Irish Senior Chess Championships 2000

Though it was tough work, Mark Heidenfeld, Black, eventually overcame the stiff resistance of Paul Walsh on the 73rd move of a French defence. This was enough to give Mark the title of Irish Chess Champion 2000, as Gavin Wall was held to a draw by Daire McMahon. Gavin tried a Dutch defence and looked to be getting a slight advantage when he blundered a pawn on move 21 and offered a draw next move. Other results of the day included wins for Philip Short over Tom Clarke, Sam Collins over Anthony Fox, Pat McMahon over David Path and Eamon Keogh over Colm Daly! The draw average of the tournament was incredibly low, 13/53 or 24.5%. This is well below average for an event like this.

The final standings of the tournament look like this;

Place	Player Rating	Score	Rating performance

1  	Heidenfeld, Mark 2334    7     2349
2-4 	Collins, Sam    2186    6.5    2339
	Short, Philip   2197    6.5    2313 
	Wall, Gavin     2300    6.5    2346
5  	McMahon, Daire  2117    5      2249
6-7 	Daly, Colm      2327    4.5    2012
	Clarke, Tom     2155    4.5    1971
8  	Walsh, Paul     1832    3.5    2050
9-10 	Fox, Anthony    2057    3      2040
   	McMahon, Pat    1738    3      2001
11  	Keogh, Eamon    2095    2.5    1997
12  	Path, David     1720    1.5    1798

It's a pity that all the readers were not in the bar at the prizegiving as Mark did the decent thing and bought a round of drinks for all present.

That's it for another year, thank you. Gerry Graham.

Round 8
Apologies for the delay in this report, my fault (GG), had a night on the town I'm afraid. Day 8 at this year's event was the first where each and every game was decisive. The leaders, Gavin Wall and Mark Heidenfeld both win today at the expense of Anthony Fox and Pat McMahon respectively. Colm Daly lost to Sam Collins while Philip Short and Tom Clarke accounted for the back-markers, David Path and Paul Walsh. Eamon Keogh was on the losing end of a Daire McMahon counter attach in a game with a pleasing finish.

The final round draw looks like this:
1 Daire McMahon [4.5] : Gavin Wall [6]
2 Paul Walsh [3.5] : Mark Heidenfeld [6]
3 Philip Short [5.5] : Tom Clarke [4.5]
4 Anthony Fox [3] : Sam Collins [5.5]
5 Colm Daly [4.5] : Eamon Keogh [1.5]
6 David Path [1.5] : Pat McMahon [2]

Play begins at 10:30am Sunday morning so the new Irish Champion should be known by 4:30 at the latest so watch this space.

Results, round 8:
1 Gavin Wall [5] : Anthony Fox [3] 1-0
2 Pat McMahon [2] : Mark Heidenfeld [5] 0-1
3 Sam Collins [4.5] : Colm Daly [4.5] 1-0
4 Philip Short [4.5] : David Path [1.5] 1-0
5 Tom Clarke [3.5] : Paul Walsh [3.5] 1-0
6 Eamon Keogh [1.5] : Daire McMahon [3.5] 0-1

Round 7 [ 3 more games from earlier rounds ]
The top board pairing; Heidenfeld-Wall was a relatively quick draw after Gavin wheeled out his by now famous Philidors defence. This leaves both players on 5/7. Colm Daly beat Paul Walsh with white in a queen gambit, exchange variation where Colm pushed his minority attack home with good effect. Sam Collins overcame the resistance of Tom Clarke while the game of the round must be the Pat McMahon- Philip Short encounter. Philip, black in a Kings Indian, seemed to get a out of the opening fine but soon ran into trouble and was forced to give up his queen for a rook, knight and pawn. Pat seemed to have the upper hand for some time but Philip came right back into the game with some neat play towards the end and managed to force Pat's resignation.

Anthony Fox maintained the advantage he aquired in the opening to score the full point at the expence of Daire McMahon while Eamon scored his first win of the championship by beating David Path with the Budapest defence. One remarkable feature of this year's event is the low number of draws, only 12 out of 41, that's fighting chess!

Tomorrows pairings look like this;

1 Gavin Wall [5] : Anthony Fox [3]
2 Pat McMahon [2] : Mark Heidenfeld [5]
3 Sam Collins [4.5] : Colm Daly [4.5]
4 Philip Short [4.5] : David Path [1.5]
5 Tom Clarke [3.5] : Paul Walsh [3.5]
6 Eamon Keogh [1.5] : Daire McMahon [3.5]

Colm Daly has a chance to avenge his defeat at Bunratty this year and he needs to, if he is to keep in touch with the leaders.

