News

This page gives irregular news updates. Consult the Tournaments pages to see the results of SCC tournaments and the pairings for each round. For results of league games see Links > LCU. Also see our Facebook page: f:skerrieschess. Weekly news updates are sent to members and friends by e-mail.

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Club reopens physically on 6 Sept.

The club will reopens physically on 6th September at 7 pm, although the exact venue has yet to be confirmed. The new website is nearly ready. We hope to enter 2 to 3 teams in the Leinster leagues this year and will gauge the interest next Tuesday.

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Skerries U13s win Silver Medals in Community Games Dublin Finals

Skerries came second to Marley Grange. See full pictorial report with pictures on Teams > Community Ganes > 2022.

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John Bolger Cup Skerries results

Three Skerries players played in the John Bolger Cup in Coláiste Éanna, Ballyroan at the weekend. In the 2nd section (<1900 ICU ratings) John Loughran scored 3.5/6 and Nikolai Dimitrov got 1/6 while in the third section (<1200 icu) Andrew Conneely got 4/6 in his first tournament!

Detailed results can be seen on chess-results.com. There is more information on upcoming events on icu.ie and on our own Calendar page in the menus above.

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Skerries finish second in Hibernian League Division 1!

On 22nd March 2022 the Skerries first team, playing in Division 1 (of 3 divisions) in the Hibernian Online Chess League, drew 2 - 2 with Drogheda, to secure second place. This was behind the winners, Dublin Chess Club, but ahead of 17 other teams that entered from Ireland. The team consisted of Martin Krug, Greg Pawlowski, John Loughran (captain), Marco Mancosu and Mark Allidine. The top scorers were Martin and Marco who scored 3.5/5 and 3/3 respectively but everyone contributed to the success, gained by a margin of 1/2 point over third placed Dun Laoghaire. Meanwhile one of our junior players, Tom Jackson, got his first win playing for our second team as they continue their matches in Division 3. The club is abuzz with excitement as this may be our best team performance ever in the club's history! Currently we play online, due to Covid, but we will resume over the board play in April when we compete in the William Brennan knockout cup (see Teams menu above). The last time the cup competitions were held, Skerries won the Killane shield.

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Hibernian, W. Brennan Cup, Club Champs

This Tuesday both teams play in the Hibernian. Others may play friendlies, and should persist until they find someone to play with on Zoom either by calling out or in the chat.

The first team play Drogheda. We are aiming to finish second in Div 1 which we should do with a win, depending on other results. This would be the best result achieved by Skerries, ever, in an open league competition.

Meanwhile our third team are holding their own and are hoping for their first win with a match against Elm Mount.

Spectators may view the games by typing in the usernames of any of our players into lichess.org.

In the William Brennan Cup the sections have been decided. In the group phase in group A Skerries (seeded second) will play Finglas, Phibsboro and Drumlish - no dates or venues yet.(Group B - Bray/Greystones, Balbriggan, Knights of Éanna, Elm Mount). The top two in each group will qualify for the semi-finals.   Winner of group A v Runner-up B (winner to host the final). Winner B v Runner-up A.

The senior club champs are finished with results on the Tournaments page.

In the junior championships 4 players have either withdrawn or were excluded for missing two games without advance warning. The others are paired for the final round on Tuesday 29th March.

Good luck to Andrew and John who are playing in the John Bolger Cup this weekend.

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Club Champs continue, looking forward to league games

Pairings are up for the next round in the Club Championships. In Sec A this is the final round and will decide the Club Champion, between Martin and Mark. See Tournaments page. For Section B this is the penultimate round but could decide the U18 Girls and Boys champions. Meanwhile next week our first team play Elm Mount on Tuesday while our second team play Dublin on Wednesday. There was lively interest in the upcoming over the board cup competitions with enough for at least one team. See Teams > Knockout for updates soon.

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Skerries lose in Div. 1 and Div. 3. OTB Team chess resumes.

Skerries lost badly 0.5 - 3.5 in Division 1 to top seeds Dublin last Wednesday. The only chink of light was a brave draw by Martin Krug who played on in a losing position and used all his ingenuity to draw, with a knight against a bishop and two pawns! Our second team also lost 0.5 - 3.5 against St. Benildus. Although Paschal did his best to win, he did well in the end to draw it showing great endgame technique and tenacity. Full results, and the games themselves, can be seen on the HOCL website, linked from the Teams > Hibernian page. Due to a surprise 4 - 0 win by Dun Laoghaire over Phibsboro our Div. 1 team are now in third place a half point behind them. Our realistic goal now is to finish second, which will be a challenge as our remaining opponents are good.

This Tuesday our coaching series continues with Martin, before we start round 4 in the club championships. Pairings are up on the Tournaments page.

Over the board team chess resumes with the LCU cup competitions which start at the end of March. More details soon on the Teams page.

The LCU are now taking entries for the cup competitions, deadline 16th March to enter. The first round is planned for the week starting Monday 27th March, just after the Hibernian finishes. Usually there is a short group stage followed by knockout games, depending on the number of teams who enter.

To play in the Branagan (top cup competition) eligible players must have played in either Division 1 or 2 of the Leinster Leagues of the 2019/20 season or, if they did not play in the 2019/20 season, have an ICU/FIDE rating of more than 1500.

To play in the Killane (which we won on the last occasion along with Bray), players must have played in Division 3 or lower in the 2019/20 season or, if they did not play in the 2019/20 season, have an ICU/FIDE rating of less than 1500.

To play in the William Brennan, players must have an ICU/FIDE rating of less than 1500. If we have sufficient interest from players to enter a team or teams we will then look for a venue.

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Skerries doing well in the Hibernian Leagues

After two rounds both of our teams are doing well in the leagues, and the players are enjoying the compeditive games. Our opponents have joined us on Zoom briefly before the start of most matches, to make them more sociable. Full results are available on the HOCL webpage linked from the Teams > Hibernian page. Our first team is in second place following a 3-1 win on Tuesday, a half point behind the leaders, Dublin. Our next match, against Dublin, may well prove to be the decider. Our second team is holding their own, in mid table, after a 2-2 draw on Thursday and our junior players are gaining valuable experience while getting a taste for league chess. They are playing well, with tight interesting games, with encouragement from their adult team mates.

Next Tuesday the club championships continue with round 3. Pairings are up on the Tournaments page, which include new members who joined recently. Ratings are done and are up on the Ratings page.

Coaching continues on Tuesday with Martín Krug, while Andrew and Owen are waiting in the wings for their chance! See you then I hope.

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Skerries teams enter the Hibernian Leagues

While you may not be playing for Skerries in the Hibernian Online Chess League, you are welcome to support us by viewing the games online.

A complete fixture list with results is available on the HOCL website: HOCL.

We have a team in Div 1 (second seeds), our top available players: Martín, Greg, John and Marco. We are hoping to improve on our second place in 2020.

Our Div 3 team (seeded mid table) includes three adults: Mark, Andrew and Paschal, and three juniors: Krishiv, Eibhlín and Tom. Here we hope to blood new players in competitive chess and gain experience.

Updates may be posted on the Teams > Hibernian > 21/22 page of our website. If you know our lichess usernames you may follow the games live, from 7:30 on the dates listed on the HOCL website for our Div 1 and Div 3 games. The league schedule is also shown on the Tournaments page beside the Club Championships schedule.

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Skerries Chess Club reopens virtually now and over-the-board soon.

Skerries Chess Club is reopening as usual on the first Tuesday in September, the 7th, at 7pm on Zoom (link below). We hope to follow this virtual club night with a club night in our usual premises, St. Patrick's Senior National School, behind the Little Theatre. Whether we aim to start over-the-board on 21st Sept for fully vaccinated adults and accompanied U18s or wait until after 22nd Oct will be up to members to decide at our meeting on Tuesday, provided the school is available. We hope to facilitate those wishing to play from home only, provided other members can bring enough devices to enable this.

The Leinster leagues are planned to start after Oct. 22nd, and we need members to indicate if they are interested in playing or not, which you can do on the membership form. Those wishing to join can do so online using the form on the Members page of the website linked below. Fees for this season are reduced to €50 for adults and €40 for U18s/students. Instructions on how to pay are on that page too. Old members and visitors are always welcome to pop in too. Looking forward to seeing you all online on Tuesday and later on in real life depending on what decisions are made.

For those interested, the City of Dublin Champ's are on this coming weekend in Ballyroan near Tallaght. To see if you would feel comfortable playing in these controlled conditions you can see the pictorial article which I wrote on the tournament I controlled in July: Irish Ch Open Weekender. For other upcoming events including junior ones, see icu.ie and the club Calendar (see menus above).

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Srem invite us to Arena rapid tournaments

The LKS Piast Śrem chess club from Poland have invitied us to participate in tournaments that they run, usually on Monday nights on lichess on an Arena, where you play a few 10+0 games for 2 hours. When you finish one you start another. In the words of Kacper Hoffmann "In order to do that, you and all of the members of your club who would be interested in that would need to join our club on lichess - here is the link - https://lichess.org/team/lks-piast-srem, The only thing you need to do with the link is to press a green button 'Join Team' ". Then you will see when te next tournament is on. There is one on on Monday 16th April at 6 pm lichess (French) time, which is 5 pm GMT.

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Rapid Club Ch Entries open, AGM on 27 April

See Tournaments page to enter the Rapid CCs. The AGM will be held on Zoom on 27 April.

