The 2nd Malahide Millennium congress turned out to be a very close and hard fought contest with something of a fudge regarding the final result. In the end three players emerged victorious, all having lost a game each. Indeed there was nobody without a loss in the Open section.

The event boasted the highest first prize in an Irish weekend tournament in a very long time (if not ever) . Despite this the turnout in the Open section was somewhat disappointing. This was a real pity as the tournament was well advertised in advance and the prize fund after all very generous indeed.

One of the problems may well have been the timing, clashing as it did with the 4 NCL held in the UK over the same weekend. Otherwise it might well have attracted a few IM`s or GM`s. Nevertheless the event was still strong enough, with plenty of the strongest Irish players and a few more than capable foreign players participating.

The tournament was organized and run efficiently by well-known veteran tournament controller Tom O`Sullivan and also Vincent Bissett among many others. The Open section was sponsored by Euro Commerce, while the UNDER1600 section was sponsored by Handling & Storage Equipment Co. A novel feature of the event was the team tournament sponsored by Malahide Hardware Stores and which saw Ivan Lorenz, Kieran English, Joe Reid + Jack French emerge as the winners. There was also a fun blitz event and a chess quiz night during the event on Saturday and Sunday night, which I am told was very enjoyable.

The open section saw some interesting encounters with Stephen Brady having a nice win against Leinster Champion Daire MacMahon in round 2 only to then lose to German player Jorg Weidemann in Round 4. He recovered from this well however and had a fine win in the last round against yours truly in a game that showed his best qualities. Leaving me with little chance after ending up in a passive endgame type of position.

Second seed Joe Ryan had a bit of a frustrating result in round three when he also lost to Jorg Weidemann but in his case this only came about after he had thoroughly outplayed his opponent and fell apart towards the end of the game and blew chance after chance to win . He also recovered well and had a nice finish against Spanish player Pablo Garcia. His final round game against Eamon Keogh was not the formality it might have been assumed to be either as he had to overcome some stiff resistance to get the desired win.

The surprise of the tournament was undoubtedly German player Jorg Weidemann . He had important wins against Joe Ryan and Stephen Brady and finally in the last round, defeating Leinster Champion Daire MacMahon . There was however some minor disquiet expressed by some players at the fact that he was listed in the tournament as having a 2151 rating and thus was lower down in the seeding.

His actual fide rating however is 2280, with his previous rating being over 2300. I was well aware of this when I played him as I had looked him up on Chessbase/Chess Assistant and discovered both his rating and previous results. It turns out that he is typical of many German players of this strength who have had much experience in the Bundesliga playing strong players. In the case of Jorg he had to his credit among other results a draw with Boris Spassky!

Having been forewarned and thus fore armed with this knowledge I was able to take him seriously and did not have a huge difficulty in winning. It is just as easy to underrate, as it is to over rate such unknown opponents. Had Stephen and Joe had the same knowledge I am not sure if it would have made that much of a difference, but I must confess that I think that if there was a repeat game, I would be a little surprised if they were to lose. That said, Jorg also had a fully deserved win in the last round so you can’t argue with 3 good wins.

My own performance was a bit disappointing to say the least, blowing as I did £400 in the last round when instead of killing the game and making a draw, I went and made a game of it, only to lose and come nowhere in the end. My first game against Scottish international Paul Robertson was a tough game. While my draw with Spanish player Pablo Garcia was a stroke of luck. I was happy with my win in the fifth round, but perhaps got a bit carried away with myself after it. In chess you only get what you deserve!

Of the other players in serious contention: Cork Champion, Mel o Cinneide had something of a disaster with three uncharacteristic losses. While the ever dangerous John Joyce ruled himself out when after a draw with former Irish champion Eamon Keogh he was outplayed and beaten by Pablo Garcia in round 4. Leinster champion Darie MacMahon as mentioned earlier lost to Stephen Brady in round 2 and Jorg Weidemann in the last round. The big surprise possibly was also the poor result of Pla Alexandro who had so many good results at his previous event and here never seemed to get into gear. While his compatriot Pablo Garcia showed some confusing form, with a draw against yours truly and a fine win against John Joyce , but a crushing defeat at the hands of Joe Ryan

While there was doubtless many more things going on in the tournament, that is as best as I can recall from my impressions of the tournament the main developments.