Conor Boland from our Irish Open Team recently volunteered to be the guinea pig for our first “Beat The Star” competition on Funbridge. We’re delighted that Conor’s partner on the Open Team, Tom Hanlon, has now agreed to be the second Irish star to put his head on the block.
Tom is Ireland’s most capped player, and his successes include a European Open Championship Silver Medal, all the relevant Irish national titles (most of them on many occasions), multiple Camrose Trophies, the EBU Spring Fours, the Lederer Trophy, numerous French National Teams titles, any many more. He was (and remains) Ireland’s youngest ever Grand Master, and is one of very few players to move straight from the Junior Team to the Open Team. So anyone that manages to beat him will have earned their reward!
The competition starts on 26 February (this Thursday) and will run for 3 days. You’ll play 12 boards against Tom, with IMPs scoring. You will need a Funbridge premium subscription to play but the code CBAI2026 is still active, and will give you two months’ free as a premium subscriber. (You will be charged after the two months expires.) To register for the competition, just click on this link. We hope to see plenty of people take Tom on, and that at least some will “beat the star”.
And a reminder that Malahide Congress takes place this weekend in the Grand Hotel, with events for all grades throughout the weekend. You’ll find full details here, and pre-entry is required for all except the Open Pairs events.