Canon Séamus Cunnane of Carlow died last week in Cardigan, Wales, aged 92. His name will not be familiar to most readers, as he spent most of his life in Cardigan, where he was a parish priest from 1962 until his retirement in 2004 [but see note below]. He returned to Ireland to play in two Irish championships, 1968 and 1969, scoring 4½/9 and 4/9 respectively.
Like many Irish clerics before him, he played correspondence chess with distinction, and he won the Welsh correspondence championship three times, in 1969-70, 1972, and 1974.
He had the distinction of winning a world championship, of sorts, finishing first in Division 3 of an ICCF World Cup, run from 1974 to 1977, according to regional newspapers in Ireland at the time, though I have no other information about this event.
I can only find two games of his in the databases, one an over-the-board loss in a league game after his retirement, and one draw against Wolfgang Heidenfeld in a Wales v. Ireland correspondence match, run from 1970 to 1972. I would be very interested in any more of his games that might survive, particularly from his correspondence event wins.
He was a co-founder of Cardigan C.C. in the 1960’s, probably around the middle of the
decade, along with Iolo C. Jones, later FM, who played in the Irish championship in 2011. (In a sad coincidence, Iolo Jones predeceased Canon Cunnane by a few weeks.) He had played at Carlow C.C. from 1945 to 1948, but gave up when he started to study for the priesthood, only returning to the game in the mid-1960’s; with this background he turned in a very creditable performance in the Irish championships.
I had only recently connected Canon Cunnane with the player who played in the 1968 and 1969 championships, and attempted to contact him for any recollections he might have. Sadly, he was already very unwell.
A tribute from a local historical society can be found here. A brief biographical summary has been added to the Players page here.
[Update, October 17, 2021: Correction: Canon Cunnane retired in 1999, not 2004.]
[Update, October 19, 2021: Another game of Séamus Cunnane, and a notable scalp, is given in a nice tribute on the Welsh Chess Union website. In a club game at Cardigan C.C. in 2005 against Howard Williams, the following position was reached with Black to play:
33… ?
This position is trickier than it looks, and readers are invited to consider what Black should play here. I’ll just say that Williams’ suggested improvement for Black here might not actually be best. The game continued 33… a5? 34. bxa5? (a letoff; 34. h4! immediately wins) 34… Kxa5? (34… Kc5 is enough to draw) 35. h4! (“flashed out”) and Williams resigned: the black king has wandered too far and the h-pawn can’t be stopped.]