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Full Club Ch Results, Śrem Twinning Visit

Full results of the club champs are up on the Tournaments page. On Tuesday we welcome some members of Śrem chess club in Poland. Śrem are twinned with Skerries and Guichen in France. See http://www.lkspiastsrem.pl/ for more info. A questionnaire was sent to members to see what types of tournaments to run for the rest of the season.

Any junior who wants ot avail of Gold membership of chesskid.com for the reduced rate of $29 for the year please email support@chesskid.com , give your details and mark it for ATTENTION BRENDA. This offer is not widely available but when I asked about it Brenda agreed (normally it is $49). As the club will give any junior who buys Gold a €10 discount on next years club fee it is a really good deal. The lessons are excellent. I would however suggest that the kid tries the lessons first to see if they are interested. You can do quite a few as a free member.

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Club Chs: Prizewinners in Section B while Section A continues.

While section A continues, prizewinners for section B are listed in the Tournamnents page. Next week sees the penultimate round in section A while others play friendly games. The Chess Tales magazines have been delivered to all juniors now.

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Galway Congress online, Club Chs continue

See details of this years Galway Congress online with time control 45+15: Galway Congress.

Club champs continue this Tuesday with round 5 in both sections, but this is the final round for section B. See Tournaments menu.

The Chess Tales magazines (see Links) arrived and have been delivered by bike courier (John) to some juniors already. Some chess books may be borrowed from John on request.

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Guessing Game Link, Tmt links, Club Chs continue

We had great fun last Tuesday trying to Guess the Moves of a live game between Alex Goss and Ciaran Quinn (PangurPawn), both of Elm Mount chess club, both previous entrants in the Irish Chamionships top section. The game can be viewed here.

Alex sent on linkins to blitz tournaments her runs every SUnday for the ICU on lichess: "Every Sunday, I run a Grand Prix series on lichess for ICU members which ranges between blitz and rapid time controls on Sundays. Details about the tournament can be found on the ICU website: ICU events."

"Other than that, if anyone in the club wants to play chess this weekend the 4NCL are organising a weekender, with an open, u2000, u1700, u1400 and u1100 section. Link to more details about that tournament is here: 4NCL." Apologies for sending this late but if they run another such event it will be listed on their website. In fact under "Active Congresses" there is one listed for 26-28 March.

This Tuesday the club championships continue as per the schedule on the Tournaments page. Friendlies for those not competing. A zoom link was sent by email to members.

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Club reopens online while restrictions remain, Zoom meetings and AGM to share ideas

The club will reopen online on Tuesday 1st September on Zoom and on both chesskid.com and chess.com as before the summer. Current restrictions preclude us meeting indoors in as large a group as usual. If and when these restrictions are eased we hope to reopen the club although some planning and preparation will be needed. Meanwhile it is important for us to dust off our brains since the summer and get them thinking again. The LCU are proposing to finish the remaining two rounds of the leagues using a central venue with social distancing measures in place, similar to those used to run the Irish Championships (see https://www.icu.ie/articles/906 ). There will undoubtedly be more competitions organised online and in real life (see icu.ie and Links > LCU above for updates). We will need to be match fit for these so it is important that as many as possible rejoin and play either online or with social distancing as below. Also we need to keep our club going and ensure that this virus does not win, as well as keeping everyone safe.

Please fill out the membership form on the Members page and post your reduced fees (while restrictions last) to the Treasurer or give the Chairperson cash (see Contact). IBAN details are available to those wishing to pay online by bank transfer. Please attend the Zoom meetings to share ideas as to how to keep the club going and how some players might feel able to play chess live while keeping within the restrictions. For example currently it is within the guidelines for small groups (e.g. 2 people) to meet indoors or outdoors while keeping 2 metres apart. Using two sets and sticks to press the clock, wearing masks/visors, some may feel able to play games like this (see article below). To facilitate this we will publish the pairings early after each club night in order to enable those who wish to play games in real life to make arrangements. Others may decide to play online. These guidelines may change and it is of the utmost importance that players inform themselves of and adhere to whatever guidelines are current. At the same time we want to stay sane and keeping up our sporting activities is a healthy contribution to this, so let us make this work for everyone's benefit.

The AGM will be held on Zoom on Tues 8th September at 8 pm. A link will be sent to members by email. We hope as many members can attend as possible to share ideas. Those wishing to put their names forward to help in any way please contact the Chairperson or say it on the night.

New members are of course welcome to visit the club (online or real) for a night to try it out before joining, but only members may take part in tournaments and other club activities.

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Safe Chess at a Social Distance - Garden Chess

During the COVID-19 restrictions two kids played a game on their own boards in a front garden beside the sea. They avoided contact by calling out the moves to each other, as chess players do when playing a blind player. On a sunny windy day their game took a while to get going in earnest, and to get the hang of chess notation, and some spectators went to the beach. After a flurry of exchanges and captures both players missed getting checkmate. Finally one saw the mate and the other resigned. It was a lot more fun and interactive than playing online and we all enjoyed the experiment, which we hope to repeat soon. I hope to upload an edited version of the video here soon. We hope to repleat the experiment on a slightly larger scale once the weather gets warmer and calmer. P.S. We did repeat it with many members playing outdoors on the green near the sea in Skerries Rock on the last Tuesday in June, 2020. It was great fun.

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Club goes online during outbreak of Covid-19

Following the start of restrictions on movement and meetings during the Covid-19 pandemic the club suspended physical meetings. Instead we have started playing online on Tuesday nights at the usual times on chesskid.com for juniors/teens and on chess.com (or lichess.org) for seniors/teens. Instructions on how to do this are under Coaching > chesskid.com and Members > Using chess.com respectively. Both pages contain a link to a form to use to submit results for rating. We aim to finish the club championships this way, to stay chess fit and to provide a welcome activity during these challenging times.

In addition the leagues have been suspended and the LCU are currently deciding whether and how to complete or conclude them at a later date.

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Skerries are promoted to the Heidenfeld

Promotion

Skerries have been promoted to Leinster League Div 2, the Heidenfeld Trophy, from next season. So all our effort to come third, just in case, paid off.

This follows a decision by Dún Laoighire to drop one of their teams from Div 2 to Div 3 as they would have had two in Div 2 (one was relegated from Div 1) and would not have been able to sub between them.

This should mean that all our players will get as many games as they like next season, unlike last year when we had a panel of 21 players available for 16 places on teams (6 + 5 + 5). Now we will have 18 places to fill as teams in the Heidenfeld need 8 players. It should also help us attract new players and provide a challenge for our stronger players who have sometimes dropped rating points to lower rated opposition. In the past I enjoyed playing in the Heidenfeld and was a member of the Elm Mount team that won it in 2010/11.

Electronic boards

Our purchase of three electronic boards during the summer will allow us to broadcast three of our games live from home matches for each of our three teams this season which will help with coaching and learning.

NA Norm for John

I (John) controlled the Irish Open Weekender last weekend (see report: https://www.icu.ie/articles/843) thus obtaining one of two 'norms' that I need to become a national arbiter, following the course that myself and Marco did last year.

Committee Meeting and Club Reopening

Committee Meeting Tues 27th August, 8 pm, Joe May's, short. Club reopens Tues 3rd Sept. 7 pm, the National School.

Skerries News

The Skerries News published an article with a picture of our team that won the Killane Shield in June in their July 12th issue.

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Skerries win the Killane Shield

Skerries won the Killane Shield yesterday in Buswell's Hotel in Dublin in the final round of a five team round robin event. We needed 2 more points than our rivals St. Benildus who we had beaten in our head to head encounter last Tuesday. They had scored better against other teams however, giving us a tough task. Luckily our opponents Dún Laoghaire gave us 3 walkovers as they could only field 3 players. Dan and John won fairly quickly on boards 1 and 2 while Nikolai struggled on board 3, giving us 5 points so far. Meanwhile St. Benildus were 3-1 ahead against tough opponents Bray (the eventual winners of the William Brennan Cup). Then Nikolai won. Then Benildus got a draw. I watched the last game conscious that if they won it they got the Shield. In a tense ending the Benildus board 1 Ronan Sweeney won a pawn but then, short of time, he agreed a draw, handing us the Cup!

For a full report with pictures see https://www.icu.ie/articles/839

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Martín's visit, coaching, league news, club champs

This weekend saw a visit from Spain by our new member Martín Krug. He played for our first team on Saturday and helped us draw 3 - 3 against league division 3 leaders Drogheda, who won all their matches so far. He also gave about 5 hours of coaching to 15 members over the weekend, covering endings, tactics, strategy, pawn structures. He illustrated this by analysing our games and his own fine win. Hopefully this will help our third team who play at home to Malahide A on Tuesday and our second team who are away to Portmarnock on Thursday. See Coaching > Master Classes and Coaching Record for details. See Tournaments for the new time controls and the latest pairings and sections for the club championships. See Calendar for league fixtures as well as Tournament.

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Under-16s come 6th in Mick Germaine Cup

Skerries u16s came 6th in the Mick Germaine cup today. See Teams for details.

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Community Games & Turkey tournaments begin

Tosnaíonn comortas fichille Cluichí an Phobail sa Scoil Náisiúnta Sínsearach Naomh Phadraig ar Dé Máirt an 6ú Deireadh Fomhair ag 7 i.n. Saor isteach le aon scoláirí atá faoi bhun 16 bliain d'aois (ar 31/7/19) atá ina gconaí i Sceirí nó cóngaragh do. Ta beirt de dhíth orainn i gcomhar an foireann u16. Críochnaíonn an comortas roimh Nollaig. Féach ar Tournaments agus Teams > Community Games.

