Tuesday 2nd February – Fixtures

A Championship:

CORRIGAN, Brendan  V  JOHNSTON, Michael
MURPHY, Eoin.          V REID, Joe
COLEMAN, Pat           V  HOWLETT, Cillian
DOYLE, John BYE

B Championship:

SOMERVILLE, Colm    V   CUMMINS, Sean
MCDONNELL, Paddy  V   THOMSON, Andrew POSTPONED
PENTONY, Frank.        V   MITCHELL, Philip
ROTTIERS, Nick.         V   CHURCHILL, Adam

C Championship:

SCANLAN, Pat.    V     EVANS, Keith
AHERN, Justin    V    WATSON, Andrew POSTPONED
REILLY, Ben        V   SIMA, Sonia
KANE, Adam     BYE

The usual arrangements regarding unavailability, etc.

 

BEA Cup Update

Drogheda slip to 4th place in the standings following the completion of the remainder     of the round seven matches.

 

Ennis Shield Update

Drogheda’s stay at the top of the table was short lived as Bray’s big win over Longford lifts them above them. Incidentally, Bray were the only team to defeat the Drogs this season and look odds-on to gain promotion. However, Drogheda seem to have the easier run in of the top three teams, so all is not lost!

Div 3  Ennis Shield  2015 – 2016

	Team	MP	GW	GD	GL	Def	Pts
1	Bray / Greystones	7	26	8	8	0	30
2	Drogheda	7	22	10	10	0	27
3	Round Tower	7	19	15	8	0	26 ½
4	Rathmines	7	17	14	11	0	24
5	Curragh	7	13	14	15	0	20
6	Dublin	7	13	13	16	0	19 ½

Enniscorthy Congress this weekend

The first Enniscorthy Congress takes place this weekend and Pat Scanlan is involved as an assistant arbiter, as he achieves his 2nd norm. The  top 5 boards are live on the ICU website for anyone interested.

B Championship Update 26th January 2016

 

B Championship:
CHURCHILL, Adam 0.5-0.5  PENTONY, Frank

A very tight match from the outset with neither player able to make the break through. With Frank attacking on the king side, Adam took control of the open file and concentrated on pushing his queen side pawns. Despite applying severe pressure, Adam could not force the advantage and then dropped a knight for free. However, due to lack of time, Frank could not secure the win and a draw was agreed.

 
MITCHELL, Philip    0-1  MCDONNELL, Paddy.

Paddy is definitely starting to believe the hype and has taken control of the B Championship with a win over top seed Philip. Despite playing black, he was quickly into his stride and had a positional advantage at an early stage. Philip wasn’t giving up without a fight and pushed hard for the illusive win but to no avail. Paddy now moves to 4/4 at the half way stage.

THOMSON, Andrew 0-1   SOMERVILLE, Colm

Colm played the Sicilian against Andrew in an entertaining match.  Andrew exchanged a Knight for two pawns, one of which was a protected passed pawn early in the game and looked to be winning.  However, due to an oversight in the endgame by Andrew, Colm won the exchange and the game.

C Championship Update 26th January 2016

C Championship 26th January 2016:

KANE, Adam  1-0     WATSON, Andrew

Adam produced his first win of the Championship when he defeated Andrew in an entertaining and intriguing match. While it began quite tamely, Adam quickly got into his stride and forged a slight advantage on the king side. Andrew defended well and tried to counter on the queen side. One chink of light and Adam was in to register his first win.

SCANLAN, Pat    V     SIMA, Sonia POSTPONED

AHERN, Justin   1-0   REILLY, Ben

Ben’s second defeat in a row seems to have put his Championship challeng off the rails.  Justin was in fine form and pushed his advantage to secure his first win of the Championship.

A Championship Update 27th January 2016

Not as busy a night as usual, due to several postponements.  However, there were still a few interesting battles taking place.

A Championship:

JOHNSTON, Michael 0.5-0.5    HOWLETT, Cillian

Michael’s winning streak comes to a halt, but he still remains undefeated and top of the table. Cillian was hoping to build on recent results and also to put a halt to Michael’s winning run.  A cautious match to begin with neither player giving an inch.  In fairness, they probably cancelled each other out and the draw was unenviable?

