Dunlaoghaire Chess Club

Finn Vellamurphy and Luke Thornton who are two of our junior members, represented Newpark Comprehensive School at a Leinster School’s Chess Cup qualifying round on the 9th February. In this round they were up against some stiff competition from Coláiste Éanna, Gonzaga and The Institute of Education. Newpark topped the group with 10 ½ points out of a potential 15, with Finn and Luke contributing 2 and 1 ½ points respectively. Luke had an impressive draw against a much higher-ranked player where he secured the decisive ½ point required to move Newpark to the top of the league ahead of Gonzaga. This means that for the second year in row Newpark advance to the Leinster finals where they hope to improve on last year’s third place. We wish Luke and Finn well in their endeavours….

Christmas Lightning Tournament/Fun night : Wednesday 12th December
This year’s Christmas Lightning Tournament / Fun night will be held in the chess club on Wednesday evening 12th December commencing at 7.30pm. The evening will include raffles and spot prizes.
The tournament will be along similar lines to previous years, with the emphasis very much on it being a light hearted affair with everyone having an enjoyable time.
The tournament will be over 5 rounds and the same handicap system will apply as in previous years, to even up the chances for everyone. Current live ICU ratings will be used - if you don’t have a rating the Controller will estimate a rating for you.

Rating Band Time per game received by player

>1800 5 minutes

1600 – 1799 7 minutes

1400 – 1599 8 minutes

1000 – 1399 10 minutes

< 1000 12 minutes

For example, if a player rated 1850 meets a player rated 900, the higher rated player will have 5 minutes to complete all his/her moves and the lower rated player 12 minutes to complete all his/her moves.
One additional rule is that a time limit of 20 minutes applies per game, so if 2 players of ratings < 1000 are paired they get 10 minutes each. If a player with a rating of 1000 – 1399 is paired with a player rated < 1000, the time for the players are 9 and 11 minutes respectively.
Entry is free and the following prizes will be on offer:
1st €50
2nd €30
3rd €20
4th – 6th €10 each
We hope we’ll get a really good turnout on the night and if people want to bring a small gift to be raffled on the night, it would be much appreciated.

Check out Tom O'Gorman's live stream of the in Scotland

fmtoog - Twitch

Best of luck Utkarsh Gupta as he represents in the Robinson Cup over in Scotland!

Former Irish no. 5 Paul Cassidy has written a series of articles on his adventures in Cuba at the 17th Part one is out now https://buff.ly/2LauxHI

This years Rapidplay takes place at the beautiful Royal Marine Hotel on the 26th of August!

Royal Marine Hotel 19th Century Victorian south Dublin Hotel set in an eclectic mix of old world charm & new world cont

The draw for the final round of the Dun Laoghaire Club Championship is up! Utkarsh leads by half a point. Can top seed Tony sneak in and steal it in the last round?

Dun Laoghaire Club Championship 2018 - Round 6 - Dún Laoghaire Chess Club Draw No Name Loc Total Result Name Loc Total 1 Jackson, Peter 1732 [3.5] : Gupta, Utkarsh 1797 [4.5] 2 Lohan, Martin 1545 [3.5] : Fox, Anthony 2037 [4] 3 …