Ulster Chess News
2009 Bulletin Number 1

WILLIAMSON SHIELD, MAYNARD SINCLAIR PAVILION, 24 & 25 JANUARY 2009

Defending champion Stephen Scannell equalled Tom Clarke's record of 8 Williamson Shield wins, but had to share the title this year with John Cairns and Gareth Annesley.

1st equal John Cairns, Stephen Scannell, Gareth Annesley
Grading prizes:
Under 1850 Charles McAleenan
Under 1350 (shared) Sean Linton, Kevin Agnew, Alex Beckett, Peter Ratcliffe, Cathal Murphy

Crosstable and final standings
Selected games available for download here

QUB RAPID OPEN, STUDENTS' UNION, 7 FEBRUARY 2009

Dublin FIDE Master Colm Daly (pictured below playing the black pieces against Ulster champion Stephen Scannell) won Northern Ireland's richest-ever rapidplay event.

Prizewinners
Open
1st Colm Daly 2nd equal John Cairns, Calum Leitch
Under 2000 Grading prize Ciaran Quinn

Challengers (under 1600)
1st David Baras 2nd Martin Kelly 3rd Alan Burns
Best female player Karina Kruk Best junior player Kiran Robbin
Under 1300 Grading Prize Pearse O'Brien Best unrated player Kevin Robbin

QUB BLITZ, STUDENTS' UNION, 7 APRIL 2009

 

This was the fourth in a series of relatively informal blitz events organised by QUB Chess Club President, Chris Millar.

 

Final standings
1=2. Eamonn Walls, Mark Newman 4.5 (Walls winner after tie-break Armageddon game)
3=5. John Cairns, Stephen Scannell, Shane Keers (under 1800 grading prize) 4.0
6=13. Damien Cunningham, Guych Nuriyev, Patrick Magee, Ciara Pugh (best unrated player), David McAlister, Martin Kelly, Jason Spence (best newcomer), Karina Kruk (best female player) 3.0

14=21. Richard Burns, Sylwek Furman, Barry McGalie, James McCullough, Dominic Krynicki, Helena Pugh, Patrick Meier, PJ Mallon 2.0
22=25. Kjegil Kippervik, David Creighton, Ross Downey, Peter Whitaker 1.0
26. Bill McMath 0.0

 

Report at NI Chess News Blog

Crosstable and final standings for both sections

CITY OF BELFAST CHAMPIONSHIPS, BELFAST BOAT CLUB, 16-17 MAY 2009

John Cairns continued his fine form of late in UCU events. Having finished equal first in both the Ulster Rapidplay championship and Williamson Shield he clinched first place on his own in the Nemtzov Cup with a fine attacking effort in round five against defending champion Stephen Scannell.

Cairns – Scannell: Nemtzov Cup Belfast (5), 17.05.2009
Play through this game in Javascript

 

1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 c5 3.d5
[3.Bxf6 gxf6 4.d5 Qb6 5.Nd2 Qxb2 6.e4

