Category Archives: Players

Alexander Baburin

Posted on September 11, 2012 by Sean Coffey

The recent discussion around Alex Lopez’s near-miss of a GM norm at the Istanbul Olympiad reminded me that the biography pages here were missing a page for Ireland’s first (and still only) GM, Alexander Baburin. He earned the title a … Continue reading →

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Glorney Cup 1964

Posted on August 18, 2012 by Sean Coffey

Here is a photograph of the players at the 1964 Glorney Cup, played in London. A warmup question: can you identify the three very well known English players who are in the third row from front, seventh from right; second … Continue reading →

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Svetozar Gligorić 1923-2012

Posted on August 14, 2012 by Sean Coffey

TWIC reports that Svetozar Gligorić died today in Belgrade. (Born 2nd February 1923, Belgrade.) He was one of the household names in world chess when I was learning the moves, so for me and I’m sure for many others this … Continue reading →

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Conor Barrington

Posted on August 14, 2012 by Sean Coffey

J.J. Walsh brought the news of the recent death of Conor Barrington. There was a notice in the Irish Times (3rd-4th October 2011): Conor Barrington (Mount Tallant Avenue, Dublin), formerly of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, d. 1st … Continue reading →

Posted in Games, Players | 2 Comments

Yet ?!??!!!

Posted on August 6, 2012 by Sean Coffey

Gawain Jones has won this year’s British championship, the 99th overall. Hearty congratulations, though not a huge surprise as he was after all the top seed. He lived for two years in Ennis, and his name came up here recently … Continue reading →

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C. Parker Glorney

Posted on July 31, 2012 by Sean Coffey

This year’s Glorney Cup has been well covered elsewhere (see the ICU report). But relatively little has been written about Glorney himself, other than that he was a Dublin businessman who donated the cup in 1947. Cecil Parker Glorney was … Continue reading →

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Irish championship 2012, and an update to the equal-first-in-an-Irish-championship-but-never-Irish-champion list

Posted on July 16, 2012 by Sean Coffey

Congratulations to the joint Irish champions for this year, FMs Stephen Brady and Colm Daly, after one of the closest finishes ever. A fuller report later, but for now we should acknowledge that first place was shared by, and indeed … Continue reading →

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Thomas Cox centenary

Posted on July 5, 2012 by Sean Coffey

Thomas Cox, Irish champion in 1937 and 1938, and Leinster champion in 1936, ’37 and ’38, had what must be the most meteoric rise ever in Irish chess: he took up the game in 1933, at the age of 21, … Continue reading →

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Double seesaw/windmill

Posted on July 1, 2012 by Sean Coffey

On looking through the chess historical site Chess Notes, a search for items of Irish interest came up with the following curious example, submitted by Oliver Dunne–an old team-mate of mine, as it happens. In fact here’s a clipping of … Continue reading →

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Tomson solution

Posted on June 25, 2012 by Sean Coffey

The solution to the Tomson problem in the last post is here. (I’ll omit a diagram here to allow later readers a chance to try the problem for themselves.) The knight manoeuvres allow the bishop to move into place by … Continue reading →

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