Round 3 saw three players starting on 2/2 – but only one of those made it to 3/3 as Gerry exacted revenge for his final-round defeat last year.
The back row of games were the first to finish; Paddy and Zhengjun had reached a fairly wild-looking position where Paddy had a piece attacked by a pawn, but the pawn was pinned to a hanging rook. When the dust finally settled, Zhengjun had not only won the piece, but he had also lined up queen and bishop at a weak dark square next to Paddy’s king, and with mate inevitable, Paddy resigned. Next to them, Desmond saw off Denis, while Ronan and Aodhán reached a drawn pawn and bishop ending to share the spoils.
Elsewhere, I avoided a banana skin when my queenside attack proved quicker than Kavin’s kingside attack after we had both castled opposite sides, but Venkat was two pawns up against Ciarán and was in line for a shock win before losing an exchange and, eventually, the game in a R+1 v N+2 ending.
There was an upset in the middle boards though, when Ben won a pawn against William in what had looked like a dull and drawn middlegame, and when Ben won a second pawn later on, the win was secured. Eddie – on 2/2 – had also won a pawn against Ciarán Mahon, but this one was poisoned, and brought about resignation a few moves later as Ciarán enjoys his best start to a tournament.
Tim put paid to Slavko, while on the top board, Gerry had an edge against Dylan and won a pawn, but Dylan then missed a chance to reach a drawn endgame position. Unfortunately, you don’t tend to get a second chance against Gerry, who saw out the win with the minimum of fuss from there.
In the postponed game, Vjeko overcame Felix after another wild game where Felix had definite winning chances, but ultimately moved his pieces too far away from Vjeko’s open king, and suddenly Felix’s king was the one feeling shaky under a pawn storm, which successfully broke through.
So Gerry is now a half point clear of Tim, Vjeko and Ciarán, while six other players are on 2/3. The round 3 results in full were –
Rank | Name | Rating | Rank | Name | Rating | |
1 | Gerry O’Connell (2) | 2099 | 1-0 | 4 | Dylan Boland (2) | 1723 |
7 | Ciarán Mahon (1½) | 1618 | 1-0 | 12 | Eddie Gahan (2) | 1438 |
8 | Slavko Putar (1½) | 1610 | 0-1 | 2 | Tim McCarthy (1½) | 1929 |
10 | Felix Jordan (1½) | 1473 | 0-1 | 5 | Vjekoslav Novak (1½) | 1682 |
3 | Ciarán Ruane (1) | 1795 | 1-0 | 22 | Venkat Kandesamy (1) | 882 |
16 | Kavin Venkatesan (1) | 1289 | 0-1 | 6 | Kevin Burke (1) | 1680 |
18 | Benjamin Murray (1) | 1166 | 1-0 | 9 | William Kenny (1) | 1501 |
11 | Ronan Sweeney (1) | 1445 | ½-½ | 14 | Aodhán Keane (1) | 1340 |
15 | Desmond Beatty (1) | 1315 | 1-0 | 17 | Denis Dempsey (0) | 1229 |
21 | Zhengjun Wang (0) | 1070 | 1-0 | 23 | Paddy Power (0) | 776 |
13 | Liam Kelly (½) | 1386 | 0-0 | Bye | ||
19 | Des Carroll (0) | 1094 | ½-½ | Bye | ||
20 | Yubo Wang (½) | 1087 | 0-0 | Bye | ||
24 | David Dooley (½) | 611 | 0-0 | Bye |