Odhrán is the first player to win the Frank Scott Shield twice, while there was a rather unlikely pairing in second and third after Wednesday’s final round.
The top board was made more interesting after last week’s Kilkenny, where Seán finished ahead of Odhrán, meaning the 300-point rating gap which had existed the previous week was much less relevant. A re-draw earlier in the week also meant that Liam and Luke-Andrew, instead of playing each other, now had tougher ties against Aodhán and Dylan respectively, with Dylan given a reprieve of sorts in that, if he won his easier tie (he had been down to play Ross), he now needed only one result to go his way instead of two to have a chance of taking the title.
But it was the bottom boards which ended first as usual, deciding the grading prizes. Tim and Stephen recorded wins as black over Richard and Daniel, although Stephen had to wait to see if Diarmaid could get anything out of his game against William (he couldn’t, after going in for a Falkbeer Counter-Gambit and then committing the cardinal sin of facing the King’s Gambit in particular – not developing any pieces!) and then to see who would have the better tie-break for the second grading prize.
In the other grading section, Cal and Ben had a particularly wild position (leading Frank Scott to wonder if castling was going out of fashion these days) with various major pieces hanging. Cal ultimately prevailed, but as it turned out, both got grading prizes anyway as the other two in the band had higher trophies to collect!
On the top three boards, Seán had hung a fairly vital central pawn inside the first ten moves, which left Odhrán with a very easy position to play, which he converted with the minimum of fuss to all but guarantee the title, pending Luke-Andrew both beating Dylan and having an unlikely tie-break turn-around. On the last two boards, Liam and Luke-Andrew both looked in trouble against Aodhán and Dylan, but both managed to turn their games around. Liam picked up a piece and took the win, leaving Aodhán – third last year – way down the standings this time. Though given Aodhán’s performance in the Senior Club Championships over the summer and his win in the Armstrong in September, this just reflects fairly well on the improving strength in the club in general!
That left just Dylan, a pawn up against Luke-Andrew. A win for Dylan would at least seal second place, even if the curse of the top seed was doomed to continue for another season (Odhrán, Ross and Mihailo have all failed to take the title in previous seasons as top seed). Dylan had B+5 v B+4, and the same coloureds bishops gave him good winning chances, though the position needed patience – which was hard with both clocks into the last five minutes. But in pressing too hard, he allowed Luke-Andrew to swap off a number of pawns, and when the final one was forced off with under two minutes each left, a draw had to be agreed.
That left the final standings as follows –
Seed | Name | Rat | Rd 1 | Rd 2 | Rd 3 | Rd 4 | Rd 5 | Score | MB | |
3 | Odhrán McDonnell | 1479 | 10+ | 13+ | 1= | 2= | 6+ | 4 | 8 | |
9 | Luke-Andrew Feeney | 968 | 2- | 15+ | + | 4+ | 1= | 3.5 | 7 | |
7 | Liam Kelly | 1091 | 15+ | = | 6- | 10+ | 4+ | 3.5 | 5.5 | |
6 | Seán Devilly | 1107 | 14+ | 2- | 7+ | 1+ | 3- | 3 | 9.5 | |
1 | Dylan Boland | 1872 | 8+ | 4+ | 3= | 6- | 9= | 3 | 9 | |
2 | Ross Beatty | 1726 | 9+ | 6+ | = | 3= | = | 3 | 6.5 | |
5 | William Kenny | 1191 | 13- | 12+ | 4- | 8+ | 11+ | 3 | 6 | |
8 | Cal Nolan | 1068 | 1- | 11= | 12+ | 5- | 10+ | 2.5 | 6.5 | |
4 | Aodhán Keane | 1225 | 11+ | 1- | 5+ | 9- | 7- | 2 | 9.5 | |
13 | Tim Casey | 744 | 5+ | 3- | – | 14- | 12+ | 2 | 8 | |
11 | Diarmaid Carey | 812 | 4- | 8= | 14= | + | 5- | 2 | 6.5 | |
15 | Stephen Callaghan-Kane | Unr | 7- | 9- | + | – | 14+ | 2 | 6 | |
10 | Ben Coghlan | 900 | 3- | 14+ | = | 7- | 8- | 1.5 | 7.5 | |
14 | Daniel Fox | 597 | 6- | 10- | 11= | 13+ | 15- | 1.5 | 6 | |
12 | Richard O’Rahilly | 810 | = | 5- | 8- | = | 13- | 0.5 | 4.5 |
Desmond has sent on a few photos of the prizegiving. The bottom grading prize was the tightest, but Tim and Diarmaid snuck the prizes –
The top band grading prizes were technically won by Luke-Andrew and Liam, but with them not eligible to win two trophies, the grading prizes defaulted to the only other two players in the section!
Third place on tie break was Liam, while Luke-Andrew took second – both took the under 1100 grading prizes last year.
But the Shield stays with Odhrán for another year – Frank was very quick to draw parallels with his Dundalk winning the League of Ireland in 2014 and 2015 as well! He’ll have one last chance to add to his haul next year – though there’ll doubtless be plenty of other players who’ll have something to say about that!
I can play tomorrow sorry my phones updating
Cool; thanks!