OTB in Dublin - John Bolger Cup 2023

On a weekend in mid-February, the Irish capital Dublin called for the annual John Bolger Cup in the southern part of the city at Ballyboden in the Catholic at the Coláiste Éanna Catholic Boys' School.

The tournament was divided into three different sections: the Masters for players with 1900+ Elo, the Championship tournament for players between 1550 and 1950 Elo and the Major tournament for players between 1150 and 1599 Elo. In total, there were 144 participants in the three sections. The field of participants in the Masters seemed very strong for a weekend tournament - as in the previous year, the pre-registration list included several Grandmasters and International masters. Before the tournament started, however, the organisers had a major technical glitch. Apparently unnoticed, several hundred e-mails from interested participants - including one from me, in which I had wanted to ask about the transfer of the entry fee.

The registration was very straightforward even for players participating from abroad - on the ICU (Irish Chess Union) website, you can simply simply sign up for membership for a low amount via credit card and then even pay the entry fee for the individual ICU tournaments online. A very uncomplicated solution, which tournament organisers around the world could take a leaf out and learn a thing or two from.

Inspiring playing hall with 5 DGT boards

A short time later, I was on the list of participants for the tournament as requested. The list of participants, however, held surprise from many a participant's surprise. Originally seeded 12 of 44, I had expected some strong encounters. But at the beginning of the tournament, 7 of the of the higher seeded players were suddenly not there, so that I, as number 5 of the seeded list, was one of the favourites of the five cash prizes.

So those who speculated on a cash prize were happy about it - but those who hoped to compete against players who were as strong as possible were certainly disappointed. Whether this was due to the technical breakdown or rather intended by the organisers to attract more strong players is not entirely clear to me. Unfortunately, the latter cannot be ruled out.

On the course of the tournament: There were a few surprises right in the first round: Two FIDE Masters, including your rapporteur, gave up a draw; there was also a win on the back boards by, for example, Lara Putar (1794 Elo), who was able to defeat FM Gordon Freeman (2094 Elo). The German-speaking field of participants, which besides myself was represented by WFM Nikola Mayrhuber from Austria, who had to record three defeats in a row after an opening victory.

In addition, there were several women in the field of participants, including well-known Lichess streamers such as Toshqueen and WFM Diana Mirza.

The two streamers had even suggested to the organisers to have their two boards broadcasted for all rounds so that their games could be commented on online while they were playing. Unfortunately, the organisers did not want to or could not put this proposal into practice - it would at least have been a sensible symbiosis of chess on the board as well as the marketing of chess on the internet.

Anyone travelling to Ireland for a chess tournament and playing 1.e4 should definitely arm themselves against the Alekhine Defence 1.e4 Nf6!?

I struggled with this in both the first and final round, thanks to the Irish national player and coach GM Alexander Baburin, who is a great advocate of this system and passes on his ideas to his students. Outside the 64 squares, chess tourists in the Irish capital can generally expect quite high prices, especially for overnight stays, but also the extreme friendliness and politeness of the people and some double-decker buses in the prevailing left-hand traffic there, which operate as normal public buses. Dublin's image is otherwise complemented by beautiful landscapes and numerous pubs.

The course of the tournament: The two favourites, GM Petar Arnaudov and Olympic scare Connor Murphy, who put in a historic performance of over 2700 Elo at the last Chess Olympiad in India, beating GM Matthias Blübaum among others, left no stone unturned, started with 4 out of 4 and agreed without further ado on a peaceful final round to secure the prize money among themselves. After three rounds, however, not only the two favourites, but also Oisin O'Cuilleanain, seeded 20th (!) out of 44, with 2050 Elo was in the lead with 3/3, having successfully defeated FM Colm Daly and FM Yaroslav Dumansky in rounds 2 and 3. In the following round the underdog met the tournament favourite GM Arnaudov, who literally beat his opponent at blitz speed (Arnaudov almost still had the initial 90 min on his clock at the end of the game!). Besides the mentioned game you will find all Lichess broadcasted games in the study:

All winners (on the very left tournament winner GM Petar Arnaudov)