“For some 280 youths, representing eight countries, tonight is their big night when the curtains go up on their ” Little Olympics ” — the International Catholic Students’ Games — in Dublin. The Irish officials have, through hard work, brought the Games here for the first time, and we can look forward to a week of thrills in the four sections — Athletics, Basketball, Chess and Swimming.”
Tom O’Shea, Irish Press, Tuesday 13th August 1957, page 8.
The games were held under the auspices of FISEC (Fédération Internationale Sportive de l’Enseignement Catholique, alternatively International Sports Federation for Catholic Schools) founded in 1948 and still going today. The eight competing countries were Ireland, England, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Germany, France and Belgium. However, only the first four named were represented in the chess tournament. That event was played at Newman House, St Stephen’s Green from the 14th to the 16th August.
There was a field of six in the chess with Ireland represented by John McMahon and Art Coldrick, both of whom had been in the Irish team at the 1957 Glorney Cup, held in Glasgow the previous month. As it turned out, their main rival for the gold medal was the 13-year-old Spanish schoolboy champion, Jose Antonio Vallejo.
The two Irish players met in the first round in the Wednesday morning session. On the 19th move of a Sicilian Defence, Coldrick won the exchange and McMahon had to resign on the 26th. In the afternoon Coldrick won his second round game against the Portuguese student das Nunes, while McMahon’s game with Vallejo was adjourned but later agreed drawn.
In the third round Coldrick, McMahon and Vallejo all won – placing them in the leading three positions with Coldrick on 3.0, Vallejo on 2.5 and McMahon on 1.5. This set up the Thursday afternoon game between Coldrick and Vallejo to be almost certainly the Championship decider. They played a King’s Indian Defence in which Vallejo won three pawns for a Knight. He then made good use of his central pawns, leading to a combination featuring his Queen and Rook which forced Coldrick’s resignation on the 35th move.
In the final round on Friday morning, Vallejo secured overall victory with a straightforward win over the English player Keating while the two Irish players also won their games to secure the silver and bronze medals.
International Catholic Students' Games Final Crosstable 1. J.A. Vallejo ESP x 1 = 1 1 1 4.5 2. A. Coldrick IRL 0 x 1 1 1 1 4.0 3. J. McMahon IRL = 0 x 1 1 1 3.5 4. E. das Nunes POR 0 0 0 x 1 1 2.0 5. S.J. Keating ENG 0 0 0 0 x 1 1.0 6. P. Maguire ENG 0 0 0 0 0 x 0.0