Congratulations to Terry Creighton who came joint first in the Gonzaga Championship on the weekend of Jan 22nd-24th.

The full crosstable is available here.

The 2016 Elm Mount Christmas blitz took place on the 19th December. There were 3 all-play-all sections organized with a time-handicap system. The winners had first choice from an array of chocolate, biscuit and wine prizes. Food was also supplied. Among the participants were David FItzsimons and Gavin Melaugh who won prizes at the Leinster Chess Union blitz held at Elm Mount a few days earlier.

After many time scrambles, the prizes were presented by Pat FItzsimons:-

Happy New Year!

The 2015/6 Player of the Year award was jointly awarded to Eugene McMorrow  and Gavin Melaugh.

Prizes were awarded for the 2016 Club Championships on Monday, 24th October. For the first time, a small cash prize was awarded to the 1st and 2nd place finishers.instead to the prizewinners. Players from other local clubs were also invited to compete.

For the first time, the Victor Murray Perpetual Cup was awarded to the winner of the top section. The first winner of the trophy was Ciaran Quinn. Below is a photo of Victor Murray presenting the trophy:-
 

The results of each section were:

• Section A: 1st Ciaran Quinn 7/10
• Section B:  1st Pat Fitzsimons 6½/8
• Section C: 1st Peter McGrath 6/8
• Section D: 1st Ciaran Bolger 5½/8 

Click on the Section names to see the ICU rating crosstables.

Below are more photos from the prizegiving:-

Some recent tournament victories by Elm Mount players …congratulations to

• Gerard MacElligott who finished joint first with 2 others in the Ulster Championship in Belfast on the 27th -29th August

• Gavin Melaugh and Shane Melaugh who finished joint first with 1 other in the City of Dublin Major tournament on the 9th-11th September.

The Club Championships have been progressing throughout the summer with keen competition in each section. The Club Championships page has been updated with the Section B cross-table.

Shane Melaugh and Alex Goss represented Ireland in the World Youth U16 Olympiad in Slovakia. You can read Alex’s report for the ICU here.

Joshua Redmond and Gavin Melaugh played in the winning Robinson Cup team against U14 teams from England, Scotland, Wales and France. The event was held in England in July.

Some pictures from the Club Championships …

The 2016 Club Championships have begun There will be 4 sections with Zygis Jakubauskas and Alex Goss as controllers and will include some players from other local clubs.

Results will be updated on the 2016 Club Championship page contains a cross-table for Section A at the moment but cross-tables for the other sections will be added shortly.

Some more photos from the last round of the 2015/6 Leinster Chess League:

Congratulations to David Fitzsimons in achieving an IM Norm at the recent 4NCL weekend tournament in England.

There is a picture of David at the board here: https://twitter.com/4NCL/status/726776778879078402

Congratulations also to Shane Melaugh on defeating many-time Irish Champion and current Leinster champion Colm Daly while representing Elm Mount in the National Club Championships.

The last round of the Leinster League took place on Sunday 17th April. None of the Elm Mount teams got promoted this year – and our Ennis (Division 3) team was relegated to the O’ Hanlon (Division 4) after losing their last round match.

Karol Marzec from the Armstrong (Division 1) team won a board prize with a score of 8.5/11.

Below are some pictures from the afternoon matches.