Daniil Zelenchuk stars at the Glorney Cup 2018!!

One of Ulster's brightest young talents, 15 year old Daniil Zelenchuk, was representing Ireland recently in the Glorney Cup. Daniil scored an incredible 5 points out of 5 games including wins against 3 much higher rated players - Natahn Weisman (2003), Ben Volland (1887) and Derk Kouwenhoven (1994). This performance saw him win a medal for best Irish player in the Glorney Cup.

Daniil has had a meteoric rise in Ulster Chess, gaining 750 rating points in 2 years. His recent results suggest it won't be too long before he breaks through the 2000 barrier!

Irish Junior Champs 2018 Report

6 players from Ulster traveled down to Shannon to compete in the recent Irish Junior Chess Championships and all acquitted themselves very well in this prestigious event.






Eoin and Conor Boyle traveled down from Donegal with Eoin scoring 3/6 in the U12's and Conor scoring 3/6 in the U14's. The two brothers have made considerable progress over the last year and it's great to see their energy and enthusiasm at these tournaments.













Adam Fitzsimons continued his fine run of form by scoring 4/6 in the U10 section. This meant he finished 9th overall and was the highest scoring player from Ulster! Dexter Harris, also playing in the U10's, scored 3/6 and managed to beat the highest rated player in the section!




Louie McConkey managed to score a very credible 2/6 in a very tough U14 section. Daniil Zelenchuk scored 3/6 in the U19 event and finished 9th overall.

Many thanks to John Cassidy and everyone involved for organising this thoroughly enjoyable tournament.

Irish Junior Chess Championships

The 2018 Irish Junior Chess Championships are being held in Treacy's Oakwood Hotel in Shannon on 6th - 8th April. This is a great opportunity for all aspiring local chess players to test themselves against the best in Ireland. Details of the event can be found on the Irish Chess Union website.

Funday Sunday at St Andrews

A rapidplay tournament has been organised for Sunday 1st October in St Andrew's College, Dublin. It's a 6 round tournament with entry open to players of all ages and abilities. Further details can be found on the Irish Chess Union website. It's a great opportunity for all our youngsters to test their skills against some new players!

Robinson Cup Win

Daniil Zelenchuk continued his fine recent form by scoring 4/5 in the recent Robinson Cup. This fantastic effort helped the Irish team win the competition.

Selection for Ireland

Huge congratulations to Jonathon Peoples and Daniil Zelenchuk who were both selected to represent Ireland in the upcoming Glorney Gilbert International.The event takes place in Wales from 23rd - 27th July. The Glorney Gilbert International is a team event that has been running continuously since 1949 in various formats. It currently consists of 5 teams (France, England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland) competing in 4 competitions -

Glorney Cup               -              U18's

Gilbert Cup                 -              Girls U18's

Robinson Cup             -              U14's

Stokes Cup                  -              U12's

We wish both players and all the Irish teams the best of luck!

Judit Polgar Talk

On Thursday 25th May the Irish Chess Union has organised a talk with one of the world's leading female chess players, Judit Polgar. It is being held in University College Dublin and commences at 6.00pm. Online tickets are 5 euro with all proceeds going to charity. If you are interested in attending this fantastic event tickets can be purchased through the ICU website, however, you may need to hurry as numbers are limited!

Image courtesy of Wikipedia

Judit is the only woman to qualify for a World Championship tournament, having done so in 2005. She is the first, and to date, only woman to have surpassed the 2700 Elo rating barrier, reaching a career peak rating of 2735 and peak world ranking of No. 8, both achieved in 2005. She was the number 1 rated woman in the world from January 1989 up until the March 2015 rating list

Primary Schools Interprovincial Championships

On Saturday 22nd April two of Northern Ireland's top primary schools, Strandtown and Inchmarlo, were representing Ulster in the Irish Primary Schools Interprovincial Championships. The two teams of 4 players headed down to Gonzaga College in Dublin to play in this extremely competitive tournament.

This was an exciting day out for the children as they got to represent not only their schools, but also their province! The chess clubs in both these schools are in their infancy with Strandtown running for just over a year and Inchmarlo just under a year. Despite this, the clubs are thriving with over 20 members in each. They came up against some very tough and experienced opposition but acquitted themselves very well, playing with a tenacity, commitment, enthusiasm and never say die attitude that made myself and every parent incredibly proud of them. The experience gained from this tournament will be invaluable as they continue to progress and develop into the future stars of Ulster Chess.

Many thanks to all the parents for bringing their children down to Dublin and to Lukasz Goralski for organising an excellent event.

Success at Irish Championships

The Irish Junior Chess Championships saw over 10 players from Ulster travelling to Sligo to compete in the Blue Ribbon event of the Irish junior calendar. It was an exciting weekend of chess, played in a fantastic venue, and excellently controlled and organised, largely due to the hard work of Colm O'Mhuireagain, Desmond Beatty and Gerry Graham.

The Ulster players all acquited themselves well in a tough tournament, however, there were a few outstanding performances -

Aaditya Singh finished a fantastic 2nd in the U8 section scoring 5/6. His sister Anjali Singh finished 2nd in the girls rapidplay tournament.

Avrora Zelenchuk performed incredibly well to finish 3rd in the Girls U12 championships.

Jonathon Peoples scored a brilliant 4.5/6 in the very competitive U19 tournament, finishing 2nd overall and only missing out on first place on tiebreak.

Congratulations to all our players who took part and many thanks to the organisers for staging such a spectacular, exciting and enjoyable event.

Dexter Harris and Adam Fitzsimons 

Daniil Zelenchuk

One of our most promising Juniors, 13 year old Daniil Zelenchuk, has had an outstanding season so far playing for Ballynafeigh 3's in Division 2. To date he has scored a fantastic 15 points out of 19 games. This form has brought him to the attention of the Irish Junior Selection Committee and he has recently been invited to join the 2017 Irish Junior Coaching Program. His enthusiasm for chess is infectious and he rarely misses an opportunity to play in tournaments around Ireland. Over the last few months he has played in the Leinster Junior Championships, Gonzaga, Bunratty and Galway, leading to an incredible rating increase of 564 points in just over 3 months. Lets hope Daniil continues this rich vein of form and achieves his goal of selection for the Irish U14 team!

Munster U8 Championships

Dexter Harris traveled down to Ennis to compete in the Munster Junior Chess Championships, in the U8 section. Coming up against stiff opposition he did fantastically well to win the tournament with a score of 6 / 6!

Munster Junior Chess Championships

The Munster Junior Chess Championships are being held on the weekend of the 17-18th of September in the West County Hotel, Ennis. Titles can only be won by Munster residents, but all other players are welcome to enter.

U8 and U10 sections are run over one day only whilst U12, U14, U16 and U18 sections are run on both days. We already have one player from Ulster registered to play and it would be great to see more local players travel down in what promises to be a great competition! Further details can be found on either the Irish Chess Union website or the Munster Chess Union website.