LCU Chess Cogitations

Is there any interest in organising an all play all or match play to take place over the summer months? It might mean that the successful “Lost Knights” would perhaps run over the summer rather than as a winter event.

I think most players found the big increase in games difficult at some point, because with the leagues running we ended up playing a competitive game weekly.

We will probably have more energy to think about this in a few weeks when the leagues are over…..

Is it possible to get chess clocks fixed in Dublin? I have a few clocks (ex Raheny chess club, which goes back some time…) which I would like to dust down and repair so that they could be used by a new junior chess club. I’d appreciate any suggestions!

Does anyone know which clubs won the Ennis Shield in the following seasons?

1975/6

1982/3

1983/4

1986/7

It is a good time to think about establishing new junior chess clubs and these are badly needed around Dublin.

With this in mind, I will speak at the last round of the Leinster leagues asking all players to think seriously about getting involved with junior chess either as a leader of a junior club or as a volunteer to help teach chess at the junior club.  

Send me an email at jdelaney@oceanfree.net for a note on ”Dublin Junior chess club” which will interest you.

If I was to single out THE one thing that annoys me most in Irish chess it would be this business of allowing low rated players play in tournaments where they don’t meet the rating requirements. Take this weeks Bunratty Masters for example, an excellent tournament in every way (except the dubious time limit) held in a lovely venue but with a number of players playing in the Masters whose rating was way below the requirements. I for one do not enjoy playing someone 300 points lower rated when I could instead be playing someone of my own rating. I know these guys often get good results or claim a “scalp” but very often that is merely because the higher rated player has taken unnessessary risks or taken his opponent too lightly. A draw against one of these guys costs almost as many rating points as losing to someone of your own rating and a win gains little either in merit or in rating points. Another point that many people overlook is that these low rated guys would learn much more playing in the Challengers where they might actually be in contention for a prize and where the pressure would be on them to have to beat people. There are a lot of players up to 2100 rating who would have real problems trying to win a Challengers event as they contain a lot of strong players and are extremely competitive. Scoring 5 in a Challengers is a much more creditable result than scoring 2 or 2.5 in the Masters regardless of how many rating points that may gain.
I normally play just about every event on the Irish calendar but this year by passed Limerick because of the large number of low rated players there (yes, I know it’s an “Open”) and I missed Malahide last year for the same reason. One just has to look at the number of players that always play Kilkenny and Bunratty but avoid all the other tournaments where they are going to have to play “weakies” to see that their presence in a tournament actually acts as a deterrent. Perhaps I’m in a minority of one (not for the first time) with my views but if not then please post a comment so that we can show organisers how we would like tournaments to be for players within stricter rating bands.

St Benildus 6-0 Finglas

St Benildus are promoted to the Heidenfeld and need two points from our last game against Aer Lingus – or for Balbriggan to drop two points over their last two games – to seal the title.

This year’s Leinster Championships is taking place from Friday 16th to Sunday 18th April in the Academy Plaza Hotel (just off O’Connell St).

This year there will be 3 sections, the Masters (2000+) will be 5 Rounds and FIDE rated, the Majors (1999-1600) and Challengers (Under 1600) will each have 6 Rounds.

There is an expected Prizefund of €2,200 and entry fees have been reduced. Full details can be found on http://icu.ie/events/display.php?id=236.

Congratulations to Stephen who won the tournament!

Any updates please give me a shout.

Those of you looking for something to do over the Easter period might consider playing in San Sebastian/Donostia in Northern Spain.  Over the years a few Irish players have played there.  There are many ways to get there, one is to fly Ryanair to Biarritz in France and get a train to San Sebastian (with one change) at a reasonable price.  The dates are Sun 28th March to Sunday 4th April with games starting late afternoon. and you can still get home to eat your easter eggs on monday night

http://www.fgajedrez.org/open/open.htm

I’ve always believed that ratings have become grossly inflated and that titles are no longer worth the paper the certificate is written on but recent events have shown me that the situation is far worse than I imagined.
Firstly we have 19year old Magnus Carlsen becoming the world’s highest rated player with a massive rating of 2810. Korchnoi recently described Carlsen as a “con-man” and said his moves while “seemingly not bad” are aimed at his opponents “playing weakly”. I dont pretend to be as good a judge as Korchnoi but it seems pretty obvious to me that Carlsen is no better a chessplayer than the likes of Bronstein, Keres, Korchnoi, Timman, Marshall or Reshevsky at their peak not to even mention the past world champions.One only has to look at how Carlsen floundered against Howell at Corus when the exchange up and how he missed a very obvious win of a piece that most 2,000 rated players would have found. Will anyone seriously argue that Carlsen is almost as good as Kasparov was at his peak?
Regarding titles: many of the world’s current GMs would only have been run of the mill IMs by past standards and many of the IMs we now have would probably never have exceeded 2250 twenty years ago. Top chess now is all about memory and preparation, you learn a few openings inside out with the help of your computer memorize every relevant game in those openings then sit back and watch the rating points come flooding in. No need to ever concieve a plan or come up with an idea of your own, just copy what you’ve seem in a book. I recently watched two GMs analyse a rook and pawn ending and even there they could refer to games in which similar positions had arisen and what the recommended procedure was. There is no need for these guys to think for themselves any more, just regurgitate what Karpov, Kasparov or Rybka did in the same position and you can’t go far wrong.
I looked at the First Saturday website yesterday because Mark Quinn and Ryan Griffiths are playing there. In Ryan’s section, where IM norms are up for grabs there are five international masters the highest of which is rated 2309 and two are under 2250?! So, you pay a big fee to play these “International Masters” get a decent result and “Hey Presto” you become an I.M. Is it any wonder that I.Ms are ten a penny? Perhaps FIDE should strip players of their titles when their ratings dip below 2400 for more than a year and do the same with GMs under 2550. They could award some other titles such as XIM and XGM and no longer count these guys when assessing norm requirements. Ok, that’s my sunday morning moan over with, I’m off to watch Bolton play Spurs on TV.