17 Apr All-Ireland Chess Final
Congratulations to the Knights of Eanna team who participated in the All Ireland Chess Final last Saturday. The team was drawn number 4 which was very adventitious for us as the running order of the matches turned out to be crucial.
Our first match was against Ard Scoil Ris it was an evenly played match with a result of 3 to 3. Winning members of the team were Ross Cotter, Nadeem Naber and Kevin Lalor. Our 2nd match against St Benildus was much harder, the result, 5 to 1 for St Benildus. Our winning player was Nadeem Naber ,Kevin Lalor only lost out on a heartbreaking technicality.
The biggest match for the Knights was to be with the All Ireland champions Gonzaga College. The match start time 3pm our number one board to six were Conor Lehane, Luke Pendlebury, Cian Dunne, Kevin Lalor, Nadeem Naber and Ross Cotter. We knew going into this match that the likely-hood was that we were going to suffer a complete defeat at the hands of Gonzaga. The match got under way and within ten minutes there was to be a blood bath on boards three and six, the Knights were also suffering heavy losses on boards one and two. The ineffable defeat was only to clear to see but then Conor and Luke made a remarkable come back, they were fighting for their honour as boards one and two, they were holding their own against the two best players in Ireland. Your heart would go out to them as they continued to try and stave off their defeat. On boards four and five the Knights were doing better both Kevin and Nadeem had their opponents under pressure. You could then see Gonzaga getting the bit between their teeth. Coming back hard and with no mercy they put to death boards one, two, three, four and six leaving only Nadeem on board five to stand up for the Knights. Nadeem battled on and secured the crucial half point in a draw which was the difference between 3rd and 4th placing .
The Kinghts of Eanna are now the 3rd best team in the under 16 division of the All Ireland Chess championship.