HP Galway Chess Congress 2008

Oct 3rd-5th 2008 in the Salthill Hotel, Galway

sponsored by

Hewlett Packard Galway

and supported by Failte Ireland West

Yury Rochev wins 2008 HP Galway Congress

Yury Rochev (right) receiving trophy from Ronan Duke, tournament director.

The 2008 HP Galway Chess Congress was held from Oct 3rd -5th 2008 in the Salthill Hotel on the promenade in Salthill in Galway. The total entry of 184 was up from last year and there was an excellent atmosphere where most people seemed to enjoy their weekend. Thanks to everyone, especially those who travelled long distances to play.

The Masters section was alway looking like a battle between Alex Baburin, Yury Rochev and Alex Lopez with Philip Short as an outsider. It turned out that the matches between the top 3 were decisive as Yury drew with Baburin in round 4 to leave Alex Lopez in the outright lead on 4/4. On Sunday morning, Alex Baburin defeated Eamon Keogh and a large crowd gathered to watch Yury demolish Alex Lopez with Black. In the final round, Yury, with black for the 4th time, defeated David Fitzsimons to reach 5.5/6 and so it was up to Baburin to win the battle of the Alex's to join Yury in first place. Alex Lopez didn't help his own cause by forgetting that the afternoon start was 2pm and not 2.30pm but managed to draw to give Yury the title outright.

The games above plus a selection of other games including an interesting battle between the Short brothers can be found here.

Grading prizes went to Eamon Keogh, Semyon Mkrtchyan and Steve Short.

Check out the Masters section final standings and cross-table.

In the Major section (Under 1800 rating), Nelman Lagutin continued his winning streak by finishing a half-point ahead of Brendan O'Gorman after a close struggle in the last round where it appeared that Brendan had the advantage but could not make it count i time trouble so the draw gave Nelman the title on 5.5/6. There was a log-jam for 3rd with Dave Smith (Cork) sharing third prize with Gabriel Mirza (Limerick), Tom O'Sullivan (Malahide), Stephen Cowpar (Adare), Balazs Bedi and Anthony Breen who got grading prizes as well as a share of the third place kitty.

Below - winner Nelman Lagutin:

Check out the Major section final standings and cross-table.

In the Minor section (Under 1200 rating), Agilan Nagarajah from NUI Galway with 5.5/6 won the Hugh Finan Perpetual trophy on a tie-break from Jack Hennessy (Gonzaga) after Jack won his final round to catch Agilan who had drawn his game early against Mark Monahan (NUI Galway). Mark had to be content with a 4th share of 3rd place with Jacob Walshe (Ballinasloe), Anthony Bourached (Lucan) and Sean McGowan (Elm Mount).

Grading prizes went to Alan Lane (St Benildus), Tim Wyse and Conor Young (both Gonzaga), Alan Delahunty and Joe Cortes (both Galway), Michael O'Connell (Portlaoise), Sujith Manjooran (NUI Galway) and Aoife Ledwidge O'Brien (Bray).

Below: Minor winner Agilan Nagajarah:

Check out the Minor section final standings and cross-table.

John Alfred from www.chessz.com sponsored a best-lady prize of a DVD for each section. These were won by April Cronin (Masters), Anne Coughlan (Majors) and Niamh Maguire (Minors).

More photos here.

The previous web page advertising the congress is archived here.