Short, Philip – Brady, Stephen
Irish Championship (9), Dublin, 8 July 2007
83. Bg2 e2 84. Kd2 Bc4 85. Bh3 Kd4 86. Bd7 Ke4 87. g6 Kf3 88. Ke1 Ke3 89. Be8 Bd3 90. Bf7 Bc2 91. Be8 Bb1 92. Bb5 Bxg6 93. Bxe2 Bc2 94. Bb5 Kd4 95. Kd2 Bb3 96. Ke1 Kc5 97. Kd2 Kb4 98. Kc1 Bxa4 99. Bd3 Bb5 100. Bg6 a4 101. Kb2 a3+ 102. Ka1 Bc4 103. Be4 g5 104. Bg2 g4 105. Ba8 g3 106. Bg2 Kc3 107. Bh3 Kd2 108. Bg2 Ke3 109. Bh3 Kf2 110. Kb1 Be6
0-1 (time)
[Click to replay the full game.]
The 2007 Irish championship came down to the last-round game between Philip Short and Stephen Brady. Each possible outcome would result in a different set of champions: White win–Philip Short sole champion; draw–Philip Short co-champion with Brian Kelly; Black win–Stephen Brady co-champion with Brian Kelly.
All sources of the game score–the ICU tournament report, the ICU on-line database, the Irish Chess Journal, Colm Daly’s “Irish Chess Championships” site, TWIC 662, BritBase and the BCM News Archive for 2007–give the game to Black’s 82nd move, and “0-1”. Fair enough: White has no defence to … Kd6-e5-f4 etc.
But in fact White didn’t resign here, and for that matter Black didn’t play … Kd6-e5-f4. Instead the game ended much later in a time scramble that went down to the wire. As it happens, we are lucky enough to have a complete video of the finish, from Colm Daly’s Irish Chess Championships site, and this allows us to reconstruct the full game (which is new to this post). Black’s 82nd, reaching the position above, is played at 3:17, and then the remaining moves, with approximate times played, were 83. Bg2 (3:34) e2 (5.43) 84. Kd2 (not shown) Bc4 (5:48) 85. Bh3 (5:58) Kd4 (6:14) 86. Bd7 (6:21) Ke4 (6:34) 87. g6 (6:39) Kf3 (6:53) 88. Ke1 (6:54) Ke3 (6:56) 89. Be8 (7:00) Bd3 (7:09) 90. Bf7 (7:10) Bc2 (7:15) 91. Be8 (7:17) Bb1 (7:25) 92. Bb5 (7:27) Bxg6 (7:29) 93. Bxe2 (7:30) Bc2 (7:37) 94. Bb5 (7:39) Kd4 (7:41) 95. Kd2 (7:43) Bb3 (7:51) 96. Ke1 (7:54) Kc5 (7:55) 97. Kd2 (7:58) Kb4 (7:59) 98. Kc1 (8:05) Bxa4 (8:06) 99. Bd3 (8:07) Bb5 (8:08) 100. Bg6 (8:10) a4 (8:11) 101. Kb2 (8:12) a3+ (8:12) 102. Ka1 (8:13) Bc4 (8:13) 103. Be4 (8:17) g5 (8:17) 104. Bg2 (8:19) g4 (8:20) 105. Ba8 (8:25) g3 (8:25) 106. Bg2 (8:27) Kc3 (8:28) 107. Bh3 (8:30) Kd2 (8:31) 108. Bg2 (8:32) Ke3 (8:33) 109. Bh3 (8:37) Kf2 (8:38) 110. Kb1 (8:40) Be6 (8:41). Although not shown on the video, Philip Short ran out of time seconds later. Stephen Brady cut it close: he had 8 seconds left on his clock at the end. And there was no increment!
89. Be6!? might have posed more problems for Black in the time available.