It was another good night for Sonia Sima as she got a very credible draw against Piotr Baczkowski coming from 2 pawns down! She fought right back into to go to a queen and 3 pawns each end game. There was no way through for either player and a draw was well-earned. It was also a good night for Hugh Butler when he caused somewhat of a shock in beating Ben Reilly. It was a crazy Kings Gambit, which is saying something, that had pieces hanging everywhere. Ben ran into a nasty skewer that led to a mating attack. Well done Hugh.
Michael Pentony got an unexpected draw against Andrew Thomson after he ran into a nasty skewer himself losing a piece. At that point he had Andrew pinned back and was looking like he would go on to win which was unfortunate. In the end game it looked all over for him but he managed to use a pawn to hold Andrew back. So well done and hard luck at the same time! Paddy McDonnell looked like he was on a winner having Stefan Baczkowski pinned right back for most of the game as well as being a pawn up. He had an opportunity to go another up by swapping queens but choose to attack king side instead. Stefan defended this really well when an oversight by Paddy left his rook on prix and Stefan took it gladly and the game.
It was a good night for Kieran Rogers and he wasn’t even playing! This is because Joe Reid and Brendan Corrigan played out an exciting draw to lose ground in the championship. Both needed to win, even this early in the championship, to have any realistic chance of picking up the trophy. Brendan had the upperhand early winning a pawn but Joe then got some more active play. Brendan then had 2 passed a & b pawns but did not activate then correctly. He made a silly error in dropping one of them. Still there were chances for both to take the full point however if fairness they cancelled each other out in time trouble. A draw was a fair if inconvenient result.
Pat Scanlan did well to beat a fired up Cillian Howlett. It was an open contest where Cillian had the better of the opening by attacking down the queen side. Pat seemed to concentrate on the middle and caught Cillian out on the back rack to claim a precious win over a tough opponent. Frank Pentony put it right up to Philip Mitchell. It looked as if it was heading for a draw when Frank got distracted and lost a piece. The funny thing was he was he had seen it a few moves earlier and told himself not to let it happen! Philip took the piece and victory.
Game of the night was between Eoin Murphy and Jonathan Tsang. Jonathan opened e5 to d4 and an exciting game developed. Jonathan followed up with an early f5 and build up a strong diagonal king side pawn chain. Eoin tried some queen side pressure and a battle of wits ensued. It was difficult to call but Jonathan played brilliantly in the end game using his pawns to maxim effect to deservedly win. For one so young he really is making a huge impact so one to watch!
Dave Newtown had a very nice win over Fionn Reid-Kelly. He had a lot of pressure on the kingside picking up material before the inevitable win. Some nice piece work was good to see. Paul Byrne showed his class to account for Sean Wynne in a timely manner.
In the cup Michael Johnson put it up to Pat Coleman. Things were going well for Michael when he went 2 pawns up. Pat is a wily competitor though. Michael then won a rook but did not realise that Pat set him up. A few moves later he sacrificed another piece for a forced smothered mate. A bit of brilliance there from Pat. 🙂
Michael Pentony 1/2-1/2 Andrew Thomson A
Stefan Baczkowski 1-0 Paddy McDonnell
Brendan Corrigan 1/2-1/2 Joe Reid
Pat Scanlan 1-0 Cillian Howlett B
Philip Mitchell 1-0 Frank Pentony
Eoin Murphy 0-1 Jonathan Tsang
Piotr Baczkowski 1/2-1/2 Sonia Sima
Sean Wynne 0-1 Paul Byrne C
Fionn Reid-Kelly 0-1 Dave Newton
Hugh Butler 1-0 Ben Reilly
Pat Coleman 1-0 Michael Johnston Cup
Drogheda Chess Club 