The Mulcahy 2017 tournament was held last weekend from the 6th to 8th January at the Metropole Hotel here in Cork. There was a large entry and I think it's fair to say it was a big success and great credit must go to Pat Twomey for organizing this. You can read his report on the ICU website. I enjoy playing in this tournament as the rooms we're in are nice and compact - it creates a good atmosphere.
They place a particular emphasis on having young people play - they give a medal for junior players under 16. Which sounds grand until you start getting beaten by them! What about us adult cannon fodder Pat. Where's our medals!
I didn't have a great tournament - I finished with 50% but lost rating points. I've put my games from the tournament up here - I had a travelling bye in the first round. My results were all over the place. I won a game where my opponent missed a tactic to win my bishop. I lost a game I possibly could have drawn and also lost a game where I was better at one stage. It all evens out I suppose.
I had two engrossing endgames on the last day. I won the first one but lost in my last game of the tournament. It's really dispiriting to do it that way around as I walked away on a loss. If I'd lost the first game but won the second, I'd have felt not too bad as I would have retrieved something from the day.
I'm trying to compare it to my first entry in this tournament two years ago to see if I've made any progress in the intervening two years. Going on results, I'd be hard pressed to say so! I did have a better idea of what I was doing in the games - especially with black - but this time I made a few more blunders. The previous occasion I was able to draw a few more games. I wonder if playing with a rating affected me - last time I was unrated so I didn't have any expectations before the games of what the result should be. I'll have another chance to compare progress in a couple of months at the Cork Congress. I had bad tournament last time dropping over 100 points so surely I can't do as bad again!
The overall winner was Alex Lopez who I follow on his Youtube channel. The ratings are out for the tournament as it's crazy the level he must perform to. He gets 0 points for beating 1700 players and only gets 1 for beating 2000 rated players. If I beat one 1700 player I'd consider the tournament a great success!
→ posted on January 15, 2017chess
Started going analysing my old games from Cork Congress 2015. Wish I hadn't bothered! So far seen a game I won that I should have lost, a game I drew that I should have won and a game I lost where I should have drawn.
→ posted on January 13, 2017microposts
And now there's a new rating system that's given me an even higher rating!. Cheers to the URS - whoever they are
→ posted on January 3, 2017microposts
I have a FIDE rating for the first time ever - 200 points more than my ICU one. I'll take that :)
→ posted on January 2, 2017microposts
I played the second round of the Cork Club Championship and lost. My opponent was feeling a bit under the weather, so to go home early he launched a speculative attack which succeeded! I should bring Lemsip to these games in future.
The computer says I had a chance to turn things around near the end by playing Bb8 on move 28. I think in practical terms it would have been very hard to spot that as my attention was focused on the pieces around the king and not the other side of the board. It's an instructive idea though - the mate threat keeps my opponent's queen pinned to the h file and allows me to trade it off and so end the attack.
→ posted on December 9, 2016chess
Round 7 of the Munster League continued and naturally the A team didn't have a full team. There were no B team games this weekend though so I was able to play up for them.
I managed to win my game after my opponent miscalculated a tactic dropping a bishop for a couple of pawns. I went into an endgame with a knight and rook against a rook and two extra pawns and coverted it.
This meant that the A team drew the match 2.5 - 2.5. I'll be expecting a trophy at the end of the season if they win the Championship!
→ posted on December 4, 2016chess
The second round of the ladder continued and I had white against one of the top rated players in the club (1800+ ICU). I was expecting a draw at most but instead I won! I managed to get a passed pawn on the 6th rank and use that to attack.
The game was played with no increment due to time constraints - I was a bit nervous about this as I normally bank on using the increment for any endgame. In this case i won just as we reached an endgame so I was ok on time.
It's a pity these games aren't rated but if I keep playing like this then my rating should move up anyway.
→ posted on December 3, 2016chess
Congratulations to Magnus Carlsen. Was the more aggressive throughout the match and deserved the victory
→ posted on November 29, 2016microposts
Turns out Karjakin didn't need his whites. Won with black after a crazy game. Must be a huge favourite now
→ posted on November 22, 2016microposts
Karjakin seems to have wasted his two whites. Still level but now Magnus has three whites from five games - and will finish match on a white.
→ posted on November 20, 2016microposts