Ulster Chess Union

This go-as-you-please tournament was held as usual over the summer months at Civil Service Chess Club. To be eligible for a prize competitors had to play 10 games and to play on 2 of the last 3 nights of the event. There were 41 entries.
Winner Ian Woodfield with 7.5 out of 10 (75%). Runner-up Nicholas Pilkiewicz with 8.5 out of 13 (65.3%).
Grading prizes: Band A Brendan Jamison and Mark Newman both with 7.5 out of 12 (62.5%).
Band B John Orchin with 6.5 out of 10 (65%) Band C Francis Carrothers with 5.5 out of 10 (55%).

While the Williamson Shield was taking place in Belfast, five-time winner Tom Clarke was competing for Bray in the European Club Cup in Bosnia. Here is a quick win for Tom in his favourite Trompowsky, played on Board 4 in the match against Monmouth Chess Club, Wales.

The draw gave the white pieces in the first two rounds to Stephen Scannell against his two main rivals, Tom Clarke and David Houston. He took full advantage of this and won both those games. He then went on to win his next 3 games to lead at halfway by 1.5 points. In rounds 6 and 7 he drew with Clarke and Houston to virtually ensure victory. After another draw in Round 8 against Adrian Skelton, he finished off with wins against Mark Newman and Nicholas Pilkiewicz to record a very impressive final score of 8.5.

This rapidplay event was played in 3 all-play-all graded sections. Time limit was half an hour for each player.
Final standings:
Major:
1st = Michael Holmes and Desmond Moreland 4.0 (the players shared the prize money but Moreland took the Certificate for first place - he had the better tie-break score after beating Holmes in the final round); 3rd Ian Woodfield 3.0; 4th = Fred MacDonald and Paul McLoughlin 2.0; 6th Stephen McCann 0.0.
Intermediate:
1st David Collins 5.0; 2nd David Barlow 3.0; 3rd David O'Donnell 2.5; 4th= Damien Cunningham and William Storey 2.0; 6th Damien Lavery 0.5.
Junior:
1st Chris Black 4.5; 2nd Jonathon Woodfield 4.0; 3rd Jonathon Clifford 3.5; 4th John Cahoon 2.0; 5th Geoff Hindley 1.0; 6th Louis Holmes 0.0.

Last year Gareth Annesley won the Intermediate Championship with a score of 5.5 points out of 6 games. In this year's renewal the top seed produced a repeat performance.

1. G. Annesley 5.5
2. J. Masterson 4.0
3=7. R. Henderson, F. MacDonald, S. McCann, D. Moreland and S. Strawbridge 3.5
8=10. J. Bradley, J. McLean and D. O'Donnell 3.0
11-12. S. McConaghy and P. McLoughlin 2.5
13. C. Marron 2.0
14. A. Burns 1.5

Michael Kane. winner of the 1999 Junior Championship, almost completed a double as well. He tied with two others for first place in this year's championship. However, it was William Storey who took the title on tie-break.

1=3. W. Storey (winner of the championship on tie-break), M. Kane and S. Linton 4.5
4. D. Lavery 4.0
5. C. Black (winner of the under 1350 grading prize) 3.5
6=7. J. Cahoon and J. Clarke 3.0
8. G. Hindley 2.0
9. A. Peile 1.0

This was probably the strongest Rapidplay tournament held in Ulster for some time. It attracted a sizeable contingent from Dublin, including former Irish champion Paul Delaney and Ander Gamez, a Spanish player resident in Dublin for the last 2 months, who has a FIDE rating of 2196.

In the Senior section, Paul Delaney was in the sole lead after three rounds after beating Nicholas Pilkiewicz, Stephen Scannell and Tom Clarke, the last of these being a particularly attractive attacking effort. However in Round 4 he over-pressed in a fairly level endgame against the Spaniard Gamez and lost. This meant Gamez was now in the sole lead with 3.5 points but he then lost his Round 5 game - eventually ground down in an endgame by Scannell, who just reached the finishing line before his time ran out. Also in Round 5 Delaney sacrificed a knight against Michael Holmes, followed it with a clever quiet move, forcing Holmes to counter-sacrifice. When the dust had cleared Delaney had rook and two pawns to knight and three pawns, but one of these was a passer. Delaney felt the position was winning for him, while Holmes thought he could hold out for a draw, but in the end Holmes' passed pawn surprisingly proved decisive. The top pairings for the last round were:
Tom Clarke (4.0) - Stephen Scannell (4.0)
Ander Gamez (3.5) - Nicholas Pilkiewicz (3.0)
Michael Holmes (3.5) - Danny Mallaghan (3.0)
Gamez and Holmes both won their games to finish on 4.5, and all eyes were now on the Board 1 game. This was a hard-fought struggle, with little in it either way until the last few minutes of the session, when Clarke's position suddenly collapsed, giving victory and the championship to Scannell.

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.Bd2 Ne7 6.f4 Nbc6 7.Nf3 Nf5 8.dxc5 0–0
Clarke introduces an interesting alternative to the usual recapture on c5.
9.Bd3 f6 10.Na4
Delaney now decides to try to hold on to the pawn. The only previous game I could find went 10.exf6 Qxf6 11.Qe2 when Black finally took the c-pawn. After 11...Bxc5 12.0–0–0 Bd7 13.g4 Nfd4 14.Nxd4 Nxd4 15.Qg2 White had the better game in Santo Roman - Blees, Cannes 1990.
10...Bxd2+
In the post-mortem both players considered this weaker than 10...fxe5. Now after 11.fxe5 Nxe5 if White plays 12.Nxe5 Black gets a winning advantage after 12...Qh4+ 13.g3 (any King move leads to a quick mate) Nxg3! If in this line White plays 12.0–0 instead, then after Nxf3 13.Rxf3 Bxd2 14.Qxd2 e5 Black is slightly better.
11.Qxd2 fxe5 12.fxe5 Nxe5
But here 12...Nh4 might be better.
13.Nxe5 Qh4+ 14.Qf2!
Now the disadvantage of exchanging on d2 becomes clear.
14...Qxa4 15.0–0
Black now has difficulties developing his queenside. The natural move 15...Bd7 loses after 16.b3.
15...Rf6 16.g4 Ne7 17.Qe3
17...Nc6 might be an improvement.
17...Ng6 18.b3 Qe8 19.Bxg6 hxg6 20.b4 a5 21.b5 Qxb5 22.Rxf6 gxf6 23.Rf1! Kg7
23...fxe5 24.Qh6 Qxc5+ (24... Qe8 25.Rxf6 and 26.Rxg6 wins) 25.Kh1 Qe7 26.Qxg6 Kh8 27.Rf3 Qg7 28.Qh5+ Kg8 29. Qe8+ Kh7 (28...Qh7 29.Rf8+ Kg7 30.Rf7 and mates) 30.Rh3 and mates.
24.Rxf6 Kxf6 25.Qf4+ Ke7 26.Qf7+ Kd8 27.Qf8+ Qe8 28.Nf7+ 1–0
White gives checkmate next move with Qd6.

In the Junior section, Sean Linton won his first five games. In the final round he was paired against David O'Donnell, the only person who could catch him. O'Donnell pressed hard the entire game, but Linton held firm under the pressure and eventually a draw was agreed; Alex Beckett, who had been in a winning position and with more time on the clock when losing to Linton in Round 4, beat Damien Cunningham to join O'Donnell in second place.

The Ulster Open, originally scheduled as a two-day event on the 3rd and 4th February 2001, will now be a 6 round round Active tournament, and played on Sunday 4th February.