Ulster Chess News
2006 Bulletin Number 1

ULSTER RAPIDPLAY CHAMPIONSHIP, BELFAST BOAT CLUB, MONDAY 2 JANUARY 2006

With the Ulster Senior Championship no longer played over the Christmas vacation period, the UCU Committee considered there was still a market for a tournament at that time of year. With New Year's Day falling on a Sunday, Monday 2nd January was a public holiday so this seemed the ideal day to stage a one-day tournament. It was given the title of Ulster Rapidplay Championship, and it is hoped that this might become a regular fixture in the Ulster chess calendar. It was encouraging for the future to see that of the 27 players competing, 12 were schoolchildren.

Civil Service Chess Club hosted the Williamson Shield for the third successive year. Geoff Hindley had worked very hard in the run-up to the tournament to ensure the event ran smoothly and a nice touch from the organising club was the provision of large jugs of water at each table. For the first time since the late 1990s the tournament this year was held in a single section. After the disappointing turnout at the Ulster Open in October, it was encouraging to see a much larger entry with a good spread of abilities.

Tom Clarke scored a maximum 6 out of 6 to win the Williamson for the eighth time. Runner-up was Stephen Scannell, winner of the Shield on the previous 4 occasions (one of those tied with Clarke). The under 1900 grading prize was shared by David Blair, Nicholas Pilkiewicz (both former winners), Eamonn Walls and Christopher Kelly. Ananda Srinivasan won the under 1600 grading prize, while the under 1300 onr went to John Phillips. The latter was the revelation of the tournament - despite a rating of 1254 he achieving a tournament rating performance of 1822, with his only loss coming in the last round to Clarke.

After winning the Williamson Shield, Tom Clarke travelled south the following weekend to take part in the Gonzaga Chess Congress, an annual tournament organised by the students of Gonzaga College in Dublin. The top section was the Masters, which unusually for a weekend event was an all-play-all. Tom was top seed and he claimed overall victory by winning 4 of his 5 games.

w = walkover: d = default

The Ulster Under 19 team narrowly defeated their Leinster counterparts to become All-Ireland Interprovincial champions for the first time in more than ten years.

The Ulster team consisted of six players from as many different colleges: David Gryzmek (Sullivan Upper), Eamonn Walls (St. Mary's), Calum Leitch (Campbell College), Utkarsh Joshi (Friends), Chris Millar (Queen's) and Ryan Murray (Royal Belfast Academical Institution). They defeated the home side on board count in Gonzaga College, Dublin, during the first weekend of March. Each Ulster player finished on at least one point from three games while Calum Leitch hit top form to complete the tournament as the top performer from either side, with two wins and a draw.

With both the provinces of Munster and Connaught unable to field a team, the Ulster side found themselves faced with a head-to-head battle against perennial favourites Leinster over three rounds of matches. The tournament victory over this strong Leinster side - which included two members of the Irish Glorney Cup team - provides suitable recognition to the strong renaissance in Ulster schools' chess over the last five years. The significance of the achievement is perhaps best understood when considered in the context of the Ulster teams' record in the competition in recent years.

This team tournament win - undoubtedly one of the finest moments for Ulster schools' chess in over a decade - is a task which Ulster Under 19 teams in coming years will aim to repeat. Five of the current team are eligible to play again next year and a crop of promising young players look capable of adding much to the panel in the near future.

The QUB Open returned to the Ulster chess circuit with a new format and venue. The now five-round rapidplay tournament was held in the John Mercer Halls in South Belfast. The competition was won by four times Ulster champion Steve Scannell.

Fisherwick’s Michael Waters secured the runner-up spot after a tie-break win over Frank Wu of Methodist College. However, the schoolboy still had the consolation of a grading prize for his strong performance. The other grading prizes were won by an unbeaten Damien Lavery and Drew Ferguson of the QUB Chess Club.

For the first time since the early 1970s, a Queen’s University Belfast team competed in the Irish Universities’ Championship. The competition was held in the Dublin Institute of Technology on Saturday 1st April 2006.

The QUB three-man team, which consisted of three first years: Chris Millar, Philip Todd, and James Gill; finished second out of the six competing teams only after losing an extremely well-contested final against a strong Trinity College team with an average rating strength of over 1750.

With the QUB Chess Club only being reformed this year after years of inactivity, the absence of the team’s top board, and the fact that the Belfast side were effectively playing as the away team against primarily Dublin-based opposition, the second-place finish was a very satisfactory result.

After returning to the competition for the first time in over 30 years, the QUB Chess Club aim to put in a bid to host the tournament and provide another strong performance next year.

Fisherwick Chess Club's 50th Anniversary season continued with its Winter Tournament being won by Ananda Srinivasan.

Ananda then entered a play-off match with Mark Newman, the winner of the Autumn Tournament to decide the 2005-2006 Fisherwick Championship. After that finished 1-1 Newman won a blitz play-off to take the title.

Kevin O'Neill won the Crazy Quickplay Final. In this time handicap event, Kevin took advantage of his extra time to come ahead of higher rated opponents.