Three teams finished on 4 match wins from 5 (8 match points) at the end of the fifth round of play of the Irish National Club Championships at the weekend. These were Elm Mount, Galway and Ennis. With game points being used as a tiebreaker, Elm Mount had 20 points, Galway 18.5 and Ennis 16 so the teams finished in that order. All qualify for the European Club Cup which takes place in Serbia later this year.
Galway can perhaps consider themselves a bit unlucky to only finish second as they defeated Elm Mount in Round 1 and arguably played a stronger field. Depending on the number of teams and rounds, the organisers could consider using a different tie break system for next years event (FIDE handbook gives a set of options other than game points that could be used). Typically match points and game points have always been used in this event, but it might be worth considering a different tiebreaker.
This years event did have an unusually large number of teams for the NCC, which was great to see, and had an exciting end, with placings being decided right up until the last games finished. Games being broadcast on lichess meant clubmates, and other interested spectators, not at the tournament could follow along too. Thanks to all the Ennis players who travelled to compete at the event, we used our full squad of 8 players so all played a part in our qualification for the ECC over the course of the tournament. Our squad for this event was O Gubanov, Z Nemeth, O Murchadha, R Quinn, O Culbeaux, T Dunne., J Melling, L Daros.
