Irish Players Results
Direct link to chess results (Ireland)
Day 8
Into the last third of the competition and there are a few folks licking their wounds. It has been a tough and grueling tournament with nothing coming easy. An OK day today but a lot of draws. Talk is of plans for going home and looking forward to a varied diet again. I don't want to look at white fish for my dinner for the next 6 months. If I see another chicken Kiev for lunch I'm going to throw it at someone. The food at this event puts the Top Hotel in Prague in the gourmet food category. Just when we thought nowhere else could be worse... We fork out enough money for these events - surely they can vary the food just for one day? I will give a 5/5 for fruit and breakfast cereal... At least we won't starve.
Day 7
Back to the chess for the final 4 rounds. Today was good with 4 positive results. Still the tournament is proving to be very challenging with plenty of banana skins to slip on.
Day 6
With Riga on our door step / option 3 (Jurmala City Center & Beach) proved most popular with 10 folks going there. Neal, Vencat & Kavin even got a swim in the Baltic Sea (and it no it wasn't Baltic... it was really warm). 2 opted for the Zoo and 1 opted for the Riga Old town tour. Everyone had a great rest day and a well deserved break.
Day 5
Today marks the half way point before the Free day tomorrow. It was an OK day with 3 positive results. The choices for the free day are - 1. Riga Zoo / 2. Livu Water Park / 3. Jurmala City Center & Beach / 4. Riga Old Town tour. Everyone is looking forward to the free day.
Day 4
It was a poke-a-dot day for the Irish today. 3 positive results. 3 not so positive. The highlight of the day was the lunch, (Yes, I did say the lunch at the chess venue)... We had ice cream for dessert. Some of us had seconds I believe. Doubled with that they changed the lunch menu so excitement for the adults too. It was also one of the hottest days so far with the barometer tipping 27C so the ice cream was welcome. This year also we seem to be getting a gift almost everyday. On day 1 was a tournament pen. On day 2 was a a big bar of chocolate. On day 3 we got 6 positive results and on day 4 we got a toffee sweet with the tournament name printed on the wrapper. Tomorrow we're hoping for a return to the 6 positive results...
Day 3
Today we brought it home. 6 positive results for Team Ireland. 4 wins and 2 draws. We also got a team picture (all 6 players wearing green). Unfortunately, we upset Anglo Irish relations as we nudged the English team off the stage while they waited for their final player to show up. Either way, everyone was in great form this evening. We finished with a multi-cultural soccer match. It got very complicated but as always, a great way of blowing off steam. The lingering question after the game is - will Patryk, our striker, declare for Ireland or Poland in the future? At least for now, everyone is looking forward to the chess tomorrow.
Day 2
The Irish chess team are struggling to get a foothold in the tournament. We have had some wins and a draw but we need to gain traction and then some momentum. Hopefully tomorrow we will tip the balance in our favor. The Irish soccer team on the other are a very different story. Patryk supplied the football for the soccer match of the tournament, where Ireland (Adam, Patryk, Con, Danny, Kavin and Neal) took on a combined Russian and Armenian team, (helped by Vencat in goals) and won handsomely, (Well done Kavin - scoring 3 goals on your dad). It showed that even though these guys have the higher chess ratings, when it comes to teamwork the Irish show them how it is done. Now with this convincing show of strength, we are hoping it transfers onto the chess board for Round 3. C'mon Ireland...
Day 1
Breakfast in the hotel was fine (off to a good start). the Technical meeting was at 10am and Neal was accompanied by Padraig & Vencat. The bus arrived at 10.15... rush hour traffic and many hotels later meant the technical meeting got going around 11. Time keeping... Here we discovered that lunch was to be at the chess venue (not the hotel)... 1000 Players + 1000 parents / guardians queuing for a lunch (which was basic to say the least) left many wondering what they had paid for. The chess games got going at 3pm and the results can be found at the link provided. As we found our feet we discovered the local supermarket (with a subway), extra points to the first family that locates the McDonald's... We also discovered that hotel to chess venue is 25 minutes on foot. Although a few went astray, we won't mention any names, it was a good learning for day 1. No more dependency on the 'tour' bus to get us from hotel to venue and back (a 30 minute trip).
Day of arrival.
On Sunday, the Ryanair flight was an hour late, but we eventually got going. Con, in his Limerick jersey, had to gave a silent cheer as Limerick lifted the Liam McCarthy, as he boarded the plane. We arrived into Riga airport and a bus brought us to our accommodation, (via a midnight tour of many Riga hotels). Slight mix-up with the rooms was quickly resolved. Linda was originally asked to share a room with Diana (who arrived earlier in the day) and Gavin had a room to himself... Paarty!!! Gavin's celebrations were short lived, as the hotel realized their error.
