There are seven Benildus players in total competing in this year’s City of Dublin tournament, and their combined score after round 1 is an amazing 6½!
In the majors, we even start round 2 on boards 1 and 2 after wins for both Mariusz and Ross against higher-rated opposition. Mariusz had black against the second seed, Gonzaga’s Ray Byrne; the game was a Czech Benoni in which, Mariusz reports, his opponent was “squashed like a badger” – a phrase I must use more often! But Mariusz spent too much time looking for – and not finding – a mating attack, and so wound up just an exchange up but seriously short of time. He lost his rook with check, but then with 33 seconds on Mariusz’ clock, Ray hung his queen and resigned immediately, even though Mariusz reckons he needed a lot longer than 33 seconds to win the game outright.
Ross’ opponent was a mere BA player – though John Loughran is still 1700+ rated in fairness! Mariusz takes on Eric Bennett in round 2; Ross faces Colm Fitzpatrick.
In the Challengers, Dylan beat Malahide’s Shay Scott while Odhrán – the only player not to win – drew against fifth seed Patrick McGowan. And it was 3 from 3 in the Juniors. Mihailo wasn’t allowed to play up after the one-hour Bodley took his rating too low and so has to be considered one of the favourites for victory; he beat John Keenan (620). Anastasija had a win against 476 while Desmond had a win against a 680. Not the most challenging of rounds for the three, perhaps, but in the junior section, picking up wins against those players – who can often be under-rated – is arguably they key to getting out of the section. Anastasija is on board 1 for round 2.
LeinsterChess.com is carrying updates throughout the weekend; we are assured that the Killane and Brennan Cup competition results will be submitted for rating along with the City of Dublin, and everything should be up-to-date for the September ratings list, which will be used – though not solely – for determining the league teams for the coming season.
stbenilduschessclub 
kevin i surprised you and john are not playing this weekend.i saw some of ross’s game and he build up a massive attack a nice win for him.it’s good to see a good start from all your players.i thought anastasijas dad was playing in the masters this weekend?.it’s a pity mihailo was not let play the challengers as he is very underrated and his current rating does not truely reflect his true strength.it should be interesting if Anastasija and mihailo meet in the last round for the juniors section.