Ulster Chess News 2000 Number 3
PRIMARY SCHOOLS CHESS CHALLENGE WATERFRONT HALL BELFAST 26 MAY 2000
Last year the Ulster Chess Union held the first ever competitions it had put on for primary schools. Both attracted about 60 competitors and thanks to the hard work of Chief Organiser Adrian Skelton (who put in an enormous amount of work into setting the events up for the UCU), Tournament Director David Houston, the teachers in charge of chess at the various schools competing and volunteers from amongst the ranks of Ulster chess-players - together with the help of Belfast City Council and the Waterfront Hall - these were extremely successful events. This year there are again two events, both at the Waterfront Hall. The five Belfast primary schools sending teams to the first of the two events were Cairnshill, Edmund Rice, Our Lady of Lourdes, St. Bernards and Strandtown, and there were also 5 individual entrants from. Friends Lisburn, Holy Cross, Holy Family, St. Joseph's Antrim, and St. Mary's on the Hill.
PRIZEWINNERS (ALL OF WHOM RECEIVED MEDALS):
FIRST PRIZE ON 5.0 POINTS NICOLA HOOD (Friends) and EAMON WALLS (Our Lady of Lourdes). Eamon was awarded the special medal for the most points because he was the younger of the two on 5 points and Nicola had already won a first prize medal in a previous competition;
SECOND PRIZE ON 4.5 POINTS SIMON DOHERTY (Our Lady of Lourdes)
THIRD PRIZE ON 4.0 POINTS MATTHEW SHERRARD (Strandtown), AIDAN MCGOWAN (Our Lady of Lourdes) ANTHONY DORNAN (Our Lady of Lourdes), and JAMES SKELTON (St, Mary's on the Hill)
FINAL STANDINGS: 5 ROUND SWISS: 60 COMPETITORS:
1-2. Nicola Hood and Eamon Walls 5.0
3. Simon Doherty 4.5
4-7. Matthew Sherrard, Aidan McGowan, Anthony Dornan and James Skelton 4.0
8-12. Christopher Rooney, Peter Grier, Niamh Logan, Declan Murray and Kathryn Murray 3.5
13-29. James Parish, Barry O'Kelly, John Madden, David Corrie, David Robinson, Christopher Lynn, Michael McClusky, Ciaran McVeigh, Grant Abernethy, John Meighan, Paul Hills, Matthew Turkington, Pearse McGlinchey, Michael Woods, Declan Hughes, Mark McCamley and Kara White 3.0
30-31. Alan Kennedy and Calum Mitchell 2.5
32-47. Adele McCurdy, Daniel Simpson, Calum Leitch, Matthew McCaughey, Finbarr McGovern, Gavin Rodgers, Paul Rafferty, Martin Moreland, Oonagh Conway, Blain McGuickin, Frankie Smyth, Scott Daw, Francis Hughes, Steven Sparks, Jennifer Clarke and Christopher McClure 2.0
48-52. James Williams, Allen McDowell, Eamon McCambridge, Louise Watson and Carl King 1.5
53-58. Amy Green, Cormac Curran, Padraig Austin, Jonathon Boyd, Liam Griffon and Chris Torbitt 1.0
59. Adam Seawright 0.5
60. Laura Ross 0.0
ULSTER BANK TOURNAMENT 9-11 JUNE 2000
ORGANISED BY THE CITY OF DERRY CHESS CLUB
OPEN/MAJOR: 6 ROUND SWISS
The Open and Major sections were combined because there were only 5 entrants in the Open Section. However each section retained its separate prize list. Competitors in the Open in capital letters.
