qub chess >> gold

This section of the website savours the finest moments of recent QUB Chess history, in what has been a fantastically successful period for the club. So, let's take a trip down memory lane...

#1 QUB Overthrow Favourites Trintity to Claim Irish Uni Championship (10/03/07)

Hosts Queen’s University Belfast are celebrating an astonishing victory after vanquishing the formidable forces of Trinity College Dublin to become Irish University Chess Champions 2007. A record nine sides competed, but Queen’s prevailed after winning the Championship decider 2-1 against the Dubliners.

Trinity arrived in the QUB Students’ Union fielding a side touted as possibly the strongest to have played in the competition’s history. After winning the title in Dublin last year and having since bolstered their line-up considerably, Trinity entered as clear favourites. Their three member team featured Leinster men’s champion Karl McPhillips (2274), four times French Junior Champion Fanny Gaudron (2079), and former Irish international Mark McGovern (1974).

QUB were rightly billed as their closest rivals, yet even with the “3 M’s” of Masterson, Mendicute, and Millar on board, few expected anything more from the host team than to provide brave but eventually futile resistance against the mighty Trinity.

As expected, these top-seeded teams emerged as winners of their respective groups (with each side avoiding the indignity of defeat to their rival’s reserves), and met for a Championship decider showdown. Not untypical of Irish University finals, the games provided some sensational chess and more than their fair share of drama for the spectators.

Board 1 saw an intriguing match-up of QUB “Galactico” Claudio Fierro Mendicute and Karl McPhillips. McPhillips has recently claimed the title of Leinster champion after finishing above Grandmaster opposition, yet Mendicute has quickly established his credentials in the Ulster Chess scene and, after doing his homework on the Trinity man, entered the match unfazed by his opponent’s reputation. The game itself, however, was short of spectacular. With Claudio holding the bishop pair against Karl’s two knights, each player quickly decided the game was sufficiently well-balanced for a draw to be agreed. An excellent outcome for Claudio, who may well consider this his best result of the season.

The lack of drama on board 1 was amply rectified by the action provided in the remaining matches.

Next to the Mendicute/McPhillips encounter, John Masterson took on French Erasmus student Fanny Gaudron. Trinity were certainly grateful to welcome Gaudron into their ranks, a player who in her childhood emerged as among the continent’s best female juniors. This was little discouragement for Masterson who, at least when it comes to speculative sacrifices, can consider himself amongst Europe’s elite. Masterson played strongly and gained an initiative in the match, but whether or not there was enough for John to objectively support the attack he embarked upon is debatable. Nevertheless, Masterson can hardly be blamed for doing so - reports from his captain suggested that a win would be necessary as his own position’s credibility was becoming ludicrously stretched. John finally found himself with a clearly lost game, but both players' flags fell therefore another draw was snatched for Queen’s.

This left the result of the Championship to be decided by the clash of Mark McGovern and QUB captain, Chris Millar. The pair met in last year’s final also, where McGovern swindled your author after being outplayed. This match, therefore, provided the perfect opportunity for Millar to get even with the final-year Trinity student. However, as alluded to above, it was McGovern who was enjoying a significant positional ascendancy. Soon after move ten, Mark used his advantage of the white pieces to dominate and leave his opponent with what seemed like an entire match of forced defensive moves. The QUB captain first saw off an f-file assault, followed by an attack on his king via the a2-g8 diagonal, and then finally a pawn promotion threat on the queenside. However, even when it finally seemed black's tireless resistance had earned a draw, McGovern decided to continue to press for the win in a mutual time-scramble. It was this which proved his undoing though, as his centralised king was checkmated.

The mate that won the Championship

So Queen's emerge as Irish University Champions and, in doing so, experience QUB Chess Club's finest success since its 2005 reformation. QUB has claimed the title of Irish University Chess Champions decades in the past, but given the awesome strength of opposition that the Belfast side faced here, it is arguable that a QUB team has never before and will never again achieve such a momentous triumph.a

Queen's University Belfast competed in this year's prestigious European Club Cup from October 16th to 24th in the Athos Palace Hotel of Kallithea, Greece.

Playing against Europe's elite club sides in the 24th incarnation of the Champions League of chess, the team did brillliantly to defeat Serbian champions Ksh Llamkos and Welsh side Cwmbran to finish as the highest ranked team of all the Celtic nations' clubs. The vital team wins over Llamkos and Cwmbran meant QUB finished ahead of both other Irish sides (Phibsboro of Dublin and Ennis of Munster) to gain huge bragging rights for the University club.

