This was the eleventh 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 Zambia. Later in the year a group of students will travel there to provide hands-on assistance to the project.

The tournament was held over the weekend of 27-29 January 2012. The chief organisers were Barry Mulvey, Will Dunleavy, Mark McKenna, Marco McVey, Hugh Gray and Jack Fitzgerald, with assistance from Daniel Lynch.

Winner of the Masters section and Philip Hogarty Cup for the third year running was Irish international David Fitzsimons (pictured right receiving the Philip Hogarty Memorial Trophy from Barry Mulvey (L) and Daniel Lynch), but his grip on the tournament is obviously slipping, as his previous successes were achieved with 100% scores and this time he dropped a half point. :-)

This year the top three boards in the FIDE rated Masters section were broadcast live on the ICU website, except for the first round when there was insufficient time to set up the complex technology (okay, plug in the computer). This was because of an unexpected influx of late entrants, which meant that total numbers were a healthy 28% up on last year.

Games are here. The game statistics are unusual: 9 white wins, 18 black wins, and 11 draws.

The top scorers in each section were as follows:

Masters

1 David Fitzsimons 4½/5; 2 Bartlomiej Cichonski 4; 3-6 Tony Bermingham, Rory Delaney, Monika Gedvilaite, Carl Jackson 3.

Championship

1 Valentine Kalinins 6/6; 2 Miroslav Gallik 5; 3-5 Airidas Tolkus, Tom O'Sullivan, William Ffrench 4½; grading prizes Shahram Nikrow, Atanas Kouthev.

Challengers

1 Orial O'Cathail 6/6; 2 Luke Gardiner 5½; 3-6 Valeriy Leshchenko, Scott Mulligan, Richard Walshe, Kevin Kilduff 5; grading prizes Joseph O'Rourke, Joseph Carthy, Ivan Byrne; ladies prize Sinead Duffy.