Strongest Irish Confucius Cup

The 2017 Irish Confucius Cup took place in Dublin in the Ballroom Suite of the Gresham Hotel. It was the strongest yet, with two European professionals and three 7 dans taking part, and attracted 47 entrants from 15 countries. In addition Chen Rui (5p) and Yu Ping (2p) were visiting from China, and Guo Juan (5p) from Amsterdam, reviewing the players' games and playing simultaneous games.

The weekend started on the Friday night with the Irish Rapid; Zhiqing Zhang (5d) won, with Mariusz Klimczak (9k) in second place. The Saturday started with an opening ceremony and then the main tournament commenced. Alongside, as previous, there was a Chinese Chess tournament, a junior Chess match between Sussex and Ireland and downstairs a 150-player Chess tournament.

Round 3 was the round that effectively decided the Go event, as Kim Seong-Jin (7d) managed a half-point win over Pavol Lisy (1p). Both players won their other games to take first and second respectively. Another contender Lukas Podpera (7d) also claimed two half-point wins (over Cornel Burzo and Zhiqing Zhang), but lost his other three to take fifth place. Mateusz Surma (1p) won three games, but lost to the top two, and took third place on tie-break from Csaba Mero (6d). The UK's top entrant, Matthew Macfadyen (6d), found the top group tough going and ended in 8th place.

Lower down the field, Sona Smolarikova (3k) won all five, and players on 4 wins were Julien Renaud (2d), Alex Delogu (5k), Marianna Szychowiak (10k) and Colin Lafferty (13k). The UK's Peter Collins won three games.

The tournament was organised by Rory Wales who produced a fuller report with photos. Special thanks went to the Chinese Ambassador Yue Xiaoyong, the UCD Confucius Institute for Ireland and all the sponsors for making it such a successful event.

Results