Ulster Senior, Intermediate and Junior Championships 2007
Stephen Scannell - Ulster Chess Champion 2007
An innovation in this year's Championship was that the Ulster Intermediate and Junior titles were being contested alongside the Senior in a single event. Distant are the memories of previous tournaments held in inferior facilities. With their draughty windows, too cold or sometimes too hot interior, disturbing piercing sunlight, and distracting external noise in abundance, they were the unfortunate chess player's delight, with their list of ready-made excuses for poor play. Here, in the Dublin Room, ticking clocks and carpeted footfalls were all that separated eager chess minds from their brilliancies.
Dublin Room
The final round
Round six is where the men are sorted from the boys. The heavy hitters from the powder puff brigade. The galacticos from … Well you get the idea. When the permutations allow for all possible outcomes, there is everything to play for. First, second and third, Intermediate and Junior titles, wooden spoon.
Boards one and two would decide the Ulster Championship. Scannell - Leitch was board one, both on 4/5. Should the game be a draw, Annesley, also on four points would hope to upset Waters on Board 2 and claim outright first.
Final round - Boards 1 and 2
Annesley - Waters was the first to finish. Attacking play by white in a Sicilian Najdorf was thwarted by middle game steadiness from black. White lost the exchange after 24...Ne5 and then was in dire time pressure of twenty seconds for six moves, black eventually breaking through on the fortieth move.
With Annesley out of the way, the winner would now come from board one. A French defence from Leitch saw once again a pawn blundered away to Scannell straight from the opening. Black's poor 11...Nde5 allowed 13. Bxh7+ picking up an important centre pawn. Try as he might, there was no way to complicate the position, and black soon succumbed to white's technique. After playing so solidly, to lose the game in such a weak way must have been a bitter pill to swallow. Consolation came when the tie-break calculations gave him the Intermediate title for players rated under 1800.
Intermediate Champion Calum Leitch (left) and James McDonnell in Round 5
The Dr McSparran Cup once more secured, Scannell can now rightly be called Mr. Six-Time. The dominant force in Ulster Chess tournament play for the best part of a decade must surely hold a grand slam of silverware at this moment.
John Monaghan defeated Pearse O'Brien, in a game worthy of a much higher-rated player, admittedly after the bizarre 2.Bc4 d5 3.Bd3 against the French, to take the under 1400 Junior Title with 3.5/6, an outstanding result.
John Monaghan - Ulster Junior Champion
Finally a mention to the wooden spoon, picked up by Kevin O'Neill. Your author would like to congratulate Mr. O'Neill for coming last in such fine style, such was the fate I had a few years ago. At least 0.5/6 was some reward for effort. My 0/6 being distinctly more rounded and memorable. Useless thought for the day, 'There is only one way to go, and that is up!'
Rating Report
Player Rtng Score Exp Rav Rprfm Senior Stephen Scannell 2133 5.0/6 5.04 1844 2117 Michael Waters 2069 4.5/6 5.04 1784 1977 James McDonnell 2022 3.0/6 5.04 1736 1736 Nicholas Pilkiewicz 1929 4.0/6 4.44 1747 1872 Gareth Annesley 1916 3.5/5 3.30 1800 1949 Danny Mallaghan 1872 4.5/6 3.84 1773 1966 Intermediate David Grzymek 1774 4.0/6 2.94 1784 1909 Calum Leitch 1753 4.0/6 2.70 1789 1914 Ciaran Marron 1667 2.5/6 3.06 1659 1602 Ian Woodfield 1631 4.0/6 3.48 1572 1697 Damien Cunningham 1612 3.0/5 3.15 1517 1589 Brian McComb 1593 3.0/6 2.82 1618 1618 Joseph Mordeno 1564 4.0/6 2.34 1643 1768 Junior Roy Stafford 1391 2.5/5 3.70 1209 1209 Alexander Beckett 1365 2.0/6 2.22 1461 1336 Brendan J. Doherty 1315 2.5/6 3.60 1240 1183 William Storey 1298 2.5/6 1.92 1433 1376 Kevin Agnew 1246 3.0/6 2.34 1327 1327 Kevin Fisher 1237 1.5/6 2.28 1321 1128 John Monaghan 1104 3.5/6 2.46 1168 1225 Pearse O'Brien 1045 2.5/6 1.92 1182 1125 David Seaby 1038 1.5/5 1.15 1249 1100 Geoff Hindley 1023 1.5/5 0.90 1281 1132 Owen Wilson 967 1.0/5 1.20 1169 929 Kevin O'Neill 919 0.5/5 1.60 1052 686 Cathal Murphy 881 0.5/4 0.80 1121 799 Exp = Expected score Rav = Average rating of opponents Rprfm = Rating performance
Crosstable
No Name Total 1 2 3 4 5 6 Title/Prize 1 Stephen Scannell 5 2:D 9:W 19:W 6:D 4:W 5:W Senior Champion 2 Danny Mallaghan 4.5 1:D 5:D 13:D 11:W 10:W 12:W Second Place 3 Michael Waters 4.5 27:+ 7:D 8:L 17:W 16:W 6:W Third Place 4 Nicholas Pilkiewicz 4 5:D 10:W 7:W 8:W 1:L 9:D 5 Calum Leitch 4 4:D 2:D 14:W 23:W 12:W 1:L Intermediate Champion 6 Gareth Annesley 4 16:W 0:D 17:W 1:D 8:W 3:L 7 David Grzymek 4 12:W 3:D 4:L 16:D 17:W 13:W 8 Joseph Mordeno 4 25:W 24:W 3:W 4:L 6:L 16:W 9 Ian Woodfield 4 13:D 1:L 20:W 22:W 23:W 4:D 10 Damien Cunningham 3.5 0:D 4:L 21:W 18:W 2:L 20:W 11 John Monaghan 3.5 15:D 19:L 26:W 2:L 22:W 21:W Junior Champion 12 James McDonnell 3 7:L 14:W 25:W 13:W 5:L 2:L 13 Brian McComb 3 9:D 26:W 2:D 12:L 14:W 7:L 14 Kevin Agnew 3 22:W 12:L 5:L 19:W 13:L 24:W 15 Roy Stafford 3 11:D 17:D 23:L 25:D 0:D 18:W 16 Ciaran Marron 2.5 6:L 23:W 24:W 7:D 3:L 8:L 17 William Storey 2.5 18:W 15:D 6:L 3:L 7:L 25:W 18 Geoff Hindley 2.5 17:L 21:D 0:W 10:L 19:W 15:L 19 Brendan J. Doherty 2.5 20:D 11:W 1:L 14:L 18:L 23:W 20 David Seaby 2.5 19:D 25:L 9:L 26:W 0:W 10:L 21 Pearse O'Brien 2.5 23:L 18:D 10:L 24:W 25:W 11:L 22 Cathal Murphy 2 14:L 0:W 0:D 9:L 11:L 26:D 23 Alexander Beckett 2 21:W 16:L 15:W 5:L 9:L 19:L 24 Owen Wilson 2 0:W 8:L 16:L 21:L 26:W 14:L 25 Kevin Fisher 1.5 8:L 20:W 12:L 15:D 21:L 17:L 26 Kevin O'Neill 1 0:D 13:L 11:L 20:L 24:L 22:D 27 Eamonn Walls 0 3:- 0: 0: 0: 0: 0:
