The 2017-18 League season has now ended. The last rounds were played in ALSAA on Sunday 29th April. No trophies were won and no teams were promoted but the Armstrong team finished as runners-up and  three board prizes were won

Armstrong Cup – Division 1
The Armstrong Cup team finished in 2nd place, 2 points behind Gonzaga. The team was leading going into the last round but were overtaken by Gonzaga who won 7-1 against Balbriggan while Elm Mount fell to a 3½-4½ defeat to Bray. Below is a picture of the team receiving their runners-up trophies.

The top scorer was Alvaro Valdes Escobar who scored 9½ points and won a board prize. Ciaran Quinn (8½) also won a board prize.

Heidenfeld Trophy – Division 2
Elm Mount’s Heidenfeld team finished in 3rd place, missing out on promotion by 1½ points. The team were in 3rd place going into the last round but the teams in first and second place drew against each other and Elm Mount’s 5-3 in against Bray was not enough to overtake them. The top scorer was Sean Murphy who scored 8 points.

O’Hanlon Cup – Division 4
The O’Hanlon Cup team also finished in 3rd place. A 3-3 draw with Gorey in the last round left the team 2 points behind Trinity College, who won 4-2 in the last round. Andrew Peters was the top scorer with 9/11 points, winning a board prize. The team went through the entire season without needing a single substitute.

British Airways Cup – Division 5
Elm Mount had 2 teams in the North Section of the British Airways Cup. The A team finished 4th with 28 points, 3 points ahead of the B team in 8th place. The A team finished just half a point behind 2nd placed Malahide. The top scorer on the A team was Eugene McMorrow with 7 points. Ronan Murphy and Terry O’Connor were joint top scorers on the B team with both scoring 6 points out of 10.

Bodley Cup – Division 6
Elm Mount’s team finished in 4th place in the North Section of the Bodley Cup, behind Malahide A, Skerries and Malahide B. The top scorer on the team was Nicu Boldijar who scored 6½ out of 9 in the 10-team league.

The last rounds of the Leinster Chess league are fast approaching.  Divisions 1 to 4 will play their last round matches in the ALSAA on Sunday, April 29th. Divisions 2 and 4 in the morning, and Divisions 1 and 3 in the afternoon. Division 5 and 6 have North and South sections so the top two teams in each section playoff against each other.

Three of Elm Mount’s six teams are in contention for honours.

Division 1 – Armstrong Cup
The Armstrong team is 2 points clear going into the last round but will need a strong performance against Bray/Greystones to win the title. Gonzaga in 2nd place play Balbriggan.

Division 2 – Heidenfeld Trophy
The Heidenfeld team has a chance of promotion to the Armstrong – the team needs a good result in the last round Bray/Greystones and has the advantage that the two other contenders for promotion, Gonzaga and Blanchardstown, are playing each other in the last round.

Division 4 – O’Hanlon Cup
The O’Hanlon team is in 3rd place going into the last round but have a slightly easier match against 6th placed Gorey than 2nd-placed Dublin, who play 4th-placed Malahide. Dublin are just 1½ points ahead.

Division 5 – BEA Cup
Elm Mount has 2 teams in the BEA Cup North section. The A team is safely in mid-table. The B team is fourth from bottom but are 2½ points of Naomh Barróg who are in 2nd-last place and who the B team play in the last round.

Division 6 – Bodley Cup
Elm Mount’s Bodley Cup North team has finished it’s league campaign, finishing 4th in the 10-team section.

Congratulatons to Alvaro Valdés Escobar who won the Philip Hogarty IM Norm tournament with a score of 7/9. Alvaro (pictured below with the trophy) finished on the same score as GM Petr Neuman but finished 1st on tie-break.

Congratulations also to Gerry MacElligott (pictured below receiving his trophy) who finished 3rd in the Seniors Over50 Section.

The 2017 Elm Mount Christmas Blitz was held on Monday 18th December. There were 34 participants, possibly the biggest Christmas blitz ever in the club. The tournament was organized into 4 groups – 3 groups had 8 players and 1 group had 10 players. Each group was run as an all-play-all tournament with a time handicap system depending on the rating gap between the players. The 2 highest-scoring players in each section qualified for the knockout stages.

