Ever Wanted to Play a Grandmaster?

Hi guys,

Exciting news this week. As part of the Russian Cultural Festival 2011, we will be hosting a lecture and simultaneous display by International Grandmaster Alexander Baburin (above), internationally rated 2539. For those who don't know, a simultaneous display is where a strong player plays several games at once against different opponents, making one move on each board before moving to the next game.

• Where? Room 3051 in the Arts building.
• When? Wednesday March 2nd, 12-2pm (during reading week, no excuses!)
• How much? Free!

Alexander is the only Grandmaster living in Ireland, so chances to play him, or any grandmaster, do not come along often. I'd highly recommend you play, once you get a taste of playing someone that good it really encourages you to improve. I speak from experience on that. Demand for this will be high, so get back to me soon as you can to make sure you've a good chance of getting a place.

Cheers,
Stephen

Last Few League Results

We've had a couple of tough matches recently against teams up near the top of the table. First was Rathmines A:

Rathmines have a very consistent team rating wise, two and a half is not a bad result against them. A couple of games that they won could have gone either way, so the ratings did not count for as much as the scoreline suggests.

Next was Bray, who also have a very strong all round team: 

Everyone did exceptionally well against higher rated players, and like last time, with a bit of extra luck we could have tied the match. Everyone was ahead in their game at least once, so it's a little disappointing to only come out with 4 draws, but again not bad against a strong team.

Two games left for the Armstong team against Gonzaga and Dun Laoghaire and we've a 3 point cushion over the relegation places. 

The Ennis team are also doing their best with a few points cushion over the relegation places. Both teams will be run close though, so there's an exciting run in to look forward to.

More news soon,

Stephen