Junior Chess News 2009

Written by Ronan Tuesday, 01 September 2009 14:33

This page contains news which was published on this site in 2009 prior to the start of the 2009/10 season in Sept 2009.

June 2009:

Irish Junior International Selections

The biggest ever selection of players from Galway for the Irish junior teams was announced last Wednesday for the Glorney and Gilbert (formally Faber) which will be held in Glasgow from 21-24 July. Here are the selections:

Boys U-18 (Glorney)	Dara Murphy	Knocknacarra
Girls U-18 (Gilbert - formerly Faber - Cup)	Sarah Cormican Ruth Cormican	Clarenbridge
Boys U-14	Oissine Murphy	Knocknacarra
	Eoin Moran	Ballinasloe
Boys U-12	Billy McKenna	Ballinasloe
	Sean Guinan	Tuam

May 2009:

More Galway Glory - Ballinasloe make it 3-in-a-row

The national finals of the Community Games moved to it's new home in Athlone Institute of Technology and chess was one of the activities to be held there on the first finals weekend. Galway representatives Ballinasloe were going for three in a row national titles at both Under 12 and Under 16 age groups.

In their Under 12 semi final Ballinasloe faced Caragh from Kildare and it was a very tough fight. The match was poised at 2-2 with Billy McKenna playing on board one a pawn up in a Rook and pawn endgame. Billy managed to convert his passed pawn into a winning ending to secure victory 3-2. In the final Ballinasloe faced their old friends Shannon from Clare. This time Ballinasloe were 2.5-1.5 up with Billy again left playing on board one. This time Billy went into the endgame a Knight up for a pawn and slowly turned his advantage into a win to make it three in a row National Community Games victories at Under 12 level.

The Ballinasloe under 16 team faced a tough semi final against Drumlish from Longford who are past winners. In each of the last two years the result between these two teams has been very narrow victories for Ballinasloe. However, this year Conor Barrett,Ruairi Mckenna Carroll and Jack McKenna wraped up quick wins on boards 3 to 5 to secure the result. Final score Ballinasloe 3.5 - 1.5 Drumlish. The final was, once again against Shannon and again the same three Ballinasloe players won on boards 3 to 5 to ensure a third national win for the Galway team, final score Ballinasloe 4-1 Shannon.

Once again this shows the high standard of junior chess in Galway, especially in Ballinasloe. To win the All-Ireland title for 3 years in a row at both U-12 and U-16 level is a huge achievement. As you can see from the reports below, the challenge of having to match Ballinasloe means that the standard all over the county is improving. Congrats to all involved - especially John McKenna and Ron Cummins of the Ballinasloe club. Photo below shows John with the winning teams (click on the photo for a larger image)
Claregalway Girls win first All-Ireland title - May 13 2009

Huge excitement yesterday as the girls from the Claregalway National School won their first All-Ireland chess title at the ChessZ Irish Primary Schools Chess Finals in Limerick yesterday, May 13th 2009. The team comprising of Orla McCann, Sarah Coyle, Rebekah Carroll and Leah Fleming toppled the reigning All-Ireland champions from Briarhill in Galway in a tense competition that went right down to the wire.

The girls won their first match 4-0 against the Dublin champions which put them in the lead at the start but they trailed Briarhill by 1 point going into the final round. A decisive victory there coupled with Briarhill dropping a point meant that the two teams were tied and a play-off was required.

There was huge tension as the result all came down to the last game where Rebekah Carroll won her match with only 3 seconds left on her clock. The difference between defeat and victory has rarely been as small which is really tough on Briarhill who thus lost their title by such a tiny margin.

Congrats to the team and to all who helped out - principally Tom and Myriam McCann who transported the team throughout all the qualifying matches etc. The picture below (click on it to see the larger image) shows the team (L-R: Leah Fleming, Rebekah Carroll, Sarah Coyle, Orla McCann) with coach Ronan Duke.

Commiserations to Briarhill who put up a sterling defence of their All-Ireland title. I expect to see them looking for their crown back next year. It is amazing that the top two 2 team in girls chess in Ireland are within a few miles of each other.

In the boys' competition, Creagh (Ballinasloe) again won the All-Ireland title to complete Galway's clean sweep of the team titles.

Galway also took home both the girl's and the boy's individual titles. Orla McCann from Claregalway (see above) and John Cormican from Clarinbridge each won all of their matches in the tournament. John was retaining his crown from last year. Both Orla and John will be heading to secondary school next year so they go out on a high! Well done to both of you.
National Checkmate Primary Schools Final - May 2 2009

There was a strong Connacht showing in Limerick on Saturday 2nd May at the National Checkmate Primary Schools final. Going in to the final round it was St Patricks De La Salle Castlebar on Board One against last years winners and three in a row winners St Josephs from Cork. On board two Creagh Ballinasloe were facing Briarhill Galway with Clarinbridge also going well.

Creagh won 4-0 to put them into the lead and when the Castlebar boys pulled off a great win against St Josephs.2.5-1.5 it was a one two for Connacht. Creagh first and St Patricks second, Clarinbridge ended in fifth and Briarhill seventh. All in all a great result for Connacht Junior Chess !

Apr 2009:

John Alfred's next Monthly tournament (the last of the current season) will be on April 26th in the Bridge Centre - see John's result page for all results for the last 2 years.
The most recent main event on the national circuit was the Irish Junior Championships in Kilkenny from April 17-19th. There were lots of good performances from Galway players. Congratulations to all who took part, especially Paula Eglite - new Irish U-10 champion - and Billy McKenna - new Irish U-12 champion. There is a report on the event on the ICU website by John McKenna, ICU Junior officer, who gives an admirably restrained view of the win of his son Billy!
The results from the Galway-based players were:
- U-8:
  - Hugh Kilgannon 3/5 for 4th place.
- U-10:
  - Paula Eglite 5.5/6 1st place.
  - Cian Guinan, Tuam 5/6 for 3rd place.
  - Luke Moran, Ballinasloe 4/6
  - Alan Duggan Briarhill 4/6
  - Eimear O'Tuathail, Briarhill 3/6 (Best Girl).
- U-12:
  - Billy McKenna Ballinasloe 6/6 1st place
  - Sean Guinan, Tuam 3/6
  - Tomas McKenna-Carroll Ballinasloe 2/6
- U-14:
  - Ruari McKenna Carroll 3.5/6 (merit prize)
  - John Cormican 3/6
  - Jack McKrenna 3/6
Congrats to John Cormican and Daniel Ryan from Clarenbridge who have qualifed for the national chessZ individual finals in Limerick on May 13th. Also to the Clarenbridge team who have qualified for the CheckMate finals in Limerick on May 2nd.

Mar 2009:

John Alfred's next Monthly tournament was on Mar 12th in the Bridge Centre - see John's result page for all results for the last 2 years.

Feb 2009

The Connaught U-16 Interprovincial team came second in the recent tournament in Belfast - this was an excellent result considering the age of the team (most will be eligible for some years to come) and the fact that they came up against very good teams especially from the clear winners, Munster. Some very good performances, especially David McCann who was unbeaten on board 1. Representing Connacht were David McCann (DDW), Jacob Walshe (LLL), Eoin Moran (LWW), Conor Barrett (LLW), Billy McKenna (LWW), Ruari McKenna Carroll (WL-), Jack McKenna (--W).
Community games 2009: Ballinasloe, reigning All-Ireland champions, retained both their U-12 and U-16 county Galway titles on Feb 15th last. In both tournaments, Clarenbridge were second and Claregalway third.
John Alfred's next Monthly tournament was on Feb 12th in the Bridge Centre - see John's result page for all results for the last 2 years.