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Sources and notes

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 (Batumi 2018) "ch#" denotes the number of championships the player played in, including this one
Round 1 bye	Kevin McHugh was listed as an entrant and was paired against Mark Quinn in round 1. He did not play in the event and Quinn was given a bye.
Olympiad place	The winner was guaranteed an automatic Olympiad place for the 2020 Olympiad.
Eligibility	Under a motion passed at the 2018 AGM, some players could have the rating requirement ignored provided they were nominated by: a. The ICU Executive (maximum 2 players); or b. The tournament organisers (maximum 1 player). In addition, the Irish Women’s Champion, Irish 50+ and 65+ Champions, and all previous IRL winners of this event were automatically eligible to play in the Irish Championship irrespective of rating. (Cf. Appendix 1 of "Irish Championship: Terms and Conditions".) (This was a significant narrowing of eligibility compared to the 2017 championship.)
Tie break	"Irish Championship Tie-Break to decide Irish Champion If exactly two players tie, the title shall be awarded to the winner of their individual game, if any. If their individual game was drawn, or if they did not play each other, there shall be a playoff; a 2-game rapid match with each player having one white and one black. A. If three or more players tie, then the title shall be awarded to the player, if any, who achieved a greater score in games amongst the tied players than could be achieved by any other tied player under any set of results of unplayed games. B. If step 2A does not determine a champion, there shall be a playoff 2-game rapid match between the two players (even if one of these players won the individual game between the two) who achieved the highest scores in games amongst the tied players, counting all unplayed games as draws. The time control for these playoff rapid games should be 15 minutes + 10 second increment. Any resulting tie for a place in the playoff match shall be resolved by drawing of lots, or, at the discretion of the arbiter, by blitz games. If the players are still tied following their rapid match, the arbiter may choose to continue the rapid-match for another 2 games (with one white each) or move to blitz games or have a one-game draw-odds rapid game." (This method was adopted for the 2018 championship, based on ICU Executive Committee decision, and subsequently ratified at the 2018 AGM for all Irish championships.)
Possible tie-breaks	Conor Murphy's up-and-down last round struggle versus Conor O'Donnell looked until very late on like a victory for O'Donnell, which would have led to a 4-way tie for first between these two, Sam Collins, and Alex Lopez. Under the new tie-break rules (see above), there would have been a two-game rapid playoff match between Murphy and O'Donnell.
Records and near records	Alex Lopez was seeking his third championship in a row (joint champion in 2017, champion in 2018). This has only been achieved once: Philip Baker was (sole) champion in 1927, 1928, and 1929 (via matchplay as defending champion in 1928 and 1929). This was Alex Lopez's fourth championship, after 2010, 2017, and 2018, and he was champion or co-champion in each of the first three. This equalled the previous record set by Wolfgang Heidenfeld (champion in his first three attempts in 1958, 1963, and 1964, joint 3rd in 1966 (champion: John Moles)). Reference: Irish Championship, Irish Chess History web site (David McAlister) Anthony Fox's 8 draws (+0 =8 -1) tied Tony Dennehy's haul in the 1973 championship (+1 =8 -0). The marathon 141-move draw between Tarun Kanyamarala and Sam Collins (round 5) was not the longest game in an Irish championship. In 1986, the third round game between Keith Allen and Alan Ludgate lasted 166 moves. The 50-move rule had been extended to 100 moves for the ending of rook and bishop versus rook, and Ludgate lost 91 moves after the last capture. Reference: Alan Ludgate, ICU web site.
Blunders	The unusual number of blunders throughout the tournament was attributed by some to a "lack of oxygen in the room ... no fresh air at all and despite the high ceilings the air is really stuffy" (Peter Cafolla on boards.ie). The tournament may have been a victim of its success as the numbers playing forced the event to move from the room used the previous year.
Trophy	The ICU web site has a photo of the prizegiving: The trophy is not the Irish Championship trophy. The official trophy has been stored at Gonzaga College since 2016, and was due to be transported during the championship, but the transfer was derailed due to unrelated emergencies. The trophy in the photo above is a placeholder for photos.
Ratings	FIDE ratings are from the August 2019 list. ICU ratings are from the July 2019 list (last list published before start of event).
Versions	v1.0 (26 Mar 2020): first published version. v1.1 (26 Aug 2023): modified formatting of Tournament review; modified "(age)" definition in Sources and notes → Notes → Key; added 24 games (with internal ("This report") notes) to Annotations index; corrected formatting of Ryan - Lopez, round 3, playable game; modified format to show direct link to "Sources and notes" page from every page, rather than having to go via Information → Basic data; modified playable games to add link to pgn; added _tables file in directory; added XML directory and file
Contributors	Seán Coffey