Congratulations to Lara Putar, who has qualified for the WFM by scoring 7/9 at the Women’s Olympiad in Budapest.
Direct WFM titles at the Women’s Olympiad require a score of at least 65% over at least 9 games, having at one point or another reached a rating of at least 1900. Lara won her fourth game in succession yesterday, reaching 6/8, and so today needed only to show up to play, regardless even of whether her opponent showed up. As it was, she won again.
(Cf. the congratulatory tweet by the ICU yesterday.)
Kevin Burke points out at the St. Benildus C.C. web site that Lara scored 6/10 at the last Women’s Olympiad, so falling ½ point short.
The Title norms page here has been updated accordingly.
The 1988-89 season of the Armstrong Cup turned into a battle between the defending champions, and favourites for the new season, Kevin Barry, versus the previous year’s runners-up, Rathmines.
The background and atmosphere was described vividly by Michael O’Brien in an eight-page article “Clash of the Titans” in the Irish Chess Journal. Rather than attempt to summarise, here is the full article, which is highly recommended:
The article includes twelve games, many with extensive annotations, and none of which is currently in the ICU games archive. Three of these featured Eddie O’Connor, and he was on the winning side in each.
O’Connor – O’Mahony, Armstrong Cup 1988-89 36… ?
The first, against Tim O’Mahony of Southern Cross, reached the diagrammed position at the adjournment, though it’s not clear whether this was before or after the sealed move.
An earlier issue of the ICJ reported that Eddie showed up to play off the game by helicopter; really, Black could have resigned without resuming.
The article reported that the “Spectator Sport Award” of round 3 went to the game between Eddie and Joe Noone, “in which, during an insane time-scramble, Eddie left a Rook en prise for six consecutive moves(!!!) before Joe finally spotted it.”
In round 8, Eddie played Herbert Scarry of Phibsboro ‘A’, a crucial match against the team that ended up in third place.
Scarry – O’Connor, Armstrong Cup 1988-89 14… ?
From the diagrammed position, play continued 14… hxg2! 15. Bxh8 Bd6! 16. f4 gxf1=Q+ 17. Kxf1 Qh4 18. Qe2 Qh1+ 19. Kf2 Qxa1 and White resigned a few moves later.
Rathmines led heading into the last round, and played Phibsboro ‘B’, while Kevin Barry played Rathmines ‘B’. Eddie played Ernie McElroy.
O’Connor – McElroy, Armstrong Cup 1988-89 17. ?
From the diagrammed position, he continued 17. Ng5+!, and after 17… hxg5 18. Qh3+ Kg6 19. g4, Black erred with 19… gxf4?, allowing 20. Qh5 mate.
This finish was a pity, as the position after White’s 19th is very interesting. As pointed out in “Clash of the Titans”, Black’s strongest response is 19… Nxf6!. The article considers the possible replies 19. exf6 and 19. Bg3. Which of these should White play, or should he play some other move?
Rathmines won the match 7½-½, while Kevin Barry won theirs by 6½-1½, and so Rathmines became Armstrong Cup champions for the fifth time. “The popular (though unexpected) winners graciously accepted their merited trophy and a new bright dawn rises over the happy land.”
Individual results:
David Dunne 9/11
Adrian McDaid 8½/11
Eddie O’Connor 5½/9
Conor Barrington 6½/9
Michael O’Brien 10/11
Robert Stuart 8/11
Jack Killane 6½/9
Michael Miskelly 7½/9
Colm Darby 4½/8.
I was very sorry to hear of the passing of Eddie O’Connor. Sincere condolences to his family.
His association with Dublin C.C. lasted over thirty years, and he also served as club President, most recently ending at the end of last year.
He was on the Dublin team that won the Branagan Cup in 2022, and probably in 2000 (for which records are scarce). He was also on the Dublin team that won the Armstrong Cup last season, for the first time since 1980-81, and the photo above shows him with the trophy.
Dublin was not his first club, though; he played for Rathmines in the Armstrong starting in 1980-81, and was on the team that won the Cup in 1988-89, scoring 5½/9 on board 3; he had moved to Dublin C.C. by 1993.
