With the chess club closed and no over-the-board games possible due to the Covid-19 virus, our members have resorted to online chess. Member Nezar Ammari set up our club's first online tournament which took place on March 28. It was a blitz event (Arena style) hosted on lichess.org. and seven of our members competed. The winner was Robert Murtagh with an impressive win rate of 100 %. Further tournaments followed.
As lower rated players seem not to like the blitz/arena format, another series of weekly tournaments was set up for those players, hosted on chess.com and using the Swiss format and rapid-play clock times. A Dublin Online Chess Club was set up on that site by member Daniel Schlachter to facilitate this and 17 of our members have joined. The first of these weekly Wednesday tournaments was held on Apr. 22 with Mark Nagle the winner. This tournament has proven popular as it substitutes for the real "Wednesday Club Night" and continues weekly.
As lower rated players seem not to like the blitz/arena format, another series of weekly tournaments was set up for those players, hosted on chess.com and using the Swiss format and rapid-play clock times. A Dublin Online Chess Club was set up on that site by member Daniel Schlachter to facilitate this and 17 of our members have joined. The first of these weekly Wednesday tournaments was held on Apr. 22 with Mark Nagle the winner. This tournament has proven popular as it substitutes for the real "Wednesday Club Night" and continues weekly.