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Thursday, April 11, 2013

Kelly excels in Dublin

While many preferred the Ulster Rapidplay on Easter Monday, one hardy soul ventured South for the whole holiday weekend and picked up some prize-money for his efforts. Rookie reports:

At Easter in Dublin, Martin Kelly (Belfast South) followed up his 4/6 in the Gonzaga Under-1800s with 5/7 in the e2e4 Under-1750 Major. He was unbeaten in the 7 round event.


After a first round travelling bye, Kelly was full of the "joyce" of spring after a difficult draw with Stephen Joyce. After a win and draw in the next two rounds, he was able to "waltz" past Cathal Walsh in Round Five in the game below:
A game that I liked (ChessBase 12)
[Event "e2e4 Major"] [Site "Dublin"] [Date "2013.03.31"] [Round "5"] [White "Kelly, Martin"] [Black "Walsh, Cathal"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B90"] [Annotator "Kelly"] [PlyCount "74"] [EventDate "2013.03.29"] [SourceDate "2013.04.11"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. a4 e5 7. Nb3 Be7 8. Be2 Be6 9. Bg5 Nbd7 10. f4 h6 11. Bxf6 Nxf6 12. f5 Bd7 13. O-O Rc8 14. Kh1 Rxc3 $5 15. bxc3 Nxe4 16. Qd3 Nf6 17. Bf3 Qc7 18. Nd2 O-O 19. Ne4 Nxe4 ({Not} 19... Bxf5 {because} 20. Nxf6+ {wins a piece.}) 20. Bxe4 f6 {To avoid 21.f6.} 21. Qd5+ Kh8 22. Qxb7 Qxb7 23. Bxb7 a5 24. c4 Rb8 25. Ba6 Rb2 26. Bb5 $1 Bxb5 27. axb5 Rxc2 28. Rxa5 Rxc4 29. b6 Kh7 30. Ra7 Bd8 31. b7 Bc7 32. Rb1 h5 33. Ra8 Kh6 34. Rc8 $1 Kg5 35. Rxc7 Rxc7 36. b8=Q Rc4 37. Qxd6 Kxf5 $2 {38. Qd3 wins the Rook.} (37... Rf4) 1-0

In Round Six on Board Two, joint leader Ronan Murphy was "groanin'" after losing to Kelly in a swashbuckling, sacrificial game, not for the fainthearted. The final round saw Kelly on Board One face last year's winner, Bulgarian Atanis Kouthev, nicknamed "Attack" or "Attila the Hun", who was a half point clear and needed only a draw to win. Kelly remembered losing on Board Two in the last round at Gonzaga but knew a win this time would get him a first prize of 400 Euros. Instead, he chickened out with a Grandmaster draw to finish second. What would you have done in the final position in the game below? Answers on a postcard to......ROOKIE.
A game that I liked (ChessBase 12)
[Event "e2e4 Major"] [Site "Dublin"] [Date "2013.04.01"] [Round "7"] [White "Kelly, Martin"] [Black "Kouthev, Atanas"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "B07"] [Annotator "Kelly"] [PlyCount "18"] [EventDate "2013.03.29"] [SourceDate "2013.04.11"] 1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 c5 4. dxc5 Qa5 5. cxd6 $5 Nxe4 6. dxe7 Bxe7 7. Bd2 ({ White considered} 7. Qd5) 7... Nxd2 8. Qxd2 Be6 9. Bb5+ Nc6 1/2-1/2

Tuesday, April 02, 2013

Ulster Rapidplay Championship

Dennis the Menace gently enquired about the health of this blog at the recent Nigel Short simul. Well, good news, despite the unseasonal weather, its long hibernation has ended as your blogmaster ventured forth to the Ulster Rapidplay Championship at Ballynafeigh Chess Club.

I cannot remember the Ulster Chess Union putting on an event over the Easter weekend before, but this innovation seems to have been a success with numbers up on recent rapidplay events. Whether this was in fact due to the supposed emergency meeting at the event in support of the Hollywood Two (Clooney and Alba), no-one at the venue was prepared to admit to overlooking that Easter Monday this year was also April Fool's Day.

My own play confirmed once again that my brain requires a turbo-booster and that my black openings need a considerable overhaul. Of course, playing in a quickplay event means that you don't get much of a chance to see what's happening on the other boards, but I did catch the closing stages of the Round 5 game between the top two seeds Gareth Annesley and John Masterson, which was pivotal to the overall outcome of the Championship. My first look at the game came with Masterson down to his last minute and a half with Annesley having about three times that amount of time. However John is renowned for whipping up attacks with his flag hanging even in longer time limits and so it proved here also. About five minutes later it was clear, based on the constant bagging of pieces and clock, that both players were very short of time, and Masterson delivered checkmate with one second only left! (Don't you just love these digital clocks.) Going into the sixth and last round Masterson had a 100% score of 5 wins, a full point ahead of a trio of players from the host club - Danny Mallaghan and the two Damiens, Cunningham and Lavery.

