The 34th Drogheda Chess Congress was held recently over the June Bank Holiday Weekend (31st May - 2nd June) in St Mary's Parish Primary School. The event was the brainchild of the late Andrew Thomson, who took the Congress with him from Wexford when he relocated to Drogheda in 1998. Over the years, the format has evolved into the event we have today: a 6 round, 90+30, ICU & FIDE rated Swiss.
The Congress is split into four sections and are named for past members of the Drogheda Chess Club who made substantial contributions to the club's life. These are the Murray Challengers - named in honour of Jimmy Murray , the Fox Major - named in honour of Donnie Fox, the O'Boyle Championship - named in honour of Enda O'Boyle and the Thomson Masters - named in honour of the Congress founder himself.
In total, there were 132 entrants this year, matching the turnout from last year. An equally wide range of federations were represented, including Spain, Hungary, India, Turkey, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Hong Kong, and Ireland. Of the 9 federations represented, 8 were in the Masters. The Masters section also reached a new record of 22 players with no less than 5 former winners competing: FM Oleg Artemenko from Uzbekistan (2024), CM Jacob Flynn (2023), FM Colm Daly (Many times a winner, including in 2024), IM Tarun Kanyamarala and WIM Trisha Kanyamarala (Joint winners in 2019). In addition was WFM Hong Nhung Nguyen from Vietnam - playing for the first time. The result was a highly competitive section with an average rating of over 2000.
This year saw renewed and generous sponsorship across all sections. Drogheda Credit Union continued their sponsorship of the Thomson Masters and Murray Challengers. Fox Jewellers Drogheda and Volkswagen Louth (formally Western Motors) renewed their sponsorship of the Fox Majors and the O'Boyle Championship, respectively.
In addition, all participants received a personalized name card created by John Loughran, which, as well as looking good on the table, helped to add names to faces.
Live Boards
This years Congress saw another record with 28 boards broadcasted using DGT e-Boards - 5 in the Murray Challengers, 6 in the Fox Major, 6 in the O'Boyle Championship and all of the Thomson Masters. These broadcasts are available on lichess.org and can be viewed via the Congress Live Board page.
Some games of particular note in the Masters:
Flynn vs Artemenko 1-0 (Round 3): King of the Hill - A wild and super sharp clash between two former Congress winners. An early mistake gives white the advantage but black's resourcefulness keeps him in the game. Low on time, the game culminates with white bravely embarking on a king walk to the center!
Kanyamarala vs Nguyen 1-0 (Round 5): A crucial game between the two tournament leaders, which also coincided with peek viewership on lichess! Tarun's win coupled with a draw in the final round firmly secured him the title.
Nguyen vs Daly 1-0 (Round 6): Nguyen bounces back from her loss to deliver an impressive win in the final round over many-time Congress winner Colm Daly. A near 5 hr long epic and by far the last game to finish, Daly musters all of his defensive prowess to try to hold on in this tricky knight vs bishop endgame.
The Master's Perspective
We highly recommend reading IM Tarun Kanyamarala and WIM Trisha Kanyamarala fantastic recap of the Congress on their website - Ireland Chess Technology Limited (ICTL), the link to which can be found here.
Photography
We present a small sample below of the photos taken during the Congress. The full set of photos can viewed on the Drogheda Chess Club Facebook Page here.
Murray Challengers
Fox Major
O'Boyle Championship
Thomson Masters
ICTL was capturing the event as well, the full set of their photos can be seen on the their Facebook page here.
In addition, they also recorded the Closing Ceremony of the Congress - all credit to Nandita Kanyamarala.
Prize Winners
In each section, there were prizes awarded for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place overall, with prizemoney shared equally between those on equal points, regardless of tie-breaks - the prizemoney from the place below being amalgamated. In addition, a Wooden Chess Trophy was awarded for 1st place on tiebreak in each section.
A Grading Prize was awarded to one player with the best score, within each of the rating bands indicated on the Starting Rank Player List, who did not win another prize. Grading prizes were not shared but decided on tie-break.
In addition, this year, there was a new prize of Best Woman in each section for a female player who did not win another prize. The winners are as follows:
Thomson Masters
1st (€500): IM Tarun Kanyamarala (Dublin) (pictured with Club President Maurice O'Connor and Chief Organiser Frank Pentony) - 5/6.
2nd (€300): (Joint 2nd) WFM Hong Nhung Nguyen, FM Oleg Artemenko and CM Jacob Flynn (Malahide) - 4½/6 - €160 each.
3rd (€170): Amalgamated with 2nd place.
Grading Prize (€50): (FIDE Rating < 2000) Alper Akim Fil (CCYMS) - 3½/6.
Best Woman (€50): WIM Trisha Kanyamarala (Dublin) - 4/6.
O'Boyle Championship
1st (€400): Dariy Kelbas (Chess Kings) (pictured with Enda O'Boyle's son Donal) - 5/6.
2nd (€250): Joshua Ryan (KoÉ/Rathmines) - 4½/6.
3rd (€150): (Joint 3rd) Mihovil Niko Cogelja (Cork) and Jakov Jagic (Cork) - 4/6 - €75 each.
Grading Prize (€50): (FIDE Rating < 1825) Murray Liu (Blanchardstown) - 3/6.
Grading Prize (€50): (FIDE Rating < 1775) Piotr Baczkowski (Blanchardstown) - 3½/6.
Best Woman (€50): Dayna Ferguson (Drogheda) - 2½/6.
O'Boyle Championship Standings
Fox Major
1st (€300): (Joint 1st) Beril Bayrak, Owen Johnston (Skerries) and Robert Nielsen (Naomh Barróg) (pictured with Club President Maurice O'Connor and Chief Organiser Frank Pentony) - 5/6 - €180 each.
2nd (€150): Amalgamated with 1st place.
3rd (€100): Amalgamated with 1st place.
Grading Prize (€50): (FIDE Rating < 1650) Denis Lynch - 4½/6.
Grading Prize (€50): (FIDE Rating < 1615) Shane Corry (Naomh Barróg) - 3½/6.
Best Woman (€50): WCM Ho Ting Leung - 3/6.
Murray Challengers
1st (€200): Hugh Kelly (pictured with Club President Maurice O'Connor) - 6/6.
2nd (€100): Kaivalya Patil - 5/6.
3rd (€70): (Joint 3rd) Danyil Siruk, Aarav Rudroju (Chess Kings) and Fang Yiming (Grandmaster School Of Chess Club) - 4½/6 - €40 each.
Grading Prize (€40): (ICU Rating > 1361) Tara Turcin (Drogheda) - 4/6.
Grading Prize (€40): (ICU Rating < 1360) Alvin Tengle Su - 4/6.
Best Woman (€40): Eavan Gleeson (Elm Mount) - 4/6.
Acknowledgements
The Drogheda Chess Club would like to thank all those who helped organise and run the event, in particular Chief Organiser Frank Pentony and Chief Arbiter Henry Williams. We’d like to thank John Loughran for his name cards and cable protectors as well as Nandita Kanyamarala for her photography of the prize winners. We'd like to thank the ICU for the equipment. We'd like to thank all our sponsors as well as the local restaurants and businesses in the area that provided discounts to players during the event. We'd like to thank everyone else outstanding who made this possible. The list is a long one, but you know who you are, we couldn't have done it without you. Finally, we'd like to thank the players, without whom there wouldn't be a Drogheda Chess Congress!
We hope to see you all again next year, on May 30th, 2026, for the 35th Drogheda Chess Congress.
See you there...