Elm Mount’s 2025 Christmas Blitz was held on Monday 22nd December in the Artane-Beaumont Family Recreation Centre. There were 29 participants in 4 all-play-all sections. Food was provided after the chess was over, and then the winners were presented with their prizes by club secretary Pat Fitzsimons.

The winners of the 4 sections were David Fitzsimons (7/7), Thomas Syms (7.5/10), Cormac McCarthy (6.5/7) and Fionn Maher (5/6). After the section winners selected their prizes, the second and third place finishers made their selections.

All the prize-winners are pictured below, followed by the cross-tables of the 4 sections.

Happy New Year to all!

The fixtures for the 2025-26 season for all seven Elm Mount teams can be seen here Match_Fixtures_25-26_v1

There is also a permanent link to the fixture list at the top of the page.

Thanks to Eugene McMorrow for compiling the complete list.

The Annual General Meeting of Elm Mount chess club was held on Monday 8th September. Club President Alan McDonagh opened the meeting and the principal reports were given by club secretary, Pat Fitzsimons, and club treasurer, Fred Armstrong. After the main reports were presented, there was a general discussion of various items, including eligibility to play in the club championships, the size of the sections in the club championship and the possibility of opening on bank holiday mondays.

The club is in a healthy state going in to the new season, with strengthened teams throughout the divisions, a thriving junior section and healthy finances.

Following the discussion, trophies were presented for the club championships for the last few years. Outstanding board prizes were also presented to the highest-scoring players on each team.

Only Section A of this years championship is complete – this was won by Gavin Melaugh with a 100% score. The likely winners of Sections B and C are known but have to wait for the completion of the outstanding games,

Following the AGM, food was supplied for the attendees.

The photos below show Alan McDonagh presenting the trophies and board prizes:-

Congratulations to Anvita Nair pictured below, one of the club’s youngest players, who was amongst the prizes at a junior Chess Tournament held recently in the Le Cheile Community & Youth Centre in Donnycarney.

An event for teams of primary school children was held in St Conleths College on Saturday 10th May. It was a six-round Swiss event for teams of 4 primary school children run by Grandmaster Alexander Baburin. There were 14 teams entered including two from the club, the Elm Mount Kings and Elm Mount Knights.

The Elm Mount Kings finished runner-up on tie break from the Chess Kings with both teams finishing on an unbeaten score of 5.5/6 having drawn their individual match.

The team is pictured below with Grandmaster Alexander Baburin at the prize-giving, from left Allen Shema Gasore, Thomas Syms, Conal O’ Mahoney and Eric Yuze Lin. Conal and Eric also both received board prizes for their high scores on their boards (scores of 5/6 and 6/6 respectively). 

Ewan Henderson, who played on the Elm Mount Knights team, won a board prize for a score of 5/6 on board one. The club’s youngest competitors in the event, Anvita Nair and Adam Fennell, both aged 7, also acquitted themselves well on the Knights team against more experienced older players. Pictured below (right from foreground back) are Adam Fennell, Anvita Nair and Ewan Henderson. Ewan is also pictured with grandmaster Alexander Baburin at the prize-giving ceremony.

The 2024/25 Leinster League season finished on Sunday 27th April when the final round for the top four divisions was played in ALSAA. Elm Mount had 6 teams competing in 5 divisions and at the end of the season, all the teams had maintained their status – although none were promoted, none were relegated!

In the Armstrong Cup (div 1), Elm Mount went into the final round in 11th place, needing a 5-3 win against relegation rivals Gorey to be sure of staying up. In the event, Elm Mount won 6½-1½ and ended up in 7th place with 39/88. The top scorers for the team were David Fitzsimons, Gerard MacElligott and Gavin Melaugh who each scored 5½ points,

Elm Mount finished in a comfortable 4th place in the Heidenfeld Trophy (div 2) with a score of 45/88, just 2½ points behind the team in 2nd place. The top scorer on the team was Harry Braine who was awarded a board prize for an outstanding score of 9½/10.

After a slow start, losing the first 5 matches, Elm Mount recovered strongly to finish in 6th place in the O’Hanlon Cup (div 4) with a score of 33/66. The top scorer on the team was Thomas Syms who scored 5 points.

Elm Mount had two teams in the British Airways Cup North (div 5). The Elm Mount A team finished in 5th place with 27/55. The top scorer for the A team was David Lynch who scored 6½/11. The Elm Mount B team finished in 7th place with 25/55. The top scorer for the B team was Eavan Gleeson who scored 6 points.

Elm Mount’s team in the Bodley Cup North (div 6) had a tough year, finishing at the bottom in 9th place, but the team did manage to draw matches against some of their opponents. The top scorer on the team was Eric Yuze Lin who scored 3 points.

The complete results can be seen at the Leinster Chess Union site.

The Club’s Annual Christmas Blitz took place on Monday 16th December 2024 and attracted an entry of 27.

The players were divided into 4 all play all groups, Sections A to D, which were won by David Fitzsimons, Alan MacDonagh, Peter Scott and Eric Yuze Lin respectively.

The other prize winners were Gavin Melaugh and Fred Armstrong in Section A, Bernard Boyle and Thomas Syms in Section B, Shaurya Dash and Nicu Boldijar in Section C and Cormac McCarthy in Section D.

The photos of the prize winners with Club Secretary Pat Fitzsimons are set out below along with the crosstables containing the results of each section. As the winner of Section A, with a perfect score of 7/7, David Fitzsimons is the club’s blitz champion for 2024. It is also noteworthy that some of the club’s younger members (Thomas, Shaurya and Eric) were among the prize-winners.

The cross-tables are below:-

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all!