The Cork Congress took place last weekend, in the Clayton Hotel Cork City, a new venue. A total of 177 players competed over three sections, and there was a Blitz on Saturday, with 57 players.
Games from Cork Congresses have been rare in the past; I cannot recollect any previous time in which live boards were used. This year was a welcome first, with 30 games from the Masters and another 15 from the Majors.
A full report for the Masters has been added to the Tournament pages here.
Brendan O’Gorman, who played in the Majors, published a set of 51 photos of the event.
David Fitzsimons and Kavin Venkatesan finished 1st-2nd on 4½/5, having drawn their round 3 game. The published rules said there would be a blitz playoff in the event of a tie, but no report was published and the result is unknown, if the playoff took place at all.
The last round game between David Geaney-O’Brien and Paul Carey featured an enterprising finish.
22. ?
White has an overwhelming position, and there must be many ways to win. The game continuation was the most efficient: 22. Nxg6! Rfc8 23. Nf8+! Kh8 24. Ne5. Black has no viable defence. After 24… Be8 25. Rg4 f5 26. Nxe6 Nxe6 27. Rg8+ Kh7 28. Rxe8 Rxe8 29. Qg6+ Kh8 30. Nf7+ Nxf7 31. Qxf7 Black resigned.
[Click to replay the full game.]
The pairing was puzzling: why was Geaney-O’Brien, on 2½/4, paired with Carey, who was on 0/4?
The second round saw an interesting ending in the game between Korneliusz Bartczak and Dariy Kelbas.
48. ?
The diagrammed position is within the range of the Syzygy tablebases, which show that White has just one move to preserve a draw with best play: 48. Kf2!. White’s problem seems to be that the rook has a shortage of available squares on the third rank, and if Black can play … Ke4 with tempo, the king will invade with a winning position. After 48. Kf2, 48… Ke4 leads nowhere after 49. Ke2.
Bartczak instead played the natural but wrong 48. Re3?, and after 48… Rc5 49. Rd3 Ke4 50. Rd1 Rc3+ 51. Kxg4 Rxb3 was lost.
As it turned out, though, there were several tricky and non-obvious points in what followed (perhaps there was a straightforward way to win without permitting these difficulties?), and there were seven further changes in fortune, before the game ended in a draw.