The EasyStream Irish Blitz Championship was held on Sunday, March 6th in the home of Bray CC – the Esplanade Hotel a day after the Rapidplay. The turnout was slightly smaller with 32 entrants competing for the Irish Blitz title as well as a host of other prizes including a place at the World Blitz Championship, trophies, courtesy of AwardsandGifts.ie, an EasyStream T8 Android TV Box as well as a boosted prize fund thanks to our chief sponsor, EasyStream.

The top 4 seeds were dominated by Gonzaga Chess Club with IM Sam Collins clear favourite to add the Blitz title to the rapid title he picked up the day before However his club mates Conor O'Donnell, Killian Delaney and David Murray making up the next 3 seeds and the dangerous Stephen Moran and young Tom O'Gorman would all feel they had a chance themselves.

Round 1 saw most of the top 10 boards going according to seed except Tom who drew with Mihailo Manojlovic and Killian Delaney who had to pull out at the last moment meaning a walk over for Kevin Burke. Round 2 saw the first real upsets with Rudolf Tirziman beating the now seed 3 David Murray, Elm Mounts Gerard McGelligot and Ciaran Quinn losing to Mufassar Ghani and Leon Fagan respectively but given it was 11 rounds there was still plenty of time for players to come back. Round 3 saw the seeded players returning to winning ways with no real upsets and Saw Sam, Conor and Stephen tied on 3/3. Round 4 saw Stephen taking on Sam but he was unable to get a result against the IM and with Conor beating Rudolf it would mean that the two Gonzaga club mates would face each other in round 5. After Losses in round 2 for Dave and Gerry both players had less scope for error however both lost again to lower rated opponents with Mufassar having another good result against Dave and Leon doing the double over Elm Mount by beating Gerry. Round 5 saw a victory for Sam over Conor and make him outright leader a point clear of the field with Tom, Stephen, Mufassar and Leon joining Conor in second place. Another good result for Rudolf over Gerry and a good draw for Kevin Burke over Dave meant it would be hard for them to be in contention even with 6 rounds to go.

Tom O'Gorman was the next up to stop the juggernaut that is Sam Collins and stop him he did! Or at least slowed him with a fine draw. With wins for Conor and Stephen it made it a little tighter at the top. The venue was being well represented by the Bray Chess Club duo of Eric Bennet and Pat Reynolds who now found themselves only a point behind the chasing pack. Round 7 saw Sam get back to winning ways by beating Leon Fagan and with Stephen beating Conor it looked like he might be the most likely person to catch Sam. Round 8 saw Sam beat Rudolf and Stephen beat Tom making a clear first and second. Conor O'Donnell beating Pat Reynolds placing him outright third a point further back. Wins again in round 8 for Sam and Stephen saw them extend their lead as Tom beat Conor to climb into third place and a late surge from Dave and Eric saw them climb up to joint 4th. While their good run still left them too far a drift to win the title, they would however have a say in whether it would be Sam or Stephen who finished first. However after two solid games both Sam and Stephen emerged Victorious against Eric and Dave. With only 1 round remaining and a half point separating Sam and Stephen, Stephen would need Dave to do him a favour against his own club mate as Dave and Sam met on board 1. However Sam was in relentless form and Beat Dave to finish on a very impressive 10.5/11. Stephen drew with Rudolf finishing with a very respectable 9.5 and Tom finishing with a win to secure third place on 8.5.

So congratulations to Sam on completing the double, below we have Stephen and Tom picking up their second and third place trophies.