Category Archives: Irish championships

A report on the Irish Championship 1995 has been added to the tournament pages here. Brian Kelly became the youngest ever Irish champion, at about 16 years, 8 months, beating the previous record set by John Moles, who was 16 … Continue reading →

Andy Ansel has sent another game from the Irish Championship 1973, the round 4 encounter between Wolfgang Heidenfeld and Art Coldrick, which appeared in the South African Chessplayer, May 1974. Many thanks, Andy! Heidenfeld was defending champion, and was playing … Continue reading →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

Another critical moment in the 1978 Irish championship came in round 3, when Alan Ludgate had Black against Adrian McDaid. In a complex struggle, chances were around equal until quite late on, when an error from McDaid caused his position … Continue reading →