The Irish New Year Festival 2026 was held at the Talbot Hotel Stillorgan from December 31 to January 4. It comprised an Open, the Irish 50+ and 65+ championships, a Norm tournament, a blitz, and the Leinster Junior Championships in age groups from U19 to U9.
A report on the Open has been added to the Tournament pages here. This attracted 46 players, down quite a bit from the 75 for last year’s Irish International Open. It resulted in a three-way tie for first between Andrey Ivanov, Shane Melaugh, and Pratik Mulay, on 5½/7.
The top 8 boards were live in all but the first round, so 48 of the 149 games are available.
31. ? and 38. ?
The top board game in round 3 featured a dramatic turnaround in fortune. The left diagram shows the position after move 30, with White in complete control, and an evaluation of around +5. Now simply 31. O-O-O leaves Black helpless (31… Qd8? 32. Rxh7+ and mate next move, and White can simply play h4-h5, etc.) Instead White snatched at a minor material gain via 31. f7? Rxf7 32. Nxf7+? (it would be better to admit the error and simply castle) 32… Qxf7. Most of White’s advantage was now gone, but in addition White’s position was starting to look overextended. After just three further moves White was lost, and a couple of moves later, the diagram at right was reached.