournament so far. However, in some ways I was not too surprised when I heard about the result as the quality of Mark's play has impressed me during our coaching sessions from the very start of the tournament.

Ryan Rhys-Griffiths is still trying to find his feet in the tournament, and today suffered an unfortunate defeat against his Danish 2161 opponent. As with other players who are having a bad start, it's important to keep spirits high, and with just under two thirds of the tournament to go, there's still ample opportunity to have a good showing. Our other u-18, Sam Osborne, played the white side of a French defence with impressive precision, and in fact after about 15 or 16 moves his opponent would have been lost had Sam found the winning tactical stroke. Unfortunately, Sam erred in his judgment and in a complicated position wound up making a dubious Knight manoeuvre, costing him not just the win but the full point. Still, despite the bad result today, going over Sam's games has left me convinced that he's playing at a much higher level than his rating of 2038 would suggest. Therefore, it is hopefully only a matter of time before he starts locking up a few wins.

The girls did very well in today's round, getting 2.5 points out of their 4 games. Two of the girls had had a difficult start to the tournament - Sarah-Jane Hearne in the u-16 section and Sinead Duffy in the u-14's - but both of them turned things around with convincing wins today. Unfortunately, Diana Mirza lost today, while our u-12 representative, Catherine Hearne picked up her second draw of the tournament, this time against a WFM opponent, with a rating just under 1800. Definitely an impressive result to cap off the day!

Day 5 (R5)

Back when I used to play these tournaments, there were no 'double round' days, but nowadays it seems to be the norm. The downside is that it's quite a tough day for the players, and it makes it very difficult to do any preparation, which is crazy considering how big of a stage this is. On the bright side, the players get compensated by having a free day the day after, which I'm sure everyone will appreciate!

In round 5 the Irish got 3½/10. In the boys section, Ronan Magee won against a 2038 Russian opponent, recovering immediately from his single loss in the tournament, and putting his performance around the 2050 mark, which is very good going indeed! Sam Osborne was the other player who secured a comfortable win on the black side of a King's Indian, albeit against one of the weaker players in what is an extremely tough section. There was also one draw from the boys today, and that came from Ryan Rhys-Griffiths against his Georgian counterpart.

In the girls section Diana Mirza picked up the sole win of the day, beating her Dutch opponent. Sinead Duffy was unable to get anything out of her game against her 1900 opponent, while the Hearne sisters both faced 1700 strength opposition and did not manage to score on this occasion. It's hard to believe just how many 1600 and 1700+ players there are in the girls sections, even in the younger ones like the u-10's and u-12's. It's crazy, but the average rating faced by most of the girls in this tournament is higher than that faced by our Women's senior team at the Olympiad just gone by.

Day 5 (R6)

This round was supposed to be the toughest, but in fact the players delivered one of their better results so far, scoring 4½/10. In the boys section Ronan Magee mishandled a position against his opponent when he was a pawn up, but nonetheless got a draw. Of course, he was a little upset that he was not able to pick up the full point, but considering his Indian rival was rated 2125 and 15th seed, the result was nothing but very impressive, and Ronan is now on 4/6, having suffered no more than a single loss. Unsurprisingly, he's racked up more points than any of the other Irish players, and let's hope that his winning ways continue!

Sam Osborne was also able to win, and it was a particularly satisfying win. Firstly, because at 2151, it was a nice scalp for Sam and a just reward having missed a couple of winning lines in previous games against tough opposition. And then, it was also very satisfying for me as the coach, since Sam refrained from playing his usual line, choosing instead an off-beat line at my recommendation. This handsomely paid off, and his opponent was pretty much lost after one or two inaccuracies. After that, Sam converted his advantage smoothly.

Oissine Murphy had another tough near 2000 rated opponent, and was unable to get anything out of the game. Jeffrey Alfred suffered a similar defeat, while Mark Berney messed up a decent position against his 2343 FM opponent from Russia when in severe time trouble, and indeed was unable to reach the time control, with his flag falling just before his 40th move! Ryan Rhys-Griffiths made some leeway in what has not been his tournament so far, but comfortably beat his 2100 Belgian opponent.

