Congratulations to Gerry MacElligott who finished joint 1st in the 2019 Irish Over 50 Championship which was held in the Talbot Hotel in Stillorgan from the 2nd to the 6th of January. Gerry finished joint 1st with Paul Wallace, both scoring 5.5 / 7. There is a full cross-table available here

Gerry is pictured below being awarded his prize:-

The Leinster Chess Union Blitz took place in the Ierne Club on Wednesday 19th December organized by club secretary Pat Fitzsimons and with a good contingent of Elm Mount players participating.

Elm Mount prize winners on the night were David Fitzsimons, Alex Goss, Athurva Rajeshkumar and Philip Ó Greachain. They are pictured below receiving their prizes with the chairman of the ICU, John McMorrow:-

The 2018 Elm Mount Christmas Blitz took place on Monday 17th December. There were 30 participants in 3 all-play-all groups of 11, 9 and 10 players. Games were played using the usual time-handicap system with game times varying from 5 minutes each to 2 minutes against 8 minutes depending on the rating difference between the players.

Food was provided before the final couple of rounds. After all the games were ompleted, the prizes were presented by the club secretary, Pat FItzsimons. The top 3 in each section received prizes. The cross-tables from the 3 sections can be seen at the bottom of this page. The winners of the 3 sections are shown receiving their prizes below. Gavin Melaugh won section A, Eugene McMorrow won section B and Bren Ó Móráin won section C.

The runners up in the 3 sections were Shane Melaugh in section A, John Dooley in section B and Nicu Boldjar in section C.

Zygis Jakubauskas took 3rd place in section A, Luke Keenan  was 3rd in section B and Atharva Rajeshkumar took 3rd place in section C.

The cross-tables are of the 3 sections are pictured below.

Final Ranking Crosstable Section A

Final Ranking Crosstable Section B

Final Ranking Crosstable Section C

Happy Christmas to all!

Mick Germaine Cup 2018

 This year’s Mick Germaine Cup competition for teams of four juniors from schools or clubs took place recently in the club’s premises.

 22 teams took part in the event, including two from the club. The Cup was won for the second year in a row by the Rathmines Kings who won all 6 of their matches. The Elm Mount kings finished second while the Elm Mount Knights team, comprised of players making their competitive debuts in the event, also performed well.

 The final standings are set out below and full details of each round can be viewed on www.chessresults.com.  The two Elm Mount teams are also pictured below with Mick Germaine who presented the prizes at the event.

Pictured below are the Elm Mount Knights from left: Arjun Rajeshkumar, Atharva Rajeshkumar, John Connolly, Joseph Connolly.

Pictured below are the Elm Mount Kings. Back row from left to right are Rory Power Breen, Cillian Doherty, Raphy Isnard, Mick Germaine and front row left is Cathal Hogarty.

Congratulations to David Fitzsimons, joint winner of this year’s Kilkenny Open with 3 grandmasters. Gerard MacElligott finished joint 2nd in the Major section also. There is a report on the tournament here.

The Elm Mount Christmas blitz for club members will take place next Monday, 17th December.

The Leinster Chess Union Christmas Blitz will take place in the Ierne club on Wednesday 19th December.

The club championships are coming to a conclusion:-

• Section A and the title of club champion was shared by Gavin Melaugh and Paul O’Neill who both scored 8.5/10. Bernard Boyle and Zygis Jakubauskas finished joint 3rd on 5.5/10.
  
• Andrew Peters won Section B with 7.5/9 with Adam Murphy and Peter Scott joint 2nd on 6/9.

David Fitzsimons won the Bray Rapid tournament and is representing Ireland at the Chess Olympiad in Batumi, Georgia from 24th September to 5th October.

There were good results for Elm Mount players in the City of Dublin tournament held from 14th to 16th September. Alvaro Valdes Escobar finished 2nd in the Masters section with Shane Melaugh in 3rd place. Gavin Melaugh won the Championship section with Ray O’Rourke in joint 2nd place. Alex Goss was joint winner of the Major section with two others.

The Leinster League season is about to start with the first match taking place on Monday 24th September when Elm Mount’s Armstrong team are at home to Dublin.

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:-