He played in three Irish championships, 1983, 1989, and 1993, achieving his best result of 5½/9 and joint 7th place in the first of these.
Eddie O’CONNOR, b. 16 August 1956, d. Dublin, 13 September 2024.
I was very sorry to hear of the passing this week of Maurice Coveney. Sincere condolences to his family.
His playing career spanned six decades, and he also contributed heavily in several administrative roles.
He played in four Irish championships—1967, 1971, 1972, and 1977—and also acted as controller in the 1971 event, where he scored 4½/9 for joint 9th place.
“Maurice Coveney, Laskerville, Carrigaline East, has lived all his life in the locality except for ten years he trained at Baldonnell and worked in the aircraft industry overseas. Over a period of 25 years running his own business he employed between 20 and 100 mostly local people” ran a profile, from which the photograph above is taken, in the Southern Star in 2009, when he ran as an independent candidate for Cork County Council.
The first records of his chess career date to the 1962-63 season, when he was stationed at Baldonnel Aerodrome in Dublin (renamed Casement Aerodrome in the mid-1960s). He played for Kevin Barry in the Ennis Shield that season, and also competed in the Irish Correspondence Chess Championship, in a junior section. He moved to Middlesex at the end of 1964, but continued to compete in I.C.C.C. events, winning his section in 1963-64. He returned to Ireland by the end of 1966, and played with Bellevue C.C.
He took a variety of roles in the Cork Chess Association, including Chairman from 1969-71, and served as Cork representative on the ICU. He compiled the first C.C.A. rating list in 1968, in the days when there was no unified ICU rating list, and provincial unions maintained their own lists.
He was Irish Veterans joint champion in 2001, and played in last year’s Sligo Challengers.
Maurice James COVENEY, b. Cork?, 25 July 1939, d. Cork, 4 September 2024.
The Irish Women’s Championship was held at the Talbot Hotel Stillorgan over the weekend. Twelve players competed, including defending champion Antonina Góra, former champion Diana Mirza, and last year’s first place finisher (though then ineligible for the title) and top seed Diana Mats.
The event was more competitive than in some past years, and there were some upsets. Mats lost her first round game against Stella Li, and Mirza lost in round 2 against Nemhain Doolin.
After four rounds, only Góra was on full points, with Mats one point behind. The decisive last round game between these two was well won by Mats, who became Irish Women’s champion for the first time, on tie-break. (I’m not sure whether this was “Direct Encounter” or a playoff.) Congratulations!
A full report has been added to the tournament pages here.
The Irish Championship has been running since last Saturday, August 3, at the Talbot Hotel Stillorgan in Dublin, and concludes tomorrow.
A full report, with all games from the first eight rounds and pairings for the ninth, has been uploaded to the tournament pages here.
The event started with a field of 52, tying the all-time record set in 2007, and added an extra player in round 3 in Gavin Sheahan, taking the field to an all-time record. There were 19 players playing in their first Irish championship, but this fell just short of the record of 20 set in Belfast, 1966.
A major feature has been the live commentary on all rounds by Mark Quinn and Jonathan O’Connor on Mark’s Twitch channel. Highly recommended!
After eight rounds, David Fitzsimons leads on 7 points, a full point clear of Alexander Baburin and Kavin Venkatesan on 6. Only these are still in contention; Oisín O’Cuilleanain is in clear fourth on 5½, followed by a group of 11 players on 5.
In tomorrow’s last round (which commences earlier, at 12.30pm local time), O’Cuilleanain has white against Fitzsimons, Baburin plays white against Colm Daly, and Venkatesan plays black against Atharva Paibir. (The last of these pairings is puzzling to me.)
[Update, August 11, 2024: The report has been updated with the final round games. David Fitzsimons needed only a draw in his final round game, and drew without any difficulty, for his first Irish title. Congratulations! Baburin beat Daly to finish clear second, while Venkatesan drew with Paibir to finish clear third. Five players shared fourth place.]
The ICU website has two brief items dealing with the 1947 Irish champion. The longer one, by Enda Rohan, includes the photo at right, taken at the Irish Championship in Belfast in 1950, describes him as a principal officer at the Department of Posts and Telegraphs who was active in Irish Chess Union and Leinster Chess Union organisation, and says he withdrew from organisation completely as a result of sniping by Dónal O’Sullivan at an LCU general meeting.
