Bunratty Chess Festival

[Paul Cooksey]

The live games suggest that people have found some ambition, notwithstanding their hangovers!

Occasional forumite Simon Ansell's late night prediction he would play a cowardly d3 in the opening against Adams seems like it was a cunning bluff . But I feel the opening of Rendle-Arkell brings shame on them both

[John Sargent]

But I feel the opening of Rendle-Arkell brings shame on them both

Hahahaha, highly indicative of a great night out yesterday! "18. Qc4...OBVIOUSLY" Very entertaining stuff! Edit: Oh, there was no draw agreed there either, White's pushing!

[Paul Cooksey]

3rd round just starting:
Adams-Jones, Gawain
Hebden-Short

Adams playing d4, nf3, c4, g3 as he did in the first round. I've been claiming he should ditch e4 for at least 20 years

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Collins sacrificing a knight and rook against Williams after 11 moves...

[John Moore]

Adams-Jones is interesting. You can lose these if you think your d-pawn is important. Black just puts his Rook on the a-file and its drawn.

[Richard Bates]

Looks like Istratrescu might have been caught out by the organisers deciding it would be a good idea to have different morning round start times on Saturday and Sunday...

[Jonathan Rogers]

This all looked very fun, especially because of the range of openings played. I am rather stunned that, despite the live games working well, there are so few comments but that does seem to be the way of the forum right now.

Though the website didn't carry them, I gather that there was a blitz play off and again Adams took the title from Short, as if to prove earlier comments relating to Short and tie breaks - favourite v Hou Yifan but definitely not v Adams. (I don't know whether Short finished above Gawain, just that Adams won).

[Reg Clucas]

As a result of his showing in this tournament, Nigel Short is once again a member of the 2700 club on the Live rating list. Well done!

[Jonathan Rogers]

Are you sure? I always thought Bunratty was unrated - which, frankly, explains why the chess is such fun to follow.

[Reg Clucas]

Are you sure? I always thought Bunratty was unrated - which, frankly, explains why the chess is such fun to follow.

Well he is according to this - http://www.2700chess.com/

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Three rounds on the Saturday:

http://www.bunrattychess.com/info.html

9.30 a.m.
2.00 p.m.
6.30 p.m.

Which means it can't be FIDE-rated (unless that squeezes into the minimum amount of time?). The minimum amount of time is four hours (each player must have a minimum of 120 minutes).

Incidentally, I learnt from Alex McFarlane's 'Ask the Arbiter' column in BCM that this requirement is less (at least 90 minutes for each player) where at least one player is 1600 (ECF 119) or higher, and none of the players are above 2200 (ECF 194), so it looks like some weekend tournament Major sections can be FIDE-rated after all, with three rounds on a Saturday.

[Paul Cooksey]

Someone should tell them.

I have

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Someone should tell them.

I have

It is possible that the minimum requirements were met. I'm not sure any more.

EDIT: Actually, it looks like it can't be rated:

http://www.bunrattychess.com/terms.html

"Time control Masters: 1hr. 30 minutes per player for all moves + 15 seconds increment from move 1."

That is less than the minimum for title norms as well, which is 90 minutes + 30s/move increment.

[Thomas Rendle]

It wasn't FIDE Rated. At least that was the impression of the players!

[Thomas Rendle]

Oh, and opening wise Rendle-Arkell may have been weird but Rendle-Williams on the Sunday morning was completely bizarre. After 10 moves or so I had a Queen for 2 Bishops & pawn but I lost pretty easily! Fortunately that game didn't go out live....