Galway Junior Chess

Updated Oct 2008

Junior Monthly competitions

During the chess season, monthly Chess competitions are held at the Galway Bridge Centre. Next competition Oct 19th 2008. See here for more details,

Latest News

July 2008: More Galway Internationals

Oissine Murphy from Knocknacarra, John Cormican from Clarenbridge and Billy McKenna from Ballinasloe were selected on the Irish U-12 team to play in the 4-Nations competition in Liverpool.

Sarah and Ruth Cormican from Clarenbridge were selected on the Irish U-18 Girls team to play in the Faber Cup in Liverpool. Sarah has also been selected to play for Ireland's senior women's team in the upcoming chess olympics in Germany - this is the first time a player from Galway has made an Irish senior chess team.

Update: Aug 2008: Both the U-12 and U-18 teams finished runners-up to England. Encouragingly, Ruth Cormican was unbeaten through the whole tournament including an excellent win over the highly ranked England A player. See the full report on the ICU website.

Chess Camp for Juniors: July 2008

Ronan Duke and Ron Cummins held a successful chess camp for juniors in Claregalway Community Centre on July 14-18th last. There were two section with beginners in one and improvers in the second. The week flew and everyone enjoyed themselves and hopefully also learned something new from the week. In the improvers sections, Orla McCann won the tournament in a play-off from Tara Crosby as the girls finished well ahead of the boys! The beginners section tournament was won impressively by Rory Gunning. All participants received certificate of achievement for completing the camp. All enquiries to Ronan at 087-8062384 or by email to ronanduke at gmail dot com.

May 2008:Ballinasloe retains Community Games U-12 and U-16 titles

Congratulations to Ballinasloe who repeated last year's unprecedented feat of capturing the U-12 and U-16 All-Ireland Community Games titles. Here's the report from the Irish Chess Union's Junior Officer:

Two Ballinasloe chess teams travelled to Mosney as reigning champions in both under 12 and under 16 categories. Unlike previous trips to Mosney, this time they would be regarded as favourites. In the under 12 competion Ballinasloe were drawn against St Patricks from Cavan in a straight semi final. Ballinasloe proved too strong for the Cavan team and ran out convincing winners with a 5-0 scoreline. In the other semi final, last years silver medal winners Spa/Muckross from Kerry just edged out new boys Gorey from Wexford by a score of 3-2. The final saw Ballinasloe wrap up two quick wins and when Dylan Connolly made it 3-0 another national trophy was in the bag. Final scoreline 4-1 to Ballinasloe.

The Under 16 competition was an all play all format and again Ballinasloe were drawn against St Patricks from Cavan and again the scoreline was 5-0 to Ballinasloe. The next match was a tense affair against Drumlish from Longford, former winners and last years silver medal winners, and just like last year the match was poised at two games each with one game remaining. This year it was Eoin Moran's turn to be in the hot seat and, in a tense game, Eoin managed to overcome his opponent to seal the victory 3-2. The Gold medal position depended on one more victory against Annascaul/Kerry and it duly arrived with a convincing 4-1 win. Both Ballinasloe teams retain there national trophys and set up the prospect of a possible three in a row in Athlone next year.

May 2008: Galway Juniors Win More All-Ireland titles!

Congratulations to Briarhill National School and Creagh National School which recently won the ChessZ Irish Primary Schools National Finals in the Girls and Boys section respectively.

Congrats to Aoife Murray from Brierhill NS, Galway and to John Cormican from Clarinbridge NS, Co Galway for winning the individual Girls and Boys National titles respectively. Photos below of the Creagh team and of John Cormican receiving his title from John Alfred.

See the full report on the John Alfred's ChessZ website.

Galway Juniors Win All-Ireland titles!

Apriil 2008: Congratulations to Billy McKenna from Ballinasloe and Dara Murphy from Knocknacara who recently won the 2008 Irish U-10 and U-19 championships respectively. Well done as well to:

• Oissine Murphy (Knocknacarra) - 2nd in U-12,
• Kenneth Dillon (Ballinasloe)- 2nd in U-19
• Luke Moran (Ballinasloe) - 3rd in U-10
• Jack McKenna (Ballinslow) - 3rd in U-12

Here are some of the victors (L to R Jack McKenna 3rd U12, Billy McKenna 1st U10, Luke Moran 3rd U10.)

