IRLchess

From an article in the Cork Examiner on February 16, 1968, by “The Knight”:

Changes In The Championship
A number of important changes in the Irish Championship have been announced recently by the Irish Chess Union, who last year appointed a special sub-committee to look into the running and organisation of this tournament which, though surpassed by a number of other tournaments from the point of view of prize-money is still the most coveted and probably the toughest tournament in the Irish chess calendar.

The main changes are (i) there will be nine rounds, the extra round to be played on the second Sunday; (ii) ties for first place will no longer be split by “sum of opponents” scores, but by a match; (iii) a replica of the Irish Championship Shield will be presented to the winner, and there will be additional prizes; (iv) the tournament will no longer be open to any standard of player; (v) a tournament confined to players ineligible on grounds of playing strength for the championship will be run concurrently with cash prizes, provided the organising union considers the demand sufficient; and (vi) the championship will not necessarily rotate from province to province and will not necessarily be played in July.

The evolution of the format and venue over time can be seen on the Irish Championship page at David McAlister’s Irish Chess History web site. The first Swiss format event was the 1949 championship, held over seven rounds. From the following year, the format switched to eight round Swisses, with the exception of all-play-alls in 1960, 1961, and 1964. Apart from one more all-play-all in 1986, and an anomalous and controversial compressed seven-round event in 1989, all Irish championships have been nine-round Swisses, starting in 1968.

The tie-break method has evolved markedly over the years. Initially, ties were resolved by playoff matches, or, as in 1926, an all-play-all playoff tournament with all tied players. Starting with introduction of the Swiss system in 1949, the tie-break method became Sonneborn-Berger, and this was used to decide the championships of 1953, 1955, and 1962. At some stage after 1962, the system changed to “sum of opponents’ scores”, and Wolfgang Heidenfeld won the 1967 championship over Paul Henry based on this method. The next event after the 1968 change that featured a tie was the 1972 event, when Heidenfeld defeated Matt O’Leary in a playoff match. As it happens, he would have won on “sum of opponents’ scores” as well, but would have lost on almost any other commonly used system, including Direct Encounter.

The trophy for the Irish championship for many years was a large wooden shield, which sadly was lost a few years later, in the early 1970s.

“The Knight” declared that there was almost unanimous agreement that change (iv), restricting entry, was the most important change. Entry was to be restricted to nominations by provincial secretaries of players who were judged capable of scoring 50% in the Irish championship as it had been structured in recent years. This is slightly puzzling from today’s perspective, as the traditional method for allocating places, in the pre-Swiss days, was nomination by provinces, so in some ways this was a simple return to the prior norm. Possibly this was a reaction to the two relatively large fields in 1966 and 1967 (42 and 33, respectively); perhaps there was some feeling that the standard was too variable. The ICU rating system was in its infancy, and starting in 1972 the 1900 bar for qualification was installed.

For change (v), concurrent events were not unknown before 1968: for example, the 1964 event had a concurrent Irish Open. But these were the rare exception to the general rule of a stand-alone event.

Finally, “The Knight” remarked that the last change, involving removal of automatic rotation between provinces, was necessary due to “the breakdown of organised chess” in Connacht. “It seems at present unlikely that another Irish Championship will take place in Galway or anywhere in the West for that matter.” However, “The Knight” found it unfortunate that the wording meant that Munster would lose its regular place of every fourth year in the rotation (which should become every third year without Connacht), which it had held since 1947. Indeed, the 1947, 1951, 1955, 1963, and 1967 championships were held in Cork, and the 1959 championship in Killarney. “The Knight” regretted that the Munster authorities, unlike their Leinster and Ulster counterparts, had not responded to the proposals. As it was, Cork hosted the championship regularly for several years after the new rule was introduced: 1971, 1973, 1977, 1980, and 1982—so one year in three—but has never held a championship since then.