The sixth Irish champion was Philip Baker, 1879-1932, who won in 1924, 1927, 1928 and 1929. A recent blog post Philip Baker, the Jewish refugee from Latvia who became Irish chess champion, by Patrick Comerford (October 22, 2020) gives very detailed information about his life, including much that was new to me. Highly recommended.
As Comerford notes, after moving to Dublin from Tralee in 1903, Baker joined Sackville C.C. Here is some more information about his early years in Dublin.
Baker also played for the Chess Circle of the Jewish Literary and Social Club, and in 1907-08 the club entered the Armstrong Cup for the first time, joining Sackville (holders), Dublin, Blackrock, and Dublin University. Each team was to play each of the others home and away. Matches were over six boards and only match results counted.
The first match should have been away to Dublin, but the latter withdrew due to a dispute with Sackville over the outcome of the 1906-07 season. So the Jewish club’s first Armstrong Cup match was instead at home to Sackville, played at 57 Lombard Street West on December 19, 1907. Philip Baker, who had played on board 8 for Sackville at the conclusion of the previous season, was on board 1 and had Black against Porterfield Rynd, reigning Irish champion, who had also played board 1 the previous season. This gives some indication of the relative strengths of the teams, and Sackville must have been confident of victory. It caused a sensation when the match ended in a draw, with Sackville indeed having to struggle to achieve that.
Baker’s win on board 1 appeared in the Saturday Herald two days later with notes by “Neo-Chess”; David McAlister points out that this was Rynd himself.
From the diagram, Baker surprised his opponent with 17… Rxe5!, resulting in a double-edged game with approximately equal chances.
Rynd went wrong in later complications, and from the second diagram, Baker efficiently snuffed out White’s chances via 30… Rf7!.
After 31. e6 Rxf6 32. e7 Rd6+ 33. Kc1, the finish was 33… Qh6+ 34. Kb1 Qh7+ 35. Kxa1 Qxe7! 36. Qf1 Qd7 0-1.
[Click to replay the full game (which is not available in the ICU games archive as of the date of this post).]
As occasionally happened in those days, only the winners on either side were named in the article. White is given as simply “P.”. In the return match “J. A. Porterfield”, another of Rynd’s aliases/name variations, defeated Baker, so the only reasonable inference is that Rynd was White.
That he left his own name out of the report may indicate some embarrassment at the unexpected loss. On the other hand, the notes are generous to Baker, and end with a warm note of congratulation for what was indeed a very well played game.