Masterson was paired with Cunningham and the latter, finding himself in a difficult situation, cleverly offered a draw which guaranteed Masterson the Championship while also ensuring third place for himself. In the other battle for the top prizes, Mallaghan overcame Lavery to take the second spot on the podium. The under 1600 (or was it 1500?) Grading Prize was won by Steven Eachus, while even three tie-break methods could not separate Stephen Critchlow and Mond Parissis for the under 1200 equivalent.

The new date was not the only change for this year's Championship. Instead of starting play at 10.00am, registration for the event didn't even start until midday. Instead of having a lunchtime break, players could have a leisurely morning, get themselves a big breakfast and still get home at a decent hour for their evening meal. If by any chance anyone got a bit peckish, the traditional Ballynafeigh coffee and biscuits were available. The event was run very efficiently by Ballynafeigh's resident fairy tale teller Damien Cunningham and UCU Secretary Mark Newman and even finished about 10 minutes ahead of the scheduled 6.30 pm finish time. So, a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon's entertainment and the when the sun eventually came out in mid-afternoon, you could even gaze over to Ormeau Park at the host of golden daffodils, beneath the trees, fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

No Name                  Total  1    2    3    4    5    6   Prize

1  John Masterson        5.5   21:W 14:W  6:W  4:W  5:W  3:D First
2  Danny Mallaghan       5     27:W 15:L 20:W 11:W  8:W  4:W Second
3  Damien Cunningham     4.5   13:W  6:L 21:W 12:W 14:W  1:D Third
4  Damien Lavery         4     20:W  8:W 15:W  1:L  7:W  2:L
5  Gareth Annesley       4      0:D  9:W 12:W  7:W  1:L  6:D
6  Steven Eachus         4     26:W  3:W  1:L 17:W  9:D  5:D Grading
7  Ian Woodfield         4     19:W 11:W 16:W  5:L  4:L 15:W
8  Thomas Donaldson      4     23:W  4:L 31:W 13:W  2:L 16:W
9  Paul McLoughlin       4     22:D  5:L 27:W 16:W  6:D 13:W
10 Mark Newman           4     18:W 16:L 13:L 29:W 19:W 14:W
11 Mohamed Saad          4     28:W  7:L 24:W  2:L 25:W 20:W
12 Chris Armstrong       3.5   24:W 17:W  5:L  3:L 20:D 22:W
13 Mathew Chapman        3      3:L 25:W 10:W  8:L 17:W  9:L
14 Karina Kruk           3     25:W  1:L 19:W 15:W  3:L 10:L
15 Tony Redden           3     29:W  2:W  4:L 14:L 18:W  7:L
16 Robert Lavery         3     30:W 10:W  7:L  9:L 26:W  8:L
17 David McAlister       3     31:W 12:L 18:W  6:L 13:L 25:W
18 Steve Critchlow       3     10:L 26:W 17:L 22:W 15:L 24:W Grading
19 Mond Parissis         3      7:L 28:W 14:L 24:W 10:L 26:W Grading
20 William Storey        2.5    4:L 23:W  2:L 30:W 12:D 11:L
21 Colin Fenton          2.5    1:L 22:W  3:L 25:L 28:W 23:D
22 Stephen Scarborough   2.5    9:D 21:L 29:W 18:L 31:W 12:L
23 David Seaby           2.5    8:L 20:L 26:L 27:W 30:W 21:D
24 Adrian Dornford-Smyth 2     12:L  0:W 11:L 19:L 29:W 18:L
25 Ram Rajam             2     14:L 13:L 28:W 21:W 11:L 17:L
26 Patrick Magee         2      6:L 18:L 23:W 31:W 16:L 19:L
27 Iza Bujak             2      2:L 29:L  9:L 23:L  0:W 30:W
28 Dayna Ferguson        2     11:L 19:L 25:L  0:W 21:L 31:W
29 Paul Anderson         2     15:L 27:W 22:L 10:L 24:L  0:W
30 Daniel Ferguson       1     16:L 31:L  0:W 20:L 23:L 27:L
31 Honor Parissis        1     17:L 30:W  8:L 26:L 22:L 28:L