Free entry to the Community Games Skerries finals for all students under 16 (on 31/7/19) who live in the Skerries Community Games area. Starts on Tuesday 6th Nov in St Patrick's SNS at 7 pm. Finishes before Christmas. We need a few extra u16s to fill the u16 team which will represent Skerries in the spring. There are separate medals for u13s and prizes for u11s. See Tournaments and Teams > Community Games for more information.for details.

Our second team play away to Finglas this Tuesday while the third team are away to Blanchardstown on Monday 12th. Good luck to both teams.

See Tournaments for details of the Turkey tournament which starts on Tuesday.

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Result v Balbriggan and Naomh Barróg, Final round of Autumn tmts, Community Games begin soon

The final result against Balbriggan was 2 - 3 as below.

The first team play away to Phibsboro on Thursday and the result will be posted here later. We lost 1 - 5, the only winner was John who was lucky to win.

See Tournaments for final ranking and prizewinners in the Autumn tournaments.

On Tuesday 5th November the Skerries Community Games Chess Competition begins. This is open to all in the Skerries catchment area including non-members and entry is free for the duration, so encourage your friends to take part. It will be used to select the U16 and U13 teams to represent Skerries in the Dublin finals in the Spring. See Teams > Community Games for more information.

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Result v Balbriggan and Naomh Barróg, Final round of Autumn tmts, Community Games begin soon

Our second team lost 2 - 3 to Balbriggan in their home match played last Saturday, with a fine draw by captain Enda Joyce against Peter Wherity, a Balbriggan man who played for Skerries in the past and who is much higher rated than Enda. Brendan Morrissey lost a close match with Kieran Howley, Paschal lost to Michael Eyers, Nikolai was lucky to draw while Mark Allidine pulled off a fine win. Our first team are away to a strong Phibsboro this Thursday and may struggle. Paschal will play the outstanding game this Tuesday, which could be decisive. See full results under Links > LCU above soon.

Our third team had a historic first win in their first league match last Tuesday night away to top seeds in Div 6 north, Naomh Barróg, who were relegated from the higher division last season. Well done to Owen Johnston, Aliseo Mancosu and Dermot Murphy (captain) who all won, as well as David Llewellyn and Finn Woodlock who lost on higher boards giving their team mates a better chance. Although the team line up is similar to the team who played 2 seasons ago and struggled big time to get individual wins, this team is obviously much improved. Dedication and persistence pay off in the end! Well done Skerries!!! Full results.

This Tuesday sees the final round of the Autumn Seagulls and Open followed by prizegiving. Pairings are on website along with updated ratings thanks to Fred and Marco.

On Tuesday 30th we will play friendly games and analyse league games so bring scoresheets.

Thanks to supervisors who are doing an excellent job.

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Leagues begin, rota changed, Fred recovering

This year we have three teams in the Leinster leagues, in divisions 3, 5 and 6. With the return of former members Brian Leonard and Brendan Morrissey as well as the retention of our young adult members and return of Seán O'Toole our hopes of success are high. Two more adults may join soon.

The first team are away this Tuesday playing Dublin C.C. and the remaining seniors will be practising for their forthcoming matches. For full fixtures see Links > LCU for a link to chessleague.net while the LCU site is down. The juniors play round 3 of the Seagulls tournament. See Tournaments for pairings.

The rota has changed, even for this Tuesday so see Parents > Parents Intro > Parents rota for the latest version. Supervisors please record the results of ALL games on the Ratings sheet, as well as those of tournament games on the Pairings sheet. Thanks for your continued help without which the junior section could not exist.

I saw Fred today and was delighted to see he is recovering well after his recent crash during a bicycle race, which he was leading at the time. He thanks you for your card and good wishes.

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Six play in City of Dublin, Autumn Tournaments begin

Six members played in the City of Dublin tournaments in different sections, which gave us some badly needed match practice in preparation for the leagues. We will all get some practice this Tuesday when the Autumn Open and the Autumn Seagulls tournaments begin. All paid up members may play. The pairings were up since last Thursday. See Tournaments link above. Before the tournamnent games begin we will have some coaches giving coaching to anyone interested while some of us continue to register new and returning players.

In the City of Dublin Championships section (Under 2000 ICU rating) John Loughran scored 3.5/6 and won a grading prize. In the Major (<1600) Marco Mancosu got 3.5/6 while Paschal O'Shea got 1.5. In the Challengers (<1200) Nikolai Dimitrov got 4/6 while Aliseo Mancosu and Owen Johnston both got 3 which was great for one of their first tournaments.

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Promotion and disappointment, changing venues

The second team were automatically promoted from Div 6N to Div 5N bu coming second in Div 6N. The first team missed out on promotion from Div 3 by a half point. For full results see Links > LCU above. Also for a full report see the yearbook in the link above.

Following renovations the club had to leave Joe May's in February 2018. We thank them for hosting us for five and a half years and for treating us very well. We moved to the Black Raven lounge who also treated us well but we had to leave there in May 2018 and we will be in St. Patrick's Senior National School for the rest of the season.

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Second team in playoffs for promotion, rota changed

1. Skerries second team secured their place in the playoffs for promotion from Div 6 north last Thursday at home in Joe May`s with a 2.5 - 2.5 draw against Phibsboro A. The team was Paschal (1), Enda (0), Mark (0.5), Nikolai (1) and Dermot (0). Others on the panel include Paul Ryan, David Llewellyn, Alan Joyce, Owen Johnston and Finn Woodlock all of whom played and contributed. Well done to all and good luck in the playoffs. The 5 - 0 result against Malahide A carries through to the playoffs, confirmed with the leagues controller!

2. Skerries first team continue their own bid for promotion from Div 3 this Tuesday 23rd Jan. upstairs against Inchicore so the juniors will be downstairs. It is still all to play for in Div 3.

6. Parents please keep an eye on the parents rota on the website under Membership as it has been revised and reduced as more parents were added and existing ones have less nights to do as a result.

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First team lose, second team win, club champs begin

1. First team had a disappointing loss today: Drogheda 4.5 - 1.5 Skerries, but are still in the promotion race. Full results below. Nice win by super sub John Costello.

2. Second team beat league leaders: Skerries 5 - 0 Malahide A. This dramatic win leaves us in clear second and favourites to go into the playoffs for promotion and the Bodley Cup along with Malahide A who beat every other team in the Bodley North. We will be very hard to catch with only one round to go. The good news is that this 5 - 0 result is carried into the playoffs! Well done Paul, Paschal, Enda, Nikolai and Mark who all won.

3. Round 1 of the club championships for all sections will start this Tuesday 16th at 7.10 for the juniors and at 7:30 for the adults and older teenagers. Players in sections A to D should record their moves. Pairings are up on the website under Tournaments. (Section E will be up on Sunday). All players should read the rules regarding time controls, adjournments and attendance on the Tournaments page.

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Killane Final

Most of our league players are playing Elm Mount this Monday in Drumcondra in the final of the Killane Shield after a dramatic win against Rathmines on Tues 29th August. Good luck to the team and the subs who are playing a pre-season friendly in preparation for the rearranged Bodley North division 6.

Update: We lost 3.5 - 2.5. See Teams > Knockout Cups > Killane Shield for report and full results of all rounds.

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New season kicks off

Great to see most former members last week and a few new ones, all paid up except for a few. Please tell us if you / your son/daughter is not returning this year. There was great coaching and friendlies being played (results were submitted for rating) and entries were taken for the Autumn tournaments starting this Tuesday. The pairings are up under Tournaments. Those not in the pairings will be added in when they rejoin. Membership is €60 for adults and €50 for juniors (U21) with a €10 reduction for second family members etc.

John and Nikolai are competing in the City of Dublin tournament this weekend. See icu.ie. There are still a few Skerries Chess Club hoodies left - €25/20 for adults and €15/10 for juniors. Do not forget to read the Child Protection policy and Safety Statement on the website under Membership > Policies.

The Parents' Rota and WhatsApp group will be ready by next week but for next Tuesday could Margaret Slattery (leader), Irene Farrell and Jarek Borzyski do supervision please. Instructions for supervisors have been added to the website Membership area under Supervising, but it is best if someone shows you what to do. I will on Tuesday.

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Junior Grand Prix Success, ChessKid.com

The three juniors selected to get free entry to the LCU Grand Prix all did well. In the U15s Fionn Reid-Kelly came 8th/18 entrants on 3/6 points. U12 Aliseo Mancosu 7th/35, 4/6. U10 Sam Zomer 17th/30, 3/6. Great results for their first individual tournaments.

Parents whose kids want to join the Skerries Kids Training Group on ChessKid.com should e-mail Marco as in Contact. There are still about 7 free Gold memberships on offer for the first to apply. He will explain how to enroll them in the Training Group.

We still need a few more parents for supervision. Please Contact Paula as in Contact and volunteer for one or two nights.

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Supervision, Online Coaching Group, Free Grand Prix entry, Presentation

A committee meeting was held last Tuesday 7th March. Decisions taken are explained below with a summary at the end.

Supervision of Juniors - Parents Reps write:

Due to the increased attenance among junior members we need more parents to help with supervision, three on each night rather than two. Anyone willing to help please text our parents' rep. Paula O'Neill (087 2311678) or via the ChessParents group on WhatsApp. As we may have to restrict membership numbers next year due to limited space priority will be given to those whose parents have helped out here.

Important: Juniors of primary school age should be collected by designated adults at 8:15, unless they specifically give written permission that a junior can leave the club unaccompanied.

Juniors should not go down stairs during chess play. They can get their drink on their way in with their parents at the start of chess and bring it upstairs.

