Category Archives: Players

Who?

Posted on October 9, 2013 by Sean Coffey

No Irish player has ever beaten a reigning world champion. (In a regular game, that is, leaving aside simuls.) Even victories over future or past world champions have been very rare: half a dozen or so in all. One such … Continue reading →

Posted in Players, Puzzles | 1 Comment

Monthly update, September 2013

Posted on October 1, 2013 by Sean Coffey

A total of 52 games have been added to the archive this month: the full monthly list is available, as usual, by entering “-month2013-09” in the search box. This month sees the return to the game of another veteran, Brian … Continue reading →

Posted in Games, Players | 1 Comment

Norms and titles

Posted on July 5, 2013 by Sean Coffey

FIDE has recently issued a requirement that all old title norms and rating qualifications have to be re-registered by this July 31st or be lost forever: apparently the rules have changed so often that it imposes a strain on the … Continue reading →

Posted in News, Players | 5 Comments

Heidenfeld and the 1958 Irish Championship

Posted on June 14, 2013 by David McAlister

There’s one simple way for an Irish chess website to increase its traffic: start a debate on the eligibility to play in the Irish Championship, more specifically should it be an open or closed tournament (and if it’s a closed … Continue reading →

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Gerry McCurdy

Posted on June 11, 2013 by Sean Coffey

In putting together a post on a different topic, I found an article indicating that Gerry McCurdy, who was a strong player in Ireland in the ’60’s, before emigrating to France, has returned to the game. There’s an article on … Continue reading →

Posted in Players | 6 Comments

Alex Montwill

Posted on May 3, 2013 by Sean Coffey

J.J. Walsh has sent the news that Alex Montwill, who has been mentioned here several times, died two weeks ago, on April 18th. He was 78. As previously discussed here, he finished equal first in an Irish championship but was … Continue reading →

Posted in News, Players | 1 Comment

Jonathan O’Connor awarded CC-IM title

Posted on April 5, 2013 by Sean Coffey

Colm Daly’s galling near-miss of an IM norm last month happened just as I was leaving for a trip to Shanghai–as I left the house I thought he had it in the bag. Disappointing! But that is the way with … Continue reading →

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Cox centenary: Challenge match with O’Hanlon

Posted on December 28, 2012 by David McAlister

In our earlier Thomas Cox centenary article Play-off for the Dublin CC Championship 1936, I chronicled how J.J. O’Hanlon had suffered a surprise defeat to Cox. O’Hanlon was the reigning Irish champion and he perhaps felt the need to restore … Continue reading →

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Joe Ryan misses IM norm by ½ point

Posted on December 28, 2012 by Sean Coffey

I haven’t seen any mention of this on the ICU site, but if I’m reading the requirements correctly Joe Ryan missed an IM norm by the narrowest of margins last month. The event was the 4th Sant Martí IM tournament … Continue reading →

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Cox centenary: Play-off for the Dublin CC Championship 1936

Posted on September 23, 2012 by David McAlister

Sean previously posted about the centenary of the birth of Thomas Cox, Irish chess champion in 1937 and 1938 but who died in 1939 aged only 27. This present post is the first of a series of articles on important … Continue reading →

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