Irish Championship 1973

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Sources and notes

Sources
Scoresheets Frank McMahon provided all of his games from the original scoresheets, for which many thanks
PGN files Andy Ansel provided the score of Heidenfeld - Coldrick, round 2, citing South African Chessplayer (vol. XXII, no. 5), May 1974, for which many thanks
ICU web site Scores and places; games archive (1 game (MacGrillen - Coldrick, round 8) as of December 2017)
Newspapers
  • Cork Examiner:
  • "Ulstermen set the pace", July 9, 1973 p. 5 (including Cootes - Heidenfeld, round 1)
  • "Two unbeaten", July 10, 1973 p. 13 (including Kennedy - Blair, round 3)
  • "Unbeaten players clash unresolved", July 11, 1973 p. 14 (including Ó Briain - Doyle, round 4)
  • "McGrillen takes clear chess lead", July 12, 1973 p. 13 (including Ó Briain - MacGrillen, round 5)
  • "Stiff match for chess leader", July 13, 1973 p. 13 (including Henry - Ó Briain, round 6)
  • "Chess matters complicated", July 14, 1973 p. 12 (including Cassidy - Henry, round 7)
  • "Irish title for Hugh Mcgrillen", July 16, 1973 p. 14 (including MacGrillen - Dennehy, round 9)
  •  
  • Irish Independent:
  • "Chess tests", June 2, 1973 p. 7
  • "Chess championship open for entries", June 28, 1973 p. 20
  • "Heidenfeld will defend title", July 7, 1973 p. 12
  • "Irish chess champion makes flying start", July 9, 1973 p. 15
  • "McGrillen, Henry share chess lead", July 11, 1973 p. 12
  • "McGrillen, Henry still in chess lead", July 12, 1973 p. 19
  • "McGrillen leads in chess test", July 13, 1973 p. 15
  • "Defending champ adjourns game", July 14, 1973 p. 11
  • "Clear lead for Hugh McGrillen", July 16, 1973 p. 14
  • "irsh chess title for McGrillen", July 17, 1973 p. 16
  •  
  • Irish Press:
  • "Chess", July 7, 1973 p. 7
  • "Heidenfeld in form", July 10, 1973 p. 12
  • "Chess", July 12, 1973 p. 13
  • "Hugh leads", July 13, 1973 p. 15
  • "Chess", July 14, 1973 p. 16
  •  
  • Irish Times:
  • "Irish chess championship", July 9, 1973 p. 9
  • "Three share lead in Irish chess", July 10, 1973 p. 5
  • "Lead shared after third round in Cork", July 11, 1973 p. 11
  • "Crucial game unfinished", July 12, 1973 p. 5
  • "McGrillen now leads in championship", July 13, 1973 p. 5
  • "Close contest in Cork", July 14, 1973 p. 9
  • "McGrillen still leads", July 16, 1973 p. 9
  • "McGrillen wins championship", July 17, 1973 p. 9
Web A Thriller From the 1973 Irish Championship, "Tartajobow on Chess" blog, January 16, 2018 (re Cootes - Heidenfeld, round 1)


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
  • "ch#" denotes the number of championships the player played in, including this one
  • "ol" denotes members of the previous Olympiad team (Skopje 1972)
MacGrillen's description Hugh MacGrillen's autobiographical sketch on the ICU web site includes some description of this event:

"I first played in the Irish Championship in Dublin 1962 where I most remember John Reid blowing the smoke of a huge cigar in my face while crushing me in 20 moves, and the man a Guardai too! After that I played regularly and became quite good at coming second. My trouble wes becoming overexcited in the last round and blowing up. Eventually, I overcame this problem and won the Dublin Easter tournament twice and finally the Irish championship in Cork 1973 (...) . I won my first five games, including this one against Coldrick and was well ahead of the field. Then I sat up all night talking and drinking with Michael Littleton (anyone who knows that beguiling man will realise how easy that is to do). The next day I lost to Wolfgang Heidenfeld but was still far enough ahead to run in without too much trouble."

(The win against Coldrick was actually in round 8.)
Other commentary Wolfgang Heidenfeld wrote an extensive article in the Irish Times ("Irish chess: the Northern dominance, August 1, 1973 p. 16) that made several references to this event:

"The recent Irish chess championship in Cork has once more confirmed the, by now, well-established story of the superiority of the leading Northern Irish players. Hugh McGrillen, who on this occasion annexed the title for the first time, has now joined previous winners, Moles, Patterson and Henry, in emphasising a pattern that came to be established in the second half of the sixties. ...

