Bartczak – Spence, DCU Majors 2024

The recent post about the DCU Majors 2024 gave the Bartczak – Spence game as the most interesting, with plenty of play left in the final position. I thought Black “should be able to draw”, but the line I offered also left plenty of play. Delving deeper turned up some interesting points.

Bartczak - Spence, DCU Majors 2024
Bartczak – Spence, DCU Majors 2024
Final position; White to play

From the final position, I think best play goes 31. Rxc2 Ba6+! 32. Ree2! Rxe2 33. Rxe2 c5! (slightly more accurate than 33… Bxe2+ 34. Qxe2 c5 as I gave before, since then Black has to work out the consequences of 35. Qa6) 34. Kf2 Bxe2 35. Qxe2 a5 36. Qe8+ Kh7, reaching the second diagrammed position.

Bartczak - Spence, DCU Majors 2024, analysis
Same game
Analysis

An obvious idea for Black is to sit tight, maintaining the rook on the 6th rank, when it looks as if he has a fortress. But in fact it is not as easy as that.

White can play his king to e5, capture the f-pawn after … Rg6, and continue f4-f5, reaching the third diagrammed position. Black has run out of squares on the 6th rank, so what now?

Bartczak - Spence, DCU Majors 2024, analysis
Same game
Analysis, II
White to play

Black still draws via 1… h5! 2. Qxh5+ Kg8, when White cannot break through.

[Click to replay.]

This seemed to me at first as a simple fortress, in which the queenside pawns played essentially no role. What I had missed is that this is not true: remove the queenside pawns in the third diagram (getting the fourth diagram), and White wins!

Nased on Bartczak - Spence, DCU Majors 2024
Analogous ending
Black to play

After 1… Rb6, 2. Qe6! wins quickly. Here 1… h5 does not help. After the h-pawn disappears, Black cannot hold a fortress based on Rf6-h6, because White can simply capture on f6 at a suitable moment, reaching a winning pawn ending, e.g., 2. Qxh5+ Kg8 3. Qe8+ Kh7 4. Qe6! Rh6 5. Kd5! Rf6 (5… Kh8 6. Qxh6+!) 6. Qxf6+! and wins.

[Click to replay.]

This resulting pawn ending is winning only because Black will fall into zugzwang. Adding the queenside pawns back in, and specifically the pawn on c5, this does not work for White; for example, in the last line White would lose.

In the third diagram, remove the pawn at c5 and once again White wins.

[Click to replay the full game.]

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DCU Challengers 2024

The third of the three sections at last weekend’s DCU Congress 2024 was the Challengers, for players rated under 1200 ICU and under 1650 FIDE, or unrated. 55 players actually played (as in the Open, there were five more who were paired for round 1 but played no games). The winner was Chima Mgbemena with full points, though he was fortunate to win his last round game against Malachy O’Neill, where he was queen for bishop down in the final position.

A full report has been added to the Tournament pages here.

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DCU Majors 2024

The DCU Majors 2024 was the second of three sections of the DCU Congress last weekend. A full report has been added to the Tournament pages here.

This section was the smallest of the three, with 29 players. Ruarai Goodfellow of U.C.C. took clear first with an unbeaten 4/5, ahead of six players tied for second place, half a point back.

The most interesting game available was the round 2 top board clash between Korneliusz Bartczak and Beckett Spence.

Bartczak - Spence, DCU Majors 2024
Bartczak – Spence, DCU Majors 2024
28… ?

In the diagrammed position Black could have won quickly via 28… Qxc4+! 29. Kxg2 Qxa2+ 30. Qe2 Qxe6, when after 31. Qxe6+ Rxe6 32. Rxe6 he would have four pawns for the exchange.

Instead the game continued 28… Rxh2?. Black may have anticipated only 29. Re8+? Kh7 30. Bg8+ Kg6, when White has nothing more. Instead the game continuation was 29. Rc6+! Kh7 30. Bg8+ Kxg8.

And then the players agreed a draw. I wonder if time was a factor? There is a considerable amount of play left in the position. What is the evaluation with best play? I am not certain, even after looking at this for some time, but give my answer in the playable game.

Bartczak - Spence, DCU Majors 2024
Bartczak – Spence, DCU Majors 2024
Final position; White to play

[Click to replay the full game.]

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DCU Open 2024

The DCU Congress attracted 180 players across three sections at the weekend, and the newly introduced Blitz attracted 59.

A full report on the Open has been added to the Tournament pages here. 20 games are available via live boards, though a few of these were truncated.

The event was open to all ICU members, and attracted a mammoth field of 96 players. Due to some snafu, IMs Artur Davtyan and Oleg Gubanov were listed in the field and paired for the first round, but played no games. This left as top seeds Tarun and Trisha Kanyamarala, Stephen Jessel, and Zalan Nemeth.

