Irish Championship 1978

[ Information | Pairings & results | Crosstable | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | Openings | Annotations | Sources ]

Sources and notes

Sources
Scoresheets
  • Alan Ludgate's scoresheets (9 games) (via Alan Ludgate)
  • John Gibson's scoresheets (8 games) (via John Gibson)
PGN file File with 6 of Tom Clarke's games from the event, missing only rounds 1 (versus Ludgate) and 6 (versus O'Hare) (via David McAlister)
ICU web site
Contemporary photographs

L.-R.: Alan Ludgate, Jack Killane, Colm Barry, Tom Clarke in round 1. In the Clarke - Ludgate game, the position shown was reached after 19... Ba6. Source unknown (possibly Irish Times?). Via Alan Ludgate.
Magazines
  • CHESS (vols. 44-45, October 1980 pp. 294-5 (via David McAlister, for which many thanks)
Ratings
  • ICU May 1978 rating list and LCU June 1978 supplementary rating list (from John Gibson collection, for which many thanks)
Newspapers
  • Connacht Sentinel:
  • Chess—a fun game", May 30, 1978 p. 10 (preview)
  • "Chess battle", June 6, 1978 p. 6 (preview)
  • "Chess championships", June 13, 1978 p. 6 (preview, sponsor, location in New Concourse Area)
  • July 11, 1978 p. 5 (photo of Gerard McDonnell, playing against computer)
  • "City chess", July 11, 1978 p. 6 (opening ceremony speech by Minister for Defence, Bobby Molloy)
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  • Cork Examiner:
  • "Advantage of chess stressed", July 10, 1978 p. 6 (opening ceremony speech by Minister for Defence, Bobby Molloy)
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  • Evening Echo: (Jim Olney)
  • "Waterford making a major impact", July 4, 1978 p. 11 (preview)
  • "Irish championships begin in Galway", July 11, 1978 p. 11 (report on rounds 1 and 2; photo of Dr. Michael O'Donnell, Rory O'Mara, Paul Owens (sponsor))
  • "Ludgate retains Irish title", July 18, 1978 p. 11 (final report, all places and scores except Barrington's, photo of winner)
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  • Evening Press:
  • "It's checkmate—for now", July 11, 1978 p. 6 (report on round 3)
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  • Irish Independent: (Cyril Hardiman)
  • "No major chess upset", July 10, 1978 p. 9 (report on rounds 1 and 2)
  • "Dubliner leads in chess test", July 11, 1978 p. 7 (report on round 3)
  • "Irish chess crown", July 13, 1978 p. 7 (report on round 5)
  • "Pacesetter overtaken in champions' chess test", July 14, 1978 p. 6 (report on round 6)
  • "Belfast lad new Irish senior chess champion", July 20, 1978 p. 11 (final report, leading places and scores)
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  • Irish Press: (Tim Harding, except where noted)
  • "Weekend Guide", July 8, 1978 p. 7 (editorial) (announcement of start, location in New Concourse Area)
  • "Quiet battle of the board", July 11, 1978 p. 4 (Cormac MacConnell) (description of Gibson - Barry, round 2, background on events)/li>
  • July 13, 1978 p. 7 (Anon.) (photo of Terry Shorten)
  • "Irish chess championships", July 17, 1978 p. 4 (final report, all places and scores except McCarthy's,
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  • Irish Times: (J.J. Walsh, except as noted)
  • "Minister lauds chess as pastime", July 10, 1978 p. 8 ("Irish Times Reporter") (opening ceremony speech by Minister for Defence, Bobby Molloy)
  • "Holder's lead in Irish championship", July 11, 1978 p. 8 (report on round 3)
  • "Irish chess championship", July 12, 1978 p. 17 (report on round 4)
  • "Irish chess championship", July 13, 1978 p. 4 (report on round 5)
  • "Leading players in Irish championship", July 14, 1978 p. 5 (report on round 6)
  • "Former champion wins again", July 19, 1978 p. 5 (final report, leading places and scores)
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  • Munster Express:
  • "Computer Chess", June 9, 1978 p. 15 (preview)
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  • Sligo Champion:
  • "Chess wars!", Séamus Finn (‘On the Line’), July 14, 1978 p. 13 (opening)
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  • Sunday Independent: (Cyril Hardiman)
  • May 14, 1978 p. 10 (preview, organisers, schedule of supporting events)
  • "Chess hits world headlines again", June 18, 1978 p. 11 (ICU rating list of May 1978, listing ratings of top 18 players)
  • "Chess game with computer", July 9, 1978 p. 7 (report of opening, preview of events, photo of Hermann Muellers, Rory O'Mara, and Sunan Gallagher (organisers))
  • "Championship is close", July 16, 1978 p. 8 (status entering the sixth round; number of competitors in Irish Intermediate and West of Ireland Open)
  • "Ludgate's triple win", July 23, 1978 p. 8 (final report, leading places and scores, Curtin - Barry, round 6, annotated by Rolande Anderson)
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  • Sunday Press:
  • "Chess rule OK, says Minister", July 9, 1978 p. 9 (opening)
Contemporary documents The prize fund is from a page compiled by John Gibson tabulating prize money won by various players in 1978. Before the event, a prize fund of £300 was announced.