(T)he first-round game between Littleton and Quigley at Cork was of particular interest to me. Quigley reached the first adjournment a pawn up in a queens ending but, sealing a horribly bad move, lost his extra pawn immediately on resumption of play. Nothing daunted, he played on trying to win the ending of queen and two pawns against queen and two pawns in which his only advantage consisted in a passed pawn on the queen side whereas the other three pawns left on the board were facing each other on the opposite wing. Systematically he brought his lone pawn forward through endless sequences of checks and, manipulating with the care and competence of a master, succeeded in forcing Littleton's resignation on the 100th move. ..."
Photos
  • Hugh MacGrillen in play, ICU games archive
  • Heidenfeld-Dennehy, round 3, Cork Examiner, July 10, 1973 p. 13
  • Henry-Quigley, round 3, Cork Examiner, July 10, 1973 p. 13
Adjournments
  • The following games were adjourned according to at least one newspaper report (* = not all reports):
  •  
  • Littleton - Quigley (1)
  • MacGrillen - Kennedy (1)*
  • Kennefick - Littleton (2)
  • Blair - Cootes (2)*
  • Kennedy - Ó Briain (2)*
  • McMahon - Dennehy (2)*
  • MacGrillen - Henry (4)
  • Cafferky - Kennedy (4)
  • Henry - Cox (5)
  • Heidenfeld - MacGrillen (6)
  • Kennefick - Cox (6)
  • Cox - MacGrillen (7)
  • Doyle - Heidenfeld (7)
  • Heidenfeld - Cassidy (8)*
  • Kennefick - Henry (8)*
  • Blair - Kennefick (9)*
  •  
  • Littleton - Quigley (1) took 100 moves over 5 sessions
Discrepancies
  • Not one source spelled MacGrillen's name correctly
  • The Irish Times report on round 1 had MacGrillen playing Quigley and Littleton playing Kennedy
  • The Irish Independent and Irish Times articles on July 11 gave Quigley as playing white against Henry in their round 3 game; this is contradicted by a photo in the Cork Examiner on July 10
Ratings
  • FIDE ratings are from the July 1973 list
  • LCU ratings are from the list published in July or August 1972 (Irish Times, August 4, 1972 p. 12)
Clubs Affilations for Leinster players are based on newspaper reports for the 1972-73 season. Frank McMahon provided his affiliation. Affiliations for Maurice Kennefick and Colm Quigley are based on Jim Olney's article in the Evening Echo, March 6, 1973 p. 12.

Note—Hugh MacGrillen played for the London team Mushrooms (“we had no permanent home but popped up everywhere”) in the early 1970's, certainly in 1971-72, and probably in 1972-73.
Versions
  • v1.0 (4 Jan 2018): first published version
  • v1.1 (4 Jan 2018): added club affiliations for Blair, Cootes and Pinkerton, and age for Blair
  • v1.2 (25 Jan 2019): changed PlyCount for Henry - Cox, round 5 (a matter of definition of what PlyCount is supposed to indicate); added extra indexing information in playable game files
  • v1.3 (26 August 2020): added Frank Mahon's games, club affiliation, and age, and corrected his number of championships played; modified Interesting games; added notes to McMahon - Doyle, round 5 and Pinkerton - McMahon, round 7; added club affiliations for Maurice Kennefick and Colm Quigley; added note in Sources and Notes → Notes → Clubs; changed http to https
  • v1.4 (14 November 2020): added Heidenfeld - Coldrick, round 4, and modified Sources and Notes → Sources and Information → Interesting games; modified McMahon - Dennehy, round 2 to add link to a post; corrected date in reference in Henry - Ó Briain, round 6; added link within game Ó Briain - MacGrillen, round 5 to original cover post, with notes by David McAlister; added references to Cootes - Heidenfeld, round 1; added notes to indicate articles with games in Sources and Notes → Sources → Newspapers; sundry spacing adjustments
Contributors David McAlister, Frank McMahon, Andy Ansel, Seán Coffey


IRLchess: Irish chess history & records.
Version 1.4, published 14 November 2020. Comments/corrections? .
Download pgn file.