I was delighted to receive a comment and a separate email from Guy Lyons, whom I well remember from my playing days, not least because he beat me once, in a game that will appear here in due course. He was rated 30th in the country in the ICU list of July 1983, which would have been around the time he left Ireland for Scotland.
(The Players page is a work in progress, and omissions should be taken as my not having a chance to get around to it yet. New information for this page is always welcome.)
I was surprised to find that the IRLchess and ICU games archives had only one game of Guy’s, and a very incomplete one at that: his draw against Tom Clarke at the 1980 Irish championship. I think several more of his games survive. Here is one: a win against Gerry MacElligott from the Kilkenny Open 1982.
Lyons – MacElligott, Kilkenny Open 1982
30… ?
From the diagrammed position, Gerry erred with 30… Kd6? (30… Kf7 seems to leave White with only a slight advantage), and after 31. Re2 Qf5 32. Qc1 Rc8 33. Qa3+, blundered with 33… Kd7??, allowing 34. Qe7 mate. Instead 33… Rc5 would have forced White to find the accurate 34. Re1!, when Black is lost; on the other hand, 33… Rc5 34. Qa6+ is much less clear, since White has to be wary of perpetual checks.
After 30… Kd6 31. Re2, the best chance was probably 31… Qf4!? 32. Qc2 Rc8, when White must be winning but the struggle goes on.
This was the 6th Kilkenny Open, which took place from December 3-5, 1982. The huge internationals still lay in the future, and 18 players played. Eddie O’Reilly (Raheny) finished first on 5/6, followed by four players sharing second on 4/6: Guy Lyons (Sandymount), Colm Barry (Rathfarnham), Michael Gaffney (Carlow), and Bernard Palmer (Dublin or T.C.D.).
When I posted an initial report on the 1978 Irish championship here last year, I noted that there was one game that was known to survive, but was nevertheless missing: an annotation by John Griffin of one of his games, which appeared in CHESS in October 1980. My access to this was limited to a brief search engine ‘snippet’, so I did not even know who his opponent was.
David McAlister has very kindly provided the relevant pages, for which many thanks. In them, John annotates a fine win against the Czech IM Krzysztof Pytel, and also his win against Liam Porter from that Irish championship.
Porter – Griffin, Irish Championship 1978
Position after 25… ?
From the diagrammed position, he continued 25… Bf5!, and after 26. Qxa8 (others also lose), 26… Bxd3+ 27. Ka1 Nb4. Now 28. Qxa7 and 28. Nc1 both lose, but Liam Porter’s choice was even quicker: 28. a3 Qb3 29. axb4 Qa4 mate.
I have updated the report to include this game. I’m not fully sure what round it appeared in—it must have been either round 2 or round 4—but I have been able to fill in many more details from the event via the full ICU rating list for May 1978, which was part of a huge trove of material I have acquired from John Gibson, for which many thanks. With all the ICU ratings, it is possible to reconstruct the full first round draw. Because of adjournments, it is difficult to carry this on beyond the first round, and there are still some unknowns among pairings and results from the first few rounds.
The Irish Women’s Championship took place last week in Portlaoise. Congratulations to Alice O’Gorman, who won for the first time.
Though she was top seed, she did not have it all her own way, and in particular was clearly lost in her round 2 game against Dayna Ferguson and her round 4 game against Antonina Góra.
Two former champions played, of which one was the 1970 champion Elizabeth Shaughnessy. A very nice interview with her can be seen here.
A full report has been added to the tournament pages here.
David’s post on the Irish Pawn Centre brought to mind the game Kavalek – Fischer, Sousse Interzonal 1967, which at one time defined the main line of the Sicilian Najdorf Poisoned Pawn.
Kavalek – Fischer, Sousse Interzonal 1967
Position after 19… fxe4
In this game, which long precedes Tony Miles’ fanciful report, White sacrificed a pawn on e5 and a knight on e4 to open lines to the black king.
