QUB enjoyed
a double at the City of Belfast Championships 2010, with members
of its 1st Division winning team winning both sections. Gordon
Freeman scored 5/6 to lift the Nemztov Cup and become City
of Belfast Champion, while Karina Kruk recorded the same tally
to claim the Henderson Cup.
More
details are available here.
QUB Chess
brought its business back to The Parlour for another night
of bar blitz. The lively south Belfast bar was the scene for
a remarkable tournament which was sensationally only decided
in the very last second of a play-off for first place. For
the sizeable contingent of newcomers and the onlooking crowd
this made for a great spectacle, for the regulars it will
come as no surprise that the description tells the tale of
a Steve “Metronome” Scannell win.
Perhaps it
was the latest addition of table service to the Blitz package
that helped encourage a particularly light-hearted atmosphere
even for blitz standards. A batch of newbies were welcomed
into the fold, friends enjoyed the drink offers together while
Damien Lavery and Mark Newman were seen throwing shapes on
the dance floor. In between ordering drinks, there was also
time for 5 rounds of chess.
In the race
for first place, most recent Blitz form suggested that the
man to beat would be Eamonn Walls. He shared the point with
Gareth Annesley in round 3, but came unstuck against QUB team
mate Lukasz Kwiatek in round 4. Walls’ was deposed of
his Blitz King title inside 20 minutes of Kwiatek patience
and accuracy.
Lukasz himself had
already drawn with 8 times Ulster Champion Steve Scannell
before that win over Eamonn, and then proceeded to smash Shane
Keers to finish with 4.5 points from 5. But of course, that
wasn’t Lukasz finished. Scannell didn’t let up
after his sole draw either, going on to beat Annesley and
Newman to setup an Armageddon style “winner takes all”
playoff with the Pole.
For exactly
10 minutes and 59 seconds chess became a spectator sport as
the crowd circled around Scannell and Kwiatek. In their earlier
encounter Steve had given up a pawn for play, but this time
the roles were reversed. Soon Lukasz was dominating and, as
he built up an unassailable material advantage, the Pole seemed
unstoppable. However, down the years Scannell has built a
reputation of emerging from the tightest of corners. Once
again he performed a miracle of metronomic precision –
claiming victory when Lukasz’s time reached zero while
the American had one precious second to spare.
But the night was certainly
also one for newcomers, with John Lawson, Dan Curran, Eddie
McCaffrey, Chris McDonald, Nathan Carver and Michael McLarnon
all débuting. In the prize for the best of the newbies,
McDonald and McCaffrey also had to play-off after they each
finished with 2.5/5. They had drawn earlier in the tournament,
but this time Chris came out on top to get a slice of the
prize money.
Third place went to
Eamonn Walls, while Shane Keers and Pearse O’Brien handled
their drink and punched above their weight to claim the under
1600 and under 1200 grading prizes.
In summary,
another great Blitz in The Parlour. A huge thanks to Mark
Newman, Andrew Wright and Eamonn Walls for their help in organising
the event. Expect more of the same come June.
On March 20th
2010 QUB played host to Belfast’s richest ever one day
chess event, with the Spring sunshine and £1,000 prize
fund attracting nearly 50 competitors from all over Ireland.
The Students Union proved an excellent venue for the event,
with contestants and spectators taking full advantage of the
café and - especially after the prospect of individual
glory became more remote - the bar.
Becoming the
first ever player to win back-to-back Rapid titles in Queen’s
was Irish Champion and Fide Master Colm Daly. Daly produced
a perfect score with 5 wins from 5 games, thus enjoying another
highly successful and profitable day in Belfast as he finished
on top by a clear point.
His 2009 triumph
clearly had the Dubliner hungry for another trip to the University
and, after planting himself on board 1, Daly never looked
like he was going to be moved. Taken down one at a time by
the FM were Des Moreland, Michael Holmes, Sam Osborne, Gordon
Freeman and Steve Scannell.
It was undoubtedly
the final round showdown between the Irish Champion Daly and
Ulster Champion Scannell which caught the eye most of all,
and was a fitting finale for the first Belfast tournament
to lure such a sizeable southern contingent in almost a decade.
After 4 rounds
and 4 victories, the rejuvenated Scannell was the only player
keeping pace with the eventual winner. The QUB man looked
on top form as he recorded victories over opponents including
Gareth Annesley and Dubliner Eddie O’Connor. As close
as he came in the decider, however, Steve was beaten in a
rook pawn ending from a game in which Colm conceded he had
twice given serious thought to offering a draw.
The final
round defeat saw Scannell settling for second place alongside
four others. Among those was another Queen’s man, Lukasz
Kwiatek, after he defeated fourth seed Sam Osborne in the
last round. Equal on four were 3 players who had travelled
from the south: David Murray, Eddie O’Connor and Shane
Lee - the last of can claim to have always secured a prize
from any event in Belfast since his school days.
Just missing
out on this group was Gordon Freeman, whose tournament experience
encapsulated the strength of the southern contestants who
made the journey. Freeman travelled with the hope of getting
games against a fresh batch of opponents, but instead faced
Dublin based players throughout – Carl Jackson, David
Murray, Oisin Benson, Colm Daly and Ciaran Quinn.
