Irish Open 2009

[MostFamousDane]

After 4 rounds:

Shane McCosker - 11 points
Frank Moran - 10 points
Myles Hannigan - 10 points
Garrett Owens - 10 points
Sean O'Driscoll - 10 points

[Hugh Devlin]

I was just talking with Francie Mc Nally. He was competing here and having a very successful ty but suffered a minor heart attack last night and now residing in Cavan General Hospital for the next few days. I'm sure you'll join with me in wishing him a speedy recovery. After a similiar event in Knighton in May (C. Young) perhaps entrants to tournaments should be issued with a health warning! Hugh

[Alex_Moiseyev]

I'm sure you'll join with me in wishing him a speedy recovery.

I do.

Alex

[MostFamousDane]

After 8 rounds (2 to go)

S. McCosker 23
G. Owens 21
M. Hannigan 20

[Hugh Devlin]

It looks like Shane is hot favourite for the Irish Open title tonight. I note he has already had a win and draw against 2nd placed Garret Owens, and the last round tomorrow afternoon is a repair. If successful this would make Shane the youngest winner (at 22 years) of the Irish Masters Division in its 33 year history. It also looks like Patsy Logue (Fermanagh) is now favourite to win the "Senior" Division, with Sean Davis (Wicklow) favoured for the "Intermediate" title. Hugh

[MostFamousDane]

Garret could still win it if he beats Shane.

Shane probably has low honour points because he was unlucky to get at bye in the first round (which for some bizzare reason only gives two points!)

[Alex_Moiseyev]

Garret could still win it

More likely Garret should work hard in order to keep 2nd place in hands

[MostFamousDane]

Final results (after 10 rounds)

1. Shane McCosker 27
2. Garret Owens 26
3. Myles Hannigan 26
4. Frank Moran 21
5. Paddy Doyle 20
6. Colin Young 20
7. Sean O'Driscoll 20
8. Liam Stephens 19
9. Charlie McKenna 18
10/11 Sune Thrane 16
10/11 Bill Dobbins 16
12. Sean McElkenny 15 (withdrew round 9)
13. Sean Philips 14
14/15. Francis McNally 13 (withdrew round 6)
14/15. Tom Kee 13 (withdrew round 7)

Congratulations Shane!

Francis came by on the last day so I guess he is ok.

Liam Stephens drew both games against Shane in the second to last round so it was all up to Garret to beat Shane in the last round but the opening drawn didn't give Garret many chances.

The 3 rounds per day has certainly taken its toll. Francis who has heart problems had to withdraw and go to the hospital. Tom Kee was doing quite badly but got drunk sunday evening, had quite a hangover but somehow managed to get 7 points in two rounds and then withdrew.

I was playing somebody (his name will not be named to protect the not so innocent) who showed up for the round so drunk that he could barely sit down. He still beat me in the first game taking roughly one second per move! I was mostly worried if he would through up on the board. It was a quite critical opening though and I won the second game quite easily.

Another funny story was that I was playing Frank Moran and was in a quite bad position late in the tournament and he was trying hard to get a win, he suddenly made a long jump move (which wasn't even a win) and I had to say to him - "we are not playing pool checkers you know". He looked at the board for 5 minutes and said "why can't I move that". I was quite worried that he was having a stroke or something but it was probably just the brutal 3 rounds per day that was catching up on him.

I was quite happy with my tournament started out on day one with getting 3 point off Sean Phillips and 1 point of Shane McCosker. The second day didn't go too well with a couple of narrow 1 pointers and Liam Stephens (that guy has more lives than a black cat) somehow managed to escape another loss (for the second tournament in a row ). On the third day I had a complete meltdown against Tom Kee and got 0 points but I managed to bounds back with 2 draws against Sean O'Driscoll and Frank Moran on day 3 and 4. We drew a relatively critical opening me and Frank and I didn't do too much with the strong side but he had me in trouble when I had the weak side. I offered him a draw in the middle of the game and he was quite adamant that it was a certain win but I somehow managed to escape "houdini" style .

Anyway I had a great time and I did suprisingly well (I think) against really strong opposition - especially since it is 3-move and I haven't studied any of the opponings (except for a couple of computer assisted analysis of some the barred openings)

[william]

Well done to Shane who is cruising now in his checkeristic career

Well done to my pal garret , unlucky man but you'll get the title next time
and to liam who were both just 1 point behind , but there has to be a first and a second

Thanks sune for that portrait of the Irish !! So that means that if i ever want to participate I must bring my own drink or what???

and who supplies the painkillers for the next day headaches??

[Alex_Moiseyev]

Well done Shane, congratulations! In such company number of points could be higher

Regards,

Alex

[Ingo_Zachos]

Congratulations to Shane.
I hope he had many sundays over the week.
A bye should alwasy give the maximum amount of points and not a forced drawn round.
Also the HP for that round shlould be calculated as the points of the best opponet the respective player played in all rounds, or an average of the other rounds.
To give no HP to him is unfair.
So he won despite of a severe handicap.

And my respect to Sune, who travelled and reported from all over Europe this year.
3-move is strange indeed, as it gives a bigger memory advantage to book players then GAYP and forces a player to play positions he does not like with both sides, which seems simply unreasonable to me.
I spent more then half of the my time in Beijing and other 3-move events thinking if I should resign a position stright away that I don't like, as it does not suit my style.
And the games are as a comsequence less though and on a much lower level.

So don't worry about the bad result, Sune, as the style was a handicap.

Nevertheless it looks like you you are improving with practice.
So keep up the good work.

And to Mr. McNally I wish a quck recovery.
May he have the chance to play in more Irish Open

Greetinx from cloudy Germany,

Ingo Zachos

[Lindus Edwards]

Congratulations Shane. A wonderful performance.
Thinking of you Francis and wishing you a speedy recovery.

[MostFamousDane]

Well done Shane, congratulations! In such company number of points could be higher

Regards,

Alex

Yes I think you are right - being undefeated - having been in no loses and missing no wins, winning 7 games in 9 rounds and beating both of his main opponents - that kinda sucks - he should've done better

[Bernard Coll]

Thanks Ingo for your informative comments regards a player receiving a bye. He/ she is penalised twice in my opinion. The fact that 4 points are on the table against an opponent, against gaining 2 points for a walkover is grossly unfair. Is it really YOUR fault you have no opponent for this ongoing round?? I do not think so! Plus as you correctly stated, honour points are also severely compromised . Regarding your comments about 3 move tournaments vs freestyle, we are talking about totally differering variations of draughts. 2 move was introduced to negate boring repitive (freestyle games). Two move restriction was also abandoned for the same reasons. I know personally that Dennis Pawleck and yourself have been making great efforts to introduce 8 x8 square draughts into Germany, but FREESTYLE is only the first step. To be regarded as a fairly decent draughts/checker (32) square board player, one has to have some knowledge of 3 move play.

[Alex_Moiseyev]

he should've done better

Yes. He was the only grandmaster in this event and his level is far above an average level of his opponents. Finishing only one point ahead (even with 2 points for bye) simply means that he wasn't in his perfect form. His points zone was 29-32 ... without much efforts.

Sune, you probably seriously underrate Shane McCoskey - he is very strong player.

Regards,

Alex