That this achievement was recorded with an understrength team (minus the unavailable 7 times Ulster Champion Steve Scannell) only further illustrates the magnitude of the result for Queen's. The entire team pulled together to perform at the moments when it really mattered and got richly rewarded for their determined displays.

Highlights also came in the form of some fantastic individual performances. Characteristically, Karl McPhillips won his games under extreme pressure to seal both team victories by a single point margin. Chris Millar drew with a 2403 rated International Master along the way to producing the highest rating performance from a Northern Irish born player in either this event or a Belfast club's last involvement in the competition back in 2006.

The European Club Cup 2008 will be a tournament savoured for a long time by the QUB Chess Club, who can consider the event as an outstanding high point in their history. A tremendous thanks goes to team manager Stephen Morgan, who's unenviable task of arranging travel and coping with tournament organisers was fulfilled magnificently.

April 21st proved to be a night of sweet success for Queen’s Chess, with the University club sealing a superb Ulster League double in stunning last day fashion.

On an evening billed as “Grand Slam Tuesday”, QUB defeated their nearest challengers in Division 1 to retain the title of Ulster Champions. Simultaneously, in the same corridor of the University’s Peter Froggatt Centre, QUB B saw off their closest rivals with a dramatic last minute finish to lift Division 2’s John Strawbridge Trophy.

This rare Division 1 and 2 double triumph was last achieved by the University way back in 1969. The club’s retention of the Division 1 title (and coveted Silver King trophy along with it) means that QUB are also celebrating consecutive top flight victories for the first time since 1970.

	PLAYED	WON	DRAWN	LOST	POINTS
1.QUB	16	12	3	1	81
2.Fisherwick	16	10	2	4	72
3.RVH	16	9	3	4	72
4.Lagan	16	3	1	12	34
5.Bangor	16	1	1	14	20

Having marked their return to league chess in 2006 with an away fixture at Fisherwick - the infamous "Evil Empire" of Ulster Chess - the 2007/08 team of QUB Galacticos chose the same venue for the scene of their finest league performance since the club's 2005 reformation.

Queen's made the short trip to Fisherwick Chess Club prepared for a pivotal "14 pointer" against their south Belfast neighbours. Pre-match, Fisherwick's geographical proximity to QUB was only matched by their closeness in the league table. The University side led by 4 points, but Fisherwick held a game in hand from which they could on average be expected to earn 5 points back.

Fisherwick's board 1, Michael Waters, was typically in no mood to relieve pre-match tensions during Fisherwick's Monday night tournament, boldly claiming to your author that "there are only two chess teams worth talking about in Belfast: Fisherwick and Fisherwick reserves". With the gauntlet laid down, Millar's Mob set about their task of disproving this Shanklyesque declaration.

For this fixture, the 3 QUB regulars of Steve Scannell, David Grzymek and captain Chris Millar were joined by two Trinitarians. Of little surprise was the reappearance of 2006 Dublin and Leinster Champion, Karl McPhillips, but he was also accompanied on this occasion by the 1850-rated Rory Delaney. Fisherwick, on the other hand, were to be without Ray Devenney and Graeme McCormick, but saw the return of captain Ian Woodfield and Sam Flanagan.

The first result in came from the board 3 game between Fisherwick's John Bradley and QUB's latest Dublin import, Rory Delaney. From the off, the game was very quiet in nature with slow space accumulation and piece manouevring the order of the day. Slowly but surely though, the Trinity Economics student gained an increasing amount of control over the position. The pressure eventually told on John, who was forced into conceding defeat for only the 2nd time this league season. Kudos to Rory for such a convincing performance.

The next game to finish was between Chris Millar and Sam Flanagan. This was to be Flanagan's first match back in Ulster Chess since his terrific display in the Gibraltar Chess Festival's under 1850 rated event. Sam beat off competition including several 1800 plus Norwegians, a dubiously underrated Morroccan (so dubiously underrated that a reasonable person could only suspect he should not have been eligible for the event at all) and a host of other international players to land joint first and £666 in prize money. Quite curiously perhaps, these winnings meant that tonight's match with the QUB student could be billed as an encounter between this season's highest chess earners currently active in Belfast - having taken almost £1,500 between them. The match itself, however, was surprisingly one-sided. Millar built up a comfortable advantage and eventually won with 50 minutes to spare on his clock and an uncompensated piece advantage on the board.