Kavalek now continued 20. Qc3, and after 20… Qxa2 21. Bd1, Fischer erred with 21… Rf8?. The problem is that after 22. Bxh5+ Kd8 23. Rd1+ Bd7 24. Qe3, both f2 and c5 are covered, meeting the mate threat and also cutting out …Bc5-d4 for now. Instead 21… Bc5+! 22. Kh1 Rf8 23. Bxh5+ Kd8 24. Rd1+ Bd7 25. Rb7 Bd4 would have won, as Fischer reportedly pointed out to Kavalek shortly after the game, per the discussion here. The finish was 24… Qa5 25. Rb7 Bc5 26. Rdxd7+ Kc8 27. Rdc7+ Kd8 28. Rd7+ ½-½.
In my playing days long ago, I found a random issue of the German correspondence magazine Fernschach, I think from the late 1970s, and it contained analysis of the diagrammed position, covering White’s other tries 20. Kh1!?, 20. Qd1, and 20. Qc2 as well as 20. Qc3. The analysis indicated that 20. Qc2 was strong, with Black’s strongest response still leading to a clear advantage for White.
Engines have so completely altered the landscape that it is hard to recall just how slowly theory changed back then and how long it took to reach definitive conclusions. To give an indication, the diagrammed position appeared in a Hübner – Hort match in 1979, among other games at a high level, and close to fifty correspondence games.
One significant merit of 20. Qc2 is that it does well against 20… Bc5+ 21. Kh1 Bd4: White continues 22. Qxe4, and then, suffice it to say, Black has to find an immediate ‘only’ move to survive at all, will still have to give up queen for rook, and will still end up defending a position where White has a clear advantage. If this is not obvious as you read this, well, you have some idea of how it looked to all of us back then.
I analysed this position and Fernschach‘s analysis endlessly, and discussed it at length with Jonathan O’Connor. The problem, as we soon realised, was that after 20. Qc2, Black plays 20… Qa5, and White has nothing. Fernschach must have said something that was superficially plausible about this, but whatever it was, it didn’t hold up.
Eventually I switched to looking at 20. Qd1, and concluded that this was more promising. If 20… Bc5+ 21. Kh1 Bd4, the continuation 22. Bxh5+ Kd8 23. Rf7 seemed promising, and then if 23… Qxc4, 24. Be2 Qc5 25. Qf1 seemed unclear but playable, and I managed to convince myself that White had better chances. Alas! Engines will have none of it, and White is lost.
I told Jonathan I had found improvements, but was vague on where they were, not wanting to give it away: the improvements were “around there”, and that kind of thing. Whether Jonathan picked up on these hints is another matter!
The next time we met over the board was in an Armstrong Cup match, Dundrum playing away against Dublin, in Dublin’s great premises at 20 Lincoln Place, in the 1982-83 season. We were on board 2, so I should have played Black, but by mutual agreement we swapped colours. We bashed out the first 19 moves, then after a slight pause, there came:
20. Qd1.
Jonathan gave me a searching look of unfathomable meaning, and started a long think.
20… Qa5?
This is wrong here, but the problem is buried several moves deep. After 21. Bxh5+ Rxh5 22. Qxh5+ Kd8 23. Rd1+ Kc7 24. Qe8 Qc5+ 25. Kh1, we reached the second diagrammed position, which was within my preparation, and now what can Black play?
Coffey – O’Connor, Armstrong Cup 1982-83
Position after 25. Kh1
If 25… Rb8 26. Rd7+ and mate next move; similarly for 25… Ra7. On 25… Bf6 (or … Bg5 or … Bh4), 26. Rh3 is decisive. The best chance seems to be 25… e3, but White is still winning after 26. Rxe3. Jonathan, running out of time at this point (the time control was a straight 36 moves in 90 minutes), played 25… Bd6, and after 26. Rg3, he resigned (26… Qb6 27. c5!).
English Grandmaster Tony Miles identified “a revolutionary new concept” – the Irish pawn centre (or IPC) – in his report on the 1978 FIDE West European Zonal in Amsterdam. That report appeared in the Number One issue of the short-lived magazine International Chess and Miles used two games featuring the Irish representative Eamon Keogh to illustrate the IPC concept of utilising tripled isolated pawns. [For good measure he also recommended a third game of Keogh’s for the Guinness book of records.]
International Chess Number 1 page 4
Miles was a little vague on the full characteristics of the IPC but its motif can be identified as tripled isolated pawns all in a neat little row with a humorous twist that they do not have to be on one of the two central files but can also exist on the adjacent c- or f-files. In an article on chessgames.com, whiteshark claimed that Miles should have termed the structure the Irish Pawn Formation because it can appear anywhere on the board and went on to claim that the “Irish school” was working in secret on a “Four-leaved Clover Formation” featuring quadrupled pawns.
I can however exclusively reveal that the IPC had been seen in exalted Irish chess circles some four decades earlier than the Keogh games and included not just three but four isolated pawns – and on the IPC’s likely debut the pawns were to be found on a true central file.
Thomas Cox [Dublin] -v- John J O’Hanlon [Blackrock] Armstrong Cup, Board 1, Dublin, 26th November 1938 [Source: Saturday Herald, 12th December 1938]
The report on the game in the Saturday Herald started from the position in the diagram above, with Black standing better. 1.Nd6 Ne4 2.Bxe4 dxe4 3.Qc2 Qc6 4.Rd1 Rd7 5.Qc3 Rad8 6.Qe5 Re7 7.Kg2 f6 8.Nf5 fxe5[And here O’Hanlon, a nine-time Irish champion, has just unleashed the IPC on Cox, the then current titleholder. Instead 8…Rxd1 would have lost after 9.Nxe7+ Kf7 10.Qh5+ with mate in two.] 9.Nxe7+ Kf7
[Despite Cox’s pyrotechnics, the IPC would probably have emerged victorious after 9…Kh7 10.Rxd8 Qc7 11.Rf8 (or 11.Rd1 exf4) Qd7 when the Queen can infiltrate along the d-file] 10.Rxd8 [According to the Herald report, O’Hanlon had been expecting 10.Nxc6 when 10…Rxd1 would have won for him.] 10…Qc7
[“The only move” – Herald] 11.Rf8+ Kxf8 12.Nd5+ Qc5 13.Bxc5+ bxc5 14.Nxe3 exf4½-½The Herald reported that the game was agreed drawn here. However the match report in the Irish Times for the 28th November 1938 provided a little more detail from which it can be deduced that the game was adjourned here but not resumed, probably because Dublin had already won the match by 4½-2½ with just this game left. If play had continued from the final position 15.gxf4 would have given Cox good winning chances.
The Glorney Cup 1955 was held at Newman House, St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin, from July 27-28, 1955. The controller was Frank Maher, who had played in the 1949 event, and the chief organizer was Andrew O’Higgins. Once again, four teams participated, and again, only match results counted.
In the morning of the opening day, England beat Ireland 4½ – 1½, and Scotland beat Wales by the same margin.
England
Ireland
B. J. Moore
1 – 0
T. O’Neill
N. E. Lewis
1 – 0
R. Grogan
J. M. Dawson
½ – ½
C. Deasy
W. S. Deeth
1 – 0
C. Kennedy
B. J. McGreevy
½ – ½
M. McMahon
A. J. Leggett
½ – ½
D. O’Connell
4½ – 1½
Scotland
Wales
M. Fallone
1 – 0
W. B. Sullivan
I. Morton
0 – 1
D. K. Peters
W. Fleming
½ – ½
A. J. Davies
J. Blair
1 – 0
F. S. Wusteman
G. Dickson
1 – 0
P. M. Perry
J. McCann
1 – 0
M. Gronow
4½ – 1½
In the evening, England beat Wales 4 – 2, while Ireland and Scotland drew.