In the girls section, Diana Mirza got a fabulous result, drawing with her Peruvian opponent rated 1683! Having analysed a few of her games so far in this tournament, she is a very impressive talent, and I have no doubt she will be a strong enough player to crack into the Women's Olympiad team in a few years at most. In fact, the result was bittersweet, since a nervous Diana actually offered a draw in a completely winning position. Needless to say, her opponent couldn't believe her luck and didn't hesitate to take the draw. Nonetheless, her play from start to finish showed a maturity beyond her years, and she's definitely one player to watch out for.

Meanwhile, Sinead Duffy had a good result, drawing against her Russian opponent in a well-played game on her part. She played the c3-Sicilian for the first time, but it seems to suit her style well, so I'm sure it won't be the last time that she does. In the u-12 section, Catherine Hearne was unable to get anything out of her game, but this was not so for her older sister, Sarah-Jane Hearne, who won against her 1467 opponent without any real difficulty. A good result for our newest titled female player!

Overall, the results for today were as good as could be expected, if not better, and now the Irish players can look forward to the free day. We have a blitz tournament and some swap chess lined up for this evening, and a football match against the Scots tomorrow!

Day 6 (rest day)

Today was the free day. The night before, there had been a casual blitz tournament, which not all of the players participated in, as some of them understandably didn't want to use their time off from chess to...well...play even more chess! I myself decided to give it a miss. I didn't actually see any of it myself, but I think I heard that Ryan was the eventual winner, edging out his nearest rival Sam Osborne.

When this was over, a few games of swap chess were in order, and having not had the chance to play this very fun variant of chess in years, I couldn't help but join in. We wound up playing for hours on end, and I took the opportunity to unwind and have a couple of pints at the same time. Sam Osborne, the only 18 year old in the team, proved an easy figure to corrupt and ended up as my drinking partner for the night. Just in case his parents are reading this, I better point out that he only had three pints in the whole night, which was still more than I managed to, as Sarah-Jane Hearne knocked over one of my beers, and it had little more than a drop left when the dust settled. She did claim it was accidental, but I have my doubts!

Gradually, the players retreated to their beds, although most stuck around past midnight. Mark Berney displayed the most endurance, and still seemed to be fresh at 2.30am when Sam and I finally decided to call it a day.

The next morning (early afternoon!) we were woken up by Gabriel Mirza, who was eager to get a football match started on the green next to the swimming pool. Gabriel is a former professional footballer, and under his guidance, the Irish team successfully took on all comers. The first team to fall were the Sri Lankans (see picture), who were perhaps not too wise in choosing to wear flip flops for our encounter. Ireland won very convincingly -- something like 8-2 I think. After that, we took on a team of Germans and Dutch. Again, they were unable to match our line-up, which had Gabriel as our goalie and team captain, the Hearne sisters in defence, me and Ryan in mid-field, and Sam as our star striker, who provided a few clinical finishes. Ronan Magee, Jeffrey Alfred, and Diana Mirza also played, although I don't think they stuck to any positions, much to the dismay of our highly organised captain!

When the Dutch and Germans decided to pack it in, we faced the incredibly strong Indian team. Indeed, their team was mostly IM's, including the no.1 seed in the u-18 section, IM Sethuraman, weighing in at 2535 FIDE. Of course, their skills over the board were perhaps a touch better than their skills on the football pitch, as we eventually found ourselves up 8-0. We helped them out around this point, with Ryan Rhys-Griffiths and Oissine Murphy transferring over to their team, but the combination of Sam's clinical finishes and the Hearne sisters' stodgy defending ensured a final victory for us over the Indians. It should also be noted that our youngest players, Diana Mirza, Jeffrey Alfred and Ronan Magee, held their own in a pitch full of older kids. Indeed, Jeffrey Alred has quite a lot of footballing talent, and I hear he won 'Player of the Year' in his school. A multi-talented Irish squad indeed!