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
Débuts 6 players played in their first Irish Championship: Bergin, Carton, Galligan, Griffin, McDonnell, and Porter. Of these, Bergin, Galligan, and Griffin never played again.
Discrepancies Seá Galligan's total is given here as 4, following John Gibson's table of pairings & results, but is given as 3½ by the ICU tournament pages, following the Irish Press, July 17, 1978 p. 4 and the Evening Echo, July 18, 1978 p. 11. If he scored 3½, the scores would add up to 107½, rather than 108 as would be expected with 11 boards per round and 9 full-point byes.
Trophy There was no permanent trophy available at this time: the shield that had been used for decades was lost by the 1973 champion Hugh MacGrillen. The organisers of this event presented a silver salver to the winner.
Olympiad Ireland sent no team to the 1978 Olympiad in Buenos Aires, because of budgetary reasons. This was the only Olympiad Ireland missed from 1954 onwards. Instead Ireland sent a team to the 2nd EEC Team Championship in Teesside, England, September 3-12, 1978. The five players included two from this event: Alan Ludgate and Eugene Curtin.
Multiple events Many players also played in the supporting West of Ireland Open: Blair, Carton, Collins, Devenney, Galligan, Griffin, McCarthy, McDaid, Short, and Wallace. The event had one round per day for the first six days of the championship, with games beginning at 7pm.
Irish National Master title By winning the Irish championship for the third time, "including shared championships where there is no playoff", Alan Ludgate qualified for the title of Irish National Master. For some unknown reason, he did not become a National Master until 1980.
Glorney Cup Two of the players played in the Glorney Cup in Croftamie, Scotland, August 2-5, 1978: Colm Barry and Eugene Curtin.
Ratings
  • FIDE ratings are from the January 1978 list
  • ICU ratings are from the May 1978 list and the June 1978 LCU supplementary list
Clubs
  • Club affiliations are from the May 1978 ICU rating list
Irish Ladies' Championship The Irish Ladies' Championship was scheduled to be held as part of the week's events, but it was postponed due to low entry.
Versions
  • v1.0 (27 Apr 2020): first published version
  • v1.2 (30 Sep 2021): added Porter - Griffin game, and added to list in Information → Interesting games; added ICU ratings for all remaining 10 players based on ICU May 1977 list and LCU June 1977 supplementary list; added clubs for Blair, Collins, and McDonnell, from ICU May 1977 rating list; modified Pairings & results, Crosstable, and Round 1 report based on reconstructed round 1, from ICU ratings; added references to Connacht Sentinel, July 11, 1978 p. 5, Evening Press, Sligo Champion, and Sunday Press; added 16 games to Annotations index (only Curtin - Barry previously listed); changed http to https where possible; 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 (30 Jan 2022): revampled entire report based on table of pairings & results provided by John Gibson, for which many thanks (cf. previous version, which was missing many pairings, results, and colour assignments; in addition, previous version had errors in round 1 pairings (the actual pairings were different because of the travelling byes taken by Devenney and Collins) and in Galligan's round 9 result (inferred a loss, because of his total as given in contemporary newspaper reports and the ICU tournament web site, instead of his actual result of a draw) and in Galligan's overall total); modified "Games played" entry in Information → Basic data (previously "Unknown; probably 99 or close to that"); modified "Discrepancies" entry in Sources and notes → Notes to reflect Galligan's revised score; corrected link in note to Clarke - Ludgate, round 1; corrected reference list in Sources & notes → Notes → Clubs (May 1977 → May 1978)
Contributors Alan Ludgate, John Gibson, David McAlister, Seán Coffey


IRLchess: Irish chess history & records.
Version 1.2, published 30 January 2022. Comments/corrections? .
Download pgn file.