Irish Championship 1971

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Sources and notes

Sources
Tournament book “Irish Chess Championships”, Maurice Coveney (36pp.) (32 games)
Game file All 9 games of Jim G. Murray (only one previously available: the round 6 game against O'Brien) (via email, February 17, 2022, for which many thanks)
BCM “The 1971 Irish Championship”, Wolfgang Heidenfeld, BCM 1971 p. 325 (via David McAlister)
ICU records Tournament page, ICU web site (players and scores)
Newspapers
  • Cork Examiner:
  • “Enthusiasts take note!”, “The Knight”, June 30, 1971 p. 10 (dates, venue, organiser)
  • “John Moles heads the table”, July 15, 1971 p. 14 (round 6)
  • “Moles now chess title favourite”, July 17, 1971 p. 16 (round 7)
  • “John Moles new Irish champion”, July 19, 1971 p. 13 (final report, results from rounds 8 and 9)
  • July 23, 1971 p. 14, “The Knight” (final report, leading scores)
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  • Evening Echo:
  • July 14, 1971 p. 12 (photo of McCurdy - Henry game, round 4, in progress)
  • July 19, 1971 p. 12 (photo of John Moles receiving shield from Maurice Coveney)
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  • Evening Herald:
  • “Irish chess team for Cardiff”, August 4, 1971 p. 12 (re Glorney Cup)
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  • Irish Independent:
  • July 7, 1971 p. 14 (preview)
  • “Chess tourney begins on Sunday”, July 8, 1971 p. 13 (preview; “next Saturday afternoon”)
  • “Chess tourney begins on Sunday”, July 9, 1971 p. 13 (preview; copy of item above)
  • “Top chess games drawn”, July 15, 1971 p. 13 (round 4)
  • “Irish tests”, Paul Cassidy, July 16, 1971 p. 8 (round 3)
  • “Important chess ties adjourned”, July 16, 1971 p. 15 (round 5)
  • “Moles leads chess test”, July 17, 1971 p. 12
  • “Moles' title”, July 20, 1971 p. 13 (summary of outcome)
  • “Moles the master”, Paul Cassidy, July 23, 1971 p. 7 (summary of outcome, score of Moles - MacGrillen, round 7))
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  • Irish Press:
  • July 12, 1971 p. 14 (round 1)
  • July 14, 1971 p. 13 (round 3)
  • July 15, 1971 p. 13 (round 4)
  • July 16, 1971 p. 13 (round 5)
  • July 17, 1971 p. 13 (round 6)
  • “Moles takes chess title”, July 20, 1971 p. 16 (winner, leading scores, round 9 results)
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  • Irish Times:
  • “The championships”, June 24, 1971 p. 12 (preview)
  • “30 to compete for chess title”, July 7, 1971 p. 11 (preview)
  • “Irish chess championships”, July 12, 1971 p. 6 (round 1)
  • “Three share lead in chess test”, July 13, 1971 p. 11 (round 2)
  • “McGrillen leads chess event”, July 14, 1971 p. 11 (round 3)
  • “Irish chess championship”, July 16, 1971 p. 4 (round 5)
  • “Moles leads in chess event”, July 17, 1971 p. 11 (round 6)
  • “Ladies chess title is shared”, July 19, 1971 p. 15 (round 8)
  • “Moles wins chess championship”, July 20, 1971 p. 14 (result, round 9 results)
  • “Championships”, J. J. Walsh, July 30, 1971 p. 12 (tournament review)
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  • Sunday Independent:
  • “Moles' chess lead”, July 18, 1971 p. 25 (round 7)
Contemparaneous handwritten records
Rating lists