Round 6
Today was not a quiet day on the chess boards of Ahane as there was only one draw out of the six games played. Paul Walsh and Anthony Fox agreed a draw on move 39 of a wild Ruy Lopez after Anthony missed a win on move 31. This leaves Paul Walsh on a very respectable 3.5 / 6, rating performance 2160! It will be interesting to see if he can maintain this level of play.

Daire McMahon-Mark Heidenfeld was an unusual queen's pawn opening in which Daire, although slightly worse, inexplicably blundered horribly on move 23. This will be a hard one to put out of his mind. Philip Short-Gavin Wall was a game in which Philip never seeemed to get any serious pressure against Gavin's favorite Philidors defence. White's pieces got in trouble on the queenside and Philip gave up the struggle on move 34. Other results today included wins for Tom Clarke ( vs Pat McMahon ), Colm Daly ( vs David Path ) and Sam Collins ( vs Eamon Keogh ).

The pairings for day 7 look like this;
1 Mark Heidenfeld [4.5] : Gavin Wall [4.5]
2 Colm Daly [3.5] : Paul Walsh [3.5]
3 Sam Collins [3.5] : Tom Clarke [3.5]
4 Pat McMahon [2] : Philip Short [3.5]
5 Anthony Fox [2] : Daire McMahon [3.5]
6 David Path [1.5] : Eamon Keogh [.5]

As Colm has already played both players on board one, he needs a draw there tomorrow to keep alive any slight chance he has of retaining his title. Of course, he himself will have to win!

Congratulations to Rory Quinn of Ennis, the new Irish intermediate Champion. He won a strong 8 man, all play all tournament on 5.5/7 Congratulations also to the new Irish Junior Champion, Stephen Branigan of St.Benildus. He won a 22 player, 6 round swiss on 5/6. He need a win in the last round against John Knightson, of Limerick and he got it! The weekender begins Friday evening, those interested in playing should contact Frank Noonan A.S.A.P. on 087-2766012.

Todays game: Walsh,P - Fox,A [C92] Irish Championship R.6, 2000
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 0-0 9.h3 Bb7 10.d4 Re8 11.Nbd2 Bf8 12.Bc2 g6 13.a3 Nb8 14.b4 Nbd7 15.Bb2 c5 16.bxc5 dxc5 17.dxe5 Nh5 18.c4 Bg7 19.cxb5 axb5 20.a4 b4 21.Nc4 Ba6 22.Nd6 Nxe5 23.Nxe8 Nxf3+ 24.Qxf3 Bxb2 25.g4 Qxe8 26.gxh5 Bxa1 27.Rxa1 Qe5 28.Rd1 Qxh5 29.Qf6 Qxh3 30.e5 Qg4+ 31.Kh2 h6? 32.Bxg6 fxg6 33.Rd8+ Rxd8 34.Qxd8+ Kf7 35.Qf6+ Ke8 36.Qc6+ Kf7 37.Qf6+ Ke8 38.Qc6+ Kf7 39.Qf6+ ½-½

Round 5
Colm Daly's chances of three titles in a row took a dramatic setback today as he went down to Gavin Wall in a game I'm sure he'd like to forget. With only one win, three draws and a loss out of 5, he's certain to lose his title this week. Mark Heidenfeld outplayed Sam Collins on the white side of a sicilian while all the other games were drawn. They were not easy quick draws though, Philip Short was a pawn up but his king couldn't hide from Daire McMahon's queen's checks and they shared the point. Pat McMahon vs Anthony Fox went down to the wire but neither could get the full point. The same could be said of David Path and Paul Walsh but Eamon Keogh and Tom Clarke was a slightly quicker affair, 18 moves and Mr.Keogh got his first half point.

Tomorrow's draw looks like this;

1 Daire McMahon [3.5] : Mark Heidenfeld [3.5]
2 Philip Short [3.5] : Gavin Wall [3.5]
3 Paul Walsh [3] : Anthony Fox [1.5]
4 Tom Clarke [2.5] : Pat McMahon [2]
5 Colm Daly [2.5] : David Path [1.5]
6 Eamon Keogh [.5] : Sam Collins [2.5]

Wall,G - Daly,C [B52] Irish Championship R.5, 2000 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bb5+ Bd7 4.a4 Nf6 5.d3 Nc6 6.0-0 e6 7.Nbd2 Be7 8.Nc4 0-0 9.e5 Ne8 10.c3 d5 11.Ne3 Na5 12.Bd2 Nc6 13.d4 Nc7 14.Bd3 cxd4 15.cxd4 a5 16.Nc2 Na6 17.Nfe1 Nab4 18.Nxb4 Nxb4 19.Bb1 b5 20.Ra3 g6 21.Bh6 Re8 22.Rh3 bxa4 23.Nf3 Bb5 24.Re1 f5 25.exf6 Bxf6 26.Ne5 Bxe5 27.dxe5 Ra7 28.Qg4 Rg7 29.Bxg7 Kxg7 30.Rxh7+ 1-0

I think this years champion is almost certainly on board 1 or 2 above and if one is draw and the other won, then my money is one the winner to take the title.

