IRLchess

A report on the Irish Championship 1995 has been added to the tournament pages here.

Brian Kelly became the youngest ever Irish champion, at about 16 years, 8 months, beating the previous record set by John Moles, who was 16 years and (a little less than) 10 months old when he won in 1966. (Previous record? Porterfield Rynd, born April 6, 1846, who won the first Irish championship in November 1865.) A loss to Gerard O’Connell in round 4 was the only blemish on an otherwise dominating performance, in which he won 6 of his first 7 games, then drew the last two to win the title by a clear point.

All but 2 of the 114 games are available. Here is one interesting moment.

Peart – O’Shaughnessy, Irish Championship 1995 (2)
25… ?

This is a “Black to play and win” problem. As it turned out, it was an “almost brilliancy”: O’Shaughnessy played the next eight moves flawlessly, but then faltered and had to settle for a perpetual check. Can you do better?

[Click to replay the full game.]

Andy Ansel has sent another game from the Irish Championship 1973, the round 4 encounter between Wolfgang Heidenfeld and Art Coldrick, which appeared in the South African Chessplayer, May 1974. Many thanks, Andy!

Heidenfeld was defending champion, and was playing in his last Irish championship. After an indifferent start he was 1½ points off the lead after three rounds, but then embarked on a run of three consecutive wins to sit just ½ point off the lead after round 6. He could only draw his last three games, to finish in joint 3rd-4th place with Paul Cassidy, a point behind Hugh MacGrillen.

Heidenfeld – Coldrick, Irish Championship 1973
30… ?

The game against Coldrick started the comeback. The diagram shows the critical position. After 30… exf5 31. Qxf5+ Kd8, White’s advantage would be modest enough. Instead after the game’s 30… Nc7? 31. f6, Black was already lost: his pieces become catastrophically tied up. The finish was 31… Bd8 32. Nf4 Ke8 (32… Nb5 33. Nxe6!) 33. Be3 b6 34. Nh5 Kd7 35. Bh6 Qe8 36. Ng7 Qf8 37. Nf5 1‑0.

[Click to replay the full game.]

The tournament report has been updated accordingly.

I’m delighted to report that David McAlister has found several more games from this event. Here’s an excerpt from his email explaining the background:

“Opening some storage boxes in preparation for further organising my new study I came across my trove of Tom Clarke scoresheets.

Despite my previous pessimism it turns out that Tom had kept scoresheets from the 1980 Irish Championship – 5 of his own games (without a duplicate for his game with Jack Killane). Tom had written “COPY” on all these scoresheets so it seems he had transcribed the moves from his original scoresheets (probably made my task easier!).

As an added bonus, Tom also had the scoresheet from Allen-Delaney in round 2 – I am reasonably certain it is Keith Allen’s scoresheet – certainly not Tom’s writing even if you ignore the German algebraic used. The scoresheet looks like it has been crumpled up and thrown in a wastebasket and then retrieved and flattened out. Probably, as Tom and Keith were good friends, Tom had acquired the scoresheet to help prepare for his Round 8 game with Delaney. [Incidentally that game ends just as it is getting interesting with White worse (maybe quite a bit worse) but it is sharp – Delaney may have offered a draw because of his tournament position.]”

The most interesting game is a fragment: in Tom’s round 3 game against Guy Lyons, the score breaks off at move 9, but we know from newspaper reports that the game was adjourned. The scoresheet gives the diagrammed position, without saying whose turn it is to move.

Clarke – Lyons, Irish Championship 1980
Adjourned position

If it’s White to move, the position would be an easy win, after 1. Rd2 Kxf7 2. c6 Be5 3. c7; since the game ended in a draw, that seems unlikely.

So let us assume that it must be Black to move. What then? It seems that the position is very hard for White to hold; I can’t see that it is possible at all. One sample continuation might be 1… Kxf7 2. Kd5 h4 3. c6 Bd8 4. Ke5 (if 4. Kd6, the rook will be unable to stop the pawns) 4… h3 5. Rd2 Bc7+ 6. Kxf5 g3 7. Rc7+ Ke8 8. Rxc7 (second diagram).

Clarke – Lyons, Irish Championship 1980, variation
8… ?

This position is within range of the Lomonosov tablebases, which show that Black is winning after either 8… h2 or 8… Kd8, e.g., 8… h2 9. Rh7 Kd8 10. c7+ Kc8 11. Ke6 g2 12. Rxh2 g1=Q.

