2017 Irish Confucius Cup Report

  The 2017 Irish Confucius Cup weekend occurred over the March 3rd-5th weekend under gradually improving weather conditions. The venue once again was the Ballroom Suite in the Gresham Hotel.

  47 Go players attended from China, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Korea, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Switzerland and UK. It was the strongest field of players yet at the tournament with the bar set at 6 dan. In Chinese Chess, not only were well-known players such as EXF grandmaster Chunlong Huang, EXF grandmaster Nicolas Dang and WXF international master Chen Li, but also 3 local young players came to compete in their first tournament. In Chess there was an eleven-person junior team tournament between Ireland and Sussex who competed for the 4th time in the Sir Patrick Moore Cup (named after the astronomer who once played for Sussex). The Junior team shared the Ballroom Suite with the Go and Chinese Chess players while 150 more Chess players participated downstairs in the O’Connell Suite in two other separate tournaments.

  The games began soon after the opening ceremony with three rounds of Go and Chess while the Chinese Chess players were kept busy with four. The Saturday evening rounds were concluded with an entertaining session of simultaneous games against the visiting professional players from China – Mr. Zhao Guorong (Xiangqi Grand Master), Mr. Yu Ping (2p Go player) and Mr. Chen Rui (5p Go player). They would also give very informative reviews of the top Go and Chinese Chess games on Sunday afternoon with Guo Juan (5p Go player) visiting from Amsterdam.

  Round 3 was the title-deciding Go match where Kim Seong-jin 7d edged a half-point win over Pavol Lisy 7d, the smallest possible margin of victory. Lukas Podpera 7d also claimed two half-point wins over Cornel Burzo 6d and Zhiqing Zhang 5d. Chunlong Huang won the Chinese Chess with Haihan Chen second, and last year’s winner, Nicholas Dang, third. Sussex won the Junior Chess team tournament after building up big lead from round one.

  Friday evening hosted the rapid Go games where Zhiqing Zhang 5d won with Mariusz Klimczak 9k in second place. The Blitz Chess was won by Sebastien Maze with Killian Delaney second, and Stephen Moran third.

  An entertaining and enjoyable weekend had by all.

  A very special thank you of course must be made to the Chinese Ambassador Yue Xiaoyong, the UCD Confucius Institute for Ireland, and all the sponsors for making this such a successful event.

Final Results (Click Link)
Go N/A

 

Awards Summary
 
Silly Prizes
Longest Name – Wojciech Szychowiak
Most Norwegian Player – Rasmus Stene
Most Splendid Shirt – Matthew Macfadyen
Most Splendid Haircut – Wie Xue
 
Irish Go Championships
2016 Irish Champion – James Hutchinson
 
Friday Night Rapid Winners
Go 1st Place – Zhiqing Zhang
Go 2nd Place – Mariusz Klimczak
Chess 1st Place – Sebastien Maze
Chess 2nd Place – Killian Delaney
Chess 3rd Place – Stephen Moran
 
Go Youth Awards
Marianna Szychowiak
 
Chinese Chess U-18 Irish National Awards
1st Place – Yen Cheng Deehy
2nd Place – Zehou Li
3rd Place – Lorenz Cuffe
 
Go 4 Wins or More
Julien Renaud
Marianna Szychowiak
Alex Delogu
Colin Lafferty
Sona Smolarikova
 
Chinese Chess Best Female
Chen Li
 
Chess Sir Patrick Moore Cup
Sussex
 
2017 Irish Confucius Cup Main Event
Go Chinese Chess
1st place Kim Seong-jin, South Korea Chunlong Huang, UK
2nd place Pavol Lisy, Slovakia Haihan Chen, UK
3rd place Mateusz Surma, Poland Nicolas Dang, France
4th place Csaba Mero, Hungary Fazuo Chen, UK
5th place Lukas Podpera, Czech Republic Hua Say TY, France

 

The game records from the top Go board for all five rounds are downloadable here:

Round 1: Lukas Podpera vs Pavol Lisy [Download]
Round 2: Cristian Pop vs Pavol Lisy [Download]
Round 3: Pavol Lisy vs Kim Seong-jin[Download]
Round 4: Kim Seong-jin vs Csaba Mero [Download]
Round 5: Lukas Podpera vs Kim Seong-jin [Download]

Photos

 

Additional Thank Yous
Irish Chinese Chess Association
Irish Chess Union
Mr. Zhao Guorong – Xiangqi Grandmaster
Mrs. Shan Xiali – Xiangqi Grandmaster
Mr. Yu Ping – 2p Professional Go Player
Mr. Chen Rui – 5p Professional Go Player
Ms Guo Juan – 5p Professional Go Player
Guohan Zhang – Chinese Chess Tournament Organising
Sona Smolarikova & Confucius Institute for Ireland – High Quality Photos
Arthur Cater – The Heavy Lifting
Philippe Renaut – Clock Reseting
Ian “Javaness” Davis – OGS, KGS & YouTube Internet broadcasting

 

Complete List of Sponsors
 
Bank_of_Communications_Financial_leasing
 
asia market
 
 
 
 
guo-juan-small-logo
 
confucius-institute
Powered by Wordpress. Theme design by Niall Tuohy © 2024