Bunratty Masters

[Nick Burrows]

http://www.bunrattychess.com/bunratty/masters/

A great performance by Richard Bates - unbeaten with draws against Short & Adams.

I was particularly impressed again with Joseph Mcphillips from my hometown of Bolton. Unbeaten, with A win against GM Wells, draw against GM Short and draw against IM Wall with a TPR of 2494! Bravo!

[AustinElliott]

http://www.bunrattychess.com/bunratty/masters/

I was particularly impressed again with Joseph Mcphillips from my hometown of Bolton. Unbeaten, with A win against GM Wells, draw against GM Short and draw against IM Wall with a TPR of 2494! Bravo!

Indeed. And he's still only fifteen, as far as I remember.

The draw with Nigel Short has a certain pleasing symmetry, given that Nigel hails originally from the North West. In fact, didn't Nigel play in his youth for Bolton Chess Club where Joe McPhillips plays?

[Kevin Thurlow]

And good to see the Short v Short pairing...

[Mick Norris]

http://www.bunrattychess.com/bunratty/masters/

I was particularly impressed again with Joseph Mcphillips from my hometown of Bolton. Unbeaten, with A win against GM Wells, draw against GM Short and draw against IM Wall with a TPR of 2494! Bravo!

Indeed. And he's still only fifteen, as far as I remember.

The draw with Nigel Short has a certain pleasing symmetry, given that Nigel hails originally from the North West. In fact, didn't Nigel play in his youth for Bolton Chess Club where Joe McPhillips plays?

Austin

Nigel did indeed play at Bolton, and then went to Atherton

Joe is certainly potentially excellent, and Jeff Horner seems to be doing a good job of helping him realise his potential

Joe was born 1997, his progress is here
http://ratings.fide.com/id.phtml?event=422487

You have to bear in mind that he has been on the books at Bolton Wanderers too

[Chris Rice]

Going back to Richard again I was very impressed Elo points-wise with his draws with Adams and Short. Let's just see that Adams game again...

Bunratty Masters 2013 Round 6 White: Bates Richard Bates (2375) – Black: Michael Adams (2725)

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.c4 e6 4.g3 Bb4+ 5.Bd2 Be7 6.Bg2 c6 7.O-O Nbd7 8.Qc2 ½-½

Surprising that Adams outrating Richard by 350 Elo would give him such a quick draw. I assume Michael was a bit wary following:

Bunratty Masters 2013 Round 3 White: Richard Bates (2375) – Black: Nigel Short

1.d4 e6 2.Nf3 c5 3.g3 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Qb6 5.Bg2 Bc5 6.e3 Nc6 7.O-O Nf6 8.c4 Nxd4 9.exd4 Bxd4 10.Nc3 Be5 11.Nb5 O-O 12.Be3 Qa5 13.Qe2 Bb8 14.c5 d5 15.cxd6 a6 16.Na3 Nd5 17.Nc4 Qb5 18.a4 Qb4 19.Bd2 Qc5 20.b4 Qc6 21.Be3 Bxd6 22.Nxd6 Qxd6 23.Bc5 Qd8 24.Bxf8 Qxf8 25.b5 Bd7 26.Rfc1 Qd6 27.Rab1 axb5 28.axb5 h6 29.Qd2 Rd8 30.Rd1 Be8 31.Bxd5 exd5 32.Qd4 b6 33.h4 f6 34.Rd2 Qc7 35.Qb4 Bg6 36.Re1 Be4 37.Qb3 Kh8 38.Kh2 Qc5 39.f3 Bf5 40.g4 Bg6 41.h5 Be8 42.Qe3 Bxb5 43.Qe7 Qxe7 44.Rxe7 Bc4 45.Kg3 b5 46.Rb7 d4 47.Kf4 d3 48.Ke3 Kg8 49.Rd1 Kf8 50.Ra1 d2 51.Rd1 Rd3+ 52.Ke4 Kg8 53.Rb8+ Kh7 54.f4 Rd7 55.Ke3 Rd3+ 56.Ke4 Rd6 57.Ke3 Rd3+ 58.Ke4 ½-½

Richard also had great wins against Malcolm Pein (2376) and Thomas Rendle (2382) so a very good tournament for him indeed.

[Alan Walton]

I was under the impression that Bunratty isn't FIDE rated

[Angus French]

Surprising that Adams outrating Richard by 350 Elo would give him such a quick draw.

Though it seems - from looking at the Ranking table - that it guaranteed him first place.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I was under the impression that Bunratty isn't FIDE rated

This had confused me as well. It seems there are now two events, a rated Classic and an unrated Masters.

See here for (not yet updated) details of the Classic (won by Mark Hebden):

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

FIDE event registration details here:

http://ratings.fide.com/tournament_deta ... vent=74358

The Masters is indeed not rated and is not on the list here:

http://ratings.fide.com/tournament_list ... 2013-04-01

This is explained here:

http://www.chessvibes.com/comment/87761

That report gives full details of both events.