Similarly straightforward was David Grzymek's victory over Ian Woodfield, despite the two's previous encounters having seen wins for each player. For a while the game appeared balanced, but David soon found the ascendancy which he employed to win the exchange. From this point on the QUB player didn't look back and took the game to a rook and pawns v knight and pawns endgame. As expected, the position was quickly converted to another win for the visitors.

At 3-0 though, rather than aim to close out the match with winning bonus points in the bag, the Galacticos smelt blood.

Steve Scannell was looking to keep his winning momentum flowing against John Cairns. Scannell has ended up playing more than his fair share of tough league battles this season with black, and that wasn't to change here. As with last week's victory over David Houston though, moving second never looked likely to be a sufficient impairment upon Steve to stop him from claiming another win. The Ulster Champion accumulated a pawn advantage which he carried into a knight endgame. Ruthless as ever with an endgame advantage, the Yank converted the lead to seize another point for the University side.

The closest game of the night was between Karl McPhillips and Michael Waters. Waters, alike Flanagan, was back from an impressive outing in Gibraltar. Waters picked up 5/10 in the top section and the scalp of Bulgarian International Master Pavel Dimitrov along with it. Confidence in his chess powers at a new high, could Michael do anything to stop the Dublin Terminator? For a while it seemed that an upset may be on the cards. Waters employed a Bogo Indian to gain a strong position and sizeable time advantage. One always senses that McPhillips is likely to pull a win out of the fire, however, and that suspicion was once more proven correct here. As the pieces came off Karl's time disadvantage counted for increasingly less. With Karl's endgame strength showing through, Waters resigned with just 45 seconds remaining on the Kilkenny man's clock.

Karl McPhillips (2237 ICU) - Michael Waters (2069 UCU): UCU Division 1 (Round 8) (Annotations by Fisherwick's Michael Waters)

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Bb4+ 4. Nbd2 d5 5. e3 O-O 6. a3 Be7 7. b4 a5 8. b5 c5 9. bxc6 Nxc6 10. Bd3 dxc4 11. Nxc4 b5 12. Nce5 Na7 13. O-O Bb7 14. Qb3 Qd5 15. Qxd5 Bxd5 16. Bd2 a4 17. Rfb1 Rab8 18. Bb4 Bxb4 19. Rxb4 Bb3 20. e4 Rfc8 21. Nd2 Bc2 22. Be2 Nxe4 23. Nxe4 Bxe4 24. Nd7 Nc6 25. Rb2 Nxd4 26. Nxb8 Rxb8 27. Bd1 Rc8 28. Kf1 e5 29. f3 Bd3+ 30. Ke1 f5 31. Kd2 Bc4 32. Ke3 Kf7 33. f4 Ke6 34. Rc1 Kd5 35. fxe5 Kxe5 36. Be2 f4+ 37. Kf2 Nb3 38. Rd1 g5 39. Bg4 Rc6 40. Rd7 h6 41. Rb1 Kf6 42. Rbd1 Nc5 43. R1d6+ Rxd6 44. Rxd6+ Kg7? (missing Ke5 with the likely line 45. Rxh6 b4 46.axb4 a3!!) 45. Bf5 Kf7 46. Rxh6 Be6 47. Bxe6+ Nxe6 48. Rh8 Nf8 49. Rh3 Ke6 50. Rd3 Nd7 and McPhillips converted from there 1-0.

This left the final picture as an incredible 5-0 whitewash victory for Millar's Mob - the first claimed by any Division 1 side this season. Furthermore, one can only assume it has been many years since any Northern Irish side has inflicted such a humiliating annihilation upon Fisherwick. All-in-all, a perfect night for the Galacticos for whom things were all too easy.

Millar's Mob can now look forward to hosting last year's champions Clifton House next Wednesday night in the Peter Froggatt Centre. QUB have won every game there so far this season, but expect Danny Mallaghan's side to pose their toughest test yet.

1. Michael Waters (2069) 0-1 Karl McPhillips (2236)
2. John Cairns (2020) 0-1 Steve Scannell (2100)
3. John Bradley (1745) 0-1 Rory Delaney (1850)
4. Ian Woodfield (1650) 0-1 David Grzymek (1758)
5. Sam Flanagan (1635) 0-1 Chris Millar (1557)

As if to emphasise that last week's whitewashing of title rivals Fisherwick was by no means a fluke, QUB decided to pulverise second-placed Clifton House in identical fashion to storm further ahead at the summit of Division 1. Between them, Fisherwick and Clifton House have dominated the highest level of Ulster Chess since 2003. In the past two weeks, however, both have been completely blown away by Queen's and in as emphatic a fashion imaginable. Clifton House may be champions for the last 3 years, but the fresh-faced QUB are setting new standards which have left the best of the rest struggling to cope.

