Munster Chess Union
The final rounds of the 2019/2020 Munster League were played on Sunday October 23rd in the Charleville Park Hotel. Division 1 Round 9 kicked off at 12:00 noon with Round 10 at 5:00 pm.
The team standings after the first eight rounds are shown below. Cork A were leading on 6 match points ahead of Sarsfield and Ennis A on 5 points. Limerick B had mathematical chances of avoiding relegation but it would require winning both of their matches.
| Team | Match Points | Game Points | Matches |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cork A | 6.0 | 24.0 | 8 |
| Sarsfield | 5.0 | 22.5 | 8 |
| Ennis A | 5.0 | 22.0 | 8 |
| Limerick A | 4.5 | 23.0 | 8 |
| CCYMS | 2.5 | 18.0 | 8 |
| Limerick B | 1.0 | 10.5 | 8 |
In Round 9 Sarsfield beat Cork A by 3-2 giving themselves a shot at the title. Ennis A beat Limerick A 4-1 also keeping their ambitions alive. Going into Round 10 Cork A, Ennis A and Sarsfield were all on 6 match points. Cork A and Ennis A were also equal on game points at 26.0 each while Sarsfield were on 25.5. So things could hardly be closer.
In the final round Cork A and Ennis A were scheduled to meet in a decisive match. However Sarsfield were due to play Limerick B which seemed very likely to give them the opportunity to jump ahead by picking up more game points.
Sarsfield duly scored a 4.5-0.5 win over Limerick B moving them to 30 game points. This meant that Ennis A or Cork A needed at least a 4-1 victory to equal Sarsfield on game points. In the end Ennis A actually beat Cork A by a stunning 4.5-0.5 margin to win the league by half a game point (i.e. a single draw) from Sarsfield.
An interesting point is that even if Ennis A had finished on the same game ponts as Sarsfield the next tie break would be decided by the results of the two matches between Ennis A and Sarsfield. Ennis A had won one match and drawn the other so that tie break would also have favoured Ennis A.
The final results table can be seen below or in the match results page here.
| Team | Match Points | Game Points | Matches |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ennis A | 7.0 | 30.5 | 10 |
| Sarsfield | 7.0 | 30.0 | 10 |
| Cork A | 6.0 | 26.5 | 10 |
| Limerick A | 5.0 | 26.5 | 10 |
| CCYMS | 4.0 | 24.5 | 10 |
| Limerick B | 1.0 | 12.0 | 10 |