Galway Junior Chess

U-15 David Cunningham, U-13 Oscar Roe, U-11 Ciaran O’Driscoll, Grirls Anna Carroll & Rapid Eoghan Walsh.

The Connaught Championship will be continued in Manorhamilton, Co Leitrim. On Sat 11th Jan, from 1pm to 5pm. Entry fee is €8. Titles up for grabs are u-10 , u-12 , u-14 & u-16. To enter email Colm at .. irulats@eircom.net

Note: Start time on Saturday for rated events is changed to 11.00am & for Girls and Rapid events it’s 1.30pm. Here are the lists of players & league tables for the 2020 Connaught Junior championships:

Held on: Friday 3^rd  &  Saturday 4^th Jan. 2020.

Venue : The Bridge Club, St. Mary’s Road, Galway

Prizes: There are trophies for 1^st, 2^nd & 3^rd place in the following age groups.  Any player can win these pirzes. Sections: U-11, U-13, U-15. Plus titles of “Connaught Champion” for boys and girls in each section.

Note : Saturday one day events. (1) Girls only competition & (2) RapidPlay competition .. both on the 4th of Jan, starting at 13.30 pm.

All the event details .. here .

To enter email .. brendan@chessossity.com

Chess Tournament :

Congrats to everyone who played in the October one day junior chess event .. overall winner was Oscar Roe, 2nd Szymon Wegryzn & 3rd Noah Kirby.

The winner of best girl prize went to Robyn Hamrock. The winners in the beginners section were : 1st Kieran Mino , 2nd Samuel Dwyer , 3rd Tony Browne.

Venue is the Galway Lawn Tennis Club in Salthill. See www.gltc.ie

Club will start at 7.00pm each Wednesday evening, see Calendar for full schedule, and finish at 8pm for beginners and 8.30pm for advanced players.

Fee for the term is €70.00.

From:                    Monday 19^th to Friday 23^rd of August.

Location:              The Bridge Center, St. Mary’s Rd, Galway.

Cost:                      €90  (€80 for siblings).

Timetable:          From 10.30am to 4.00 pm each day.

To Book: Email .. brendan@chessossity.com

The team that finished highest was St. Patricks .. 3rd place was a magnificent achievement indeed, and it was well deserved as these guys had put in the practice over the past two years and have played in ICU rated event this year to boost their playing standards. As our other schools built their way into the competition they found that they can pompete at this level, and now they’ve experienced this high level of chess I’m sure they will want to push on just a little bit more next year. Special Thanks to all the parents and schools that have supported chess this year .. hopefully you enjoyed this years junior chess journey.

Congratulations to St. Mary’s N.S. Donnybrook who became only the 2nd ever winner of the Cronin Cup. The top teams from the tournament qualified for the semi-fianals.

St. Rapheala’s Dublin played against Clairnbridge Galway, the match was a draw 2-2 and St. Rapheala’s progressed on a tie break. In the other Semi St. Marys eliminated last years champions from Craughwell Co. Galway on a score of 3-1.

Galway teams played out the 3rd & 4th placed match, which was a 2-2 draw .. once again Clairnbridge were on the wrong side of the “countback” and Craughwell took 3rd place.

St. Mary’s had their toughest match of the day in the final aganist St. Rapheala’s but after a long match experience and class got the new champions home.

The other teams continued with the league format and St. Rapheala’s were 1st & 2nd in this event .. it was a tie for 3rd, and to decide 3rd place the teams lined up for a blitz match: St. Catherine’s ‘Queens’ won the match against Scoil ide’s ‘the Queens’ to take a well deserved podium finish.