An interesting wrinkle is that 8… g2? from the diagram only draws. After 9. Rg7 Kd8 10. c7+ Kc8, White has the problem-like 11. Ke5! (only move), with the point that after 11… h2 12. Rxg2 h1=Q 13. Rc2, Black has no useful checks, and can’t prevent White from setting up a fortress. For example, 13… Qd1 14. Rc4 Qxb3 15. Kd4, and Black cannot make any progress.

[Click to replay.] (Note that clicking the triangle at right below the board steps into variations.)

The tournament report has been updated with the new games.

The Irish Championship in 1980 was held at the ‘North Mon’ in Cork, from July 12-20. The field of 24 players included top seed and newly minted national master Paul Delaney, second seed Eugene Curtin, former champions Alan Ludgate and Michael Littleton, and the local internationals Anthony McCarthy and Philip Short.

In the event, Paul Delaney dominated from start to finish, winning his first four games for a lead of a clear 1½ points over 10 (!) players on 2½, and thereafter staying a full point clear of the field. A 5-minute draw in the last round gave him the title of Irish champion for the first (and, as it turned out, only) time.

There was no tournament book, and up to now there haven’t even been any games from the event in the ICU archive. However, Alan Ludgate has provided all of his scoresheets from the event, and Gerry MacElligott has provided a pgn file of all remaining Jack Killane games, for which many thanks, so we have 17 of the 106 games played.

A full tournament report has been added here. Alan Ludgate’s scoresheets included a full set of pairings and results, without which the report would have been much less complete (missing rounds 8 and 9, and with various gaps due to adjournments in the earlier rounds).

The McDonnell – Ludgate game in round 2 lasted more than 10 hours, spread over four days, with the advantage passing back and forth, first with Ludgate, then McDonnell, then Ludgate again, before ending in a draw. Here is one interesting moment:

McDonnell – Ludgate, Irish Championship 1980 (2)
56… ?

Ludgate spurned a draw by repetition with the last move before the first time control, and now faces a critical decision on the last move before the second. With three minutes to spare, he played the natural 56… Rg3?. But this should lose with best play.

Instead he had to play 56… Rg4! 57. Kf5, and only then 57… Rg3. After 58. Bf1 Nd3 59. Rxh3 Rxh3 60. Bxh3, the zwischenzug has allowed White to protect the f-pawn, which would otherwise be en prise, but after 60… Ke7, Black survives.

Instead, after the game’s 56… Rg3?, White could have won via 57. Bf1! Nd3 58. Rxh3! Rxh3 59. Bxh3, since after 59… Nxf4 60. Bf1 Nh5+ 61. Kg5 Ng7 62. Kg6 Ne8 63. Kf7, Black will have to give up his c-pawn to extract the knight (59… Ke8 60. Bf1 Nc5 61. e5 is also winning for White).

[Click to replay the full game.]

Update, October 3, 2020: Shortly after posting this report, I found the flyer for the event and ICU ratings for some of the players among a treasure trove of documents provided by John Gibson, for which many thanks. The report has been updated accordingly.

At the end of 2017, David McAlister posted here on his reconstruction of the 1973 Irish championship, held in Cork and won by Hugh MacGrillen. A total of 9 of the 81 games were available.

I’m delighted to report that Frank McMahon, who finished equal 6th in the event, has sent in all 9 of his games, for which many thanks. The report in the tournaments section has been updated accordingly.

Here is a moment from his round 2 game against Tony Dennehy:

McMahon – Dennehy, Irish Championship 1973
65… ?

After a long struggle, Dennehy has managed to convert an opposite-coloured bishop ending into a winning position, but after 65… Ba7 66. Ka6, he erred with 66… Kc3?, when the win was gone, and a draw was agreed three moves later.

He had to play 66… Bc5, and after 67. Kb5, reaching the diagrammed position again, 67… Kd5. After 68. Bc4+ Kd6 69. Bf1 Bd4, Black will eventually be able to place White in zugzwang, e.g., W: Ke2, Bf1, a6; B: Kg1, Ba7, e3, f2, Black wins via 1… Kh1 2. Bh3 Kh2 3. Bf1 Kg3 4. Kd3 Kf3, etc..

[Click to replay the full game.]

Tony Dennehy recorded 8 draws in that event, which must have set the record for a 9-round Irish championship (equalled by Anthony Fox in 2019). This is one he could have won.