The football match also provided some funny moments, with Gabriel Mirza suffering a headbutt to the chest at the hands of an overzealous Sri Lankan player. Of course it was entirely accidental, but it must have been quite bad for later that night Gabriel told me that it had not yet healed. Sam also suffered a minor injury, and he was accompanied in this regard by Ryan Rhys-Griffiths, who was playing for the Indians when Anthony Hearne, father of the Hearne sisters, decided to introduce his unique brand of tackling that would best be reserved for the rugby pitch! It was nothing too serious though, with Ryan falling to the ground winded for not more than a few seconds, before picking himself back up.

The weather over here has been incredible, but of course the free day was the only day so far that the sky was cloudy. Although the temperature was a lot lower than usual, and we had to contend with the very real possibility that it would rain at any moment, I still managed to convince a few of the players to try out the swimming pool. Sam, Ryan, the Hearne sisters and I all went down to see just how cold the water really was. It didn't take us long to realise that the water was close to freezing, and there was talk for a few moments of not getting in. Sarah-Jane proved to be the bravest one, and the first to venture close to the pool. Her younger sister, Katherine, gave her all the encouragement she needed to jump in by sneaking up beside her and pushing her in. After that, Sam dove in and eventually we all wound up in the pool. None of us stayed more than a few minutes in there however, with the exception of Sam, who spent nearly an hour lounging around in the freezing water.

By the time all this was over, it was dinner time and the players started to concern themselves a bit more about their next-round opponent. Tomorrow, Sam is facing the strongest player out of everyone - a Colombian player who has gone up 150 points from 2250 to 2400+ on the next list, since March of this year!! In fact, some players may be familiar with his name, Cristhian Rios, as this was Colm Daly's opponent in our unfortunate encounter against the Colombian team in the Khanty-Mansiysk Olympiad about a month back. On that day, Daly spoiled what was at one point a winning position, but hopefully today Sam can exact a little revenge for the Irish!

For their part, Ryan and Ronan will be going all-out for a win. In the first case, it will be to get back on track in the tournament when facing a lower-rated opponent with the white pieces, while in the second case, it will be to add to his fabulous 4/6 score and enter the late stages of the tournament still in the running for a top 10 finish, if not better! Mark Berney is facing an opponent who is similarly rated to him, and although he does have the black pieces, there's no doubt that he'll be trying to add to his tally, having already beaten a 2300+ opponent in this tournament. Jeffrey Alfred is playing an unrated opponent in the u-10 section, so hopefully he is in with a chance to improve his tournament standing as well. Oissine Murphy is also facing an unrated opponent today, and will for sure be looking to win as white to get up to 2½ points.

In the girls section, Sarah-Jane has the best score of the lot, and it's no surprise that she's going to have the toughest challenge in tomorrow's round, facing a 1785 opponent as black. The other girls will have a slightly easier task on their hands, as they are all facing unrated opposition. Let's hope everyone's in a fighting spirit after the free day!

Day 7

Following the rest day, the Irish team got a pretty good result today, scoring 4/10. In the boys section, Ronan Magee was unable to continue his winning ways, losing as black to CM Wang Yi Ye from China, rated 2011. The other defeat of the day in the boys section was Sam, who faced a very tough opponent, a Colombian FM who will be over 2400 FIDE in the next list. Sam's preparation did not really work out, as his opponent tried a new line against Sam's King's Indian, and he never recovered from the dodgy position he got out of the opening. Mark Berney was able to pick up his second win of the tournament, as black against an 1874. I think it was a pretty comfortable win for him, and it should give him a bit of confidence going into tomorrow's game as white. The other winner today was Ryan, who is well on his way to turning his tournament around, as he won quite convincingly against his 2159 opponent as white. Jeffrey Alfred and Oissine Murphy both drew today, but while Jeffrey was very happy with it, Oissine was a little upset as he did miss a winning line at one point.