[Chris Rice]

Yeah apologies, I haven't played Bunratty so just assumed it was FIDE rated. Turns out they added the FIDE-rated Classic but are still not rating the Masters. No wonder Adams was more than happy to agree a short draw. Not sure that the Chess Vibes explanation is an explanation at all "Many of the world’s elite players have come to Bunratty to play because of its unique “friendly” atmosphere: the games are not FIDE rated, so they can relax and enjoy the ambience (and a drink or two)." Really? Does the fact that it is fide-rated or not make the slightest difference to a chess players drinking habits. Methinks not.

Anyway its their tournament so they are entitled to organise it as they think fit although clearly the prospect of Topalov playing a Double Muzio (blindfold) whilst drinking himself under the table without fearing the loss of Elo points wasn't enough to entice him to play the 2014 edition.

Feel bad for Richard not getting those coveted Elo points after such a great tournament although he may not care anyway.

[Richard Bates]

Don't worry Chris - as a fairly strong opponent of the apparent current trend for seeing FIDE rating everything that moves (be it weekend chess, league chess or County chess) as an automatic solution for generating greater participation, it would be extremely hypocritical of me to 'care' about the rating points not gained, however nice the windfall of 20 points to become official IM strength again would be!

Especially as i think that Bunratty is a perfect example to justify my views! I have no doubt that whilst it is the conditions (financial and playing), excellent organisation and general atmosphere that attract the super strong players to Bunratty (and therefore attract the merely 'strong' players, generate the publicity and contributes to attracting the large numbers (over 300 this year) who value the opportunity of mixing with these players and being generally part of the experience), FIDE rating would be a considerable barrier to their participation. Partly because of the risk involved, and partly because its absence reduces the need to take the tournament as seriously as normal (in a preparation/early nights/general enjoyment sense).

[Thomas Rendle]

I think I can safely say it did make a difference to chess players drinking habits (at least after the games)!

[Roger de Coverly]

Especially as i think that Bunratty is a perfect example to justify my views!

As one of the few tournaments with a six round format, it would be difficult under current FIDE rating rules to find a playing schedule which allowed both unlimited rating participation and three rounds on the Saturday. The Hastings weekender has been FIDE rated in the past, even with three rounds on the Saturday. They used a move rate of 40/100 + 20 which just fits the "no more than 12 hours" rule.

Having abandoned non-incremental play in favour of 90 minutes with 15 second increments, the organisers would presumably be reluctant to return to a non-incremental format with the extra arbiter overheads this can involve. The old Bunratty rate had been G/105 as I recall, so a switch to G/120 or equivalent would involve an earlier start, a later finish or a shorter break between rounds.

[Richard Bates]

Especially as i think that Bunratty is a perfect example to justify my views!

As one of the few tournaments with a six round format, it would be difficult under current FIDE rating rules to find a playing schedule which allowed both unlimited rating participation and three rounds on the Saturday. The Hastings weekender has been FIDE rated in the past, even with three rounds on the Saturday. They used a move rate of 40/100 + 20 which just fits the "no more than 12 hours" rule.

Having abandoned non-incremental play in favour of 90 minutes with 15 second increments, the organisers would presumably be reluctant to return to a non-incremental format with the extra arbiter overheads this can involve. The old Bunratty rate had been G/105 as I recall, so a switch to G/120 or equivalent would involve an earlier start, a later finish or a shorter break between rounds.

Not sure why that isn't something of a non-sequitur, but there we are. That Bunratty as currently set up is a difficult format to FIDE-rate doesn't invalidate the case that the lack of FIDE rating is a factor in the tournament's attractiveness and therefore success. Your comment I think implies that they would FIDE-rate the tournament if they could, which has IMO little in the way of evidence to justify it.

[Jonathan Rogers]

Well done at Bunratty, Richard, even if you did elect not to go for gold at the end!

You probably noted that I recommended FIDE rating county chess yesterday. I do however tend to share your views about not FIDE rating "everything that moves" and agree that Bunratty sounds like an excellent example of a tournament which arguably prospers because it is not rated (I am guessing that the organisers had hopes of goading Topalov to play too, for that reason). The difference with county chess is that it does seem to have pretty much nothing else going to make it attractive to the more recent generations of players (obviously, unlike Bunratty).

[Roger de Coverly]

Your comment I think implies that they would FIDE-rate the tournament if they could, which has IMO little in the way of evidence to justify it.

Under current FIDE rating rules, going rated would damage or destroy the tournament in its present format because of the necessary rescheduling. If they could FIDE rate it under the current schedule, that would be a decision for the organisers as to whether it increased or reduced the attractions of the event. Players concerned for their ratings would no doubt wish to avoid the late night Guinness, although that doesn't stop the bar being busy at the 4NCL. I expect the 4NCL 11 am start mitigates.

They are slowly coming into line with the rest of Europe, at one time you had to take your own chess equipment as a condition of entry.