Elm Mount Christmas Blitz report

The 2023 Elm Mount Christmas blitz was held on Monday 18th December in the Artane-Beaumont Family Recreation Centre. 28 players took part in four all-play-all sections and food was provided after the games.

The four section winners were Shane Melaugh, Jack Herring, Wayne Crawley and Kevin Huang. The runners-up were Gavin Melaugh, Nicu Boldijar, and Thomas Syms while the third-place finishers were Alvaro Bayo, Donal Ó Danachair and Philip FItzsimons. Nessa and Daniel shared joint 2nd/3rd place in their section.

The prize-winners are pictured below receiving their prizes from club secretary, Pat Fitzsimons:-

 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all!

LCU Blitz 2023 report

The Leinster Chess Union’s 2023 Christmas Blitz was held in the Artane Beaumont Family Recreation Centre, Elm Mount’s venue, on Tuesday 12th December. 38 players participated in all-play-all sections. Food was provided after the chess, after which the prize-winners selected their prizes from the choices available. Club secretary, Pat Fitzsimons, presented the prizes, with some Elm Mount players among the recipients!

The top section was narrowly won by Tom O’Gorman, half a point ahead of Alvaro Bayo with Gavin Melaugh and Oisín Ó Cuilleanáín a further half-point behind in joint third place.

Among the other section winners were Killian Martinez and Finn Cummins, who took 1st place on tie-break from Jacob Barron.

The prize-winners are pictured below, receiving their prizes from Pat Fitzsimons.


Well done to all the prize-winners!

Elm Mount Junior prizewinners

Congratulations to two of Elm Mount’s junior players who were amongst the prizes at recent tournaments.

Harry Braine was the joint winner of the Challengers Section of the recent UCD Chess Congress with a perfect score of 5/5 while Thomas Syms (aged 10) finished third in the Challengers Section of the Kilkenny Chess Congress with an unbeaten score of 5/6. Thomas is pictured below at the prize giving with Maurice Buckley (left) from the Kilkenny Chess Club.

Elm Mount Junior Champion 2023

Congratulations to Rohan Salin who recently won his section of the Elm Mount Club Championships thus becoming the club’s Junior chess champion for 2023.

Rohan is pictured below receiving a trophy to mark his achievement that was specially hand carved by fellow club member Philip Fitzsimons (pictured left)
Rohan Salin receiving his trophy from Philip Fitzsimons

European Youth Chess update

Thomas Syms is representing Ireland at the European Junior Chess championships (under 10s) and is outperforming his seeding with a very creditable score of 3.5/7 as of 12th September which includes victories over some higher-rated players.

Thomas is pictured below:-

Best of luck in the remaining games!

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Elm Mount’s Thomas Syms who has been selected to represent Ireland in the under 10 section of the European Youth Chess Championships being held in Romania.

Best of luck to the Irish team pictured below (Thomas is first left on the front)

 

Branagan Cup Winners!

Elm Mount have won the 2023 Branagan Cup, beating Gonzaga A 4½-1½ in the final, which was played on Monday 31st July in the Artane-Beaumont Family Recreation Centre.

The winning team (from left) Shane Melaugh, Alice O’Gorman, Zygis Jakubauskas, Ciaran Quinn, Alvaro Bayo and Gerard MacElligott is pictured below with the trophy:-

Bernard Boyle, David Fitzsimons, Gavin Melaugh, Paul O’Neill, Florian Popist and Matthias Rahneberg also played in earlier rounds.

Elm Mount Blitz report

Elm Mount held a 5-minute blitz tournament on Monday 15th May. 28 players took part, divided into 4 all-play-all sections of 7 players.

Congratulations to Shane (section A winner), Luke (section B winner) , Eugene and Peter (section C joint winners), and Daniel and Vincent (section D joint winners). They are pictured below receiving their prizes from club secretary, Pat Fitzsimons.

Shane Melaugh – winner section A

Luke Keenan, winner section B

Eugene McMorrow and Peter Scott, section C winners

Daniel and Vincent (section D winners)

The remaining prizewinners are pictured below. Well done to all!

League Round-up

The 2022-23 Leinster league season finished on Sunday 7th May when all the last-round matches were played in Coláiste Éanna in Rathfarnham.

Elm Mount’s Armstrong Cup (division 1) team were in 2nd place going into the last round where they played leaders Gonzaga A who were 2½ points ahead. Unfortunately, the team lost 6-2 but still finished as runners-up. The top scorers on the team over the season were David Fitzsimons, Shane Melaugh and Zygis Jakubauskas who all scored 7 points.

In the Heidenfeld Trophy (division 2), Elm Mount drew their last match 4-4 and finished comfortably in in 6th place with 39½/80 points.  The top scorer on the team was Oliver Dunne who scored 6½ points.

Elm Mount’s O’Hanlon Cup (division 4) team had a tough last match against Inchicore who were competing for promotion. In the end, the team finished 8th of the 12 teams. The top scorers on the team were Greg Coyle and Eavan Gleeson who both scored 4½ points.

Elm Mount had 2 teams in the BEA Cup (division 5) North section. The A team finished 6th place out of 12 teams with 25 points out of a possible 55. The top scorer on the team was Terry O’Connor who scored 5 points. The B team had a tough season, finishing among the relegation places in 11th place with 17 points. The top scorer on the team was Jack Herring who scored 8 points.

Elm Mount’s team in the Bodley Cup (division 6) North section secured promotion by finishing in 2nd place with 28 points out of a possible 40. The top scorers on the team were Yuhao Chan and Thomas Syms, who both scored 6 points.

The full league tables for all divisions can be found here.

It has been an interesting post-covid season with many new players and with a change of club venue in mid-season – roll on 2023/24!

Irish Junior Championships report

6 of the club’s young players took part in the Irish Junior Championships last weekend -
Vincent (under 16 section), Harry (under 14), Thomas, Iarlaith and Artem (all under 10) and Senan (under 8). Each player finished ahead of their seeding in their sections with Harry on a score of 5/6 finishing fourth on tie break in the under 14s and Thomas also on a score of 5/6 finishing third in the under 10 section.

Below is a picture of
Thomas Syms receiving his trophy from the ICU Junior Officer:-


Below is a picture of Harry Braine with his medal:-

Well done to all!