All members especially juniors should check in with the supervisor as soon as they arrive in the club.

Online Coaching Group - Marco writes:

We hope to encourage many of our junior members to become members of the Skerries Chess Club coaching group on ChessKid.com. The club will pay for gold membership for juniors where:
1. Parents give consent in writing or by e-mail,
2. The junior has joined as an individual free member, has used the site and feels they will benefit from it and use it regularly.
3. In order to get gold membership, the Junior needs to commit to use the website (playing, getting coaching or taking quizzes) at least 30 minutes every week (outside of the Chess Club). Usage of chesskids.com will be monitored by the Club Coaches. If the Junior is not regularly using the website, they might lose their gold membership.
If you wish your child to be included please give written consent to Marco Mancosu, our coaching officer, as soon as possible, or send him an e-mail as in Contact above. Look at their website to see how it works: chesskid.com

Free Grand Prix entry - Fred writes:

The club will offer free entry (value €10) for a number of deserving juniors to enter the LCU Junior Grand Prix, 2nd round, in ALSAA on Sun 26th March (2 - 5:30 pm). The first round was held on Sunday 26th February in Maynooth. You can see a report of the event on 1st Round Report where there is also an impressive collection of photographs taken at the tournament. There are four age groups: U15, U12, U10, and U8, and a total of 101 young chess players entered the first round. See blanchardstownchess.com for more details. Any junior may enter for €10. If successful we may extend this offer to other junior tournaments.

Presentation

Before the club championships round 4 next Tuesday we will have a presentation by John, Marco and Fred on using our website, ChessKid.com and tactics respectively. This will run from 7.05 to 7.30 when games will begin.

Other items

Other items discussed include reminding supervisors to turn up, increased attendance (average 32) leading to the need for three supervisors, updating guidelines for parents/juniors.

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Chess sets for primary schools, Autumn tournaments underway

The club is in full swing again with pairings for round 2 of the Autumn tournaments up on the website. Coaching for juniors will take place next week at 7 pm. Our first match in division 3 away to Cavan approches on Sat 1st October. We will field two teams this year one in Division 3 and one in Div. 7. See Teams.

We are following through already on our initiative to donate chess sets to local primary schools as explained by our Parents' Representative Paula O'Neill:-

Skerries Chess Club has a lively bunch of Junior and Senior players who meet upstairs in Joe Mays every Tuesday evening. There are two teams of adults and juniors who compete and have been very successful in the Leinster Leagues in recent years.

The junior members of the club participate in club tournament games as well as representing Skerries at one day chess events at other clubs in the North Dublin area and the Community Games underage sections. The 2016-17 season has kicked off and it is great to see new members and to see the growing interest of chess at junior level.

The junior chess club is a fun environment where the kids develop analytical and decision-making skills that can be applied to real life. Chess encourages the children to focus, plan and persevere through challenges, building their self-confidence and competitive sportsmanship.

Skerries Chess Club have recently purchased 70 chess sets for donation to the primary schools in Skerries. The aim is that any child in the area who wants to learn to play or develop their chess game, has the opportunity to do so. The recipients include St. Patrick’s Junior and Senior N.S., Scoil Realt na Mara, Skerries Educate Together N.S., Holmpatrick N.S,, Scoil Mobhi Milverton, and St. Brendan’s N.S. Loughshinny.

Skerries Chess Club would like to thank Joe Mays for use of their upstairs facilities and storing the club’s equipment. Without their support the club would not be in a position to make these donations to the schools. The goodwill shown by Joe May’s allows the club give back to the schools in this way and benefit the kids of the community. Many thanks.

Follow Skerries Chess Club on our website skerrieschess.com and on facebook f:skerrieschess and feel free to call into the club – upstairs in Joe May’s every Tuesday at 7pm.

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AGM a great success, Sprint, Speed, Swop, Blitz chess, Lusk juniors visit

Our AGM was a great success with 42 attending. Minutes have been added to News > Yearbook. The yearbook itself contains the original article following the promotion of the first team. A write up of the O`Hanlon can now be read on http://www.icu.ie/articles/587. No wonder we got promoted. Three of our team were in the top 10 scorers in the league!

The week after the AGM we had a Sprint chess event. See Tournaments > Others 16. For the last two weeks we had a Speed chess tournament. See the same page for final results which include first wins for Joe Dunne in the Senior and Finn Woodlock in the Junior. This week we will have friendly Swop chess games. And next week, on the 31st May we will have the club Blitz championships (3 minutes + 2 seconds added on per move). On 7/6/16 we will have a visit from Lusk juniors.

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Skerries Promoted to Div 3, AGM soon

Skerries first team won promotion today to the Ennis Shield, division 3 of the Leinster Leagues. The team of Dan Aldridge, John Loughran, Fred Harte, Tadeusz Szczesniak and Paschal O`Shea beat Ballinasloe 6 - 0 in ALSAA. Our rivals for promotion, Gorey, beat Drogheda 4 - 2. This left us in second place behind Gonzaga with two teams going up while Aer Lingus and Celbridge were relegated to division 5. Throughout the season various subs contributed to our success, namely Nikolai Dimitrov, Enda Joyce, Brendan Morrissey and Daniel Stefan. Well done to all! Full team stats will be available in the yearbook at the AGM on Tuesday 26th April and the LCU website later on. See the picture on the Teams > Leinster Leagues > 2015/16 page.

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League Results, Master Class, Skerries Community Games

Our third team lost 5 - 0 today at home against a good Kilkenny team. Both Mark and Owen had good attacks which fizzled out, Mark`s game lasting almost 3 hours. Last Tuesday they also lost 5 - 0 away to Naomh Barróg. For full results and fixtures for all three teams see Calendar, as well as Links > LCU.

David Fitzsimons will give the third Masterclass this Tuesday 27th Oct. Both Autumn tournaments are over and results are up under Tournaments.

Next Tuesday 3rd November is round 1 of the Skerries Finals of the Community Games. Entry is open and free for all players from the Skerries area, whether they are members or not, as long as they are under 16 on 31st July 2016. Members from outside Skerries may take part but not win medals. Along with ratings this tournament will be used to select the Skerries teams to compete in the U16 and U13 Dublin finals. Older juniors and adults may compete in the Turkey tournament which also starts on the 3rd.

Round 2 of the Community Games will be on 17th Nov. as on the 10th both our second and third teams have a home match. The first team are at home this Saturday 31st Oct. to Gorey, which could be a spooky affair.

Finally thanks to many parents who have volunteered to help out: to Katherine, temporary third team captain, to Martin who offered to drive the team to Gorey on 5th Dec., to Mairead who will help out with results on some club nights. As always more help would be appreciated to assist other parents such as Clodagh, Alan, Paula, Gráinnne who, along with adult members, make our club such a valuable resource for our juniors.

As usual the ratings have been updated weekly and uploaded to the website by Fred. See Ratings.

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Club reopens, City of Dublin, Master Classes, Parents needed

The club reopens on 1st September at 7 pm upstairs in Joe Mays. We will be accepting membership fees of €60 for adults or €50 for juniors with an extra €10 for anyone intending to play in the Leinster leagues. There is €10 off for second or third family members. Parents are asked to come upstairs and register and fill in membership forms. Parents and adults are needed to help out in the following areas: supervision, score keeping, tournament supervisor/controller, equipment organiser, librarian, chess coach for local schools. If you are interested please let us know as it is only with your help that our club can continue to be such a successful asset for Skerries for young and old.

The City of Dublin tournament is on in the Gresham hotel the weekend after next on 11th, 12th 13th Sept. Entries before this Friday are at a reduced rate (35 euro for adults and 30 for kids with further family discounts). Highly reccommended for league players to get them match fit for the start of the season. See www.icu.ie Calendar for full details.

David Fitzsimons has agreed to do a series of Master Classes starting 7th Sept., free for paid up members only, similar to last year.

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U16s Win Silver in Leinster Finals of the Community Games 2015!

The Skerries under-16 team came second in the Leinster Finals of the Community Games, narrowly losing out 2 - 3 in their second match against Wexford who are Leinster champions and who will now play in the All-Ireland finals in August. Wexford had one player who is on the Irish team. Skerries had beaten Longford 4.5 - 1.5 earlier that day, the 4th July 2015. The team were Alan Joyce, Daniel Stefan, Cathal Joyce, Mark Allidine and Fionn Reid-Kelly with sub Owen Johnston, exactly the same team that had won the Dublin finals (see Teams > Community Games for article and picture) They got walkovers against Wicklow in round 1 of the Leinster qualifiers and against Kildare in round 2. The team did well to get this far and were a little unluckly not to go the whole way. Great credit is due to the team and their bainisteoir Enda Joyce.

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2015 Jun 04 Speed Chess results, Swap Chess

Swap chess (Bughouse, Tourbillon) was played for two or three club nights following the AGM. It was great fun. Teams of 2 play another team of 2. Each team has white on one board and black on the other. They sit together and may drop a piece captured by their partner instead of a move. Great fun. 15 mins each. 2 rounds per night.

The earlier speed chess (10 mins + 5 secs added per move) tournament from 7pm to 8:30pm for juniors and some seniors started on 26th May 2015, rounds 1 and 2. Round 3 was on 2/6/15. The later speed chess tournament from about 8:30pm on mainly for seniors started on 26th May 2015, rounds 1, 2 and 3. Rounds 4, 5 and 6 were on 2/6/15. See Tournaments for pairings and results.

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2015 Mar 30 Div 7A play-offs and 7B team`s results

Two recent results not on the LCU website. The Div 7A team lost 4 - 1 to Dublin University and 3 - 2 to Blanchardstown A in the play-offs, meaning promotion, while still possible is unlikely. Despite all the bad news Daniel and Gordon continue their winning form.

