Irish Women Chess Championship 2019 started on 8th November and concluded on 10th of November. Top seeded Ioana Miller is the favourite to be champion for the third time in a row. Unlike previous championships this time Ioana has to face the strongest junior chess players of Ireland.

Day 1: On the very first round Ioana played with Eibhia Ni Mhuireagain, with the black pieces and played the French defense, Eibhia surprised Ioana by playing Be2 on move 2, eventually Ioana won the game. There were no upsets in the first round.

Day 2: second round Ioana played against Antonina Gora with the white pieces and played the Keres attack against the Sicilian Najdorf, it came to an endgame where both sides had equal pawns and Bishop and Rook vs Bishops and Rook, Ioana had a passed pawn which made her to win the game. Board 2 Trisha won against Mercedes and Board 3 Diana easily won against Lynda Byrne. Third round was an exciting round between the clash of the titans Trisha vs Three time Irish womens chess champion Ioana Miller, it was a crucial game and Trisha had the White pieces, in the middlegame Ioana was a pawn up and exchanged all the Rooks and went to an endgame where Ioana had a Queen+Bishop+Knight+ 4 pawns vs Queen + pair of bishops and 2 pawns. It was a drawish endgame, but the well experienced player outplayed Trisha and eventually won the game. Board 2 Diana won against Antonina and on Board three Mercedes won against Niamh Burke.

Day 3: The top seed didn't really have much difficulties against Diana and Mercedes , hence she won the tournament with a score of 5/5. Board 2 Lara Putar was paired against Trisha and Lara had a very good position, but Trisha somehow managed to win the game. Board 3 Mercedes had a quite easy game against Benedetta Bianchi. This was the last round of the event where Ioana was leading with a full point lead over the field. She was paired against Mercedes and went on to win the game and the Championship. Board 2 Eibhia played very interesting game against Trisha but the latter lost. Board 3 Lara Putar made a upset by winning against the under-18 World Schools Champion Diana Mirza. Niamh played an interesting knight sacrifice and won against Lynda Byrne and won the grading Prize.

Prize Distribution Cermony graced by our ICU Chairperson Desmond Beatty accompanied by Chief Arbiter Ivan Baburin. Watch the below video https://youtu.be/Yn3ciJSBW44

Prize Winners:

1st Place Ioana Miller 2nd Place Trisha Kanyamarala 3rd Place Diana Mirza

Grading Prize winner Niamh Burke

Article written by Trisha for ICU.