Tom O’Gorman made an outstanding contribution to the Irish team in the Chess Olympiad which has just concluded in Budapest.
He won five games, drew three and lost just one in a performance which made him top score on the Irish team both in terms of points scored and percentage return from his games. His tournament performance rating (2496), nearly 2500 as against his current rating of 2,353, was a measure of how well he played.
In achieving this outstanding success Tom met some very tough opposition. The average rating of his nine opponents, three of whom were grandmasters and two international masters, was 2,330. The highlight of his performance was his win against the super strong Israeli grandmaster Tamir Nabaty who was rated 2,630 and who finished with six points from ten games. Tom outplayed his opponent in a complicated late middle game and despite the pressure of this being his first game found the best move suggested by the computer every time.
We can be very proud of Tom who gained a not inconsiderable 17.6 points for his performance. He really is in a consistently high vein of form at present. He had two excellent tournaments to gain the IM title and followed this up with a 100% record in winning the City of Dublin just prior to the Olympiad. He has now proved yet again that he can comfortably compete with very strong international opposition and there is no doubt that he can look forward to the future with great confidence.
While not repeating her outstanding performance in the previous Olympiad, Tom’s sister Alice made a significant contribution in helping the Irish women’s team outperform their seeding (60 th ) by finishing in fifty seventh place in the tournament. She met a number of strong players on board two and this took some of the pressure off her colleagues on lower boards.
Alice leaves shortly for Australia to pursue her medical career and we wish her every success and good fortune down under.