LCU Result Card Div 7A Play-off Round 2
	blanchardstown b		3-2		skerries a
25/03/15
	Name	        ICU No.	Rating	Result	Name	         ICU No.Rating
Board 1	mark cummins	 17481	0	0-1	gordon roe	 13645	1003
Board 2	devano jose	 13510	966	1-0	alessio roselli	 13318	1069
Board 3	viniyak unnithan 13472	628	1-0	nikolai dimitrov 17485	0
Board 4	john comey	 17482	0	1-0	alan joyce	 13499	822
Board 5	darragh comey	 13606	360	0-1	daniel stefan	 13475	787


LCU Result Card Div 7A Play-off Round 1
10/03/15	skerries		1-4		dublin university
							
	Name	ICU No.	Rating	Result	Name	ICU No.	Rating
Board 1	gordon roe	 13645	1003	0-1	christopher young	6254	1699
Board 2	alessio roselli	 13318	1069	0-1	diarmuid reidy	        6649	581
Board 3	nikolai dimitrov 17485	0	0-1	robert murtagh	        13199	1322
Board 4	alan joyce	 13499	822	0-1	harriot hasslehurst	17583	0
Board 5	daniel stefan	 13475	787	Wov-0	no player

The 7B team lost the first of their extra friendly games 3 - 2 to St. Benildus as below.

Leinster Chess Div 7B
OSullivan Cup Extra games							
Round:	1				Date:	10TH March 2015		
	Home team		Overall Away team
 	Skerries	 	result 	St Benildus
 	 	ICU	ICU	 	 	ICU	ICU
Bd. No.	Name	Code	Rating	Result	Name	Code	Rating
1	Mark Alidine	        0 - 1 	Liam Kelly
2	Ryan Corneille	        0 - 1	Declan Doyle
3	Finn Woodlock	        0 - 1	Ben Coleman
4	Fionn Reid Kelly	1 - 0	Not declared (walkover)
5	Dermot Murphy		1 - 0	Not declared (walkover)
                                2 - 3

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2015 Mar 23 Coaching advice, Predicted Ratings aged 20 for Juniors

Following the coaching course I did in Bunratty recently I discovered a system that indicates how good junior players are for their age. I have applied it to Skerries ratings and can tell any juniors who are interested their predicted rating at age 20 provided they continue to play seriously and follow four steps:

1. Play in tournaments including external tournaments (like the leagues, the Irish Junior Champs, the Drogheda Congress (June bank hol. weekend), Malahide (weekend of May bank hol) - see www.icu.ie Calendar for more info.
2. Write down their moves
3. Analyse their games afterwards
4. Do some chess study from books or websites (e.g. tactics trainer on chess.com not 5 minute games)

Studies have shown that juniors can increase their rating by 100 points per year up to age 11, by 80 points per year up to age 16 and by 50 points per year up to age 20, provided they follow the four steps. We can publish these predictions on the website if no one objects? Of course the junior needs to be self-motivated to achieve these gains and parents and coaches need to maintain a balance.

Following the questionnaire which I gave out a few weeks ago I am now making a Chess Training Record available to those who want to keep a record of their training with time. As in all sports, training is essential for improvement in chess.

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2015 Mar 22 U16s win Community Games Dublin finals, Irish Junior Champs soon

Skerries Under 16s won the Community Games Dublin Finals on Friday! The U13s won silver in their group. See Teams for details.

Club championships continue on Tuesday. Many juniors need to catch up on rounds missed or they will lose points.

The Irish Junior championships will be held in Blanchardstown over the weekend of 10th - 12th April. The U8s are on Sunday only, the U10s on Sat and sun while the U12, 14, 16, 19s are on Fri, Sat, Sun. Judging by the number of parents who drove to the Community Games it should be possible to arrange shared minding. The Carlton Hotel sounds like a nice venue.

We strongly advise juniors who are good for their age to compete in these events as they are necessary for international selection and for improvement.

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2015 Mar 04 Second team in playoffs, Community Games, John is FIDE Instructor

Our second team beat Bray/Greystones 3.5-1.5 and finished second in Division 7A and have qualified for a playoff with 3 other teams to see who gets promoted to the Bodley Div 6 next season. Their first playoff match is at home next Tuesday. The 7B team have a home match that day too so we will have the league games upstairs and the Club Championships downstairs that night. Our first team narrowly beat Inchicore recently 3.5-2.5 and play Aer Lingus on Monday.

The Community Games Dublin finals are on Friday 20th March in Jobstown. We will be selecting U16 and U13 teams of 5 plus 2 subs each soon.

See the Calendar on the website for updated fixtures and results, Tournaments for results of the Club Ch so far and Ratings for the latest ratings which are used for team selection.

John Loughran was awarded the title of FIDE Instructor (subject to ratification by the world chess federation) following a three day FIDE training seminar in Bunratty, partly subsidised by the club. He also performed well (4/6) in the tournament (second section) which followed. David Fitzsimons, who coached us earlier this year, did well in the Masters section, giving former world championship challenger Nigel Short a run for his money before losing. He drew with two other well known grandmasters. Full results of all sections on www.icu.ie.

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2015 Feb 16 Spring Open and League Results, Club Champs begin

See Calendar (updated today) for latest league results, as well as Links > LCU. Our first team are still in contention for promotion though we will need a few good results. The second team are doing really well and also have a chance at promotion. Some more players on the third team scored their first wins or draws. Well done to all team captains.

The Spring Open Results are available in Tournaments > Spring Open and prizegiving will take place next Tuesday. The Club Chamionships begin this week, with the Senior Cup, the Junior Boys Cup and Junior Girls Cup up for grabs. See Tournaments. As usual the ratings are updated weekly. These were used to decide which section players were entered into.

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2015 Jan 21 Leagues and Spring Open, SCC and ICU Ratings

See Calendar (updated today) for latest league results, as well as Links > LCU. The Spring Open Tournament is underway. Already there have been a few upsets. Some of the senior players have not had it all their own way and have been beaten by some of the juniors. See Tournaments for results and pairings. Our first team have a better chance of promtion than we thought originally as the third placed team in each division now wins promotion because of a vacant place in division 2. After round 6 we are in 5th place but only 2 points less than the team in third place. Our match next Tuesday is at home against Dun Laoighire, currently fourth, one of the favourites for promotion based on their ratings. Wish us luck!

SCC Ratings have as usual been updated weekly. ICU ratings have been updated. See Ratings > ICU ratings or Links > ICU > Ratings. If you ask Seamus for your password you can login to the ICU ratings website and find out how you did in every tournament or league you played in.

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2014 Nov 20 Latest league results, tournaments, ratings

See Calendar for latest league results. Tournaments underway. See Tournaments for results and pairings. Lots of coaching next week as no league matches on. See Ratings for weekly updates.

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2014 Oct 10 Mick Germaine Cup, First team lost, Pairings, Leinster Schools Leagues 2014-15

We are entering one or more junior teams in the Mick Germaine Cup this Saturday 11th Oct in Elm Mount Chess Club on Grace Park Road, Drumcondra. Juniors who are U-16 on 1st Sept and under 900 ICU rating are eligible. The club will pay the €20 entry fee per team of four.

Our first team lost their first game in the O`Hanlon (Div 4) 2 - 4 to the Curragh. Paschal had a nice win on board 4 in a game where he made no blunders, something we would all like to emulate. Joe Dunne and Fred Harte drew their games while Gordon played a blinder, narrowly losing out in a rook and pawn ending. Enda played well and survived for a while with two rooks and a knight against a queen and knight, but the lady and horse eventually showed why they work so well together, as David Fitzsimons told us. I lost badly, having neglected my development and finally blundering when I castled. I will be giving coaching on Tuesday for the adults based on this game - how not to play chess! If others of the team bring their games we can look at them too, and share our insights, after the tournament games are over, around 10:30 pm. Adult coaching of juniors from 7 until about 7:20 should begin this week and juniors should actively seek coaching. See the coaching chart on the noticeboard and on the website to see who your main coaches are.

The pairings for both the Open and the Seagulls are on our website though these may change on the night. The ratings will be updated very soon. As usual adults playing juniors should arrive early to ensure they have a decent amount of time to finish the game. Every player who is on any of the league teams should record their moves and play with the longest time controls they can. First team members should play 1 hour and 45 mins each if possible as preparation for our next game away to Elm Mount on Mon 20th Oct.

The following notice appeared recently on Irish chess websites:

The Leinster Schools Leagues 2014-15 teams registration procedure has begun. For entry forms (Primary, U14, U16 or U19) please email: leagues@leinsterschoolschess.com. The deadline for registration is October 6th 2014. See also www.leinsterschoolschess.com

If the school you or your child attends is interested in entering a team in the Leinster Schools Leagues, the club will offer you any support which may be of use to you. All you need is an adult (teacher/librarian/parent?) willing to arrange the games. It seems from their website that the group phase may involve between 3 and 5 matches, some at home, some away. As the name suggests this is a league between schools mainly in Dublin. Some of these students` parents may be willing to drive them. Secondary teams are of 5 players, while there are 4 on Primary School teams. For more information please see the notice above, or contact Enda or John (see Contact).