For this fixture, the QUB captain decided that improvement was needed after his side took almost the full 3 hours to complete their perfect score against Fisherwick. Replacing Trinitarian Rory Delaney on board 3 was QUB's latest acquisition - 1972 FIDE-rated Vlado Spiriak. One other alteration was made, with Millar deciding to rest himself (keen to avoid burning out his natural genius for the game through over use of it) to make way for Damien Lavery.

Clifton House, meanwhile, were as strong as ever. Morgan, Annesley, Pilkiewicz, Mallaghan and Moreland all lined up to face the QUB Galacticos. However, not even this and captain Mallaghan's re-jigging of their board order (with Morgan dropping to board 3) could rescue anything from what was to finish as an embarrassingly one-sided reverse.

The first game to finish was the board 1 clash between Karl McPhillips and Nicholas Pilkiewicz. Pilkiewicz chose to give McPhillips a free hand in the centre from the opening and was never to emerge as a serious force in the game. Having left it late last week, this time McPhillips wrapped up victory so quickly that he was able to catch the 10pm bus back to Dublin. Another win for the Terminator, who is now up to 4.5/5 for the season.

Next to conclude was the game of QUB debutant, Vlado Spiriak. The Ballymena-based Slovakian is a most welcome addition to the QUB panel, as the Galacticos aim to convert their sizeable lead at the top of the table into securement of the Silver King trophy. Spiriak faced a baptism of fire though - black against Clifton's normal top board, Steve Morgan. Morgan used the white pieces to quickly earn an advantage from the opening. However, the overlooking of an intermediate queen check was to reverse the tide in the game and leave Morgan on the rack. Vlado pushed on from there to establish a material advantage and 2-0 lead for his side.

On board 5, David Grzymek wasn't hanging around either against Des Moreland - if mainly because of a need to catch the last train home. Moreland employed the four pawns attack against the student and appeared to hold the edge. Nevertheless, Grzymek managed to steer the game into a finely-balanced knight and pawns v bishop and pawns endgame. David's bishop was to prove more useful than Moreland's knight and, when Des hung his knight under time pressure, the final death-knell was hammered into Clifton's evaporating hopes of picking up any bonus points from their outing.

The visitor's fortunes were, by this stage, not looking any more promising on board 2. Steve Scannell had accepted an isolated pawn in the opening against Gareth Annesley, in return for more active pieces and a d-pawn which was to be steadily advanced into enemy territory. Scannell's play led Annesley to fall into serious time trouble, and when Steve then hounded Gareth's king out from its protected corner, the Clifton player conceded defeat.

This left your author keenly looking on to the conclusion of the board 4 face-off between Damien Lavery and Danny Mallaghan. Lavery's employment of a London System-like setup and aggressive middlegame had afforded him a comfortable time cushion and pawn advantage for the endgame. The importance of the pawn seemed of secondary importance though to the activity of their remaining pieces - a rook and knight each. The game was decided abruptly in the end, with the Clifton captain fatally missing a knight fork hitting his king and rook.

The Galacticos have now recorded the remarkable achievement of consecutive 5-0 wins over their two greatest rivals.

In conclusion, Queen's now sit very prettily atop the Division 1 table. Their lead over Clifton has been drastically extended to 12 points, with Fisherwick a further 6 points adrift, albeit with 2 games in hand.

The Galacticos must now simply avoid a collapse to land the most coveted prize in Ulster team chess. Only 3 remaining fixtures - against Fisherwick, Lagan and North Belfast - stand between Queen's and glory. That opening day defeat to Clifton House now seems like a long time ago, with QUB now back on their feet and looking stronger than ever.

1. Karl McPhillips (2236) 1-0 Nicholas Pilkiewicz (1923)
2. Steve Scannell (2100) 1-0 Gareth Annesley (1906)
3. Vlado Spiriak (1972) 1-0 Steve Morgan (1977)
4. Damien Lavery (1711) 1-0 Danny Mallaghan (1869)
5. David Grzymek (1758) 1-0 Des Moreland (1797)

On November 1st 2006, Groomsport subjected the QUB chess renaissance to the indignity of its sole defeat under your author’s stewardship of the club. It was in this context that the university team, “Los Galacticos”, travelled to their opponents’ seaside residence with a desire to not just vanquish the memory of this 3.5-1.5 loss, but also to stamp their supremacy upon the charges of one Richard “The Gangster” Proctor, a man among Ulster Chess’s most nefarious instigators.

