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Editor: Dr Tim Harding |
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Editor: Dr Tim Harding |
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© Dr Tim Harding
Last modified:
22 September 2024
For other information about Irish chess, please see our regular Irish news page.
In today's final round of the FIDE Olympiad in Budapest, Hungary, both Irish teams finished with powerful victories to ensure they finished in the top half of the standings.
Below we report on the final round and review the overall performance of our players in detail. First, we wish to record early on that Lara Putar has earned the Women's FIDE Master title for her performance as the reserve player on her team.
We also have another page with a general report on the olympiad, where you can find the overall results and our observations on the top performers in the event.
Going into the 11th and last round, both our teams had 10 MP (50 per cent of the possible match points) which placed them well below their initial ranking in the current standings. However a yo-yo effect of alternating losses and wins is typical of Swiss system team tournaments where a victory can mean you face much stronger opposition in the next round.
Consequently, as long experience has shown, the last round result is the most important for determining a team's final position in the rankings. Fortunately both teams delivered today and so recovered to approximately their par result: the women slightly above, men slightly below.
The Open (men's) team were paired with Lebanon and the women with Nicaragua. In each case these were lower-ranked teams that Ireland would be expected to beat. Conor Murphy and Alice O'Gorman were the players to sit out and watch their team-mates.
In the Open match today, Alex Baburin returned on top board. For a lomng time it seemed like he had no advantage but he had an outside passed pawn that was a potential trump card. In the last few moves before the time control at move 40 Black went wrong, missing the opportunity to create counterplay against Alex's king. Alex then won two wpices for a rook and his b-pawn decided the game.
Tarun Kanyamarala, with Black on board 2, varied from his usual repertoire and played the risky Budapest Defence, 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e5 3 dxe5 Ng4, which was probably a good choice for the occasion. It soon paid off as White met it with the over-aggressive line 4 e4 Nxe5 5 f4. Tarun obtained a good position and then won the exchange and although the position remained complex he was always on course to win.
Tom O'Gorman and David Fitzsimons also won comfortably against their lower-rated opponents eo the final score was 4-0 to Ireland.
In the Women's match, the two players with the White pieces (Diana Mirza and Lara Putar) soon built up dominating positions and won their games comfortably. On board 1 with Black, Trisha Kanyamarala won a queenside pawn and soon reached a won ending. Antonina Gora's opponent played well, though, and reached an endgame two pawns ahead. We know, though, that Antonina does not give up and eventually she saved the draw in the endgame. So the team won their final match to order by 3.5-0.5.
Our Open team was initially seeded 64th and finished 66th, so a par result but somewhat disappointing. Ireland won five matches, drew two and lost four for a score of 12MP and 24.5 game points out of a possible 44. Four of the teams we beat finished well below us.
The exception was Ecuador (who we beat 3-1 in round 7) who were lower-ranked than Ireland (84th) but finished 54th. That is the sort of performance Ireland needs produce in future Olympiads and to do so we need to rely on our stars of the future because the Olympiad, as it was seen both in Chennai 2022 and here in Budapest, is an exhausting event where young players tend to perform above expectations and older players get tired.
The best result on paper was the 2-2 draw with the all-GM team of Israel in round 2, although this was achieved in part by a swindle in one game, and in the final standings Israel did not finish that much higher than Ireland (and well below their seeding).
The biggest disappointment (apart from the 0-4 loss to Latvia yesterday) was the match with 30th seeds Denmark in round 5. Ireland should probably have won this match instead of losing 1-3, not least because our top board player missed a simple win of a piece at an early stage against his 2648-rated grandmaster opponent. Our board 2 player was doing well at that point at should have drawn but got into time trouble and also lost his game.
Had board 1 been won instead of lost it would have lifted the whole team and the overall result both in that match and subsequent ones would probably have been much better. In the end Denmark also performed well below their seedings so this was a huge opportunity missed.
Now for the individual results of the players who were, in board order with their FIDE ratings: IM Conor Murphy (2453), GM Alexander Baburin (2376), IM Tarun Kanyamarala (2361), IM-elect Tom O'Gorman (2353) and IM David Fitzsimons (2315). FM Conor O'Donnell was non-playing captain.
Two years ago in Chennai, Conor Murphy had a tremendous result (on board 2 in most of his games) which he was not able to match this year. Perhaps it was in part because opponents are more aware of him now, but also in Chennai his opening preparation seemed much better and he did not squander the kinds of opportunity he wasted against Denmark.
To be fair, in several hard games against higher-rated opponents, he fought hard and saved some positions that were lost or close to lost. Conor's final score in Budapest was 3.5/9 with an Rp of 2357, losing 9 FIDE rating points. That is not too bad, but his only wins were against opponents rated much lower.
