Despite being an off-weekend for Irish tournaments after a busy September schedule, there were still over 300 players involved in events as well as some other noteworthy news. In no particular order:
Chess.com Isle of Man International
The Chess.com Isle of Man International were held over the last week with an exceptionally strong field head by Caruana, Nakamura and So. Irish registered master entries were Keith Allen (Isle of Man resident), Paul Wallace, Luke Scott and Rudolf Tirziman while Colm Buckley took part in the Major section.
One standout results came from Dr Paul Wallace (2210, resident in England) who beat an Indian GM, Shyam Sundar (2552) in round one. In round 3, Luke Scott beat Carl Strugnell from Wales rated 2278 - who recently beat Mark Heidenfeld in the Baku Olympiad. Rudolf Tirziman beat FM Adam Taylor in round 4 while Keith's standout results were draws against a 2456 IM and a Scottish GM.
The tournament was won by Caruana and Eljanov who finished on 7.5/9.
The Sunday Business Post: New chess column
Sam Collins' first column for The Sunday Business Post, featuring man of the moment, Conor O 'Donnell can be seen above! Apart from winning all 7 of his games in Millfield for the second year running, Conor recently represented Ireland at the recent European Youth Championship 2016 and at the Baku Chess Olympiad 2016 - and Sam's article focuses on Conor's last game in the Chess Olympiad this year. Congrats Sam and we hope you all enjoy the read!
Millfield International Schools 2016 - Tournament Report
It was a busy week for Sam Collins who was also part of the Irish delegation that went over to Millfield. 7 Irish teams took part in the recent Millfield International Schools Event and Junior Officer, Desmond Beatty, was on hand to prepare a Millfield International Schools 2016 - Tournament Report. The event was dominated by Irish teams which is a testament to the direction Irish chess is going thanks to the hard work of coaches and teachers around the country. Well done to all involved and here's hoping we see even more Irish teams next year!
Streamed Blitz/Rapid event
Lastly, two of Ireland's top players (who finished 1st and 2nd in both The Irish Rapid and Blitz Championships 2016) took part in an online streamed match. You can follow more of their videos and matches here.
The League Season
The leagues are now mostly into round 2-3 and this weekend saw many games due to the packed tournament schedule in September. Several Saturday club fixtures got pushed to this Saturday which included UCD's first encounter in 15 years. We spoke about The Rebirth of UCD Chess several months ago and that has culminated in 2 UCD teams joined the O'Sullivan league this season - hopefully there will be even more in the future!
The Irish Women's Championship 2016
Finally, this weekend saw entries for The Irish Women's Championship 2016 pass the record for the event with 14 now confirmed. We hope that that number will continue to grow over the week and would like to thank our partners Awards and Gifts for their help and Disney for helping us to promote the event.