Notes
Key In "Pairings & results",
  • "age" denotes the player's age on his or her birthday that year (even if the birthday fell after the event)
  • "x-ch" denotes former Irish champions
  • "ol" denotes members of the Irish team at the previous Olympiad (Siegen, September 5-27, 1970)
  • "ch#" denotes the number of championships the player played in, including this one
  • "cca" denotes Cork Chess Association ratings
  • "bcf" denotes BCF ratings
Débuts and final appearances 7 players played in their first Irish championship: Lacy, Lynn, F. Murphy, Murray, O'Brien, O'Sullivan, and Quigley. 9 players never played again: Ireton, Lacy, McDevitt, Moles, F. Murphy, P. J. Murphy, O'Brien, O'Siochru, and Ryan.
Ratings
  • FIDE ratings are from the July 1971 list (first official FIDE list)
  • ICU ratings are from the September 1970 list
  • CCA (Cork Chess Association) ratings are from the June 1971 list (Cork Examiner, June 30, 1971 p. 10)
  • BCF ratings are from the 1971 BCF list
Clubs
Other clubs
  • McDevitt was affiliated with Regency C.C. in Brighton in 1969-70 (SCCU list, September 1970, p. 15), and possibly/probably in 1970-71 also; the SCCU list for September 1971 is not readily available. He is not listed in the BCF Grading List for 1971, probably because his grading was not high enough (he was graded 170 in the SCCU 1970 list). He played for Dublin C.C. in the 1971-72 Armstrong Cup (John Gibson notebooks), but does not seem to have been affiliated with Dublin at the time of this event (cf. Irish Independent reference below).
  • Murray was probably unrated and unaffiliated at the time of this event. The ICU list for September 1970 and the LCU list for September 1971 list one "J. Murray", of Ierne, rated 2087 and 2088 respectively, but this was probably John Murray rather than Jim. John Gibson's rating rough work sheet for this event shows Jim Murray with a performance rating of 2006, and the separate event table shows him with a provisional rating of 1946 before the event. In a report on the Dublin Matchplay (Irish Independent, August 20, 1971 p. 13), all players mentioned have club affiliations listed (including John Murray, Ierne) except for McDevitt and Jim Murray.
Disambiguation
  • In addition to the Frank Murphy who played for Shandon, an F. Murphy played for Kevin Barry, and is listed in the ICU September 1970 and LCU September 1971 lists. F. Murphy is not listed in John Gibson's rough work sheet for this event, so was probably the Shandon player.
Glorney Cup Tom Ireton and Colm Quigley played in the Glorney Cup, which took place in Cardiff, August 5-7, 1971
Contemporary photographs
  • Gerald McCurdy and Paul Henry, round 4 game in progress: Evening Echo, July 14, 1971 p. 12
  • John Moles receiving shield from Maurice Coveney: Evening Echo, July 19, 1971 p. 12
Versions
  • v1.0 (15 Feb 2022): first published version
  • v1.1 (18 Feb 2022): added eight new games of Jim G. Murray's, received from him February 17, 2022, for which many thanks; added notes to the new games Cootes - Murray, round 1, Murray - McDevitt, round 8, and Murray - O'Sullivan, round 9, and added to list of Annotated games; added Cootes - Murray, round 1 and Murray - O'Sullivan, round 9, to list of Interesting games; changed "Murray, Jim" to "Murray, Jim G." throughout; added initials for F. Murphy and P. J. Murphy in round reports; added entry on Glorney Cup in Sources and notes → Notes, and corresponding Evening Herald story in Sources and notes → Sources → Newspapers; added extra cross links in Sources and notes → Notes → Other clubs and → Disambiguation; added club affiliations for Cecile Meulien and Aileen Noonan in Information → Basic data
  • v1.2 (10 Mar 2022): added number of championships played for Jim G. Murray in Pairing & results (inadvertently deleted in v1.1)
  • v1.3 (4 Jun 2022): removed spurious score of McDevitt - MacGrillen, round 9 (for which the score of Murray - McDevitt, round 8, was previously incorrectly given)
Contributors Jim G. Murray, John Gibson, David McAlister, Seán Coffey


IRLchess: Irish chess history & records.
Version 1.3, published 4 June 2022. Comments/corrections? .
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