Author Archives: Sean Coffey

Irish Championship 1980, contd.

I’m delighted to report that David McAlister has found several more games from this event. Here’s an excerpt from his email explaining the background: “Opening some storage boxes in preparation for further organising my new study I came across my … Continue reading

Posted in Games, Irish championships, Tournaments | Leave a comment

Irish Championship 1980

The Irish Championship in 1980 was held at the ‘North Mon’ in Cork, from July 12-20. The field of 24 players included top seed and newly minted national master Paul Delaney, second seed Eugene Curtin, former champions Alan Ludgate and … Continue reading

Posted in Games, Irish championships, Tournaments | Leave a comment

Chandler – O’Connor, Trinity simul 1984

John Saunders’ BritBase site has a newly added collection of Murray Chandler’s games 1973-1989, featuring 1,594 games played during those years. This includes several hundred new games keyed in from scans of scoresheets provided by Chandler, as well as additional … Continue reading

Posted in Games, Simuls | 1 Comment

Johannesburg 1955, contd.

Following up on David’s recent post on Wolfgang Heidenfeld’s outstanding result in Johannesburg 1955, a tournament report has been added here, including all games from the event. Heidenfeld’s result, finishing joint first in the event, ahead of Max Euwe in … Continue reading

Posted in Games, Tournaments | Leave a comment

Irish Championship 1973, continued

At the end of 2017, David McAlister posted here on his reconstruction of the 1973 Irish championship, held in Cork and won by Hugh MacGrillen. A total of 9 of the 81 games were available. I’m delighted to report that … Continue reading

Posted in Games, Irish championships, Tournaments | Leave a comment

Irish Championship 2020

The Irish Championship 2020 begins today, thanks to heroic efforts by the ICU and by local organisers at Coláiste Éanna. Best of luck to all involved! A report has been added to the Irish championships page here, and will be … Continue reading

Posted in Irish championships, Tournaments | 1 Comment

Irish championship players, updated

The lists of Irish championship players have been updated to include the 2019 championship: see the full list in descending order of number of championships played, and the same in alphabetical order. All players from the first Irish championship in … Continue reading

Posted in Players | Leave a comment

A game in a thousand

The Irish Championship 1991 featured a spectacular game between the brothers Niall and Gerard McDonnell. Where the average interesting game might have one or two critical points of interest, this game had a dozen at the very least. It featured … Continue reading

Posted in Games, Irish championships, Tournaments | Leave a comment

Irish Championship 1991

A report on the Irish Championship 1991 has been added to the tournament section here. Stephen Brady became champion for the first of many times, a point clear of Colm Daly, Mark Heidenfeld (who was playing in his first Irish … Continue reading

Posted in Irish championships, Tournaments | Leave a comment

Horace Curzon Plunkett and the Oxford-Cambridge matches

Horace Curzon Plunkett played for Oxford University in four Oxford v. Cambridge ‘Varsity’ matches, in the years 1874 to 1877. The very first such match had been held in 1873, at the invitation and venue of the City of London … Continue reading

Posted in Games, Players | Leave a comment