(6.Rb1 Qc3 (6...Qa3 7.e4 Bh6 8.Ngf3 d6 9.Bb5+ Kf8 10.0–0 Qa5 11.Bd3 Qc7 12.Nc4 Bd7 13.Nh4 b5 14.Ne3 Bxe3 15.fxe3 c4 16.Be2 Qc5 17.Bg4 Qxe3+ 18.Kh1 Qxe4 19.Bxd7 Nxd7 20.Qh5 Rg8 21.Rbe1 Qxc2 22.Re2 Qd3 23.Rfe1 Ne5 24.Nf5 Rg6 25.Nh4 Rg5 26.Qh6+ Kg8 27.h3 c3 28.Rf2 c2 29.Rxf6 exf6 30.Qxf6 Qg3 31.Nf3 Qxg2# 0–1 T. Clarke-S. Scannell, Nemtzov Cup 2003) 7.Rb3 Qa5 8.e4 Bh6 9.Ngf3 d6 10.Bb5+ Kf8 11.0–0 Bg4 12.Nc4 Qc7 13.Ne3 Bxe3 14.Rxe3 Nd7 15.h3 Bxf3 16.Qxf3 a6 17.Bxd7 Qxd7 18.Qh5 h6 19.f4 Rh7 20.c4 b5 21.e5 bxc4 22.exf6 exf6 23.Rfe1 Rb8 24.Qe2 Qf5 25.Qxc4 Rh8 26.Qxa6 Qxd5 27.Qa7 Kg7 28.Kh2 Rb2 29.Rg3+ Kh7 30.Re7 Rf8 31.Qd7 f5 32.Re5 dxe5 33.Qxf5+ 1–0 T. Clarke-S. Scannell, Nemtzov Cup 2004, Round 5)
6...Bh6 7.Ngf3 d6 8.Bc4 Rg8 9.Rb1 Qc3 10.0–0 Bh3 11.Rb3 Bxg2 12.Ng5 Rxg5 13.h4 Rg8 14.Rxc3 Bf3+ 15.Kh2 Bf4+ 16.Kh3 Bg2# 0–1 J. Cairns-S. Scannell, Nemtzov Cup 2004, Round 2]
3...Qb6 4.Nc3 Qxb2 5.Bd2 Qb6 6.e4 d6 7.f4 Bg4 8.Be2 Bxe2 9.Qxe2 Qa6 10.Nb5 Kd8
[10...Qb6 11.Rb1 a6 12.Nc3 Qc7 13.e5 dxe5 14.fxe5 Nfd7 15.Nf3 g6 16.0–0 Bg7 17.e6 fxe6 18.Ng5 Qe5 19.Nxe6 Ra7 20.Ne4 Bf6 21.Bc3 Qxc3 22.Nxc3 Bxc3 23.Qe3 Be5 24.Nxc5 b6 25.Nxd7 Nxd7 26.Rxb6 Ra8 27.Rb7 Bd6 28.Qe6 Nc5 29.Qf7+ Kd8 30.Qf8+ 1–0 N. Povah -S. Jackson, 4NCL 2000]
11.c4 g6 12.e5 Ne8 13.Nf3 h6 14.0–0 Bg7 15.Rfe1 dxe5 16.Nxe5 Bxe5 17.Qxe5 Qf6 18.Qe3 e5 19.Bc3 Rg8

[19...Nd7 20.fxe5 Qe7 (20...Qg5 21.Qxg5+ hxg5 22.e6 Ndf6 23.exf7) 21.e6 Ndf6 22.d6 Qxe6 (22...Nxd6 23.Rad1) 23.Qf3]

20.Bxe5 Qf5 21.Bxb8 Qd7

[21...Rxb8 22.Qe7+ Kc8 23.Nxa7#]

22.Bxa7 1–0

 

Prizewinners

 

Nemtzov Cup
Winner John Cairns
Joint runners-up Stephen Scannell, Gareth Annesley, Eamonn Walls
Grading prizes Tomasz Sobolewski, John McKenna, Mark Newman

 

 

Henderson Cup
Winner William Storey
Joint runners-up Karina Kruk, Martin Kelly
Grading prize Phillip Morrison

 

 

Crosstable and final standings for both sections

 

QUB BLITZ, STUDENTS' UNION, 8 JUNE 2009

 

This was another in the series of blitz events organised by QUB Chess Club President, Chris Millar. QUB student Eamonn Walls won for the second successive event.

Final standings
1. Eamonn Walls 5.0; 2. Stephen Scannell 4.5; 3=4. Calum Leitch, John Bradley (these two shared the under 1800 grading prize) 4.0; 5=6. Patrick Cielen (best newcomer), Karina Kruk (best female player) 3.5; 7=14. John Cairns, Andrew Higgins, Robert Lavery (winner of the David v. Goliath prize), Mark Newman, David McAlister, Guych Nuriyev, Matthew Chapman (best unrated player), Gordon Ingram 3.0; 15=17. Martin Kelly, Shane Keers, Tomasz Sobolewski 2.5; 18=24. Ciara Pugh, Sylwek Furman, Cathal Murphy, Dominic Krynicki, Barry McGalie, Helena Pugh, Jason Spence 2.0; 25=29. Nick Earl, James McCullough, Jonathan Beattie, Patrick Meier, Patrick Magee 1.0; 30. Gary Keers 0.0.