For the second
year running it was the aforementioned Quinn who took the
prize for best under 2000 player. Quinn’s sole defeat
came against Osborne in round 2, but a final round draw with
Freeman allowed him to pip locals Des Moreland and Gareth
Annesley to the top grading prize.
Other prizes
went to Martin Kelly (read his blog),
Sean Linton, Robert Lavery, Karina Kruk, Kiran Robbin and
Kevin Fitzpatrick. Happiest of all to get on the winners list
was perhaps Fitzpatrick, who had travelled to Belfast all
the way from Galway. He enjoyed the honour of winning the
David v. Goliath prize after defeating Michael Holmes in round
3.
All in all,
a great event for the University club and the Rapid 2010 may
be remembered as the most successful QUB Chess event to date.
Many thanks indeed to all those who helped make a magnificient
contribution to the day's organisation - not least Eamonn
Walls, Caroline Coffey and David McAlister.
Stay tuned
for more soon, with the next Bar Blitz
scheduled for Sunday night April 25th in The Parlour Bar in
Elmwood Avenue.
Full Rapid
crosstable below:
March 7th
2010 saw QUB Chess begin revolutionizing Sunday nights in
Belfast, taking bar blitz to The Parlour for 5 rounds of old
fashioned, straight shootout style chess.
Almost 30
competitors descended upon the Elmwood Avenue venue for the
first time, keen to contest both the £100 prize fund
and also who could take greatest advantage of the 3 Coronas
for £5 promo.
While the
latter honour finished as a dead draw between Gareth Annesley
and Martin Kelly, the former went once again to QUB student
Eamonn Walls who claimed a record breaking fourth victory
in the history of the competition.
Walls’
progress was only slowed by a 3rd round draw with Damien Lavery,
who accidentally reset his digital clock mid-match by hitting
it too hard. Eamonn had to recover quickly as his next round
opponent and QUB teammate Lukasz Kwiatek was fresh from downing
first seed Steve Scannell. Despite entering an unpromising
ending, Eamonn recovered to set up a final round showdown
with surprise leader Jonathan Woodfield.
Woodfield
had beaten the likes of Mark Newman, Andrew Higgins and Gareth
Annesley to enjoy a clear lead going into the finale. But
an encounter with Walls proved a hurdle too far for Jonathan,
with the QUB student ending his opponent’s perfect run
to claim 1st prize for himself.
Woodfield
wasn’t without consolation however, as his high tiebreak
score saw him take the second place cash prize ahead of Annesley
and Scannell. Grading prizes went to seasoned blitzer Lavery,
along with promising QUB fresher William Ashenhurst and best
newcomer Steve MacCullough – who’s now discovered
that chess exists outside his iPhone.
All in all,
the maiden Parlour Blitz proved an excellent success, with
a strong turnout and plenty of business done at the tills.
Even the notoriously hard to please Kelly was full of praise,
describing the night as “fabulously well run”
and the venue as “making him feel right at home”.
QUB Chess certainly hopes to make The Parlour its own home
in coming months, with further Blitzes in the popular bar
now on the cards.
Coming very
soon is the £1,000 prize fund QUB
Rapid on Saturday March 20th in the Students Union.
Be part of it!
QUB's youngest
female players kept alive the spirit of QUB Chess (winning
every piece of silverware in sight) at the 2009 Ulster Junior
Championships in Methodist College Belfast.
Ciara Pugh
retained the Hilda Chater Plate by again winning the title
of Ulster Girls Champion. Karina Kruk was also taking home
a trophy, as she superbly scored six wins out six to become
Ulster Under 16 Champion.
A full report
is available from the UCU
site.
Eamonn Walls
lifted the Hammel Cup after a last round win over QUB team
mate Steve Scannell. Walls' record of 78% was enough to beat
Scannell to top spot, with the American second with 75%.
A full report
is available from the UCU
site.
QUB Chess
returned to Café Krem for another night of Blitz, as
ever specialising in attracting both the strongest established
players in Ulster Chess and also the freshest faces brand
spanking new to the University society.
The list of
entrants quickly showed up a big five who would be the likely
front runners for first prize. Chris Cohrs and Eamonn Walls
played the part of the host club’s star challengers,
while also coming to the show were big hitters Stephen Morgan,
Jonathan Brown and Gareth Annesley. This was always likely
to produce a fiercely fought contest and so it proved –
after 3 rounds those very 5 players shared the lead on 2.5
points.
However, fourth
round wins for Cohrs over Morgan, Annesley against Brown and
Walls versus Mark Newman left the race for top spot a three
horse race by the fifth and final round. It was here that
Cohrs slipped to a draw against David Baras, leaving Walls
to clinch his third QUB Blitz success as he defeated Annesley.
Those results
left the University’s favourite Theology student and
favourite German in first and second position while another
University face - Masters student Robert Lavery - snuck up
like a ghost into third place overall.
Thej Kodiyat
became QUB Freshers Champion 2009 with a 2.5/5 score. After
incessant bleating about the detrimental effects of time restrictions
upon his play, Thej got to grips with the Blitz time limit
to takeover the crown won last year by Scott Colhoun.
With usual
suspects Karina Kruk and Ciara Pugh nowhere to be seen, Nurul
Atiqah Hamid’s two wins saw her claim the prize of QUB
Womens Champion for 2009.
The prize
for best under 1800 player went to seasoned blitzer Mark Newman,
while the Best Newcomer on the night was former Methody student
Stephen Madden.
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