A social cum chess event was held on May 17 organised by committee member Malachy Hevehan. This provided an opportunity for new members to meet with the more established ones away from the chess board in the Arts Club bar. A drink and food bites were provided and Hon. Sec. Rory Broderick gave a brief talk about the Club's history and it's recent success in the Leinster League where both it's Ennis team (captained by Vihanga Gamage) and it's Bodley team (captained by Malachy Hevehan) gained promotion.After many battles over the Winter, this tournament in which 27 members competed, finally finished in early May.
In the Senior Division most players badly failed to arrange all of their matches. Davide Cesaro was an exception who finished with a score of 3.5/5 and was adjudged the overall winner. The Intermediate Division was quite the opposite as all players completed all of their matches. Darren McLean was the outright winner with a terrific final score of 5/5. The Junior Division was split into two sections A and B. The A winner was Dylan Conway with a fine 4/4 result. New member Tushar Jain prevailed in the B section scoring 4.5/5. As Dylan had gone abroad, in the A v B playoff final Tushar played against Matthew Brophy who had been the A section runner up. Tushar won this play off match and became the overall junior winner. Our annual Christmas dinner was held on Dec. 2 in the beautiful function room of the United Arts Club and was attended by some 30 members and partners. It provided a suitable opportunity to present trophies and prizes to the various winners of events held both online during the Covid lockdown and our Club Championship which was run over the board during the Summer. A selection of photos from the dinner event can be viewed below.At the AGM held on Nov. 3rd. the following were elected to serve on the committee.
President: Eddie O'Connor, Hon. Secretary: Rory Broderick, Hon. Treasurer: Ronan Nolan. Members: Daniel Otero, Malachy Hevehan, Luke Hayden, Vihanga Gamage. The club's Summer tournament this year had all games played over the board - a welcome return from online chess.
Robert Murtagh was the very worthy winner of the Senior Section which is the Club Championship, winning all of his matches in the process. Robert has now won this tournament three times in a row - a remarkable achievement. Patrick Spillane won the Intermediate Section - also without dropping a match and earning full points. The Junior Section attracted a lot of entries, many of them being new unrated members. It was split into two sections. David Gevorkyan won Section A and Conor Flynn topped Section B with David prevailing in the final between the two. A blitz event was held in the club on Aug. 24 for new non fully rated members wishing to play on our Bodley team panel in the coming league. This was to assist our Bodley captain Malachy Hevehan in composing his panel of league players.
Vikas Ojha was the outright winner with a score of 7/7. David Gevorkyan was the runner-up on 6/7. These lessons have been postponed until early in 2023 when a new notice will appear on this site. In a welcome return to over the board team chess, Dublin CC entered two teams into the LCU Cup competitions just completed. Our first team, captained by Martin Schmidt, played in the Branagan where they enjoyed a fine 4 - 2 win in the final against Gonzaga on June 18.
Our second team, captained by Vihanga Gamage, made it to the semi-final of the Killane where they were beaten by Dundalk in a close 3.5 - 2.5 result. An intriguing title for a special presentation made to the club by Jonathan O'Connor last evening. Only Winnie the Pooh fans will understand the significance of the title.
Jonathan's presentation was based on two chapters from Simon Webb's book "Chess for Tigers" in which the author discusses how to beat strong players by playing into murky positions, and how to beat weaker players by playing sensible sound chess. Jonathan illustrated these approaches with examples from his own games. Members who attended gained valuable insights into this strategy and much enjoyed the evening. |