DOYLE, John 0-1 COLEMAN, Pat

Looked fairly even at the mid game stage with John more than holding his own against the defending Champion.  However, Pat forced the pace and went the exchange up. After that John was fighting a rear guard action to stay in the match.  Lets just say the Champ won in the end!

REID, Joe 1-0   CORRIGAN, Brendan

Joe Reid recovered from his shock defeat last week and beat Brendan Corrigan eventually. Joe described it afterwards as a tricky match with plenty of traps, right up to the end.  Indeed, but for the Fischer time, Joe reckoned he would have walked into a stalemate. Brendan now has to dust himself down and prepare for undefeated Michael Johnston next week.

Ennis team go top.

A fascinating match, on Saturday last, saw Philip Mitchell’s Ennis team produce their best performance of the season when they defeated league leaders Round Tower by 4-2.    Brendan Corrigan got the home team off to a fine start with a win on board 5.  He was quickly followed by DOB’s win after 19 moves on board 3.  Unfortunately neither Rick Goetzee nor Kieran Rogers could keep the momentum going, and both lost.  The unavailability of Pat Coleman was compensated by the return of ‘super sub’ Alan Dee, who delivered the decisive win on board 6.  It was 3-2 at this stage and Joe Reid’s match was tight, where Joe had ‘the advantage’ of a queen for 3 pieces!   He must have studied the Coleman-Corrigan match from the previous weeks’ Club Championship, as he still engineered a win.     This win puts us top of the table by one half point, but we seem to have an easier run in than Round Tower?

Next up is away to Curragh on 27th February. Another must win match!

C Championship Update 19.01.16

C Championship update 19th January 2016:

REILLY, Ben            V     SCANLAN, Pat

The clash of the top two was a very open game with Pat taking a pawn advantage after 38 moves.  Ben who was undefeated after 2 rounds fought gallantly but Pat’s experience told in the end as he put his Championship challenge back on track.

SIMA, Sonia             V     KANE, Adam

Adam was keen to get back on track following his defeat to Ben in round 2.  Sonia, on the other hand, was looking to build on her win against Andrew in round 1.  Adam had the better of the opening and was a piece up after 22 moves.  However, Sonia continued to fight and eventually forced a draw.  She remains undefeated and I contention

WATSON, Andrew  V     EVANS, Keith

Andrew got his campaign going with a gutsy win over Keith who admitted to being below par.  An error late in the game by Keith sealed his fate and gave Andrew the win.

B Championship Update 19.01.16

B Championship 19th January 2016

THOMSON, Andrew     0-1  CUMMINS, Sean

Sean Cummins, who only joined the Club in September, followed up his win against the top seed Philip Mitchell by defeating No2 seed Andrew Thomson in some style.  He now stands on 2.5 points from 3 games in the B Championship, with 3rd seed Colm Sommerville and 4th seed Paddy McDonnell in his sights.  It looks like ‘squeaky bum time’  for the top seeds? Check out the final position below:

SOMERVILLE, Colm     0-1  MITCHELL, Philip

Philip recovered from the previous round defeat to Sean, to restore some order to the seeding’s.  Colm admitted that he never really got going and it was one way traffic, once Philip gained an advantage!

MCDONNELL, Patrick  1-0  CHURCHILL, Adam

Paddy proved much too strong for Adam and moves to the top of the group win 3 wins from 3 matches.  Next up is a tough match against top seed Philip Mitchell. Could this be his year?
PENTONY, Frank          1-0  DEE, Alan

Yet another shock in the B as Alan Dee’s return to Championship chess didn’t go to plan. The match was only scheduled on the night following the Committee’s ruling to allow Alan play in the Championship, and the unavailability of Frank’s original opponent. Alan gained a cheap pawn in the opening and looked comfortable.  Frank battled on and regained the pawn and a slightly better position but Alan showed all his experience to defend well and take the initiative when offered the chance.  However, Frank stuck to his guns and instead of going a piece down forced the win.