The Bunratty Chess Festival was held in the beautiful surroundings of the Bunratty Castle hotel. The tournament boasted of over 300 participants and attracted grandmasters from all over Europe. The top seed of the event was Korneev from Spain but he was closely followed by Greenfeld, Hebden, Jones, Lalic, Baburin and others.
Not bad for a tiny village
A simple search on the FIDE list would make you wonder if this sentence had any truth to it; after all Gawain Jones is higher rated on that list than Korneev. The tournament interestingly and unusually used local rating for their pairings, so Irish ratings were the norm!
Alan Greenfeld had some issues over the board in this event
Even though things went smoothly for the grandmasters on the first round, that was certainly not the case in the second. Hebden lost a full point while Lalic and Korneev dropped half, the latter probably could consider himself lucky to have retained the draw at all.
Tournament organizer Gerry Graham giving some last minute instructions
Baburin has been Ireland's #1 player since the construction of Bunratty Castle
The skittle's room: the hotel's library
Quite a cozy place to look over the game
However the hotel lobby also had its charms!
Small details created a pleasant atmosphere
At the end of the day it was Gawain Jones that dominated the event. An impressive 5.5/6 left no room for doubt on who was the best player at the event.
Gawain Jones took clear first a full point ahead of the field
Jiri Stocek is always in a good mood, no matter what tournament he is playing or how he is doing
Jones and his winners trophy
The blitz tournament was of course incredibly popular
Thanks to Damien Lavery we found two videos of the blitz tournament, which was a knock out event. In the second video you can see a familiar face with her new friend!
There's hardly something more inspiring for a blitz event. Or a normal one, as Sam Collins proved!
Your reporter and photographer, Alina L'Ami, in an unusual selfie
Here are the final standings, and be on the lookout for the dates of the next Bunratty Festival on its official website.
| Rank | Name | Score | Rating | TPR | W-We |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GM Jones, Gawain C. | 5.5 | 2535 | 2833 | +1.80 |
| 2 | GM Greenfeld, Alon | 4.5 | 2549 | 2571 | +0.23 |
| 3 | GM Lalic, Bogdan | 4.5 | 2538 | 2518 | -0.06 |
| 4 | IM Collins, Sam E. | 4.5 | 2440 | 2565 | +1.03 |
| 5 | GM Korneev, Oleg | 4.0 | 2643 | 2480 | -1.00 |
| 6 | GM Hebden, Mark | 4.0 | 2543 | 2461 | -0.38 |
| 7 | GM Stocek, Jiri | 4.0 | 2529 | 2500 | -0.15 |
| 8 | GM Baburin, Alexander | 4.0 | 2458 | 2479 | +0.31 |
| 9 | IM Heidenfeld, Mark | 4.0 | 2365 | 2489 | +0.86 |
| 10 | Aguera Naredo, Javier | 4.0 | 2360 | 2481 | +1.03 |
| 11 | WGM L'Ami, Alina | 3.5 | 2398 | 2347 | -0.17 |
| 12 | IM Bates, Richard | 3.5 | 2375 | 2243 | -0.88 |
| 13 | De Verdier, Michael | 3.5 | 2345 | 2353 | +0.13 |
| 14 | Wall, Gavin | 3.5 | 2318 | 2303 | +0.01 |
| 15 | FM Fitzsimons, David | 3.5 | 2303 | 2253 | -0.25 |
Note: Irish ratings used
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