Irish Championship 1968

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Sources and notes

Sources
ICU web site
  • Tournament archive (totals and places)
  • ICU games archive (two games, Heidenfeld - Byrne, round 2, and Reilly - Heidenfeld, round 5, as of the date of the initial version of this report)
BCM
Informator Informator 6/132 (Marić)
Lacking the Master Touch
  • Lacking the Master Touch, Wolfgang Heidenfeld (South African Chessplayer, 1970), pp. 107-110 (p. 107, pp. 108-09, p. 110)
Newspapers
  • Belfast Telegraph
  • July 8, 1968 p. 14, "Heidenfeld can retain chess title" (rounds 1 and 2)
  • July 9, 1968 p. 12, "Chess holder shares lead" (round 3)
  • July 10, 1968 p. 15, "Now Wilson joins chess leaders" (round 4)
  • July 11, 1968 p. 15, "No change in chess leadership" (round 5)
  • July 13, 1968 p. 10, "Heidenfeld can keep chess crown" (round 7)
  •  
  • Cork Examiner (“The Knight”)
  • July 22, 1968 p. 12, "Heidenfeld's fifth title" (review; all scores)
  •  
  • Evening Herald
  • June 17, 1964 p. 8, "Irish chess championship" (details of championship)
  • July 6, 1968 p. 2, "Chessmen converge on Dublin" (preview)
  • July 17, 1964 p. 16, "Holder likely to retain" (round 6)
  •  
  • Irish Independent
  • July 5, 1968 p. 18, "Tough test for chess champion" (preview)
  • July 8, 1968 p. 14, "Heidenfeld shares lead" (round 2)
  • July 10, 1968 p. 12, "Heidenfeld draws with Cassidy" (round 4)
  • July 11, 1968 p. 14, "Keen battle in chess" (round 5)
  • July 12, 1968 p. 17, "Heidenfeld, Cassidy lead" (round 6)
  • July 13, 1968 p. 15, "Heidenfeld set for chess title" (round 7)
  • July 15, 1968 p. 13, "Heidenfeld takes chess title" (summary final report; round 9)
  •  
  • Irish Press
  • July 6, 1968 p. 15, "Irish chess tests open" (preview)
  • July 11, 1968 p. 16, "Holder shares lead in chess championship" (round 5)
  •  
  • Irish Times
  • July 4, 1968 p. 11, "Trinity venue for Irish chess championship" (preview, controller, schedule)
  • July 4, 1968 p. 13, "Irish championship", J. J. Walsh (preview)
  • July 8, 1968 p. 8, "21 competitors in chess" (round 2)
  • July 9, 1968 p. 8, "Lead shared in chess championship" (round 3)
  • July 9, 1968 p. 10 (photo (of good newspaper quality) of Finbar O'Donohoe and John Dudley playing in the Premier event)
  • July 10, 1968 p. 10, "Leaders in chess test meet and draw" (round 4)
  • July 11, 1968 p. 10, "Irish chess championship" (round 5)
  • July 11, 1968 p. 12, "Student championship", J. J. Walsh (Heidenfeld - Byrne, round 2)
  • July 12, 1968 p. 12, "Lead still shared in chess championship" (round 6)
  • July 13, 1968 p. 8, "Holder leads in chess championship" (round 7)
  • July 15, 1968 p. 8, "Champion retains chess title" (round 9; results of concurrent events)
  • July 18, 1968 p. 10, "Heidenfeld's fifth", J. J. Walsh (review, all final scores)
  • July 25, 1968 p. 8, "Missing provinces", J. J. Walsh (additional review; Byrne - O'Leary, round 3)
  •  
  • Londonderry Sentinel
  • April 3, 1968 p. 25 (dates, venue, concurrent events)
  •  
  • Sunday Independent
  • July 7, 1968 p. 9, "Holder of chess title through" (round 1)
  • July 7, 1968 p. 24, "The checkmating season" (article for general audience; photo, of excellent newspaper quality, of Eugene O'Hare during game)
  • July 14, 1968 p. 10, "Chess title leader held by schoolboy" (round 8)
Clubs
  • Club affiliations are from the following sources:
  •  
  • Ballance: Irish Independent, December 4, 1967 p. 15
  • Byrne: Irish Press, November 11, 1967 p. 11
  • Cassidy, Egan: Irish Independent, February 15, 1968 p. 13
  • Coll, O'Hare: Ulster Herald, November 4, 1967 p. 11
  • Collins, O'Kane, Wilson: Ireland's Saturday Night, February 17, 1968 p. 14
  • Cox: Irish Press, January 20, 1968 p. 13
  • Heidenfeld, O'Riordan, Ó Siochrú: Irish Press, January 11, 1968 p. 14
  • Ireton: Cork Examiner, December 14, 1967 p. 14
  • Edward W. Lewis, William Lewis: Irish Independent, October 11, 1967 p. 16
  • O'Leary: Cork Examiner, December 19, 1967 p. 13


