The tournament at Bunratty is Ireland’s premier chess competition and has been for several years.
This year’s event, to which I was invited as a guest to deliver the closing speech, attracted a powerful field including the former world title challenger Nigel Short and the former British champion Gawain Jones as well as grandmasters Peter Wells, Simon Williams and Alexander Baburin. This year, Nigel Short dominated proceedings by winning his first five games and only relaxing his pace with a quick draw in the final round to clinch his victory.
The unique selling point of Bunratty is the social atmosphere generated by the hundreds of chessplayers — grandmasters and neophytes alike — all packed into the Castle Hotel over a long weekend. The social nature of the occasion is so enjoyable that even luminaries such as the Bulgarian Fidé champion Veselin Topalov have been tempted to visit Bunratty simply for the fun of it, without feeling the necessity to compete in the event itself.
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