England
Wales
B. J. Moore
1 – 0
W. B. Sullivan
N. Lewis
½ – ½
D. K. Peters
J. M. Dawson
½ – ½
A. J. Davies
W. S. Deeth
1 – 0
M. Gronow
R. Myers
½ – ½
F. S. Wusteman
B. J. McGreevy
½ – ½
D. P. Bryon
4 – 2
Ireland
Scotland
T. O’Neill
0 – 1
M. Fallone
R. Grogan
0 – 1
I. Morton
C. Deasy
1 – 0
W. Fleming
C. Kennedy
0 – 1
J. Blair
M. McMahon
1 – 0
J. A. Phillips
D. Kennedy
1 – 0
J. McCann
3 – 3
On the second day, England beat Scotland 4½ – 1½ and Ireland drew with Wales.
England
Scotland
B. J. Moore
1 – 0
M. Fallone
N. E. Lewis
1 – 0
I. Morton
J. M. Dawson
1 – 0
J. Blair
W. S. Deeth
1 – 0
W. Fleming
R. Myers
0 – 1
G. Dickson
A. J. Leggett
½ – ½
J. A. Phillips
4½ – 1½
Ireland
Wales
T. O’Neill
½ – ½
W. B. Sullivan
R. Grogan
½ – ½
D. K. Peters
C. Deasy
½ – ½
A. J. Davies
C. Kennedy
1 – 0
P. M. Perry
M. McMahon
½ – ½
F. S. Wusterman
D. O’Connell
0 – 1
D. P. Bryon
3 – 3
So England won yet again, though the matches were closer than the previous year. The remaining teams were closely matched, with Scotland’s victory over Wales the only decisive result.
eng
sco
irl
wls
mp
gp
England
.
4½
4½
4
6
13
Scotland
1½
.
3
4½
3
9
Ireland
1½
3
.
3
2
7½
Wales
2
1½
3
.
1
6½
No games are available.
The Irish team was Tom O’Neill (Synge St. C.B.S., Dublin, & Eoghan Ruadh C.C.), b. 1937, Leinster Schoolboys’ champion 1955, Richard Grogan (Synge St. C.B.S., Dublin), 1938-2016, Irish Schoolboys’ champion 1954 and Olympiad team member 1956 (obit.), Con Deasy (Synge St. C.B.S., Dublin, & Eoghan Ruadh C.C.), (Robert) Colin Kennedy (Campbell College, Belfast), Ulster Schoolboys’ champion 1955, Michael McMahon (O’Connell’s School, Dublin & Kevin Barry C.C.), b. 1938 (biographical note), Dermot O’Connell (St. Mary’s, Dublin), Leinster Schoolboys’ champion 1954, and David Kennedy (Terenure College, Dublin). Of these, Colin Kennedy, David Kennedy, and Michael McMahon made their débuts. (Donal Déiseach, Coláiste Mhuire, Dublin, & Clontarf C.C.), Irish Schoolboys’ champion 1955, instead played in the World Junior Championship, which clashed with this event.)
The English team was Brian J. Moore (Birmingham University), b. ca. 1937, Neil E. Lewis (Birmingham), J. M. Dawson (Bristol), Southern Counties Boys champion 1955 and West of England Boys champion 1955, William Stanley Deeth (Harrow County School), London Schoolboys’ champion 1955, Richard Myers (Preston Grammar School), b. ca. 1938, Bruce John McGreevy1938-2020 (Liverpool), and (later Sir) Anthony James Leggett (Staines), b. Camberwell, South London, 1938. All of these players except possibly Leggett made their début.
Anthony James Leggett achieved notable distinction in another field: he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2003. He mentions the Glorney Cup in his Nobel Prize biography: “I had a brief moment of glory when some years later, I was picked for the English team to compete against Scotland, Wales, and Ireland in the (under-16) [sic] Glorney Cup”.