For this encounter, which enjoys the extra spice lent to it by the QUB captain’s transference of a fierce rivalry from previous meetings with the Groomsport outfit, it was the aforementioned Proctor whose game was decided first. Richard desperately fancied a crack at lead-Galactico Mendicute, and positioned himself accordingly on first board. Proctor, reflecting his typically adventurous approach, took an experimental bash at employing the Caro-Kann to meet the Matador’s king’s pawn opening. It was Claudio who dominated though, and the Spaniard dispatched the black king with a beautifully-delivered checkmate which was well-appreciated by his opponent – truly a finish after his own heart.

The next game to conclude was the match-up between Chris Millar and a resurgent Sam McCartney. McCartney is known for his attacking flair when given half an opportunity to take the game to his opponent, but hadn’t been able to take anything at all from three previous meetings with tonight’s adversary. These games had all been extremely hard-fought though, so the QUB captain was certainly not taking an extension of his 32-game unbeaten-streak for granted. The game turned when McCartney’s attempts to embed a knight deep in enemy territory were rebuffed by tactics removing the necessary support-point. The game was then promptly closed out to provide Queen’s with a 2-0 lead in the match. Credit must go to McCartney though, who grappled for the initiative before succumbing to defeat graciously on this occasion. A continuingly upwardly mobile rating is to be expected here.

With victory for the visitors now within touching-distance, the remaining QUB players sought to take the team over the winning post, while Groomsport dreamed of a quite extraordinary turnaround in proceedings.

These dreams were dashed, however, when Ulster Under 19 champion Calum Leitch forced the resignation of Bangor stalwart Albert McCarter. Leitch was grateful for the opportunity to utilise the white pieces for a change, and sought to drive home this advantage with his favourite gung-ho assault on the enemy king – otherwise known as the Grand Prix attack. Un-typically though, Leitch’s victory was gained by a composed and measured display, which he found can work just as effectively as a hell-for-leather attack on occasion. Cal clinically swept aside his opponent’s defence, gaining a material advantage which soon proved decisive.

On board 4, Fred MacDonald was looking to continue his re-found form against Stefan Andreasson, a man single-handedly boasting more passports than even the internationally-flavoured Galacticos squad combined. Similar to other league players outside the QUB line-up, Andreasson constitutes a university employee (lecturing in International Politics) ruthlessly aiming to put a dent in the fortunes of the institution’s chess stars. Despite enjoying some play for most of the game though, the Swede was finally subdued by another exhibition of MacDonald’s patented combination play.

This left the good-humoured John Masterson with the task of clinching a second whitewash victory this season for a rampant Queen’s team. “Maestro” Masterson faced the much-experienced Bangor player Ron Henderson. Ron is one of the respected elder-statesmen of Ulster Chess and has given much to the local game, including the well-known Henderson Cup which he has actually claimed on 3 occasions himself. As ever, the Maestro hadn’t truly warmed up until his clock reached the five-minutes remaining mark, but then he really let fly with an assault on Henderson’s position in front of the surrounding spectators. Mate was soon supplied and the perfect score secured with mere seconds remaining of Masterson’s time allocation. 5-0 to QUB.

Credit to the Groomsport side though, who received their humiliation with the requisite humility. The host’s captain warmly congratulated Millar’s mob, assuring them that the 5-0 probably secured league glory. Proctor’s attempts to deliver the kiss of death were received cautiously, however, not least as QUB were wary of the espionage of a suspiciously well-located Hillsborough side in Groomsport Parish Hall this evening (under the thinly-disguised veil of fulfilling a fixture with Bangor Winston). No doubt Queen’s will face a well-informed and well-prepared Hillsborough team in the Peter Froggatt Centre next Thursday evening.

A mention must go to the talented Groomsport regular William McGrattan, whose absence from tonight’s fixture was the result of a serious knee injury. Unfortunately, McGrattan’s condition is unlikely to have improved sufficiently for a return to action for the Seasiders’ forthcoming fixture against a Fisherwick side still narrowly trailing league-leaders QUB. The sooner the better though, and a speedy recovery is certainly wished to the likable McGrattan.

1/ Richard Proctor (1543) 0-1 Claudio Mendicute Fierro (1945)
2/ Ron Henderson (1502) 0-1 John Masterson (1857)
3/ Albert McCarter (1561) 0-1 Calum Leitch (1748)
4/ Stefan Andreasson (1400) 0-1 Fred MacDonald (1707)
5/ Sam McCartney (1268) 0-1 Chris Millar (1526)