Má tá suim ag scoláirí imirt ar foireann fichille sa Leinster Schools Leagues agus má tá suim nó fuinneamh ag éinne, fiú tuismitheoir, chun foireann fichille a eagrú, bheadh mise nó Enda Joyce (086 160 0050) an sásta cabhair a thabhairt daoibh. Bíonn ceathrar páiste ar foireann bunscoile (carr amháin) agus bíonn idir 3 agus 5 cluichí le h-imeart ins an Group phase. Eagráim féin foireann fichille i meanscoil. Mar sin is féidir liom comhairle praicticiúil a thabhairt don bainisteoir. Tá níos mo eolas ar fáil ar an suíomh idirlinn thuass, nó uaim, John Loughran (cliceáil ar Contact thuas).

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2014 Sep 23 Pairings, Championship Contenders

Tonight's pairings for the Autumn Open R1 (Adults and strong juniors) and Autumn Seagulls R3 (All juniors) can now be viewed on the website. Adults who are down to play juniors should arrive early.

Paschal O'Shea competed in the Irish Veterans' Championship, held in the Boyne Valley Hotel, Drogheda over the weekend. He performed well for his seeding, drawing with Shea Scott and beating Denis Dempsey (who had a fine draw with Fred Harte last season). Well done Paschal! For a report see www.icu.ie

John Loughran competed in the top level of the Irish Championships this July. Again he did well as the second lowest seed of 30 players finishing 24th with fine wins in the last two rounds against Jack Killane and Cian McGovern Leahy, and draws against Ray O'Rourke, Bernard Palmer and Pat Twomey (this year's Irish Veterans' Champion).

Next Tuesday David Fitzsimons returns to give his last Master Class for a while. He kindly sent us the games he used last week and these can now be viewed on our website under Coaching > Master Class.

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2014 Sep 08 Master Coaching, Autumn Selection Tournaments

FM David Fitzsimons will give three Master Classes on 9th, 16th and 30th September from 8 pm until 10.15 pm approx, as in the last news item. Because of this juniors should be sure to have their tournament games finished before 7.50 pm and sets tidied away. The Seagulls section starts on 8th Sept while the Open section starts during the break in the Master classes on 23rd. See Calendar for full details of what is on each week. The first league match for the first team in Div. 4 is on Sat. 4th Oct. Div. 7 fixtures will be out soon. See Calendar.

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2014 Aug 31 New Season, Master Coaching

Following our second promotion in two years the new chess season kicks off on 2nd September with friendlies, tournaments and Master Coaching sessions. We will have a six player team in Division 4, the O'Hanlon and a five player team in Division 7, newly created, called the O'Sullivan Cup, which will include interested juniors.

Registration is from 7 pm where parents and adult members should fill out a membership form and pay fees. Adults pay €60 plus €15 if they wish to play in the leagues (€10 for over 65s), while juniors pay €50 plus €10 or €5 if they wish to play in the leagues. Full details are on the Membership page. New members are given a week`s grace to try out the club before signing up.

Parents are asked not to drop off junior players without registering them first.

This Tuesday entries will be taken for a tournament which will be used to select teams for the leagues and other competitions. Rated friendlies will also be used for this purpose.

Master Coaching will be given by FIDE Master David Fitzsimons starting on Tuesday 9th September from 8 to 8.30 pm aimed at juniors and from 8.30 to about 10 pm aimed primarily at the stronger players. In three sessions over four weeks David will prepare us for the leagues, covering many different themes including requests from our members. Hopefully this will help our newly promoted first team to do well in Division 4 as well as our second team in Division 7. David recently won the Summer Prague Open ahead of eleven International Masters and 10 other FMs. Strong juniors who wish to stay after 8:30 pm for the advanced part of the Master coaching sessions should get their parents` permission in advance. Provisionally the dates are the 9th, 16th and 30th September. Informal coaching of juniors in small groups by adults will take place the same as last season.

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2014 May 19 Novices League, Events, Yearbook

Skerries came third in the O`Connell Cup / Novices league held in ALSAA on Sunday 18th May 2014. For full results see Teams > Novices.

The Speed and Rapid tournaments continue this week while we play our first match in the Killane Shield at home to Elm Mount. The Piece Handicap tournament starts the week after next. See Calendar for updates to schedule of events.

The yearbook produced for the recent AGM is up on News > Yearbook and the minutes will be uploaded soon.

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2014 Apr 14 Dublin CG Finals, Coming Events, League Promotion, Club Chs Results

Both Skerries U12s and U16s teams won silver in the Dublin Finals of the Community Games held in Jobstown on Friday 21st March 2014. For a full report with results see Teams > Community Games.

Yesterday, Sunday 13th April in the final round of Leinster league division 5, the Skerries BEA team secured promotion to division 4, the O`Hanlon, by pipping Gorey to second place by half a point. This half point was secured by Fred Harte in a nail biting encounter near the very end of the day. In the match we narrowly beat Bray/Greystones 3 - 2. For full results and final standings see Links > LCU > BEA.

The Club Championships finished on Tuesday 8th April with Tadeusz Szczesniak and Fred Harte sharing first place and the cup. For full results see Tournaments > Club Ch 14. As usual the club ratings were updated the next day. See Ratings for Live ratings.

On Tuesday 15th April we will have a blitz tournament. Over the coming weeks this will be followed by a series of handicap and rapid or speed chess events to round off the season. For full details see Tournaments > Others 13/14 and for the frequently changing schedule see Calendar. The schedule will be interrupted by our AGM, probably on 29th April or shortly after this, and two home matches in the Knockout Cup competitions. Any players interested in playing in the Knockouts please contact John Loughran.

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2014 Mar 19 Dublin CG finals, Club Champs, Coaching, Leagues

See Teams > Community Games for a map to the Community Games Dublin County Finals 2014 in St. Thomas NS School, Jobstown, Tallaght on Friday 21st March 2014 at 6.30 pm, and for details of the teams. The juniors have been getting intensive coaching in the past few weeks in preparation.

Round 2 of the club championships was contested last night, with the adults doing well in the Under 1200 section. The pairings for Round 3 will be up soon. See Tournaments > Club Ch 14.

The BEA team`s chances of promotion are not as good as earlier in the season. Gorey are in second place and are 3 points ahead of us, although we have a game in hand against Balbriggan on Sat 29th March, where we could score between 0 and 5 points. It would then come down to a nail-biting last round in Dublin on Sun 13th April. See Links > LCU > BEA for updates.

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2014 Mar 01 Spring Open ends, Club Champs begin, Dublin CG finals, Coaching, Leagues

Tues 4th March is the last round of the Spring Open - see pairings on Tournaments link. All to play for.

Tues 11th March - Club Championsips begin. Most sections are 5 rounds to be finished before Easter hols. Sections divided by rating as: Open, U1200, U1000, U800, U600. Junior boys and girls cups will be decided by playoff matches after last round. As section rating bands are small each player is guaranteed to play 5 close games against players around their own rating.

Any player who wishes not to play please let me know. Any one who wants to play in a higher section than their rating allows please ask me also.

Community games Dublin finals are on Friday 21st March in Jobstown. See Enda.

Coaching next Tuesday and most Tuesdays from now on for 20 mins before 7:30 pm. Coaches please attend early and consult list on noticeboard and Clodagh Zomer to see who needs coaching most.

Both Bodley and BEA teams have 2 rounds left to play with the BEA team still in with a good chance of promotion by coming second, all depending on our remaining 2 matches. But it is very tight. See Links > LCU > BEA and Calendar.

The Irish Junior Championships are on in Ballinasloe this year from April 11th - 13th. See Links > ICU > Calendar for details.

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2014 Jan 22 Tournament and Team Results, Simul next week

See Tournaments > Turkey 13 and Community Games for results of these. Medals and prizes for these were awarded before Christmas. The ratings earned from these tournaments and the Spring Open will be used to select the U16 and U12 teams to play for Skerries in the Dublin finals of the Community Games on 21st March this year.

For match results see News > Calendar and see Links > LCU > BEA and Bodley for the Skerries teams` results. In the BEA we are in clear 2nd place after a run of good results.

Next week the Bodley play at home downstairs while upstairs there will be a simultaneous display where John Loughran and Fred Harte will take on 10 players each, simultaneously. Any junior who wins will win a prize. Magnus Carlsen is the new World Champion.

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2013 Nov 13 League results, Community Games, World Ch, Kilkenny, Live Ratings

The BEA team played the league leaders and hot favourites Round Tower last night. They pulled off a 2.5 - 2.5 draw against the odds. Paschal and Tadeusz won while Brian drew. See Links > LCU etc. for full match details, league tables and individual results. See Calendar for fixtures and latest results. Parents` Rota is updated - do not forget to volunteer. Community Games Skerries tournament continues - see Tournaments. Ratings updated. See Ratings.

The World Championships started on Saturday 8th with Magnus Carlsen, 22, from Norway challenging the World Champion, Viswanathan (Vichy) Anand, the reigning champion in a classical match over 12 games plus tiebreaks. After 4 games and 4 draws they are level at 2 - 2. Despite the scoreline the games have been very interesting with Carlsen on the ropes yesterday and Vichy today, both managing to survive. There is live coverage on the official site which is linked from Links > Chessbase. Also see Chessexplained.

One of the top 2 tournaments in Ireland starts on 22nd Nov in Kilkenny. See ICU > Calendar for details. Highly reccommended. I met Boris Spassky there once and he commented on my game for about 20 minutes when I was analysing it with my opponent. (John)

Skerries Chess Club Ratings are now being published live by Fred Harte as he does them directly to the website. See Ratings > Live Ratings.

