Alvaro Valdes Escobar and Ciaran Quinn finished joint 1st at the Irish Open Weekender which took place in Stillorgan on 10th-12th August alongside the Irish Championships. Both scored 4½ / 5 and shared first place with two others in the 64-player field..

Shane Melaugh finished joint 5th in the main event, the 9-day Irish Championship and also won a grading prize. Shane finished with a score of 5½ / 9. Paul O’Neill and Gavin Melaugh also took part in the tournament, scoring 4 / 9 and 3½ / 9 respectively in one of the strongest ever Irish Championships.

Update: Gavin Melaugh finished joint 2nd with 4/5 in the Weekday Open which was played in the mornings of Monday 6th through Friday 10th August.

Pictures below of Alvaro, Ciaran and Shane receiving their prizes from Ossian Smyth, the Mayor of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown.

The 2018 Club Championships are well underway in 4 all-play-all sections. There is a link to the cross-tables here. The cross tables will be updated as the tournaments progress.

Gerard MacElligott represented Ireland in the World Senior team championships in Dresden, Germany, scoring 2.5/8 on board 2 in the tournament which ran from 7th to 15th July. There is a team photo here.

A number of Elm Mount players made their way to Bray on Sunday 24th June for the annual Bray Rapid tournament. David Fitzsimons won the tournament outright with a score of 6½/7. Alvaro Valdes Escobar finished in 3rd place with a score of 5½/7 while Alex Goss won a grading prize.

Below are photos of David, Alvaro and Alex receiving their prizes:-

Congratulations to David Fitzsimons who has clinched the International Master title by winning his round 9 game in the four Nations Chess League in the UK on Saturday 5th May. David is the first “home grown” member of Elm Mount Chess club to achieve this distinction and only the eighth Irish Chess Player to become an International Master

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:-