Galway Junior Chess

The Ardilaun Hotel hosted our finals this year  .. winners in the Champions section and Girls section will go forward to the All-Ireland Finals in Dublin, in May this year  ..

  Winners for the 2nd year in a row and CG’s Champions Ballinlass N.S. Dunmore, St. Pats Galway were 2nd on a blitz tie-break against Claregalway who were 3rd.

  Craughwell N.S. retained their title as Girls champions, 2nd was Briarhill and 3rd Clairnbridge after a blitz play-off.

  Bushy Park won this section and Briarhill were 2nd .. there was another blitz playoff for 3rd place, Craughwell beat Claregalway.

Thanks to the staff of the Ardilaun Hotel, there were so kid friendly !!  I think .. we’ll be back ..

Round 4  .. and on the top boards .. Conor Bidwell and Susan Aji set up a blitz play-off, which Susan won to become our 1st winner form Manorhamilton Co. Leitrim !!

There was a 7 way blitz play-off for 3rd place which was eventually won by a cool headed Ruadhan O’Dwyer in a close match with Noah Kirby, also pictured above.

The Novice section was won by Mumtahain Fatema, in second was Tymofii Koshovyi and 3rd was Liam O’Connell.

Congratulations to St. Geralds, Castlebar on their 5th straight win in the Connaught Chess Cup.  Results  .. 6 teams played (36 players) in the top section and all are qualified for the All-Ireland Finals on Sunday 15th April, in Gonzaga college, Dublin.

1. St. Geralds  “A team”   –  26.5  points
2. Dunmore  “Rookies”    –  15.0  points
3. Castlebar, St. Geralds  –  14.5 points
4. The Bish,   Galway      –    13.5 points
5. The Pres, Athenry       –    11.5 points
6. Dunmore, here’s rooking @ you   –  9 points

The players Teachers earned their tournament Controller badges today  .. Paul, Maire & Mairead taking results .. and helping with everything really, there was a massive turnout with over 100 students & it couldn’t have been done without their efficient & friendly assistance.  Special thanks also to Galway Community College for hosting the competition and to Carol for her continued support & promotion of chess at the school !    Thank you all.

18 teams competed in the Shield section, and below is the league table:

Saturday   –   January 27th,   2pm – 5pm.

At the Bridge club, St. Mary’s Road, Galway.

Entry fee – € 10.

Players should bring light Lunch and a drink.  Parents can stay to watch or come back later.

The junior chess club returns in the GLTC on Wednesday 10th of January.  We will have one group only this term .. from 7.00pm to 8.00pm ..  for full set of dates and other chess events click on Calendar (above).

The fee for the second term is €70.

..  and wishing all our chess friends a lovely new year .

Congratulations to Ennis (& Limerick players) who are WOI Champions once again this year.   They were among 7 teams to brave the snowy conditions in Balinasloe .. unfortunately 2 teams couldn’t make it due to the weather. Our view from the hotel, there were a few snowballs whizzing about after the chess was finished.  And below are the team standings, the best individual score was 5pts by Cian Pyne.  Another notable performance was by Aoife Castle won all 4 games on board one but had to miss the last round.This event is rated by the ICU and we expect the players new rating up soon .. for any players not already registered go to www.icu.ie/shop and become a member.