Galway Junior Chess

The first Connaught secondary schools chess championships had 10 schools competing for the title of  ”Connaught Kings of Chess” .. with the finals played in Castlebar on Wednesday 8th April. Here St. Geralds team captain (Jack Kelly) holds the perpetual trophy flanked by team mates Evan Doyle, Dara Ludden and Ammar Janjua.    The Castlebar “B” team   came in 2nd place ..edging past St. Mary’s of Galway (3rd place) in a semi-final blitz play-off .. ..  the level of play was very good with many games being decided by endgame technique.  Colaiste Bhaile Clair (in their 1st year as a secondary school) completed the final line up (as a late replacement for a very experienced Garbally college team) and will have gained invaluable experience for next year and future competitions.

Special thanks to all the team managers (teachers).   And the players who were a hugh credit to their schools ..  playing in a spirit of mutual respect and fairplay.  In this aspect of the competition everyone wins. click on the ICU logo for details of this w/e Irish Junior championship .. hope to see a strong turnout from Connaught      :o)

The 1st ever swap chess event had a great turnout and some really good games of chess.  By round 4 there were 2 clear leaders on 4 outta 4 (in the foreground Iannis & Tom battle Andrejs & Denis) ..

the boys from Bushy Park (Tom & Iannis) came out ahead on an “adjudication” .. With Andrejs & Denis in 2nd place.

.. making up the top 3 were John & George, school mates of the winners.

In the “knights group” there was some nice chess played and the ones who left with the prizes were .. 1st – Liam & Aoife (a mash up from Clairnbridge and Clairgalway) .. 2nd the all girls unit of Aisling & Bryna (the bridge) .. and 3rd – Andrew & Eoghan.

Congrats all ..  fairplay !

Now just 4 teams are in the hunt to become the first “Kings” of Connaught .. 

Representing Galway are St. Mary’s college, plus Ballinasloe’s Garbally college, and from Mayo 2 teams from St. Geralds college will compete in the finals on Wednesday the 9th April ..

.. the venue is St. Geralds college, Castlebar and we’ll draw to see who plays who in the semi-finals.

Our 1st team chess one day event ..

Well done to all the players who participated in this months Junior chess tournament.  There were 2 sections with a number of players trying out their first chess competition.The “Rooks” section was won , once again , by Andrejs Kozlovs on a perfect 5 out of 5 points.  Closely followed by Denis Ruscho in 2nd place and in 3rd place with yet another strong tournament was George Fearnhead.  In the “Knights” section we had a new trio of winners.  In first place was Tom Kelly on an unbeatable score of 6/6 points.  One point behind was Aoife Ryan in second place.   Matthew Hennessy and Harry O’Grealy both finished on 4.5 points. Matthew won 3rd place in a keenly contested play-off game against Harry.

The next event we’ll have at the Bridge club will be on Saturday 29th March, it will be a  fun  “Swap Chess”  event with players in teams of 2.  More details nearer the time ..

The  finals of the Galway “Chess”  Community Games  usually held in  the Shearwater Hotel in Ballinasloe, Co. Galway.It will be held well after Easter this year ..   But now would be a good to select a team /panel and get some extra practice in  :o)

This year the Irish Junior championships are being played in Connaught .. Ballinasloe , Co. Galway ..  for details click here !   This is a great competition and stepping stone for players who wish to play on Irish teams.    Organised by   Mr. John McKenna   of the Irish Chess Union.

Above are the winners of the advanced or “The Rooks”  section of our Saturday tournament .. In 1st place was again Andrejs Koslovs with a perfect score of 9 / 9 .. 2nd was Denis Ruscho .. and in 3rd place was Krystian Gabzdyl.  Well done boys !In our “Young Knights” section the winners all come from the same school, Briarhill n.s.   Well done to  .. in 1st place  Katelin McMahon ,  2nd  Sinead King  and 3rd place Lauren McMahon .

Our next One-dayer will most likely be on Saturday 1st of March.

2014  Chess Tournament :

Saturday   January 25th ,   1pm – 5pm.