Three players tied for first with 4½/5, Kavin Venkatesan, Colm Daly, and Maximilian Lohr. These three did not encounter each other, but Venkatesan beat Tarun Kanyamarala and John Delaney, and Daly beat Trisha Kanyamarala. Unusually, and in a change from last year’s event, prize money was not divided equally between tied players, and Venkatesan took first on Sonneborn-Berger, with Daly second and Lohr third. (Daly was slightly unfortunate here, as Trisha Kanyamarala withdrew after their third round game; if she had continued and scored 1½/2 in her last two games, he would have taken first.)

One crucial moment came in the round 3 game between Tarun Kanyamarala and Venkatesan.

Tarun Kanyamarala - Venkatesan, DCU Open 2024
Tarun Kanyamarala – Venkatesan, DCU Open 2024
21. ?

In the diagrammed position, 21. Rcd2 leaves White with some advantage. Instead the game continued 21. Nf7?. It’s not clear what was missed, but this is unsound. After 21… Kxf7 22. e5 Nfd7 23. Qh5+ Kg8 24. Rd6 Bxd6 25. Bf5, 25… h6! would have left White with nothing. The game’s 25… Nf8 would have been much better for Black even after the best 26. Bf5. After 26. Rc4? Qg6 27. Qe2 Ra2, White was lost.

[Click to replay the full game.]

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Kononova – Naughton, Ennis Open 2024

The last post gave Kononova – Naughton as the most interesting game of the Ennis Open 2024.

Kononova - Naughton, Ennis Open 2024
Kononova – Naughton, Ennis Open 2024
52. ?

From the diagrammed position, 52. c6 wins easily. Instead the mysterious 52. Rc1? wasted a crucial tempo. The game then became very complex.

After 52… f3 53. Rxe5+ dxe5 54. c6, Black erred with 54… Kf4?. Instead 54… Kg4! was much stronger: the king threatens to head to h3. White would then have to play accurately to draw; both 55. Bc4! and 55. Be2! reach worse but objectively drawn endings.

After the move played, White’s 55. Kg1 was again an error. Instead 55. Ba6! leads to an objectively winning ending after a long, more-or-less forced sequence.

After 55… Kg3, White erred for the final time with 56. c7?, which allowed a mate in four. After 56… Rh2 57. Bh3 e2 58. Rf1 exf1=Q+, White resigned.

Instead 56. Rc3! was essential. Then 56… e2 57. Bxe2 Rxe2 58. Kf1 Ra2 59. Re3 Ra1+ 60. Re1 Rxe1+ 61. Kxe1 Kg2 reaches a Q + 2P versus Q ending that is winning for Black.

[Click to replay the full game (with notes).]

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Ennis Congress 2024

The Ennis Congress was held over the weekend, and attracted 111 players over three sections.

Generally, very few games have been available from this event, and so there is only one full report from a previous edition in the tournament pages here. This year, though, more than half of the games from the Open (37 out of 73) are available, along with a handful from the two lower sections. A full report for the Open has been added.

Oleg Gubanov from the local club finished clear first on 4½/5. Half a point behind were IM Mihnea Costachi of Romania, Colm Daly, and James Naughton, and a further half point back were GM Keith Arkell (who drew against Gubanov, and then lost in the last round to Costachi), IM Attila Turzó of Hungary, and Robert Arellano of the Philippines.

There were many interesting games. The most striking was the round 4 clash between Alina Kononova and James Naughton.

This could and should have been a significant rating upset, with Kononova outrated by over 400 points. She was a full rook ahead after complications, but missed several chances to simplify, and reached the following position after Naughton’s 51… f4.

Kononova - Naughton, Ennis Open 2024
Kononova – Naughton, Ennis Open 2024
52. ?

The finish was 52. Rc1 f3 53. Rxe5+ dxe5 54. c6 Kf4 55. Kg1 Kg3 56. c7 Rh2 57. Bh3 e2 58. Rf1 exf1=Q+ 0-1. Both players missed chances along the way; where and when?

[Click to replay the full game (with no notes).]

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Harding – Reynolds, Irish 65+ Championship 2024

The Irish 65+ Championship 2024 round 6 game between Tim Harding and Pat Reynolds reached the diagrammed position with White to play.

Harding - Reynolds, Irish 65+ Championship 2024
Harding – Reynolds, Irish 65+ Championship 2024
48. ?

While 48. Qe5 would leave White much better, the game continuation’s immediate simplification 48. Qe8+ Kh7 49. Qxf7 Qxc3 50. Qxe6 Qxa5 51. Qf5+ Qxf5 52. gxf5 is a definite win.

The game later reached the second diagrammed position, with White to play.

Harding - Reynolds, Irish 65+ Championship 2024, II
Same game
65. ?