In the girls section, Diana Mirza faced a higher seed and was unable to get anything out of it, while Sinead Duffy played a very balanced game that eventually boiled down to an endgame where her opponent was able to get the full point. The best result for the girls today was Sarah Jane Hearne, who held her 1785 opponent to a draw in what was a see-saw game that could have gone either way. In fact, at one point Sarah Jane was even up a piece, but as the position was so complicated and she was in heavy time trouble, her opponent was able to recoup it. Catherine was black today against her Swedish opponent, and although she got into a small bit of trouble out of the opening, she was able to equalise in the middlegame, at which point a draw was agreed.

Day 8

A pretty normal day at the office, with the Irish team collecting 4 points out of their 10 games. The first winner of the day was Jeffrey Alfred, who beat Kumho Chun of Korea quite comfortable as black, after his opponent blundered his queen. A great result of the day was for Catherine Hearne, who despite having drawn 3 games prior to this round, was yet to have picked up any wins. Today, this changed and she was ecstatic following a comfortable victory against her Scottish opponent. In fact, she served to contribute to the worst day of the tournament for the Scots, as their head of delegation subsequently told me at dinner. "A single point out of 14 games..." he said, shaking his head.

The final, and most impressive win of the day, was Ryan Rhys-Griffiths', who has now pretty much bounced back from his horrible start, by winning as black against a 2378 FM from Slovakia, in the ultra sharp Najdorf Sicilian. Ryan's opponent ran out of theory before him, and was unable to survive such a sharp position using nothing but his own wits.

In the u-12's, Ronan faced one of the top seeds, Alexander Donchenko (2204), who Ronan had beaten a couple of years back. This time around, his opponent leveled the score, winning on the black side of a Sicilian against him and dampening the mood on Ronan's tournament.

Sam Osborne got a decent enough position against his 2205 Macedonian opponent, but was too keen to simplify from a drawn position, ending up in an inferior position. Still, it seemed as if white should be able to hold, but in time trouble Sam blundered to a combination that not only lost one pawn, but two! After that, his opponent played flawlessly and there was nothing that Sam could do to salvage the game.

The girls u-10 (Diana Mirza), u-14 (Sinead Duffy) and u-16 (Sarah-Jane Hearne) also lost on the day. Commenting on her daughter's opponent, Sinead Duffy stated that there was not much you could do about the loss, as Sinead had played well, but was simply facing an on-form opponent who made very few errors from start to finish. Diana's loss is unfortunate, as at one point she was doing quite well, but is now suffering a bit of a nasty streak. Still, there's a few more rounds to go, and I'm hoping she will cap off the tournament successfully! As for Sarah-Jane, she was seething at her loss as white, but her 1700 opponent proved that she deserves her rating, and so there wasn't too much that she could have done.

The two draws of the day were obtained by Oissine Murphy (who drew against his similarly rated opponent from Luxembourg) and Mark Berney, who did the same. Mark was a little bit peeved that he couldn't pick up the full win as white against someone rated 100 points lower than him, but what is important to remember is that, in the same way that Mark was able to beat an opponent rated 400 points above him, he too might not be able to extract maximum points out of every lower-rated opponent he plays. In particular, in tournaments such as these, where there are a lot of rising talents, many kids are underrated, so every result must be analysed in light of this.

Day 9

The best result of the tournament so far, with the Irish team finally breaking the 50% mark, with a bit to spare! Out of their 10 games, the squad got 6 points. This included two draws, obtained by our boys u-10, Jeffrey Alfred and our girls u-12, Catherine Hearne, who seems to be playing some solid chess, securing her fourth draw of the tournament.

Ronan Magee picked himself back up in the u-12's, winning as black against his unrated opponent. Oissine Murphy followed suit in the u-14's, in a game that was comfortable from start to finish. Mark Berney had one of the tougher opponents, the 2134 rated Portuguese player, Pedro Neves, and sure enough the rating gap came into effect, with Mark unable to get anything out of the game.

Following his great win the previous day, Ryan Rhys-Griffiths faced a 2412 Russian Opponent, and having analysed the game extensively at nighttime, it proved very difficult to see where Ryan had gone wrong. It is true that his opening setup wasn't the most ambitious, but Black's play seemed ruthlessly precise, and perhaps this is a consolation for Ryan, since it is very difficult to play well against an on-form opponent.