See the full report on the Irish chess union website.

Feb 18th 2008: Connacht U-16 team wins Inter-provincials!

The Connacht U-16 team has won the All-Ireland Interprovincials for the first time! The inter-pro's were held on 16-17 Feb last and the team beat Munster 3.5-2.5, Ulster 5-1 and Leinster 6-0. Here's the winning team:

Back Row: Eoin Moran (Ballinasloe) Dylan Connolly (Ballinasoe) David McCann Captain (Claregalway) Front Row: Oissine Murphy (Knocknacarra) Conor Barrett (Ballinasloe) John Cormican (Clarinbridge).

Since Ballinasloe won the All_Ireland Community Games 2007 titles at U-12 and U-16, it gives further proof that under-age chess in Connacht is very strong at the moment. Well done to all involved.

Aug 19 2007: Ballinasloe wins All-Ireland Community Games Chess U-12, U-16 titles

Congratulations to the U12 and U16 community games chess teams from Ballinasloe who both won All-Ireland titles last weekend at Mosney - a fantastic achievement for Galway chess!

The U-12 team were up against Muckross from Kerry (1st, 2nd or 3rd for past few years so the favorites), Erne Valley from Cavan and Jobstown from Dublin. After beating Muckross 4-1 in the first round, things looked good and they followed that up with 5-0 wins over the other 2 provincial champions!

John McKenna, team manager, reported that "this year getting out of Galway was the hardest part... I think that speaks volumes about Galway Chess. So start training, everyone...."

The U-16 competition was a much tighter affair aas the team were up against 2 strong teams in Bruff from Limerick and Drumlish from Longford as well as Bundoran who were an unknown quantity. In the first round, Ballinasloe beat Bruff 3-2 and Drumlish beat Bundoran 5-0 so it became obvious that the crunch match was round 2 on Saturday afternoon against Drumlish, Longford.

After losing 2 and winning 1 of the first 3 games, the team were 2-1 down with boards 1 and 2 still playing. Tony Deane then won for Ballinasloe to make it 2-2 with the last match the decider. Robert McKenna, a pawn up with 2 mins left (versus 18 for his opponent), won amid huge tension with 13 seconds left on the clock!

The following day, Ballinaloe defeated Bundoran 5-0 to complete an historic double. Congratulations to team, their managers, John McKenna and Kenneth Dillon and to all involved in this achievement. Something like this does not happen overnight but takes time and effort - and some talented players. Well done everyone!

(thanks to John McKenna for the detail!)

July 2007: Galway players selected to represent Ireland

• July 25-27th 2007:

  Several players from Galway were selected to play for Ireland in the recent international chess matches for the Glorney and Faber trophies in Dublin on the weekend of July 25-27.

  Ruth and Sarah Cormican from Oranmore were selected on the 3-girl team to represent Ireland in U-18 tournament against England, Scotland and Wales.

  Robert McKenna(Ballinasloe) and David McCann (Claregalway) were selected for the Irish U-14 Tri-nations team.

  John Cormican from Oranmore and Billy McKenna from Ballinasloe made the Ireland U12 team. Here's a photo of young Billy with Minister Mary Hanafin who opened the event.

  The full reports is on the Irish Chess Union website.

• June 15-17th 2007:

  Ireland played Sussex in a challenge match in June and Galway provided several players for the U-10, U-12 and U-16 teams:

  • U-10:
    • John Cormican (Oranmore)
    • Jack McKenna (Ballinasloe)
    • Billy McKenna (Ballinasloe)
    • Tomas McKenna-Carroll (Ballinasloe)
  • U-12:
    • Conor Barrett (Ballinasloe)
    • Ruari McKenna-Carroll (Ballinasloe)
  • U-16
    • Ruth Cormican (Oranmore)
    • Robert McKenna (Ballinasloe)
    • David McCann (Clarenbridge)

  While the Irish team lost these matches, it was an invaluable opportunity to gain experience at international level against the strongest English county who boasted 8 full international players.