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2013 Oct 31 League results, Parents` Rota, Autumn Tournament Prizegiving, Turkey 13 and Community Games Tmt`s started

The BEA Div 5 team got off to a weak start with a 1.5 - 3.5 defeat away to Ballinasloe but made up for it with a 5 - 0 win against Rathmines A to lie 3rd in the table. The Bodley Div 6 team got off to a solid start with a narrow 2 - 3 defeat at home to a strong Elm Mount team and a 1.5 - 3.5 loss away to Malahide, where Alan Joyce got his first win for Skerries in the leagues. See Links > LCU etc. for full match details, league tables and individual results. See Calendar for fixtures and latest results.

The Parents` Rota is up and running. See Calendar. See Contacts to contact Paula or Seamus to add your name to the list if you are a parent of a junior member.

The Turkey `13 (for over 16s) and Community Games U16s and U12s tournaments started this Tuesday. Some catching up will be allowed next week as various players were missing due to an away match. See Tournaments for details.

Prizes will be given out next Tuesday 5th Nov. for the Autumn Open and Autumn Seagulls tournaments which ended on 22nd Oct. See Tournaments > Autumn 13.

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2013 Sep 19 Coaching, Parents` Rota, Autumn Tournament, Balbriggan match, Notes for Parents, Guidelines for Juniors

We lost 7.5 - 0.5 at home to Balbriggan in a challenge match this Tuesday. Despite the scoreline the games were close and all went the distance. Two juniors played well, Alexander Unguryan and James Casey while Dermot Murphy had winning chances in his first game at this level. Tadeusz Szczesniak drew in a tense struggle on board 2 which went down to the wire. Some of their team play in the first division, the Armstrong and we wish them well in their aim of staying there. It was nice to see three former Skerries players again: Gerry Smith, Joe Dunne and Peter Wherity.

The BEA starts on Sat Oct 12th with an match away against Ballinasloe who play in Athlone IT. The full fistures, recently amended, are available on the LCU website. (See Links above and Calendar). The Bodley which this year will include some of our juniors, starts in early November.

A coaching scheme involving most of the seniors coaching the juniors, organised by Paschal and Victor is underway. See Coaching.

The parents supervision rota has started, organised by Paula and others, and can be seen in the News > Calendar page.

Notes for Parents and Guidelines for Junior Players have been added to the Membership pages.

The Autumn Open and Seagulls sections are underway with another round next week. See Tournaments. The Calendar is updated. See Calendar.

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2013 Aug 29 Club reopens next Tuesday

Skerries chess club opens its doors for the new season at 7 pm in Joe May's this Tuesday 3rd September. All are welcome, young and old members and new beginners alike. Ideas for the new season include coaching from 7 to 7.20 pm for juniors about every second week followed by games. This week there will be some friendly games as we will be busy collecting the new reduced membership fees and forms. See Membership for details. Later on in the evening we will have coaching for adults. The Autumn Rapid starts the week after and entries will be taken this week. If you would like to enter let the controller know: aokelly@premiumpower.ie or tell me on Tuesday.

The committee will have informal meetings throughout the night to flesh out ideas discussed at our meeting yesterday. Anyone who would like to volunteer to take up jobs as membership officer (to keep an up to date list of members' details) and equipment officer/librarian (to keep stock of our resources) please let me know as two of our committee had to bow out for various reasons.

The website has been updated including the Membership, News and Contact pages. See the proposed schedule for the new seaons on the Calendar page.

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2013 Jun 25 Blitz Results

Following our successful AGM last night was a quieter affair with a blitz (5 min + 3 sec/move) tournament organised by one of our new tournament controllers Alan O`Kelly, assisted by John Loughran and Tadeusz Szczesniak. Section A was won by Tadeusz on 4/4 with Paschal second on 3 and Marek (who beat John), Enda and John joint third on 2/4. Section B was unfinished. A great night was had by all. Next week Tadeusz is running the first few rounds of a Rapid tournament (20 min + 5 sec/move). Novelty events continue during July. See Tournaments > Others for updates.

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2013 Jun 19 AGM and Yearbook

The first AGM of SCC was a resounding success with a surprisingly large turnout of 36: 6 senior players, 18 juniors and 12 parents/grandparents, not counting the siblings who came to watch the prize giving. Following the reports the ice was broken by contributions from many players and parents alike. Lots of new people volunteered for various posts on the committee and there was a really good feeling at the meeting. The Yearbook and Minutes of the AGM can be downloaded from News > Yearbook. The yearbook summarizes the prize winners in the club championships. The Tournaments > Club Ch 13 page has also been updated with full details of these. Thanks to all who attended, who made contributions and who volunteered for various offices. With your help we can make this club something really special for adults and juniors alike.

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2013 Jun 09 Final round, AGM and Willie Brennan

We lost our last match to Drogheda 5 - 1 in round 4 of the Willie Brennan Cup group stage and thus we do not qualify for the knock-out stages. Nevertheless both adult and junior players gained valuable match experience and Tadeusz won all his games.

Next Tuesday 11th is the last round of the club championships and the following week the prizes in each age group and in the senior section will be awarded at the Annual General Meeting. The AGM will start at 7:30 pm and there will be no chess games played that night until after the AGM. All members and at least one parent of each junior player are asked to attend as there are important decisions to be made regarding arranging supervision of juniors if the junior section of the club is to continue. Medals will be awarded to over half the junior players and certificates will be presented to all juniors present as well as the senior and junior girls' and boys' cups.

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2013 May 19 Willie Brennan, Novices, Club Ch.

We lost narrowly to Inchicore 3.5 - 2.5 in round 1 of the Willie Brennan Cup. Tadeusz won on board 1. Brendan drew on B3, Daniel won on B4 while Cathal and Alexander lost on B5 and 6. Unfortunately Enda lost on board 2 in a level position because his mobile phone went off during the game. Players should ensure that mobile phones are switched off, not just on silent, as if a phone goes off, even a low battery alarm, this results in the automatic loss of the game.

Despite this lapse Enda recently guided the novices Herons to another brilliant day winning 12 out of 16 games. This should leave our top novices team well placed whenever the results are updated on the LCU website. The Terns, managed by Seamus Casey had an exhausting day playing eight matches in all. Their last 2 games are on Sunday 26th if they decide to attend.

The club championships, senior and junior, resume this Tuesday 21st May, though some of the junior games were played in advance last week. There will be another rest day on Tuesday 28th May for round 3 of the WBC. Round 2 is away to St. Benildus this Wednesday 22nd and R4 is on Sat 8th June at 2.30 in Drogheda. Monday 27th is the last day to enter the Drogheda Congress at the reduced rate. See the ICU website for details and entry forms. See Tournaments > Calendar for more details of the WBC. See Ratings for the latest ICU ratings of Skerries players.

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2013 May 08 Willie Brennan Cup Team and Fixtures

See Teams > Knockout for the team and the fixtures. Round 3 of the club championships will be delayed for players taking part in the cup match this Tuesday, though the club championships page has been updated with the latest results and pairings for round 3.

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2013 Apr 25 Promotion, Novices do well, Cup entry

Our Bodley team has officially won promotion to the BEA (Div 5) for next season! See Links > LCU > Bodley for complete results. We have entered a team in the Willie Brennan Cup which will last 3 to 5 rounds over the next few weeks with many of our juniors being blooded in ICU rated games. The Club Champs start next week and the pairings for Senior and Junior sections can be seen in Tournaments > Club Ch 13. Finally the Novices Herons did really well last Sunday winning 20.5 points out of a possible 28 in 7 matches. Alexander and Alan both won all their games. Well done to our juniors who are coming on in leaps and bounds.

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2013 Apr 19 Team Tmt, Club Ch, Skerries 2 - 3 Inchicore

The last round of the team tournament is this Tuesday the 23rd April. Come before 7.30 pm to play. The week after on the 30th the Club championships begin. See Tournaments for details of both. Our Bodley team lost narrowly to Inchicore but two points they scored should be plenty to secure second place and promotion! Well done to all.

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2013 Mar 15 Round 9 pairings, Skerries 3.5 - 1.5 Malahide, Elm Mount 2 - 3 Skerries

Round 9 pairings can be seen on the Tournaments page which has an article explaining who can win each section. Last Tuesday Skerries beat Malahide 3.5 - 1.5. Fred managed to draw a lost ending, Brian won, Tadeusz won, Enda won and Daniel lost. The previous week we managed a 3 - 2 win away against Elm Mount which kept us in second place in the league table still eligible for promotion to Division 5 next season. Next Tuesday at 7.10 sharp we will have prizegiving before our team take on the first placed Blanchardstown team. Tournaments calendar updated.

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2013 Feb 23 Round 6 pairings, Novices league, Skerries 1 - 4 St. Benildus, Ratings updated

Round 6 pairings can be seen on the Tournaments page. Our two junior teams, the Herons and the Terns, who drew 2 - 2 in their match against each other last week, are making their debut against other teams in the Teachers` club on Sunday 24th. We wish them well. Meanwhile the adults suffered a crushing 4 - 1 home defeat at the hands of St. Benildus, a team we beat 3 - 2 last time round. It just shows you can take nothing for granted in a chess match. See Ratings for updated ratings.

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2013 Feb 13 Novices league Round 1, Board prizes, Naomh Barróg 0 - 5 Skerries

Tuesday 12th Feb was a quiet night with only about 25 members present as our Bodley team were playing away in Kilbarrack beating the locals 5 - 0 in the match to try and overtake Blanchardstown as league leaders. See the league tables which have been recently updated. See Teams > Leinster Leagues > Bodley Cup > Results. Next week they play at home to St.Benildus who they narrowly defeated in the first encounter.