Sam Osborne should have had a cleaner game against his unrated opponent. However, Sam's openings are perhaps not his strongpoint, and he wound up in a slightly disadvantageous position from the get-go. In fact, a funny anecdote worth telling is that at one point Sam offered his opponent a draw, and his rival merely shook his head and laughed. Needless to say, this only served to add to his satisfaction when Sam eventually turned the tables on him and he was finally forced to give up the fight.

The girls also had a successful outing, and following Catherine's draw, the remaining three girls picked up two wins and suffered only one defeat in their encounters. Our youngest representative, Diana Mirza, won a game against her Spanish counterpart as White. I didn't get the opportunity to see the game, but her dad Gabriel told me afterwards that he was extremely impressed with his young daughter's play, and it's great to see that she's back to her winning ways.

Another very satisfying result was Sinead Duffy's win as black. She had only picked up one win and one draw going into the round, and as every chessplayer knows, confidence plays a huge role in every tournament, so her victory was a very welcome and deserved boost.

The only loss in the girls' section was inflicted on Sarah-Jane, whose 1497 opponent outmanoeuvred her in a French defence, to be left with a classic "better minor piece" middlegame. When you throw her better pawn structure into the mix, it makes for a powerful cocktail, and the game came to a sudden climax when Sarah-Jane blundered a rook under the pressure.

On a different note, the Greek weather turned sour yesterday, and we suffered flooding and a power shortage following the vicious thunder. I've heard it was the worst weather in the region in years, and the result was a limited breakfast and lunch menu, no internet, and freezing cold showers! A fun day indeed, but we can't complain it too much, as things are back to normal now, and we survived the madness with a good result to boot!

Day 10

With the tournament drawing to a close, it would have been ideal to finish off strong, following what had been a pretty good tournament so far. However, the good score yesterday affected the quality of our opponents in today’s round, and it was perhaps this that resulted in the team’s first day without a win. Four of our players did manage a draw, so at least we doubled the score of the Scots’ worst day!

In the u-12 section, Ronan had a good result against an up and coming Russian player, Andrey Popov, who had a rating of 2024. He was joined by Mark Berney, who was actually the only player facing a lower-rated opponent, but he was unable to secure more than a draw.

Sam Osborne had a good result himself though, securing a draw against his Greek counterpart, rated 2178. Sam’s had a few good results, and although it could have been much better had a few critical positions gone his way, it’s still been a pretty successful outing for him on his last year as u-18.

The only draw of the day for the girls was that of Sarah-Jane Hearne, who drew against her Latvian opponent.

As for those who recorded a loss, well I’ll spare everyone the details! The toughest opponent of the day was, unsurprisingly, Ryan’s opponent in the u-18’s. He was facing the Polish IM, Marcin Sieciechowicz. With the final round the next morning, we didn’t do much analysis and I didn’t get the chance to see Ryan’s game, but it seems that his opponent had simply played very well from start to finish. It’s unfortunate for Ryan, because after his bad start, he had recovered to the point where he was on 5 points out of 8 games, but now he’s ‘only’ on a 50% score going into the final round. Still, a win in the last round would get him a 6/11 score, very respectable indeed for such a tough section.

Day 11 (Final Round)

The 11th and final round of the tournament took place at 10am, which allowed no time for any preparation, since the draw came up very late the night before. I don’t know how much of an effect this had on the performance of the players, but unfortunately, the result was not too great either after yesterday’s poor showing. We got 3 points out of 10, recording two wins and two draws. The winners of the day were Mark Berney and Oissine Murphy, both doing so as Black.