After many games the group winners were David Fitzsimons, Alex Goss, Ronan Murphy and Bren Ó Moráin and they were drawn against the runners-up, Paul O’Neill, Andy Peters, Eugene McMorrow and Nico Boldjar in the quarter-finals. The pairings were:-

Ronan Murphy v Andy Peters

Paul O’Neill v Bren Ó Móráin

Eugene Mc Morrow v Alex Goss

David Fitzsimons v Nico Boldjar

The winners were Andy, Paul, Alex and David and the semi-final pairings were:-

Paul O’Neill v Alex Goss

David Fitzsimons v Andy Peters

The semi-final winners were David and Paul.

There was a 3rd-place playoff between Alex Goss and Andy Peters

Andy won the playoff to finish in 3rd place.

The final was between David Fitzsimons and Paul O’Neill

Paul defeated David to become the winner of the 2017 Christmas Blitz!

The prizes were presented by Pat Fitzsimons. As well as finishing first in the blitz, Paul O’Neill was also presented with the Victor Murray Perpetual Trophy for winning the 2017 Club Championship.

All the prizewinners are pictured below. The players finishing in 3rd and 4th place in the 10-player group, John Dooley and Colm Mooney, were awarded the 9th and 10th prizes.


Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all!

The 2018 Leinster Chess Union Christmas blitz was held in Elm Mount Chess Club on Monday 11th December. There were 60 players who were split into sections by rating with each section an all-play-all 5-minute tournament. The winners in each section had first choice of the selection of prizes. Food was provided after the tournament also!

Two Elm Mount players, Alex Goss and Philip Grehan, won their sections and are pictured below receiving their prizes from Pat Fitzsimons.

Below are all the prizewinners receiving their prizes:-

The 2017 Club Championships final cross-tables have been added here.

The Leinster Leagues are well under way. The best-placed Elm Mount team at present is the O’Hanlon Cup team who are currently leading their division, while the Bodley Cup North team is currently in 2nd place. But there are many rounds to go yet!

There are 3 Elm Mount players in the current ICU rating Top Improvers list, which shows the biggest rating increases in the last 3 months:-
Shane Melaugh +226, Paul O Neill +185 and Alex Goss +147
.

Elm Mount have won the Killane Cup for the first time after losing a number of finals in previous years.

The final was held in Elm Mount last night and resulted in a victory over Skerries by 3½ to 2½. The winning team was made up of Pat Fitzsimons, Alex Goss, Andrew Peters, Donal Ó Danachair, Kevin Summons-Walsh and Peter Scott. Congrats to all!

The 2017 Club Championships are all but over and the winners of all 4 sections are known:-

Section D was won by Seán O’Neill with a score of 7 out of 8.

Section C was won by Greg Coyle with an unbeaten 6½ out of 7.

Eugene McMorrow and Kevin Summons-Walsh finished in joint 1st in a very closely- fought section B with a score of 5/8.

Paul O’Neill is the overall Club Champion for 2017 after winning section A with a score of 8/10.

Crosstables will be added later.

The Branagan, Killane and Willie Brennan Cup competitions have started.

Elm Mount got off to an excellent start in the Branagan, with a 3½-2½ win away to the Armstrong cup winners, Gonzaga, in the first match. The scores on each board were:-
Gavin Melaugh 0-1 Sam Collins
Shane Melaugh ½-½ Henry Li
Paul O’Neill 1-0 Killian Delaney
Terry Creighton 0-1 Gordon Freeman
Alex Goss 1-0 Eoghan Casey
Andrew Peters 1-0 Andy Keenan

Elm Mount will be putting forward a motion to the LCU agm that match points should be used for the group stages of the cup competitions (eg a team gets 1 point for winning a match and ½ point for drawing). The advantage are:-
- a team which wins all its matches will always qualify for the next round
- it reduces the impact of a club which is no longer in contention putting out a very weak team. When groups are small, this can have a big impact.

There was a good attendance at the AGM which was held on Monday 22nd May.

During the AGM, board prizes were presented to the top scorers on each team by  Fred Armstrong, the Club President.

Paul O’Neill was the top scorer on the Armstrong team with 8.5 points..

Fred Armstrong and Terry Creighton were joint top scorers on the Heidenfeld team, scoring 8 points each. Outgoing treasurer Gerry Barry presented their awards:-

On the O’Hanlon A team, both Alex Goss and Peter Scott scored 7/11:-

The top scorer on the O’Hanlon B team, Greg Coyle, was not present to pick up his prize.

The top scorers on the Bodley Cup team were Peter McGrath and Kevin Murray:-