Round 4 [three games]
Round 4 of the championship saw the clash of the title holder, Colm Daly and Philip Short. Although Colm did manage to win a pawn, Philip's endgame technique and his two bishops verses bishop and knight, helped ensure the draw. Sam Collins suffered a set back at the hands of the unpredictable Daire McMahon when he lost with white in 19 moves! Paul Walsh played a piece "sac" against Gavin Wall and got an excellent position but was tempted by a well timed draw offer and the point was shared. ( See games ) Anthony Fox was outplayed by Mark Heidenfeld and Tom Clarke proved too strong for David Path. Pat McMahon however was obviously undaunted by the prospect of playing Eamon Keogh and unleashed a nice queen "sudo-sac" to win a piece early on in the game. Pat held his nerve well to secure the full point and leave poor Eamon on 0/4!
Tomorrows pairings;
1 Daire McMahon [3] : Philip Short [3]
2 Mark Heidenfeld [2.5] : Sam Collins [2.5]
3 Gavin Wall [2.5] : Colm Daly [2.5]
4 David Path [1] : Paul Walsh [2.5]
5 Eamon Keogh [0] : Tom Clarke [2]
6 Pat McMahon [1.5] : Anthony Fox [1]

Round 3
Irish Championships, Day 3: Today saw the clash of Philip Short and Sam Collins which ended in a 41 move draw, leaving both players on 2.5/3. Gavin Wall was playing catch-up by over-coming the French defence of David Path in 31 moves to leave him on 2/3. Paul Walsh also reached 2/3 by outplaying Pat McMahon's Sicilian defence. Anthony Fox registered his first full point of the championship by beating the out of form Eamon Keogh on the white side of yet another French defence. A full third of the games so far have been the afore mentioned defence however, white has won all of them! Pre-tournament favorites Heidenfeld and Daly also clashed in this round in a ver wild Sicilian. After some mind-boggleing complications the game was agreed drawn after 52 moves, at which point both sides still had their queen, a rook, three minor pieces and half their full complement of pawns!
The draw for Tuesday;
1 Colm Daly [2] : Philip Short [2.5]
2 Sam Collins [2.5] : Daire McMahon [2]
3 Paul Walsh [2] : Gavin Wall [2]
4 Anthony Fox [1] : Mark Heidenfeld [1.5]
5 Tom Clarke [1] : David Path [1]
6 Pat McMahon [.5] : Eamon Keogh [0]

Round 2
The Irish Chess Championship 2000 does not seem to have too much respect for the ELO rating system as another couple of "surprise" results came in today. Philip Short had white today against IM Mark Heidenfeld and gained the full point to takee the lead on 2/2. Sam Collins also had the privilage of the first move against Gavin Wall, (FIDE 2350) captain of the Richmond 4NCL team, which he obviously put to good use to join Philip on 2/2. Colm Daly outplayed Pat McMahon to move to 1.5 /2 while David Path held Daire McMahon to a his second draw of the event. Tom Clarke inflicted a second defeat in a row on Anthony Fox while Eamon Keogh has started his capaign for this year's title in a less than ideal way, he lost to Paul Walsh. This was their third game together in a less than a month, they drew both their encounters at the Cork Congress and the Interprovincials. Tomorrow's encounter between Philip Short and Sam Collins should be a very interesting affair so watch this space!

Round 1
The Irish Chess Championships began today in Ahane, Co.Limerick and Gavin Wall ( 2350 ELO, Richmond C.C. England ) took a no time at all in taking advantage of an opening slip by Eamon Keogh to register the first full point of the event. Mark Heidenfeld also took the full point against Tom Clarke but Colm Daly, defending Champion was a bit fortunate to escape with a draw in round 1 against Daire McMahon! The consensus amoung the spectators was that Colm was "lost" for most of the game but as he has proven before, he's a hard man to beat. Philip Short started his campaign well by beating Anthony Fox while Paul Walsh ( Cork ) was outplayed in a complex middlegame by Sam Collins.

Created on ... April 23, 2000