Philippe Renaut (Galway) successfully defended his title as Irish Champion with a 2–1 victory over Lu Xinqun in the finals. This is Philippe’s second consecutive title, and his fourth overall.

The deciding game in the best-of-three final was a tense battle, with Xinqun maintaining a small but significant edge into the middle game, calmly taking territory and leaving a smattering of weak stones in the centre of the board. The finely balanced struggle tipped in Philippe’s favour when he executed a beautiful forcing sequence to capture some white stones, linking his own groups and giving him a commanding position. Xinqun’s last ditch efforts at invasion came to naught, and he took the honourable course of resignation.

Below, Philippe gives his impressions of the third game.