8-13 Mark Heidenfeld 2393 2½
Alex Baburin
2528 2½
Philip Short
2246 2½
Ryan-Rhys Griffiths 2252 2½
Keith Allen
2232 2½
Mark Quinn
2378 2½
Gawain Jones managed to squeeze
a win in a tight time scramble after a
tough game in which, if there was a
slight advantage for either player, it
seemed to change a few times!
Chaperinov managed to win with
Black against Hebden and Suba
claimed the full point in his game
against Alex Lopez who arrived 45
minutes late for the game due to an
alarm clock malfunction. Sam Collins
emerged victorious against fellow
Irish IM Mark Quinn to join 4 other
players, all on 4 points, going in to
the final round. Local junior RyanRhys Griffiths also managed to hold
Alex Baburin to a draw with a fine
performance on board 6. This left the
final pairings looking like this:
1 Cheparinov 4 Maze
4
2 Collins
4 Jones
4
3 Suba
4 Libiszewski 3
4 Heidenfeld 3 Hebden
3
5 Baburin
3 Short
3
6 Griffiths
3 Lopez
3
This was shaping up to be an
exciting finish and it seemed the
spectators knew this too as the
playing hall for this round was pretty
full. Ivan Cheparinov won fairly
quickly on board 1 to set the bar at
5/6, a bar which Sam Collins met
with a fine win over Gawain Jones.
This is Sam’s second year in a row
ending up on top of the Kilkenny
Masters, something agrees with the
young man from Dun Laoghaire
when he’s at Jack Lowry’s event!
Fabien Libiszewski managed to
overcome Mihia Suba in a tight
endgame to end up on 4, a score
19 | P a g e
that was to be equalled by 4 other
players.
Kilkenny Masters
1-2 Ivan Cheparinov GM 2661 5
Sam Collins
IM 2390 5
3-7 Sebastien Maze GM 2571 4
Gawain Jones
GM 2576 4
Mihai Suba
GM 2459 4
Fabien Libiszewski GM 2496 4
Alex Baburin
GM 2528 4
Best other Irish Player: Alex Lopez
(FM, 2403) 3½..
Kilkenny Major
1 Mark Collins
1837 5
2-6 Matthias Rahneberg 1807 4½
Tom John
1784 4½
Shane McCabe
1960 4½
Bernard Boyle
1756 4½
Arnaud Aoustin
1925 4½
Grading sections: 1 Henk de Jong, 2
Paul Roger, 3 Terence Fayne, 4 Pat
Fitzsomons..
James Mason
1
Turlock Kelly
2–6 Shane Brennan
Stephen Murphy
Andrew Rodger
Cezary Glegolski
Keegan O'Mahoney
5½
4½
4½
4½
4½
4½
Grading sections: 1 Denis O’Connell,
2 Anthony Baker, 3 Eugene
Donohoe, 4 Gerard Flynn, 5 Geoffery
Keating..
Minor Results
1–5 Jonathan Kiely
Seamus Flynn
Cian Guinan
Kevin Kilduff
Cathal Murphy
5
5
5
5
5
Grading sections 1 Pat O’Mahoney,
2 Adrian Bradley, 3 Jeffery Alfred, 4
Dave Casey, 5 Michael Morgan.
Baburin, A - Fitzsimons, D
Kilkenny Masters (2)
ECO A43
1.d4 ¥f6 2.¥f3 c5 3.d5 b5
4.¤g5 ¥e4 5.¤f4 ¤b7
6.£d3 f5 7.¥bd2 c4 8.£d4
¥a6 9.c3 ¥c7 10.¥xe4 fxe4
11.¤xc7 £xc7 12.£xe4 e6
13.¦d1 O-O-O 14.¥g5 ¤c5
15.e3 ¤xd5 16.¦xd5 exd5
17.£xd5 ¦de8 18.b4 cxb3
19.¤xb5 ¤xe3 20.O-O
[20.fxe3 ¦xe3+ 21.¢f2 ¦xc3
22.¤xd7+ ¢b8 23.£b5+]
20...¤xg5 21.¤a6+ ¢b8
22.¦b1 ¦e6 23.¦xb3+ ¦b6
24.£xg5 ¦e8 25.£d2 ¦e6
26.¤f1 £d6 27.£c1 ¦e5
28.g3 ¦d5 29.£c2 g6 30.h4
¦d1 31.£e2 £d5 32.¢h2
¦d2 33.£e3 ¢c7 34.¤g2
£d6 35.c4?
Fritz does offer a significant
improvement here but Alex
was in his last minute by now.
Fritz suggests 35.¦a3 £xa3
36.£xd2 £d6 37.¤d5 and
White is still in the fight.
35...£d4
36.¦xb6
axb6
37.£f3 £xf2 38.£b7+ ¢d8
39.a4 ¢e7?!
39...d5! was more accurate
but that's like splitting hairs,
Black now has a won game.
Irish Chess Journal