Last year Ireland hosted the European School Championships at the University of Limerick (May 31-June 7). This was a major undertaking, comprising 12 tournaments (U17, U15, U13, U11, U9, and U7 in both Open and Girls categories), with 191 players and 799 games.
Players from 17 countries participated, with visitors from Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, England, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, and Wales.
Turkey sent a strong delegation and by far the largest contingent, and duly dominated in all events, winning all twelve championships. Even the five players who finished equal first but lost on tie-break were from Turkey.
Full reports have been added for all events in the Tournament pages here:
European School Open U17 Championship 2024; 1st Adar Tarhan (TUR)
European School Girls U17 Championship 2024 1st-2nd Ecrin Efsa Büyük (TUR) (1st on tie-break), Hatice Aslı Muştu (TUR)
European School Open U15 Championship 2024; 1st Egehan Yıldız (TUR)
European School Girls U15 Championship 2024; 1st Pelin Seyhan (TUR)
European School Open U13 Championship 2024; 1st Ali Alper Çelik (TUR)
European School Girls U13 Championship 2024; 1st-2nd Zümral Yazıcı (TUR) (1st on tie-break), Çağla Yudum Şahin (TUR)
European School Open U11 Championship 2024; 1st-2nd Uzdemir Ali Poyraz (TUR) (1st on tie-break), Ege Öz (TUR)
European School Girls U11 Championship 2024; 1st Zeynap Sönmez (TUR)
European School Open U9 Championship 2024; 1st-2nd Ata Peray (TUR) (1st on tie-break), Efe Aynaoğlu (TUR)
European School Girls U9 Championship 2024; 1st Eslem Tolan (TUR)
European School Open U7 Championship 2024; 1st-2nd Ömer Taha Dede (TUR)
European School Girls U7 Championship 2024; 1st-2nd Miray Akıncı (TUR) (1st on tie-break), Kumsal İşlek (TUR)
The organisers produced reports for the first five rounds: rounds 1, 2, 3, and 4-5. However, I made no attempt to integrate the commentary or to select interesting games for each event.
A nearly hour-long video of the awards ceremony by the Turkish delegation is available on YouTube. Also available is an interview of Chief Organiser Desmond Beatty by Jonathan O’Connor, discussing how the event came about.
The most comprehensive review I found was the post Schulschach-Europameisterschaft 2024 in Irland, Gottfried-Keller-Gymnasium web site, (in German), which includes 33 photos, including the one above of the playing hall, and concludes (via Google Translate)
“The Irish organizers and hosts also showed their best side. All delegations agreed at the end that they had never experienced such a well-organized and executed tournament of this magnitude.”
Games may be downloaded from each of the tournament reports, but a combined collection of all 797 available games can be downloaded here.