Anthony J. Leggett
The Scottish team was Michael Fallone (Our Lady’s, Hamilton), b. Bellshill, Lanarkshire, 1938, later Scottish champion (1963), Olympiad team member in 1956, 1964, and 1966 (biographical sketch), Iain Morton (Glasgow) (biographical sketch), W. Fleming (Glasgow), James Blair (King’s Park, Glasgow), George Dickson (Edinburgh), 1938-2017, Scottish Boys’ champion 1955 (obit., biographical sketch, photo, 2015), John Andrew Phillips (Edinburgh), b. 1938 and J. McCann (Glasgow). All except Fallone and Blair made their début.
The Welsh team was W. B. Sullivan (Old Illtydians’ C.C.), (David) Keith Peters (later Sir Keith Peters) (Glan Afan Grammar School, Port Talbot), b. Neath, South Wales, 1938, Welsh Schoolboys’ champion 1955, Anthony J. Davies (Bishop Gore School, Swansea), Frederick Stephen Wusteman (St. Illtyd’s College, Cardiff), P. M. Perry (St. Illtyd’s College, Cardiff), M. Gronow (Cardiff H.S.), and D. P. Bryon (St. Illtyd’s College, Cardiff). Peters, Davies, Perry, and possibly Sullivan had played before.
The top scorers for each team were Brian J. Moore and William S. Deeth (England), 3/3, Michael Fallone, James Blair, and George Dickson (Scotland), 2/3, 2/3, and 2/2 respectively, Con Deasy and Michael McMahon (Ireland), 2/3, and Keith Peters (Wales), 2/3.
Sources:
BCM 1955 p. 266 (all match scorecards)
Belfast Telegraph, February 14, 1955 p. 10 (R. C. Kennedy school, Ulster Schoolboys’ champion)
Birmingham Daily Gazette, June 30, 1955 p. 4 (Moore first name, university, age, photo (lowish resolution))
Bognor Regis Observer, April 22, 1955 p. 3 (Dawson titles, city)
Evening Herald, April 7, 1955 p. 14 (McMahon school), July 27, 1955 p. 13 (Scotland – Wales scorecard; unfinished England – Ireland scorecard))
Harrow Observer, July 21, 1955 p. 1 (Deeth school, London Schoolboys’ champion)
Irish Independent, April 9, 1955 p. 16 (O’Neill Leinster Schoolboys’ champion; D. Kennedy school), July 1, 1955 p. 11 (D. Kennedy wins final place on Irish team after qualifying tournament), July 28, 1955 p. 11 (venue, scorecards for first two rounds; titles of O’Neill, Dickson, and Peters), July 29, 1955 p. 9 (photo of most or all players, plus officials) and p. 14 (scorecards for last round)
Irish Press, January 11, 1955 p. 9 (McMahon club), April 8, 1955 p. 13 (O’Neill Leinster Schoolboys’ champion, D. Kennedy school), June 22, 1955 p. 8 (McMahon, O’Connell, D. Kennedy in qualifying tournament), June 30, 1955 p. 9 (McMahon qualifies), July 28, 1955 p. 10 (venue, scorecards for first two rounds), July 29, 1955 p. 13 (scorecards for last round)
Lancashire Evening Post, May 16, 1955 p. 6 (Myers first name, city, age), September 20, 1955 p. 7 (Myers school)
Western Mail & South Wales News, April 16, 1955 p. 9 (Peters title), July 27, 1955 p. 7 (Welsh team, including school/club affiliations)
Tony Leggett, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign faculty profile (photo; see above)
[Update, September 9, 2021: added details on Phillips, based on information provided by David McAlister; corrected match scorecard of Ireland – Wales match, based on comment by Martin Crichton; and added Dickson to list of top scorers for Scotland. Many thanks to David and Martin. Also (added later the same day), added reference to biographical notes for Dickson and Morton.]
[Update, October 24, 2021: Corrected McGreevy’s name in England’s first match (previously given -ey), corrected Bryon’s initials (P. D. → D. P.), and added full first name and middle initial for Lewis.]
[Update, June 20, 2022: corrected Déiseach’s name (deleting fada in first name), based on his own rendition in Family Life Education in Canadian Schools, Canadian Education Association, June 1977.]