White wins via ‘corresponding squares’. Black must be able to meet Kf5 with Kf7, and must be able to meet Ke6 with Ke8; the square f7 ‘corresponds to’ f5, and e8 corresponds to e6.

When the white king moves to e5, it can reach e6 or f5 in one move, so the black king must move to a square that can reach either e8 or f7 in one move; this can only be f8, so f8 corresponds to e5.

Continuing, the squares e8 and g8 both correspond to e4 and to f4. But e4 and f4 are one square apart, while e8 and g8 are two squares apart. White wins by moving the king to e4 and then f4, or vice versa, forcing Black to break the correspondence.

The game continued 65. Kf4 Kg8, and now 66. Ke4 would have won, after 66… Kf8 (66… Kf7 67. Kf5) 67. Ke5, when the second diagrammed position is reached, with Black to play, and White wins (67… Ke8 68. Ke6; 67… Kf7 68. Kf5).

The game ended instead 66. Ke5 Kf8 67. Ke6 Ke8 68. f7+?? (any other move preserves the win) 68… Kf8 69. Kf6 stalemate.

[Click to replay the full game.]

This ending appeared in classical endgame manuals in mirrored version, often attributed to a game Fahrni – Alapin. Edward Winter’s Chess Notes article The So-called Fahrni-Alapin Pawn Ending discusses the history of the position (questioning the attribution to Fahrni – Alapin, and tracing the analysis back at least as far as Emanuel Lasker’s Common Sense in Chess, 1st edition (1896)).

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Irish 65+ Championship 2024

As mentioned in the last post, Gerard O’Connell won this year’s Irish 65+ Championship, with 5½/7, half a point ahead of Pat Hogan, Gerard MacElligott, and David Salter. Hogan won their individual game in round 6, after an oversight by O’Connell, and there was a three-way tie between O’Connell, Hogan, and Salter heading into the final round. In the final round the latter two drew against each other, and O’Connell’s win against Pete Morriss gave him the title.

A full report has now been added in the Tournament pages here.

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Irish 50+ Championship 2024

The “Irish International Festival 2024”, held at the Talbot Hotel Stillorgan from January 4-7, featured an open tournament and the Irish 50+ and 65+ championships, and the Leinster Junior Championships, as well as a blitz.

Congratulations to Jonathan O’Connor, who won the Irish 50+ championship convincingly, ½ point ahead of John Delaney, and a full point ahead of Stephen Brady and Oscar Culbeaux Tello. He was the only unbeaten player in the event, and his record of +5 =2 -0 included wins against Brady and Anthony Fox.

Many games are available via live boards, and a full report has been added to the tournament pages here.

Reports on the concurrent Irish International Open 2024 and Irish 65+ Championship 2024 will appear here soon.

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Galvin – Plotkin, Irish Universities v Scottish Universities match 1968

The recent update here on Irish championship players added first names for many players. One of these was Roddy Galvin, who played in the 1967 championship in Cork.

No games of his are currently in the ICU games archive. However, one appeared in the Cork Examiner, November 27, 1968, p. 11. It’s from a challenge match between Irish Universities and Scottish Universities played in Edinburgh shortly before the article. The format was a two-round, nine-board match. The Irish team was reportedly missing several top players, and slumped to a heavy 14-4 defeat.

The Irish team in board order was Michael Roberts (Q.U.B.) (0/2 v. Craig Pritchett), Tony Cafferky (U.C.D.) (0/2 v. David N. L. Levy), Peter O’Kane (Q.U.B.) (0/2 v. Watt), Colm Egan (U.C.D.) (0/2 v. Brodie), Murray (Q.U.B.) (½/2 v. Jardine), Jack Killane (U.C.D.) (1/2 (1, 0) v. Morgan), McCaughall (Q.U.B.) (½/2 v. Bourne), Roddy Galvin (U.C.C.) (1/2 (0, 1) v. Plotkin), and Tom Barry (U.C.C.) (1/2 (1, 0) v. Amos).

Galvin - Plotkin, Irish Univ. v Scottish Univ. match 1968
Galvin – Plotkin, Irish Univ. v. Scottish Univ. match 1968
19. ?

In the diagrammed position, Black had just played the (slightly dubious) 18… Ne7-g6. Galvin responded with 19. fxe5 dxe5 20. d6. Objectively this is bad, since 20… f4! would have left him in serious trouble. However, he may have been looking ahead to the game’s finish. After 20… c6? 21. Bg5, the queen was running out of squares, and the knight could not go to e7. Black could not find anything better than 21… Ne8? (21… f4 was essential), but then Galvin trapped the queen with 22. g4 fxg4 23. Ng3, and Black resigned.

[Click to replay the full game.]

[Update, January 9, 2024: The same Cork Examiner article gave another Irish win from the match, the first round win by Tom Barry (U.C.C.). Click to replay.]

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