The 2013 Leinster Chess Union Christmas Blitz was held in Elm Mount’s home venue, the Ierne Club in Drumcondra, on Wednesday 18th December. There was a turnout of 48 entrants from many different clubs, well up on last year. The tournament was divided into all-play-all sections by rating, with prizes for the winners and runners-up.

It was a successful night for Elm Mount, with 3 Elm Mount players, Luke Keenan, Zygis Jakubauskas and David Fitzsimons winning their sections. They are shown below being presented with their prizes by Pat Fitzsimons, who controlled the tournament:-

Other Elm Mount prizewinners were Alex Goss and Terry Creighton.

The 2013 Christmas Blitz took place in the club on Monday 16th December. There were 29 participants and the tournament was run using the usual time handicap method.
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The players were divided into 4 all-play-all groups initially with the top two in each section qualifying for the quarter-finals. Eventually, it came down to a final between Alex Goss and Yann Salmon …

In the end, Alex triumphed to come 1st and have first pick of the prizes. The prizewinners were:-

1st: Alex Goss
2nd: Yann Salmon
3rd: Adam Spirek
4th: Ciaran Quinn
5th: Luke Keenan
6th: Andy Peters
7th: Terry Creighton
8th: Karl Vernor

Below are  the winners being presented with their prizes by Pat Fitzsimons:-

Alex Goss 1st

Yann Salmon 2nd

Adam Spirek 3rd

Ciaran Quinn  4th
Luke Keenan 5th

Andy Peters 6th

Terry Creighton 7th

Karl Vernor 8th

Happy Christmas to All!