Apart from numerous rated challenge games and some coaching by our senior players we awarded two board prizes for our best performers on our Community Games teams. Gold medals were recieved by James Casey (U12) and Darragh Smith (U16).

Next Tuesday sees round 1 of the Novices league in Joe May's. See Teams > O'Connell Cup / Novices > Round 1 for details of this and subsequent rounds.

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2013 Jan 27 Community Games Results, Novices league

Both our teams acquitted themselves well in their first foray into the Communtiy Games chess competitions, each winning 3rd place in their age groups. For full results see Teams.

The novices league is starting soon and we have decided to put in 3 teams of 4 players each from a panel of about 14 to 20 willing players, mostly juniors. Places on the bottom two teams will be rotated to give all those willing and available a chance to play at some stage. For more details see Teams.

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2013 Jan 23 Spring Open R 4, Novices League

The pairings for round 4 are on the Tournaments page. The Dublin Finals of the Community Games Chess Competition start at 6:30 pm this Friday 25th January in Jobstown. See Teams for details.

The Novices League (O`Connell Cup) will be starting soon. As the deadline for entering teams is this weekend, if you are interested in playing please e-mail John as in Contact above. The novices league is open to adults and juniors who either have no Irish Chess Union (ICU) Rating or have an ICU Rating of 1000 or less. Skerries ratings do not count. In theory this means it is open to everyone in the club except adult members of the Bodley team who have an ICU rating. It will be held on approximately 3 Saturdays in February/March, although Sundays may be chosen if this suits juniors better who may have football matches or other activities on Saturdays. There is no entry fee and no need to join the ICU. We can enter as many teams of 4 players as we like so if you are interested and available please let us know by Saturday and you will get on a team. (See Teams for more details).

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2013 Jan 13 Spring Open R 3, Teams for Community Games

The pairings for round 3 are on the Tournaments page. The teams for the Community Games Chess Competition have been selected. The initial stage starts at 6:30 pm next Friday 25th January in Jobstown. See Teams for details.

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2013 Jan 13 Spring Open R 2, Match result

The pairings for round 2 are on the Tournaments page. In our match against Blanchardstown, they won on boards 1, 3 and 4 but they defaulted on boards 2 and 5. So although they won 3 - 2 they should get - 1 for each default leaving the final score as 1 - 2 in our favour. This should leave us level with them in the league table. See Links > LCU for league table.

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2013 Jan 06 Spring Open starts, Match vs. Blanch

The Spring Open 2013 begins this Tuesday 8th Jan. See Tournaments for details. See Ratings for latest ratings. We have an away match versus league leaders Blanchardstown on Wednesday 9th. They are a point ahead of us so even a narrow win would put us on top. See Links > LCU for league table.

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2012 Dec 13 Final results, prizegiving, two wins in the league

Skerries beat Malahide 3 - 2 away on Monday. Brian won on board 1, Denis won on board 2, Paschal lost on board 3 to a neat combination, Enda won on board 4 and Brendan lost on time in a better position on board 5.

Last week Skerries beat Elm Mount 4 - 1 at home. Fred won as did Brian and Tadeusz on boards 1, 2 and 4 while Denis drew on board 3 and Brendan drew on board 5. He was winning but his opponent only had a king left when Brendan`s time ran out. Being unable to mate him his opponent could only claim a draw.

This coming Tuesday 18th we will have prizegiving starting at 7.30 pm with cocktail sausages and savoury potatoes to follow. We may also have a fun quiz with chess positions and a few friendly games.

The final results and standings in all sections of the Turkey 12 tournaments can be seen in Tournaments above. Click on each section and also on Tournaments > Turkey 12 > Results and Pairings > Prizewinners.

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2012 Nov 30 Late results, prizegiving, match on Tuesday

A late result from round 3 in the Open section has now been added and scores in the Seagulls section have been adjusted due to the elimination of a player. There will be 6 rounds altogether in the Open and Seagulls sections so the round after this is the final round followed by prizegiving for all sections on the last club night before Christmas (18th Dec). See Calendar. Good luck to our team this Tuesday who are at home to Elm Mount, who kindly donated most of our sets and clocks to us. See Calendar for match fixtures and Links > LCU > Bodley for results. We are currently on top of the league. Any members including juniors who wish to play for one of our teams should see Paschal, Enda or John. Crosstable and Standings for Open are now available. See Tournaments.

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2012 Nov 28 R 5 pairings, R 4 results, Ratings up

As it says. See Tournaments and Ratings.

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2012 Nov 22 R 4 pairings, R 3 results, Ratings up

As it says. See Tournaments and Ratings.

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2012 Nov 21 St. Benildus B 2 - 3 Skerries

Fred, Brian and Denis won while Paschal and Enda lost on boards 1 to 5 respectively. Next match in 2 weeks at home to Elm Mount (see Tournaments > Calendar).

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2012 Nov 20 How to Improve in Chess, Updates

I wrote a new article with this title aimed mainly at beginners, on the Coaching page. See also the interactive Checkmates there. Try your skill! [John Loughran]

In addition Tournaments > Rules have been updated and a Calendar of Events for the club has been added to Tournaments > Calendar. LCU Juniors link added also which gives information on the Leinster Junior Chess website, see Links.

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2012 Nov 16 R 3 pairings, R 2 results, Ratings up

The draw for the Open round 3 and results of round 2 are up. See Results. There you can also see the results of round 2 and the draw for all 5 rounds of the Seagulls and Cormorants sections. The latest ratings are up. See Ratings.

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2012 Nov 15 Skerries 5 - 0 Naomh Barróg B

Skerries played their first match in the Bodley Cup on Tuesday 13th November, winning in style 5 - 0 against a team from Kilbarrack which included 3 junior players. Despite the scoreline the games were hard fought with more than one Skerries player in a spot of bother before the final whistle. The team was, in order, Fred Harte, Brian Leonard, Tadeusz Szczesniak, Paschal O`Shea and Enda Joyce. Fred seemed to be in control for the whole game. Brian gave up a bishop for two pawns but kept the initiative and won back a piece near the end. Tadeusz had a tight game and was full of praise for the young girl he was playing. Paschal played aggressively and despite losing a rook near the end he queened a pawn to seal the deal. Enda`s game was touch and go for a long time. The girl he played seemed to tire towards the end and Enda`s careful play won the day. Overall this was a very promising start to the season and a real confidence boost to our new team. The results will soon be available on the LCU web site (see Links). Our next match is next Wednesday away to St. Benildus. The fixtures are available on the LCU web site already.

Board 1 (background): Fred Harte vs. Seán O`Neill and 2 (foreground): Conor McDonald vs. Brian Leonard

Board 3, Taduesz Szczesniak vs. Katherine Bolger

Board 4: Paschal O`Shea vs. Ciaran Bolger

Board 5: Clare Gallagher vs. Enda Joyce

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2012 Nov 08 R 2 draw, R 1 results, Ratings up

The draw for the Open round 2 and results of round 1 are up. See Results. There you can also see the results of round 1 and the draw for all 5 rounds of the Seagulls and Cormorants sections. Since there were 6 in each group we used an all-play-all format. The latest ratings are up. See Ratings.

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2012 Nov 03 New website, Turkey Round 1 draw up

We had a relatively quiet night last Tuesday with only about 18 in attendance but some great games played. Our new website is now online since 30th Oct with lots of images added in the last few days. Today I uploaded the latest ratings sent by Fred on Friday and the draw for round 1 of the Turkey tournament. See Ratings and Results respectively.

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2012 Oct 23 Record attendance

We had 28 in attendance including about 8 adult players. Lots of games, some coaching and some serious games between adults after 8 pm. No need for weekly reports after this. We will stay in Joe May`s until our first match in the Bodley, then see how it goes. We now have a panel of 6 definites and 6 subs for the team, mostly adults.

We will start a Christmas Turkey Tournament starting next week or the week after next. See Tournaments.

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2012 Oct 16 Bodley entered

We had 34 in attendance including about 8 adults. Lots of games, some coaching and some serious games between adults after 8:30 pm. We committed ourselves by entering the Bodley.

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2012 Oct 09 Committee elected

A committee of four was elected (see Contact) and some parents volunteered to help for example in sourcing a venue. On our first night in Joe May's we had 26 in attendance, about half of which were children. We decided to stay in Joe May's until we found a more suitable venue. Lots of games and some coaching took place. We decided to enter a team in the Bodley. Membership fees were decided. During the week a joint account was set up to hold club funds, requiring two of the three signatories to sign a checque, to keep funds secure.

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2012 Oct 02 First meeting and brief history

Skerries Chess Club has re-formed after a long absence. The club first formed in the 1960s. It succeeded in reaching the highest level in Irish Chess, by participating in the Leinster League Division 1, the Armstrong Cup in the 1980s. Since then the club folded and reformed and folded again in the 1990s. When I (John Loughran) joined in 1987 we were holding our own in Division 1. At that time club nights were relatively quiet with perhaps 12 in attendance including a sprinkling of teenage players, some of who were very strong. The first meeting of the new club on 2nd October in the Skerries Sailing Club was a resounding success which saw a few decisions made. These included decisions to encourage junior as well as adult participation, to hold club nights on Tuesdays and to find a suitable and affordable venue in order to keep our membership fees as low as possible. Thanks to the generous donation by Elm Mount chess club of 9 sets, boards and analogue clocks, we were spared a large initial expense. At our first meeting we had 11 adults and 8 children.

Skerries Windmill

If you have any news, pictures or links to other chess sites that you would like to see added to this website please e-mail them to See Contact for more details.

©Copyright Skerries Chess Club 2012.