Last year, I posted on Sir Horace Plunkett, longtime President of Dublin C.C., MP, Senator, and a pioneer of the cooperative movement in Ireland, and on his role in hosting Capablanca when he visited Dublin in 1919 (drawing his individual game in the second simul).
The 4NCL Online event launched last month, and the first round Henry Li, playing board 1 for the Gonzaga B team (“Gonzaga B Sharps”), had White against Simon Williams.
The game reached a rook ending in which Black was two pawns to the good, but Williams misplayed it, simplifying to a R + 2P versus R ending, but one of the exceptional ones that is drawn.
The critical moment came a few moves later:
Li – Williams, 4NCL Online 2020
60. ?
After the game’s 60. Rd2?, White was lost, and Williams duly converted.
White has exactly one move that draws: 60. Ra4!. The point is that 60… b5 61. Ra6! cuts the black king off, and the black rook can’t both keep the white king cut off and support the pawn. Similarly, 60… Kc6 61. Kd4! Kb5 62. Ra2! prevents Black from making any further progress.
These days, it is easiest to explore the possibilities via the online Nalimov endgame tablebases. In former times, standard manuals would have to be consulted. The situation after 60. Ra4 b5 61. Ra6 is explored in Reuben Fine’s Basic Chess Endings (David McKay, 1941), pp. 294-6. In such cases, the defending king must be cut off four files from a knight’s pawn for the position to be a win. The critical position (W: Kb2, Re1, b4; B: Kf5, Rh3) was analysed by Grigorieff in 1937: White to play wins, Black to play draws.
This event, which started in 1993, was originally called the Cork City Congress, presumably to distinguish it from the Cork Chess Congress series that ran from 1983 to 1990. (There was also an earlier 1st Cork Weekend Congress in 1977.) [See update below.] Since about 2002, the new series has been generally known as the Cork Congress. (All rather confusing!)
The new page here provides links to all known games from the new series. These include 88 games (pgn) that are not in the ICU games archive, as of the date of this post, including 31 from the 2008 event and 41 from 2009 (downloaded some time ago from the Cork C.C. website, though apparently no longer available there). [See update below.]
Update, June 1, 2020: David McAlister has corrected the history of the previous Cork Congress, and has provided one extra game, from 1994, for which many thanks. The previous series started with the 1977 event, resumed in 1984 (so there was no 1983 event), and ended in 1991.
Last week, I belatedly stumbled across an auction of Irish chess interest, of a collection of medals won by J. J. O’Hanlon between 1928 and 1943.
From the description by the auctioneers, Whyte’s:
A Tailteann Games gold award medal, for the Governor General (James McNeill) Chess Championship, 1928, to JJ O’Hanlon, maker’ mark, I J Cy, 50mm, 57g, 9ct gold;
a Tailteann Games silver gilt award medal, for First Prize Chess, 1932, maker’ mark, I J Cy, 50mm, 56g, silver;
two All Ireland Chess Championship gold award medals to JJ O’Hanlon, one engraved 1930, and 1940, maker’s mark, F O’K, the second 1932 aqnd 1935, by John Miller;
and a Dublin Chess Club silver gilt award medal with enamelled chess board, to JJ O’Hanlon, by Smyth and Sons. (5)
In the picture, the two Tailteann medals are at either end, and the two Irish championship medals are second and fourth from the left. In each case, I can’t tell which is which.
It’s interesting that Irish championship medals were sometimes pressed into double duty by re-engraving an old medal rather than awarding a new one.
The estimate provided was €500 – €700, and in the event the lot realised €850.
The auction took place in September 2018. Had I known, I would have been tempted to bid. On reflection, it’s good to know that the medals have survived, and have a careful owner.
Going into the penultimate round in the 1978 Irish championship, Alan Ludgate led the field, half a point ahead of Colm Barry and Eugene Curtin, and a full point ahead of Conor Barrington and Michael Littleton. In round 8, Ludgate had Black against Littleton, and another game featuring swings of fortune resulted. Littleton built up a clearly better position, but misplayed it and allowed exchanges leading to what should have been an equal ending. The critical moment came in the diagrammed position:
Black has just played 33… h5, and Littleton responded with the disastrous 34. Ke3??, going into a lost pawn ending after 34… Bxe4 35. Kxe4 Ke6. The only remaining possible twists involve breaks by b4 when Black tries to infiltrate on the king-side. Littleton had less than five minutes to make move 40, and this must go a long way towards explaining what would otherwise be a very puzzling decision.
From the diagrammed position, White has a fairly obvious way of holding via 34. Bc6, since after 34… Bb1 35. a3 Bc2 36. Ba4 g5 37. Ke3 gxh4 38. gxh4, Black has no way to break through.
Another critical moment in the 1978 Irish championship came in round 3, when Alan Ludgate had Black against Adrian McDaid. In a complex struggle, chances were around equal until quite late on, when an error from McDaid caused his position to collapse quickly.
McDaid – Ludgate, Irish Championship 1978
30. ?
The diagrammed position arose half a dozen moves from the end. The game continuation 30. Be1 (not yet the fatal error) was met with 30… Qb4, and afterwards Ludgate’s notes suggested, plausibly enough, that 30. Ra4 would be better, and should hold.