1-3. ADRIAN GILLEN, STEPHEN GILLEN and STEPHEN SCANNELL
(Equal First Prize Winners in the Open) 5.0
4. Michael Barr (First Prize Winner in the Intermediate) 4.5
5. Eugene O'Hare 4.0
6. MICHAEL HOLMES 3.5
7-13. David Path, Robert Irvine, RICHARD McMASTER, Cecil Sloan,
Samuel Moore, Hameed Khonji and Ronald Simpson 3.0
14-16. Derek McGill, Tony Parker and Aurelio Javier 2.5
17. John Lynch 2.0
18-19. Danny Mallaghan and Steven Branigan 1.5
20. Damien McDowell 0.0
INTERMEDIATE: 6 ROUND SWISS
1. Graeme Walsh 5.0
2. Sean Barr 4.5
3-5. David Collins, David O'Donnell and John McGurk 4.0
6. Brendan J Doherty 3.5
7-10. Michael McGrory, David McDaid. Anthony Quinn and Darragh Duffy 3.0
11. Emmett O'Connor 2.5
12. Paul Hasson 2.0
13. Cormac Duffy 1.0
14. Jim Mullan 0.0
MINOR: 10 ROUNDS
1. Brian Butler 9.0
2. Jim Moore 6.5
3. Matthew Lyttle 6.0
4. Fiona Hegarty 4.0
5. Eimea Kerr 3.5
6. Debbie Boyle 1.0
SCHOOLS CHESS CHALLENGE WATERFRONT HALL 14 JUNE 2000
The second of this year's Schools Challenges had 98 competitors and was expanded to include some Form 1 pupils. Primary Schools sending teams were Cairnshill, Inchmarlo, Our Lady of Lourdes, St. Bernard's, St. Columb's (Portstewart) and Strandtown, as well as individual entrants from Holy Cross and St. Mary's on the Hill. The Form 1 competitors comprised a team from Methodist College and an individual entrant from Friends (Lisburn). Next year's events will probably have separate events for Form 1 and Primary School competitors.
The prize winners were:
FORM 1 1st Ryan Deane (Methodist College), 2nd Christopher McGlade (Methodist College) 3rd Christopher Millar (Methodist College) 4th Nicola Hood (Friends)
PRIMARY SCHOOLS 1st Anthony Dornan (Our Lady of Lourdes) 2nd Kathryn Treacy (Our Lady of Lourdes), 3rd Callum Leach (Strandtown),) 4th Matthew Hill (Strandtown), 5th David Corrin (Strandtown)
FINAL STANDINGS: 4 ROUND SWISS
1-3. Anthony Dornan, Christopher McGlade and Ryan Deane 4.0
4-9. Christopher Miller, Kathryn Treacy, Nicola Hood. David Corrin, Callum Leach and Matthew Hill 3.5
10-22. Aidan McGowan, Christopher Rooney, Darren Gray, Eamon Walls, James Parish, Jennifer Jackson, Jonathon Maxwell, Naimh Logan, Paul Karayiannos, Peter Grier, Philip Baillie, Rose Capper and Simon Doherty 3.0
23-39. Brendan Cormican, Colin Taylor, Donald Hill, Hasini Bolledulla, John Madden, Max Gilbert, Michael Burke, Stephanie McKillop, Timothy Kelly, Andrew Little, Alex Russell, James Williams. Mark McCamley, Shane Coors, Matthew Sherrard, Matthew Gaston and Michael Shaw 2.5
40-60. Barry McTaggart, Brett McKeown, Catherine Delaney, Conor Carey, David McClelland, David McMaster, Emma Carlin, Francis Hughes, Graeme Young, James Shannon, Jonathon Bardgett, Jonathon Clarke, Jonathon Cunning, Lloyd Linton, Matthew McCaughey, Matthew Turkington, Nicholas Maw, Orla McElhone, Ronan Brolly, Sam McKinnon and David Corrie 2.0
61-75. Daniel McDowell, David McCullough, James Skelton, Jamie Lusk, Jonathon Savage, Lauren Bell, Michael O'Loan, Patrick McMullan, Peter Whitaker, Stephen Dowling, Scott Daw, Michael Woods, Jamie Morton, Philip Emerson and William Clarke 1.5
76-90. Adrian Roche, Angela Lappin, Barry O'Kelly, Christopher Lynn, Erin McGurnaghan, Gerard Kelly, Mark Gorman, Mark McColgan, Matthew Whiteside, Michael Milliken, Michael Monaghan, Nadeen Perry, Rafika Sellani, Thomas Crawford and Christopher Coates 1.0
91-94. Clare McKeith, Holly Gates, Kiera McHugh and Alan McDowell 0.5
95-98. Aine Regan, Desmond Kilfedder, Emma Henry and Philip Gault 0.0
ULSTER CHESS UNION ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
CIVIL SERVICE CHESS CLUB 14 JUNE 2000
ELECTION OF OFFICERS
a) President Tony Beckett
b) Vice President David McAlister
c) Secretary Mark Newman
d) Treasurer Ed Morgan
e) League Secretary David Houston
f) Committee Members Michael Holmes, Bernard McCaughey,
Robert McCaughey,Tony Parker and Stephen Scannell
MOTIONS FOR THE MEETING
The Committee put forward three motions.