Going into the round, the players who were doing best were Ronan Magee (on 5½/10) and Ryan-Rhys Griffiths (on 5/10). Sam Osborne was also aiming for a 50% result, if he could win his last round game, as he was going into it with 4.5/10. Unfortunately, these games all ended up in losses. The only game that I got a chance to see was Sam’s, as he and his opponent came back and were looking for a place to analyse when I offered them to analyse it where I was sitting. In fairness to Sam’s opponent, he played better than Sam overall, and deserved the victory. Having said that, Sam’s not much of a morning person and I can only suspect that this contributed to his downfall, as at one point he would have been able to go into a far superior position by playing the principled move. Instead, he chose a line that was a bit too fancy, and his opponent duly punished the missed opportunity.

Ryan certainly had big chances to end the tournament on +1, but a loss to his 2202 opponent as White served to cap off a pretty forgettable championship. Still, both Sam and Ryan have commented that they enjoyed the experience, and while Sam will not be eligible for u-18 next year, Ryan has told me he fully intends on playing next year’s tournament, so I’m sure he’ll have a chance to improve on his result as he will no doubt be a stronger player by then.

In the end, Mark Berney’s win propelled him to 5/11, and completed a pretty strong performance. At 15 years of age, and with a rating close to 2000, he is certainly one of Ireland’s young talents, and let’s hope he continues his rise over the coming years. I hadn’t known him at all before the tournament, but he definitely impressed me with his mental acuity.

The two draws of the day came in the girls section, where Diana Mirza and Sinead Duffy both held their opponents with the black pieces. Unfortunately, both of the Hearne sisters logged a loss with white. Still, their father encourages them to look at every game as a learning experience, and to never forget that it’s just a game, so this didn’t put a damper on their last night in Greece.

After the games had finished, the kids played a bit of soccer. Then, there was the closing ceremony, which wasn’t particularly spectacular, but at least it gave us the opportunity of seeing the winners. In the u-18 boys which contained a handful of GM’s, the surprise winner was an American FM rated under 2400! Of course, he won’t be under 2400 much longer, as I think he gained close to 70 points in this tournament alone, logging a performance rating of just over 2700 throughout the 11 rounds.

Tournament Summary

Here is the final cross-table for all the Irish players.

Name	Rtg.	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Pts.	Rank	Group
Alfred Jeffrey		0	1	0	0	0	0	½	1	½	0	0	3	149	Open U10
Magee Ronan	1859	1	1	½	0	1	½	0	0	1	½	0	5½	75	Open U12
Murchadha Oissine	1790	0	0	1	½	0	0	½	½	1	0	1	4½	103	Open U14
Berney Mark	1965	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	½	0	½	1	5	93	Open U16
Griffiths Ryan Rhys	2283	1	0	½	0	½	1	1	1	0	0	0	5	66	Open U18
Osborne Sam	2038	0	½	½	0	1	1	0	0	1	½	0	4½	83	Open U18
Mirza Diana		0	1	0	0	1	½	0	0	1	0	½	4	88	Girls U10
Duffy Sinead		0	0	0	1	0	½	0	0	1	0	½	3	95	Girls U14
Hearne Sarah-Jane		0	0	0	1	0	1	½	0	0	½	0	3	91	Girls U16
Hearne Catherine		0	0	½	½	0	0	½	1	½	0	0	3	112	Girls U12

The good thing is that none of the players scored less than 3 points out of the 11 games. In previous tournaments, that weren’t even quite as strong as this year’s edition, some of the players had scored 1.5 points or less, and this is always a concern when sending over some of the more inexperienced players. Fortunately, this year every player was able to win some of their battles, and this is a particularly good feeling as only a select few players get the privilege of representing their country at the highest international stage for juniors. I’m speaking from experience when I say that to be able to win games at such a tournament is a very memorable achievement, and I’m really glad that every single Irish player can take such memories home with them.

Also, I must say that all the individual kids I worked with were fantastic to coach, and I hope that this handful of talented players continue to play and improve their game over the coming years. I am sure that they all have a great future in chess ahead of them, and I look forward to checking up on their progress at Irish weekenders. And who knows, perhaps also at a future World Youth Chess Championships!

Finally, I really hope that the readers back home have enjoyed the daily reports, and have been supporting the team right up until the end!

Good bye!