Waterford based chess club records great league victory

There was a great derby encounter recently in Waterford, in the Munster Chess League with Dungarvan Chess Club going up against their near neighbours, Lismore.

The county derby event took place on January 19, when Dungarvan’s Munster League A and B Teams were in action in Charleville, with both teams playing matches at 12 noon, and then at 5pm.

Dungarvan’s A-team continue to conquer all before them, with very comfortable victories over Ennis B and UCC recorded on the Sunday. 

A spokesperson for the club commented to Waterford News & Star: "So far this season, Dungarvan’s Team A have played four rounds in the Munster League Division 3, taking all four match-points."

To underline the extent of Dungarvan A’s dominance of the division this year, they have recorded 18 wins, one draw and only one loss, from the 20 individual games that they’ve played so far.

The club spokesperson said Luke Creed stepped up from the B-team to win his evening-game, giving Dungarvan A the perfect 5-0 victory over UCC. 

"However, all of that was expected going into Sunday’s matches, so the results simply represented business as usual," said the spokesperson.

The rest of Dungarvan’s all-conquering Team A was composed of: Cody Coughlan, Declan Voogt, Arthur Moull and John Lucey, with Eamonn Lambden temporarily unavailable.

However, the real drama on Sunday was in Division 4, with Dungarvan’s B-team going head-to-head against Lismore in the county-derby and what made the contest even more significant was the fact Dungarvan and Lismore were the only clubs in Waterford with Munster League teams on the road.

Prior to Sunday’s evening-match, Lismore had a 50 per cent record, while Dungarvan B had been struggling. 

"However, a winning-strategy had been worked out months in advance of this match," said the spokesperson.

"All five of Dungarvan B’s players had Elo-ratings within 150 points of each other, so the league rules stated that they could line their players up in any board-order which they liked," he added, before commenting: "This was the key to victory."

"Lismore’s board #1, Brendan Meeghan was regarded as too strong to realistically hope for a point, so Dungarvan B’s strategy was to feed him a sacrificial lamb, and then stack boards two to five," said the spokesperson.

"Dungarvan’s, James Coughlan, who had won his game for the A-team earlier in the day, was drafted in to play on board two against Lismore’s Mark O’Leary," he added.

The rest of the team was composed of Ivor Gordon, John Lyons, Bernard Walsh and Richard Vitus.

Sixteen-year-old, Richard Vitus had been called in as a very late replacement, at 8am that morning. 

"Two hours after he got the call, he was on his way to Charleville," said the spokesperson.

"He was given a job to do on board five, and he delivered, winning his evening-game, and putting the crucial point in the bank for Dungarvan B to defeat Lismore 3-2 in the county-derby," he added.

However, the opportunity was no more than Richard deserved as his boundless enthusiasm and hard work ethic have seen him make enormous progress this year, having done very well in the Munster Junior Championships in November. 

"In heroic fashion, he more than repaid the selectors’ faith in him on Sunday, by delivering the crucial game-point which secured a narrow but memorable victory over Lismore," said the spokesperson.

"He is one of the young players who represent the club’s future."