The Irish championship in 1972 marked the end of one era and the beginning of another. In part this was due to the Fischer boom: Fischer-Spassky began on July 11, in the middle of the event. For whatever reason, though the field was roughly typical for the era, the entire field combined won only one further Irish championship between them.
No games from the event appear in the ICU’s games archive or in any database. However, and very remarkably, none has been lost: John Gibson, who was controller for the event, has kept the full set of scoresheets. These have now been keyed in, and are available in a full tournament report here.
There were many interesting games, but possibly the game of the tournament was the round 2 encounter between the joint winners Wolfgang Heidenfeld and Matt O’Leary. Heidenfeld later won the playoff match and was sole champion, but O’Leary won their game in the championship itself.
Above: Heidenfeld’s scoresheet.
Many thanks to John Gibson for exemplary record-keeping. The report also draws from his notebooks for the 1971-72 Armstrong Cup for details of clubs and ratings.