Notes
Key In "Pairings & results":
  • "(age)" denotes the player's age on his or her birthday that year, regardless of whether the birthday fell before, during, or after the event;
  • "x-ch" denotes former Irish champions;
  • "ol" denotes members of the following Olympiad team (Lugano 1968, played October 17-November 7) (archived version (via the Wayback Machine)).

In round bulletins, results in parentheses indicate that colours are unknown.

In playable games, "RR" denotes editorial comment.
Adjournments The progress of results taking adjournments into account can be followed in this text file.
Format This was the first Irish championship decided by a 9-round Swiss. This was part of a set of changes recommended by an ICU committee, and announced in February 1968. Other changes recommended by the committee and adopted by the ICU included a change to a playoff match to resolve a tie for the title, as opposed to using sum of opponents' scores; limitation of the ability of players to enter, with nomination by provincial secretaries generally required; creation of a premier supporting event; and elimination of the requirement to rotate the championship between the provinces. (Cork Examiner, February 16, 1968 p. 13 (“The Knight”).

In addition, the 1967 ICU AGM approved a motion permitting “first generation Irish players” to play. (BCM, April 1968, p. 93.)
Discrepancies
  • The Cork Examiner, the Irish Times, and BCM reported after the event that O'Leary withdrew after six rounds, but per the round reports in the Belfast Telegraph, Irish Independent, and Irish Times, he also played in round 7.
Olympiad The selection of the Olympiad team was announced in February (Irish Independent, February 22, 1968 p. 15). Under then-existing ICU rules, players had to have competed in at least one of the two previous Irish championships to be eligible for selection (Cork Examiner, February 28, 1968 p. 14).
Glorney Cup
  • Ballance, Edward W. Lewis, O'Kane, and Wilson played in the Glorney Cup in Plymouth ENG, August 1968.
  • Full team, in selection order: John Moles (Royal Belfast Academical Instituton), Paul Henry (St. Malachy's, Belfast), Peter O'Kane (Q.U.B.), David C. Wilson (Methodist College Belfast), Martyn A. J. Matthews (Royal Belfast Academical Institution), Edward W. Lewis (Gonzaga College, Dublin), and F. Ballance (Belvedere College, Dublin) (Ireland's Saturday Night, May 25, 1968 p. 2).
Families William Lewis is the father of Edward W. (“Teddy”) Lewis (Irish Press, November 26, 1970 p. 15).
Ages The median age, modified as in the "(age)" column in Pairings & results (in effect, treating all birthdays as occurring on January 1), was 25 or 26. Not all years of birth are known, but Ballance, E. W. Lewis, O'Kane, and Wilson played in the Glorney Cup, so all were around 18 or younger, and Ireton played in the following three Glorney Cups; Coll was born in the mid-1940's, so was around 23, and O'Riordan played in the Glorney Cup in 1948, so was probably around 38. William Lewis, father of E. W. Lewis, was well over the median age. This leaves only Frank Doyle. The median modified age would be 25 if he was aged 25 or less, and 26 otherwise.
Débuts and final appearances
  • Eleven players made their Irish championship débuts: Ballance, Byrne, Cassidy, Coll, Collins, Cox, Cunnane, Doyle, O'Kane, Ó Siochrú, and Wilson.
  • Ballance, Edward W. Lewis, O'Kane, and Stewart never played again.
Versions
  • v1.0 (29 Oct 2024): first published version
  • v1.1 (4 Nov 2024):
    • in "Pairings & results", added (age) for Collins, O'Kane, and Wilson from Albert Long's notebooks, via David McAlister;
    • in "Round 1", added link to O'Hare - Egan;
    • in Reilly - Heidenfeld, round 5, corrected glitches and minor typos and converted some moves from text to playable
  • v1.2 (7 Nov 2024):
    • corrected dates in "Round" pages
Contributors Seán Coffey, David McAlister
Author Seán Coffey


IRLchess: Irish chess history & records.
Version 1.2, published 7 November 2024. Comments/corrections? .
Download pgn file.