In 1897, the British House of Commons played a challenge match by cable against the U.S. House of Representatives. The top two boards on the House of Commons side were filled by players from Irish constituencies: the then Hon. Horace Curzon Plunkett (the ‘Sir’ was added in 1903) (County Dublin South), and John Howard Parnell, brother of Charles Stuart Parnell (Meath South).
Extended information about this match can be found in Edward Winter’s article Chess in the House of Commons at Chess Notes (2003, with subsequent additions). There’s an excellent picture of the ten players in the event (third picture of the article), with Plunkett at top left and Parnell at top right.
Plunkett’s opponent was Richmond Mumford Pearson, Jr., of North Carolina (bottom row, fourth from left). Unfortunately the latter didn’t put up much of a fight, and the game itself is of only historical interest. The overall standard seems to have been higher: the Westminster Budget, June 11, 1897 p. 26, wrote “Having watched the play during the progress of the match, we must admit that the games proved—except the American part of board No. 1—what we expected. … Four of the games have been good specimens of average chess”.
[Click to replay the full game.]
(The report in the Belfast News-Letter on June 1 menioned a ‘draw for play’. Could this mean that players were paired randomly, i.e., that board 1 was not reserved for the top player on each side? Or was it merely a draw for colours?)
Parnell lost a long game on board 2, and the match ended 2½-2½.