The Irish Championship started on Saturday in Ennis, and has today reached the two thirds stage. A preliminary report has been added to the Tournament pages here.
Initially entries were slow to arrive, and it seemed the event might follow the pattern of many championships held outside Dublin in the past, with a small field. I even saw a suggestion on line that in future all championships might have to be held in Dublin. I disagree; rotating the event is vital to give everyone a chance of competing at least once in a while, and is a necessary part of having a representative national championship. In any case, the point is moot as a mammoth field of 37 signed up in the end.
After six rounds, there is a 7-way tie for first on 4½ between (in descending order of FIDE rating) top seed Conor O’Donnell, Oleg Gubanov, Kavin Venkatesan, Shane Melaugh, Jason Liu, Peter Carroll, and six times champion Colm Daly, the only former champion in the event. Of these, Oleg Gubanov is ineligible for the title of Irish champion (as I read the rules). Lukian Hushpit and Oisín O’Cuilleanáin are half a point behind this group.
It’s close enough at the top that an eventual multi-way tie is quite possible. In that case, the title will be decided under the rules introduced in 2018 (cf. Terms and Conditions, fourth heading down).
All games are available live at Livechesscloud and Lichess, and commentary by Diana Mirza and Jonathan O’Connor is available at the former’s Twitch channel.
I will update the report as I am able, but due to some time commitments over the weekend, this might not happen on a round by round basis.
Update, August 8, 2025: the report has been updated with the round 7 games and the round 8 draw. It was a round of high drama, with many interesting games, and generally more fighting chess than seemed to be the case in earlier rounds. On the top three boards, involving six of the seven joint leaders, Oleg Gubanov won convincingly against Conor O’Donnell, Kavin Venkatesan beat Peter Carroll, and Shane Melaugh beat Jason Liu. On board 4, the remaining joint leader Colm Daly, as Black, was thoroughly outplaying Lukian Hushpit, and following it on line I was expecting a resignation any move.
70… ?
Black takes the bishop and White resigns, I assumed. But no; Colm, with 55 seconds on the clock, played the incomprehensible 70… Bxc5??, drawing after 71. Bxc5 Kxc5 72. b7 Be4+, since the remaining Black pawns will be lost. Chess blindness, I suppose, and these sessions are very long, but still, that’s an ending for the ages.
So Gubanov, Venkatesan, and Shane Melaugh share the joint lead with 5½, with Daly half a point behind, and a group of seven players another half a point behind on 4½. Tomorrow, Venkatesan has White against Gubanov, and Shane Melaugh has Black against O’Donnell, and Daly has White against Andrey Ivanov.
Update, August 9, 2025: the report has been updated with the round 8 games and the round 9 draw. On the top board, Kavin Venkatesan and Oleg Gubanov drew relatively quickly, while on board two, Conor O’Donnell defeated Shane Melaugh with an overwhelming attack. On board three, Colm Daly somewhow managed to turn an almost dead drawn queen ending into a win, against Andrey Ivanov.
Daly, Gubanov, and Venkatesan lead on 6/8, and are not paired against each other in the last round. Patryk Brozynski, Peter Carroll, Shane Melaugh, and Conor O’Donnell follow half a point behind. Apart from the ineligible Gubanov, any of these players could conceivably win the title tomorrow.
Update, August 12, 2025: the report has been updated with the final round games. Wow, what an ending! Conor O’Donnell won early on, putting pressure on Kavin Venkatesan and Colm Daly, who each needed a win with Black to avoid a tie-break. Kavin was under pressure and was never better, though he didn’t seem to be in any real trouble ever. On board 3, Patryk Brozynski seemed to be better out of the opening against Colm, but matters swung sharply, and Colm seemed to be clearly winning; for example, 26… h4 seems decisive. Easy to say while watching, of course. Colm’s advantage persisted but gradually seemed to peter out, and finally he erred and even lost.
This left Kavin, Patryk, and Conor tied with the ineligible Oleg Gubanov on 6½/9, for only the second four-way tie in the history of the Irish championship, and the first three-way tie of eligible players since 1996. After a series of blitz, rapid, and more blitz games, Kavin Venkatesan emerged victorious, for his first Irish championship.
Several people have wondered if he is the youngest champion ever. I am not certain of his exact date of birth, but based on an unconfirmed date, I think he is the third youngest, after Brian Kelly, who won in 1995 aged 16 years, 228 days, and John Moles, who won in 1966, aged 16 years, 297 days.
Though the report is complete, no games are currently annotated, and details of the playoffs have not yet been added. I will continue to add to it over the next few weeks.
Update, August 17, 2025: the report has been updated to add the playoff games (see the Pairings & results page), along with several other modifications. The report also includes a pgn file of the playoff games.
Wow, what a championship! Even more dramatic than the 2023 event. All 3 players on 6/8 were playing players on 5.5. Gubanov drew against Carroll. Shane Melaugh pushed for a long time against Venketesan. On board 3, Daly got an advantage against Brozinski, kept pushing, but eventually tried too hard, and allowed a nasty tactic which won the game for Brozinski.
Gubanov was not eligible to win the title, as he has not been IRL registered for long enough. That meant there were 3 players in a playoff. After much discussion, it was decided to play a double round all-play-all blitz between the 3, to see who would play a rapid match for title. O’Donnell lost out on that, and the 2 youngsters played.
After a win apiece, they switched to playing 2 blitz games. Bogth of these were won by Kavin, giving him the title.
Is he the youngest champion? He’s not quite 17, but will probably be 18 at the next olympiad.