Club to remain closed

This Wednesday would normally be our first night back after the summer break (and the club championships).   Unfortunately, in light of the restrictions which saw the Irish Championships Major weekender cancelled, we have no option at present but to keep the club closed.

We will monitor things as they happen, and try and get some feedback from the school too.   In the meantime, we are running weekly blitz tournaments on Wednesdays on lichess (all welcome; links posted on the site), while of course our five 4NCL teams are in league action each fortnight.

We are planning on holding the club AGM in September.   Note ICU fees are reduced by €10 for the coming year.   Club fees will be a matter for the AGM, as ICU fees, rent, and league fees are all components of our club fees.

Pending interest, we would also be able to hold the Frank Scott Shield online to the same time control (60+15).   Again, details probably to be agreed at the AGM (games wouldn’t necessarily need to be on Wednesdays at 8 for example – once the draw was published, players could arrange any suitable time to play), but we would hope to get it underway by the first week in October.

4NCL online returns

The Junior and the main 4NCL Online both returned this month, and while it’s unlikely we’ll match our first season success – when every one of our four teams got promoted – we’ve still had a quite respectable start to the new season.

Next week’s blitz

Here we go

Brendan takes online club championships

Well done to Brendan Lyons for his win in the gameknot club online correspondence championships!   William did at least end Brendan’s 100% winning record with a draw on Thursday, but that leaves him 5 points behind with four games to go.   Level with him in second place on 9½/12 is Ciarán; the two are currently in the middle of their first game.   With second and third guaranteed between them, the only question is who will end in which position.

Next week’s blitz

You can enter next week’s blitz tournament here with the usual password.

The Junior 4NCL got underway last week and the senior 4NCL starts on Tuesday, so we may end up doing a blitz every other week – but we’ll see how numbers go.

LCU circular on leagues resumption

The LCU issued a general circular earlier this month on the issued faced in terms of resuming the Leinster Leagues, which is reproduced below.

We are currently checking to see if the club can re-open in September, though general indications are extra-curricular activity in schools will probably be minimised. The Frank Scott Shield is due to start in September, and if people are interested and if we don’t have access to the school, we should be able to run it under the same time controls online. We are aiming to hold the club AGM once we have some clarification as to whether or not we can open in September.

Over the board chess returns

St Benildus mayn’t have won the Irish Championships – well, not the main event anyway – but there were many positives (and more derbies!) over the course of a week which saw a bit of a shake-up in the top 8 of the club rankings.

Blitz is back!

After I forgot last week (!), the Wednesday evening 5+3 blitz is back this week; the link is here with the usual password.

Last interclub blitz tomorrow

The last ICU interclub team blitz is on tomorrow on lichess from 7pm – link is here.

The week in review

A 1-2 in the ICU interclub blitz, thirds all round (almost) in the Glorney, and derbies galore as over-the-board chess makes a welcome return.