[Update, May 7, 2023: previous versions of this report (cf. archived version (May 7, 2023)) reported that “ D. Leggott” appeared in contemporary reports of the Glorney Cup 1954. However, I’m delighted to report that (Professor / Sir) Anthony James Leggett has kindly confirmed, by email, that he played in both events.]
[Update, May 29, 2024: added McGreevy’s first names and vital dates, based on cited post by Jon D’Souza-Eva at the English Chess Forum.]
The lists of Irish championship players have been updated to reflect the 2021 championship, and to correct a couple of errors. There are 570 players in all, including 557 men and 13 women. Of these, 49 have been Irish champion.
Four players made their début in 2021: John P. Aherne, Kevin Burke, Oissine Murchadha, and Sam Murray (who played as a filler).
Two errors were corrected: Jim G. Murray has informed me that he played in 1971, rather than John Murray as previously given; many thanks for the correction. Also, the entries previously given as “S. Bonnar” for 1955 and “P. Bonner” for 1956 appear to have referred to the same player, Seán Bonner of Arklow.
First names have been added for Frederick Jones (1889), Tom Conlon (1955), Paddy Dowdall (1956), David Rynne (1956), Harold Harrison (1963), and Stephen Morris (1985).
A report on the Irish Championship 2021 has been added to the tournament section here.
Yet another outstanding championship—the last five have never been surpassed in the history of the event, it seems to me—saw Mark Heidenfeld win for the second time, twenty years after he last competed, finishing a point clear of Conor E. Murphy, and 1½ points clear of a large group sharing third place. Along the way, he managed to win a drawn ending against David Murray, win from a lost position out of the opening against Conor Murphy, outplay Colm Daly from a level position out of the opening, dramatically win from another lost position against Conor O’Donnell, win an ending against Tarun Kanyamarala after the latter erred or overpressed, and finished in style with a crushing miniature against Seán J. Murphy in the last round. His only setback was a round 4 loss against Tom O’Gorman, and he also had a short draw against Alexander Baburin.
The Irish Times featured an interesting video (5 m., 9 s.) with footage taken throughout the week and several interviews, including one with the new champion.
Heidenfeld – C. Murphy (3)
13. ?
Heidenfeld’s round 3 win against Conor Murphy featured a bizarre opening in which Heidenfeld, as White, had a lost position very early on. From the diagrammed position, he continued 13. Qa6? (13. Qe4 with a slight advantage for Black was essential), when 13… Bxe3 14. Kxe3 e4! would have given Black a winning position, e.g., 15. Nd4 Rxb2 or 15. Ned2 f5. The game’s 13… O-O left Black much better or winning, but he was comprehensively outplayed from there.
Martin Crichton points out that Conor Murphy has just made his third IM norm at the Muswell Hill IM norm event, which concludes today. Since he had already crossed the 2400 mark, this fulfils the last requirement for the title. Congratulations!
It’s all the more impressive that this achievement happened in an event that started the day after the Irish championship finished.
It has been a long time since an over-the-board event was played in Ireland: I think the last one was the Irish Championship, which finished almost a year ago. This past weekend saw a very welcome return to over-the-board play, with two events held simultaneously.
The Ulster Championship 2021, held at Stormont, was a 5-round, 16-player Swiss. Tom O’Gorman finished first with 5/5, followed by Mandar Tahmankar and Alice O’Gorman. Since none of these had resided in Ulster for the past twelve months, the title of Ulster champion went to the next highest finisher Thomas Donaldson, who had previously won in 2018. From the results, he seems to have won on tie-break over Gareth Annesley and Stephen Scannell. No games seem to be available, unfortunately.
The second event was the first in the 100th Irish Championship series, the First Weekender (also described as the “Challengers”), reserved for players rated at most 1300 on the most recent ICU list. Gavin Sheahan finished clear first in an excellent entry of 44, and all 105 games were shown on live boards. A full report has been added to the tournament section here.
