Irish Championship 1976

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Sources and notes

Sources
Tournament book "Irish Chess Championship, 1976", David Blair (ed.), 33pp, November 1976 (120 game scores, brief overview, one annotated game) (via Alan Ludgate)
Scoresheets Alan Ludgate's scoresheets (9 games with contemporary notes, light notes on scores and other games, time control)
PGN file File with all games from the tournament book, plus the additional game Clarke - McCarthy, round 2 (via David McAlister)
ICU web site
  • Scores and places
  • (As of date of this report) four games: Kernan - Gilmore, round 1, James - Wallace, round 2, Kernan - Keogh, round 6, and James - D. Jackson, round 7
Contemporary photographs No photos of the event itself are known. There are several from the same year that feature players from the event:
Magazines
Newspapers
  • Evening Herald:
  • "1976 Irish Chess Championships", June 16, 1976 p. 2
  •  
  • Irish Press:
  • May 28, 1976 p. 11
  • July 17, 1976 p. 11
  • July 23, 1976 p. 13
  •  
  • Irish Times:
  • "Coleraine venue for championship", July 2, 1976 p. 11
  • "Coleraine offers rich prize fund", July 12, 1976 p. 14
  • "Irish chess championship begins today", July 17, 1976 p. 10
  • "Two share lead in Irish championship", July 19, 1976 p. 14
  • "Four share lead in Irish championship", July 20, 1976 p. 14
  • "Win opens up Irish chess championship", July 24, 1976 p. 6
  • "Kernan wins Irish title", July 27, 1976 p. 20
  •  
  • Sunday Independent:
  • July 4, 1976 p. 9


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 following Olympiad team (Haifa 1976)
Withdrawal Ray Devenney was not paired in the last round, though he could possibly have finished in a tie for first if he had played and all other results had gone the right way for him. His duties as a church minister prevented him from playing, and it had been arranged well before the final round that he would not be paired for that round (Alan Ludgate, email of June 13, 2019).
Discrepancies
  • Alan Ludgate is given in many newspaper reports as living in Manchester. He had played for Manchester University in 1970-73 but then moved near to Liverpool (Alan Ludgate, email of February 22, 2018).
  • The number of players in the Irish Championship Open Major was given as 24 by BCM and by the Irish Times, July 17, and as 26 by the Irish Times, July 19.
Errata Denis Healy was given as "Denis Healey" in the BCM and CHESS reports.
Omissions The championship was sponsored for the first time, according to the BCM report, but the names of the sponsors do not appear in any report.
Club Club affiliations for Leinster players are from various newspaper reports of the 1975-76 league season. Ulster club affiliations are carried over from the affiliations shown for the 1975 Irish championship.
Olympiad team Michael Littleton was named as part of the originally announced Olympiad team (Sunday Independent, July 4, 1976 p. 9) but he later had to withdraw due to “business commitments” and was replaced by Paul Delaney (Sunday Independent, October 3, 1976 p. 4).
Débuts 6 players had never played in an Irish championship before, including future champion Mark Orr, future joint winner Tom Clarke, and Bernard Palmer.
Tie breaks If Kernan had lost to Ludgate in the last round, instead of drawing, there would have been a 5-way tie for first. The tie-break procedure, if any, that would have followed is unknown. Devenney, who was on 5/8, was not paired for the last round (see Note above): if he had played, then depending on pairings there could have been a 6-way tie for first.
Ratings
  • FIDE ratings are from the January 1976 list
  • LCU ratings are from the May 1976 list (Irish Press, May 28, 1976 p. 11)
Versions
  • v1.0 (14 June 2019): first published version
  • v1.1 (28 June 2021): changed http to https; modified format to show direct link to "Sources and notes" page from every page, rather than having to go via Information → Basic data
  • v1.2 (29 June 2021): corrected bug in en passant in Littleton - Kernan, round 7 playable game (pointed out by Martin Crichton, for which thanks)
Contributors Alan Ludgate, Seán Coffey, David McAlister


IRLchess: Irish chess history & records.
Version 1.2, published 29 June 2021. Comments/corrections? .
Download pgn file.