Top chess players to battle in Ballymun

BALLYMUN is set to play host
to an international chess tournament later this month.

The International Master
Norm Tournament will be held in the Metro Airport Hotel at Santry Cross from
August 26-30 as part of the 2011 City of Dublin Chess Championships.

Organised by Leinster Chess
Union, the tournament is a ten player, all-play-all event in which six of
Ireland’s strongest players will compete against each other and two Scottish
and two English players.

The 10 players involved have
all represented their countries internationally and include Ireland’s highest
rated player, International Master Sam Collins from Dublin.

The other Irish players are
UK based International Master, Gavin Wall, and four other Dubliners: current
Irish Senior Champion and FIDE Master Stephen Brady who has won the Irish title
on no less than seven occasions; former champions and FIDE Masters John Delaney
and Colm Daly; and Candidate Master and Irish Olympiad player, David Fitzsimons
who has the distinction of being the youngest Irish player ever to beat a
Grandmaster, a feat he achieved in 2007 when just 15 years of age.

The overseas opposition is
Scottish International Master Stephen Mannion, Scottish FIDE Master Alan Tate
and top English players Rafe Martyn and Phil Makepeace.

This is one of the highest
level international chess events to take place in the capital and it offers
some of Dublin and Leinster’s to Irish Internationals the opportunity to earn a
step known as a

‘norm’ which helps towards achieving the title of International
Master.

Very few tournaments of this
standard are run in Ireland and the Leinster Chess Union hopes to run a series
of similar events into the future to give Irish players the opportunity to
progress their chess playing careers on home soil.

“The Union also wants to
build on recent initiatives catering for various constituencies in the wider
chess family in the province of Leinster,

? a spokesman said.

“These include a greater
emphasis on developing younger players in clubs and the introduction of new
competitions aimed at junior players as well as the ongoing league, weekend tournament and knock-out cup
competitions run in the province.

?

The Ballymun tournament is
one element of the City of Dublin Championships with the others talking place
in the Teacher’s Club on Parnell Square West over the weekend of Friday
September 2-4