A) The Committee proposes that the Annual Club League Registration Fee shall be pegged as for last year i.e. £40 per Team
B) The Committee proposes to set up a Register of all Chess Players in Ulster, and to introduce a Registration Fee of £5-00 pa for each player. This Registration will entitle that Player to participate in any Tournament or Event organised under the auspices of the Ulster Chess Union.
C) The Committee proposes to amend the requirement requested by the ICU and confine our Contribution to the ICU to £10-00
Registration Fee per Player. This Registration will entitle that player to participate in any Tournament or Event organised under the auspices of the Irish Chess Union.All three motions were carried.
IRISH CHESS UNION ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
TEACHERS CLUB DUBLIN 1 JULY 2000
Significant changes to the funding and organisation of the Irish Chess Union were put forward to the meeting by the ICU Executive Committee. Tony Beckett and Mark Newman attended on behalf of the Ulster Chess Union.
In relation to funding, the proposal was for a standard ICU Membership Fee of £10, plus a tournament rating fee of £2 per player per event. An amendment was carried to delete the additional tournament rating fee from the proposal, and the proposal as amended then read:
"That the Membership Bye-Laws be amended to incorporate a different fee structure:
A standard fee of £10 collected as follows:
(i) from league players via their provincial union before 1st December each season;
(ii) from tournament players before their first tournament game;
(iii) from others (e.g. overseas players) directly to the ICU."
The motion was carried. This means that the ICU AGM adopted the Membership Fee structure approved by the UCU at its AGM in June 2000.
The proposals in relation to a new organisational structure, amending Articles 7 and 8 of the ICU Constitution were passed by the meeting. These will come into effect for the 2001/2002 season. There will be a new two-tier administrative structure.
The ICU Executive Committee has been slimmed down from 14 members to 9 and will comprise 4 members elected at the ICU AGM to the posts of Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer, plus 5 nominees from the 4 provincial Unions, and the Junior Sub-Committee. It will concentrate mainly on policy issues.
There will be a new Operations Sub-committee (chaired by the Vice-Chairman of the Executive Committee) whose members will also be elected at the ICU AGM. Elections will be for specific posts such as Tournament Director, Development Officer, PRO and Chairman of the International Selection Committee. Also on the Sub-committee will be the delegates from the BCAI and ICCA. It will deal with mainly day-to-day administrative matters.
SMITH AND WILLIAMSON BRITISH CHAMPIONSHIPS
MILLFIELD SCHOOL SOMERSET 31 JULY-11 AUGUST 2000
There were three Ulster players competing, IM Brian Kelly, James McDonnell and Timothy Douglas.
Defending champion Julian Hodgson retained his title.
Brian Kelly shared the British under-21 title with Nicholas Pert.
Final leading scores: 11 round Swiss: 68 players:
Norman Stephenson (2241) - Brian Kelly (2426) Round 5 British Championship [D45]
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.e3 Nbd7 6.Qc2 Bd6
Selected games played by Ulster competitors in Javascript
After posting details of the Championship in the Chronicle I received this e-mail (edited for publication) from Paul McKeown.
"I note that in your Ulster Chess Chronicle News Digest you reported on the performances of three Ulster players in the Championship event. To my knowledge there were at least two other Ulster players competing in Street, Paul McKeown and Richard McMaster, both in the Major Open. I scored 6/11 and should have achieved a FIDE rating of 2084 in the Jan 2001 list from the 9 FIDE rated opponents that I played. Richard scored 5/11 and a partial FIDE rating of 2045 based on his 8 FIDE rated opponents.
In case no-one remembers me, I played for the Downpatrick Chess Club (and occasionally for Newcastle) as a junior, until I went to University in England in 1985. I last played chess in Ulster in the Ulster Championships in December 1985 and in the Belfast Civic Festival in May 1986, but I am planning to make my comeback this December, again in the Ulster Championships (having been unable to resist the blandishments of J.J. McDonnell!). During my years in the wilderness I studied for 3 years in England, worked in Germany for 18 months and then in the Netherlands for over 7 years before returning to England in January 1997. Somehow Belfast seems closer these days!"
My thanks to David Houston, Paul McKeown and Steve Scannell for their help with this issue. The next bulletin will probably be published in mid-November.