The second one, by Joe Keenan, consists of just two sentences, saying that by the end of the 1950s he had withdrawn from active participation in chess events.
Nothing else seemed to be known. However, in putting together the report on the 1947 championship, I found considerably more, including some very helpful information on a genealogical website. In particular, there is an interesting backstory to his disappearance from Irish chess.
His parents were John Duignan, born in 1870 in Derrinisky, Co. Roscommon, and Julia, née Naughton (alternatively Norton), born in 1890 in Kilroe East, Co. Galway. John served as a Sergeant in the U.S. Army from 1904-1913, and they married in Manhattan, New York, in 1913.
Patrick Alphonsus Duignan was born at Derreenavoggy, Arigna, Co. Roscommon on February 26, 1916. His birth cert shows his birth was registered much later, on September 26, 1918.
At some point, the family moved to Dublin, and Paddy went to O’Connell School on North Richmond Street.
A profile in the Irish Independent shortly after he won the championship said that he entered chess circles in 1941, and was only playing in senior, i.e., highest level, competitions for three years at the time he became champion. During that time he had won Leinster Intermediate and Senior Championships, the Irish Civil Service Championship, and the Oireachtas Cup.
A major life change came in 1964, when he was seconded for a year as a United Nations advisor to the Arab Postal Union, and he departed to Cairo with his wife and three children. The initially reported year seems to have turned into a much longer commitment, though at some point his wife and children returned to Ireland, due to school quality. Paddy was reported as returning to Ireland in March 1967 after his posting, but was back in the region again in 1973, when he made the front pages, having been caught up in the Yom Kippur war:
“The wife of an Irishman heading a United Nations postal development in Damascus, whose home was destroyed in the Israeli bomb attack, was waiting last night in Dublin for confirmation that her husband was safe.” (Irish Press, October 10, 1973, p. 1)
The report said that he had been in Damascus for the previous 18 months, as project manager for the Arab Postal Institute, having previously spent two years with his family in Cairo. A front page report in the same day’s Evening Herald reported that Mrs. Duignan had received a telegram from her husband saying that he and a friend were safe.
Paddy Duignan returned to Dublin, where he died on September 2, 1997.
The Irish Championship 1947 was held in Cork, for the first time ever, at the C.C.Y.M.S. Hall in Castle Street. The event was structured as a 14-player all-play-all, with the provincial unions each nominating three players, and with another place for the defending champion. In the event, the defending champion Barney O’Sullivan played instead in the Hilversum Zonal. Leinster nominated a replacement, and, perhaps to avoid a bye, a fifth Leinster player was included.
This was only the second Irish championship since the event resumed after the war, and the only former champion competing was John O’Hanlon, 71 years old. He had played in 20 previous championships, whereas the rest of the field combined had competed in 11.
The Leinster contingent consisted of O’Hanlon, Paddy Duignan (Irish Civil Service champion), Warwick Nash of Athlone (a veteran, along with O’Hanlon and William Minnis, of the previous Olympiad, Buenos Aires 1939, and twice previously Irish correspondence champion), Dónal J. O’Sullivan (who would go on to win three championships), and John Casey of Rathmines, the 1944 Leinster champion, who seems to have been a late addition to the event.
Munster nominated Austin Bourke (a future Irish champion, then working at Shannon Airport), John C. Hickey of Templemore (North Munster champion 1947, and another former Irish correspondence champion), and Con O’Leary of the host club (South Munster champion 1947).
Ulster nominated A. L. Davies (Ulster champion in 1944), G. A. Kearney, and William Minnis (of the Olympiad 1939 team, and Ulster champion in 1939 and 1945).
Connacht nominated Pat Diskin, Frank Killeen, and (Dr.) Michael O’Donnell (Connacht champion).
(There is a link with the previous post: John C. Hickey emigrated a couple of years after this event, and spent over twenty years in Singapore and Malaya, before returning to Ireland. He played board 1 for Phibsboro in the Armstrong Cup 1980-81.)
