The 6th Annual Dun Laoghaire Rapidplay one day Tournament was held on Sunday 28th August. This year’s event took place in the Royal Marine Hotel, just 200 metres from Dun Laoghaire Chess Club, and once again proved to be a very successful, well organised and fun event. Ivan Baburin was again our very efficient Arbiter.

As usual the competition was extremely strong with almost a quarter of the 61 participants rated in excess of 2000. So as early as the second round there were some serious heavyweight pairings.

After 4 rounds David Fitzsimons and Killian Delaney had maximum points with Yin Stanley, Ryan- Rhys Griffiths and Stephen Brady on 3.5 points. However going into the final round Fitzsimons and Delaney were joined by Griffiths and Brady all on 4.5 points with the next 4 players just half a point behind. In a very exciting 6th and final round Brady beat Fitzsimons, Griffiths beat Delaney, Mark Quinn beat Stephen Moran and Jesper Lauridsen beat Hugh Cummins.

So many congratulations to Stephen Brady and Ryan-Rhys Griffiths who shared first prize with Stephen Brady taking the new Dun Laoghaire Rapidplay Perpetual Trophy on tie breaks. Congratulations also to Mark Quinn and Jesper Lauridsen who shared 3rd place and to Anastasia Mohylna who won the Ladies prize and Ross Beatty who took the under 1800 grading prize. Indeed much credit is due to all the participants who played in a lot of hard-fought and impressive matches throughout the day.

During the event Paul Cassidy presented an inscribed chess clock to 15 year-old Alice O’Gorman on behalf of her friends in Dun Laoghaire Chess Club to mark her selection on the Irish Women’s Olympiad Team.

This Rapidplay Tournament continues to go from strength to strength and we already looking forward to another extremely competitive and fun tournament next year.