In fact, though, 30. Ra4? would transform a position that is almost equal into one that is dead lost. The refutation is not at all obvious, at least to me; in particular it is not at all evident why it is so deadly.
I’ll leave this as a puzzle: how does Black refute 30. Ra4? See the game for the solution.
One of the critical games of the entire Irish championship in 1978 occurred in the opening round, when Tom Clarke had the white pieces against the top seed Alan Ludgate. Clarke built up a large advantage, turned down a draw offer, missed a clear win near the time control, then blundered with his sealed move.
Even then, the twists and turns were far from exhausted. The diagrammed position shows another critical point.
Clarke – Ludgate, Irish Championship 1978
54. ?
White now went wrong with 54. Re8?, allowing the bishop to reach f4. Instead 54. Kd3!, protecting the e-pawn, threatens f4, liquidating Black’s last pawn. For example, 54… Bf2? leads to an immediate and picturesque draw via 55. f4! exf4 56. Rf8+ Ke5 (56… Kg5 57. Rg8+ and the king has to turn back) 57. Rf5+ and 58. Rxf4. Since 54… Bh2? 55. Rh8 leaves Black unable to break the pin, the only try for a win is 54… Bc5, when after 55. Rc8 Be7 56. Rc6+, it is unclear whether Black can make progress.
After the move played, there followed 54… Bh2, when the pin is no longer feasible. Even then, White must have excellent prospects to hold via 55. Kc3. Instead after 55. d6? made it inevitable that the pawn would drop, and White gave up a couple of moves later.
The event returned to Galway, for the first time since 1965, and 23 players entered. In a well-contested championship in which many players were in contention, Alan Ludgate recorded an unbeaten 7/9 to finish clear first and clinch his third Irish championship, after 1975 (shared with Eamon Keogh) and 1977 (shared with Ray Devenney). Eugene Curtin finished second, ½ point behind, with six players sharing third place another point back.
It’s sometimes remarkable how much material from long-ago events survives in original scoresheets and other records. As of today, there are only two games from the entire event in the ICU games archive, but Alan Ludgate and John Gibson provided all of their games, and David McAlister provided six more of Tom Clarke’s games, for which many thanks. With these, and with one more from a newspaper report, we have 24 of the (approximately) 99 games. Even that is not all, as there appear to be at least 8 more, which have been promised once the present circumstances ease a bit.
The clipping above (from Alan Ludgate; original source unknown) shows Alan Ludgate’s critical round 1 game against Tom Clarke after Black’s 19th move. Beyond that are Jack Killane and Colm Barry.
There were several interesting games and crucial moments, which will form the subjects of the next few posts.
Three years ago, when a report on the Bunratty Masters 2006 was posted here, I asked how on earth White could have recovered from the diagrammed position, where Black has just played 31… Qh3 (How?, February 28, 2017).
Van Voorthuijsen – Kane, Bunratty Masters 2006
32. ?
The ICU games archive gave “…” at the end, indicating that some moves were omitted, and the result was 1-0. Since Komodo 9.3 evaluates the position above at around -28, this must be close to an all time record for recovery from a lost position, and I wondered how it could have happened.
I was delighted to find on Wednesday that Peewee van Voorthuijsen had commented on the original post, with the continuation of the game, for which many thanks.
The time limit was a flat all moves in 90 minutes, and both players must have been short of time, Black catastrophically so. A few moves earlier, White had been better (see second diagram), and now with 27. Rd1 would have a clear advantage, e.g., 27… Qe5!? (27… Rxd1? 28. Rxd1 and White is winning) 28. Bxe4 Rxd1+ 29. Rxd1 Bxe4 30. Rd4 Bf3 31. Qc7 Qxc7 32. Nxc7 Rc8 33. Rc4 Bd5 34. Rc5 Bxa2, with a safe pawn plus. Instead, presumably with the clock playing a role, he went astray via 27. Bxe4? Bxe4 28. Nc3??. Here 28. Nf4!? is the move, with interesting play. After the move played, Black was winning, and after 28… Bf3 29. Qc5 Qe6 30. Kf1 Rbd8 31. Ke1 Qh3, the first diagrammed position was reached.
The simplest win was 32. Qb5 Qxh2 33. Qf1 Bg2, and this is where Komodo 9.3’s lopsided evaluation comes from. Once Black missed this via 32… Qg2?, the evaluation dropped to -7. After several missed wins, including a mate in 2, he seems to have lost on time.
S. Moran – O’Donnell, Irish Championship 2019
30. ?
Another game from the sixth round of the 2019 Irish championship, and another missed opportunity. Stephen Moran now played 30. Rxg6+? and the game soon ended in a draw.
He could have won via 30. Bxf5!!. Of course, it is immediately clear that 30… Rxf5? allows a mate in two. But other variations are not so obvious:
I. 30… Nf6 31. Bxg6! hxg6 32. Rf1 Qxc3 33. Qxg6+ Rg7 34. Qxf6! and wins;
II. 30… gxf5 31. Qxh5 Qxc3 32. Re8, e.g., 32… Nc2 33. Kh1 Qxb3 34. Ne6 and wins.