I would not like to criticise Alex Baburin as he has been a great servant to Irish chess and he had a serious health scare this summer. Probably nobody is more disappointed than he is himself that he could not do more to help the team but with his 4/7 result was close to par for what his rating is nowadays.
In view of what we already said about youth's advantage in Olympiads, perhaps this will be the last time we see him in the player role. Undoubtedly Alex would make an excellent team captain for the 2026 competition, especially as it will be held in Uzbekistan where having a native Russian speaker as captain would be a major asset. Also of course we hope to see Alex leading Ireland in senior team events for many years to come.
On board 3, Tarun Kanyamarala (Irish Champion in 2022 you may recall) was already playing his second Olympiad at the age of 20 and scored 6/10 on board 3 for an Rp of 2420 and gaining 11 FIDE points. He did have one disastrous loss and was lucky against Israel, but he made that luck by ingenious play that will probably be seen in David Smerdon's next book on swindles. He played three GMs and four IMs and beat all three odf the lower-ranked opponents that he met. Overall Tarun can be satisfied with this solid performance.
On board 4, Tom O'Gorman (Irish Champion in 2021) was also playing his second Olympiad and had the best result of the whole team. Though still listed as a FIDE Master, he completed his IM title requirement during the summer so should soon be an IM officially. If there were any doubt about his application, he has made a further IM norm here with a score of 6.5/9 and an Rp of 2496, gaining 17 or 18 rating points.
The reserve player, David Fitzsimons was, we believe, playing his first Olympiad. He scored 4.5/9 for an Rp of 2262 and a small rating loss but what worries us most is that the only game he drew was against a grandmaster. Perhaps it is to his credit that he seemed to try to win every game but probably more stability and less of a weekend tournament style of play (in his opening repertoire) would have yielded a better result.
Since David is already qualified for the 2026 team by virtue of winning the Irish Championship this year, we think that it is important that he works on this aspect of his game during 2025. He needs to get back to the standard of play that earned him the IM title a few years ago. If his work or family life means he cannot achieve that, then perhaps he should choose the Women's team captain role in 2026 and let one of our "young guns" take his place.
The Irish Women's team was seeded 60th out of the 169 teams that actually participated. They finished 57th, so slightly above par. Like the men's team, Ireland won five matches, drew two and lost four for a score of 12MP but had 26 game points out of a possible 44.
The players in board order were: WIM Trisha Kanyamarala (2179), Alice O'Gorman (1996), WFM Diana Mirza (1962), Antonina Gora (1943) and Lara Putar (1911). Ukrainian refugee Diana Mats is the non-playing captain but should be available to play in 2026 if she continues to live in Ireland and would be a major asset for the team.
Trisha Kanyamarala has had some brilliant results (especially in blitz) and is only one norm away from the WGM title, but unfortunately she was below her best in Budapest, chiefly because of her poor start in rounds 2 and 3. Thereafter her play was very solid and efficient with only one more loss, to GM Pia Cramling who can still beat anyone on her day. She scored 5/9 on top board for an Rp of 2067, loising 19 rating points, which we expect she will regain (and more) before too long. Trisha is still only just 19 and will have learned from this experience.
Alice O'Gorman will surely be disappointed to only score 3.5/8, losing 34 or 35 rating points, but we know she is a tough competitor and will bounce back.
Diana Mirza is a very experienced competitor and achieved a par score for her of 6/9 for a slight rating gain. Actually she just had one disastrous game early on where she got into a passive position in a Sicilian against Thailand and her opponent played the attack very well. After that Diana took a day off and then won three games in a row. Her play in the second week was much more like her old form.
Antonina Gora (our Polish-born 2023 champion) is usually a very solid and reliable player as she showed in the Swedish match and again today, saving difficult positions. She just had a bad patch in the middle, losing three games. So her final score of 4.5/9, losing 22 rating points, will just have to be put down to experience because this was her first olympiad and surely knows she can do better in future.
Lara Putar (who only reaches the age of 17 this year) was undeniably the star of the team, if not the whole Irish squad. The reserve player usually does not get to play 9 of the 11 rounds but she made herself undroppable in the second week. After a nervous start in which she lost against Uganda (as well as to a WGM from Vietnam, which is excusable) Lara won five games in a row. Some of these were by determined resistance in bad positions, and others were just by crushing the opponent.
Lara finished with 7/9 for an Rp of 2001 and gains 68 or 69 rating points as well as (according to the list on chess-results.com) fulfilling the requirement for the Women's Fide Master (WFM) title, so congratulations to her. One thing should be noted: she drew no games. As in future she will probably be playing on a higher board, Lara (like David) may need to learn how to draw games sometimes because winning from bad positions may get harder against the next level of opposition.