The April blitz tournament, held on 10 April, was convincingly won by Alex Drimbarean, with 6½ points out of 7.  (The missing half-point was a penalty for arriving late and missing the first round.)   Second equal, on 5 points, were Pete Morriss and Roland Surlis.  Roland’s performance was particularly noteworthy, as he was one of the lowest-rated participants in […]

The Spring Rapidplay was held over three Thursdays in January, February and March. There were ten rounds in all, with players getting up to two half-point byes for each round missed – so that it was possible to get more points than games played. A total of 31 people played in the tournament, but only […]

Our Autumn Rapidplay tournament was held over four Thursdays in October, November and December. The convincing winner was Oleksandr Skorobogatko on 7½ points. There was a four-way tie for second place, between Fionn Lennon, Cillian Bracken, Fahad Ahmed and Pete Morriss, each of whom scored 6 points. The rating prize – for players rated in […]

Ten hardy souls braved the snow to play in our November blitz tournament on 21st November, although several left early, which meant that the tournament had to be curtailed after six of the anticipated seven rounds as everybody still left had played each other. Nevertheless there was a clear winner, as Brian Gallagher won all six of his games. […]

Our October blitz tournament, held on 31st October, was won by Lorcan Heron, with 6 points out of 7. Second was Ross du Berry, with 5½ points. The rating prize, for the highest-placed player rated in the bottom half, was won by Fahad Ahmad, with 4 points – which was an excellent achievement, as Fahad […]

Our Opening Blitz tournament was won by Christy O’Sullivan, with 6 points out of 7. This was Christy’s first appearance in Galway Chess Club, although he played a lot in Dublin many years ago; Dublin’s loss is our gain, for a change. Second equal were Oleksandr Skorobogatko, for the second time in succession, and Pete […]

The August Blitz was won by newcomer Ronaldo Alonso, with 5½ points out of 7. Second equal were another newcomer, Oleksandr Skorobogatko, and very-much-not-a-newcomer Michael O’Donnell, who both scored 5 points. (Ronaldo and Oleksandr are both new to Galway Chess club, but are experienced players in their countries of origin, Brazil and Ukraine, respectively. We […]

The July blitz tournament was a truly international one, as we were delighted to welcome visitors from the Czech Republic and Barcelona – and even Mayo – which made it a somewhat stronger tournament than we usually have.  The winner, with an excellent 6½ points out of 7, was Christopher Woods (Mayo) and second was Viktor Zigo (Czech Republic) on 5½.  The rating […]

Our June blitz was won by Chris Jonker, who won all his games – a rare event in our blitz tournaments. Second was Alex Drimbarean. The rating prize (highest finish of someone rated in the lower half) went to Adrienne Reich, who also came outright third – an excellent result.

Our season-ending blitz tournament, held on 16th May, was won by Pete Morriss, who scored 5½ points out of a possible 7. Second was Lorcan Heron, on 5 points; he would also have won the “most promising junior” accolade, if we had one. The rating prize, for the highest-finishing player rated in the bottom half, […]