Paddy Duignan was on form, and won his first six games in succession. Adjournments clouded the issue though: the first session for outstanding adjournments came after round 7. Dónal O’Sullivan also won his first six games once his adjournments were eventually played out. O’Sullivan lost to Bourke in round 8, but the event was thrown wide open with Duignan’s loss to Nash in round 9. This left Duignan and O’Sullivan sharing the lead on 7½, with Bourke and Nash on 7, at the end of play on Friday, though again these were the scores after all adjournments had been played out.
The crucial day was the Saturday, with rounds 10 and 11. In the morning, O’Sullivan and Bourke each lost, to O’Leary and O’Donnell respectively, and Nash drew against Davies, while Duignan beat Kearney. The critical game happened that evening, when Duignan played O’Sullivan, with Duignan eventually prevailing in an ending. This left Duignan on 9½, with Nash on 8½ and Bourke, O’Hanlon, and O’Sullivan a further point back on 7½, again after resolution of adjournments.
After the rest day, Duignan won his round 12 game against Killeen, and could afford to draw against Diskin, who finished last, in the last round, to finish on 11/13, a full point and a half ahead of Nash in second, with O’Sullivan third. Bourke and O’Hanlon shared fourth place on 8½. This was Duignan’s only Irish championship.
Only one game survives from the event, the round 9 game between Duignan and Nash, Duignan’s only loss. There was a mystery here: the game was available in the ICU games archive, but strangely it did not show up in any searches of newspaper archives; where did it come from? David McAlister has traced it to the second batch of games he sent in 2004 to Mark Orr for “TICAbase”, an early predecessor of the ICU games archive, and has even provided his original notes of the game and annotation. In those days before newspaper archives could be searched online, tracking down information and games required painstaking and seriously time-consuming work in libraries with microfilm records.
Duignan – Nash, Irish Championship 1947 15. ?
In the diagrammed position, 15. Qb3 Qd7 16. Qxb7 O-O would leave chances about equal. Instead Duignan blundered with 15. Nc4? and was surprised by 15… Nxe4!, threatening mate. Objectively Black was then winning, but over the next few moves both players missed the strongest continuations. Nash emerged an exchange and two pawns up, but then ran short of time and permitted a three-fold repetition. Duignan missed his chance to claim the draw, and resigned a few moves later.
Many congratulations to Dublin Chess Club, who won this season’s Armstrong Cup decisively (final table). This broke a run of seven consecutive wins by Gonzaga, itself an all-time record.
But even more notably, perhaps, it broke a 43-year famine for Dublin, which last won in the 1980-81 season.
The Chess League website records go back only as far as the 2003-04 season. However, we are fortunate to have essentially complete season results via John Gibson’s excellent records.
In 1980-81, twelve teams competed, but the competition was organised as a two-part series of six-team all-play-alls. The top three teams in the two sections qualified for another six-team all-play-all for the Armstrong Cup, while the other six teams played an all-play-all for relegation. (According to the Armstrong Cup page at David McAlister’s Irish Chess History website, this was the first second year this system was used; I think it lasted until the 1984-85 season.)
The initial sections were labelled A and B, but seem to have been intended to have the same strength. In section A, Kilkenny made history as the first team outside Dublin to play, having been promoted from the Heidenfeld. The defending champions U.C.D. were assigned to this section, but failed to field a team and did not make another appearance in the Armstrong until 1998-99. It was a strange end to a highly successful run, after UCD teams won in 1973, 1974, 1976, and 1977.
In the end, a single point covered the top four teams, with Raheny, Rathmines, and Phibsboro qualifying for the championship playoff and Sandymount and Kilkenny assigned to the relegation section.
rah
rat
phi
san
kil
ucd
total
Raheny
.
5½
4
3½
5
–
18
Rathmines
2½
.
4
4½
6½
—
17½
Phibsboro
4
4
.
4½
4
–
17½
Sandymount
4½
3½
3½
.
5½
–
17
Kilkenny
3
1½
3
2½
.
–
10
U.C.D.
–
–
–
–
–
.
–
In section B, Dublin finished comfortably first, but again the remaining places were hotly contested, with ½ point covering the next three places. Rathmines finished second, but Dundrum and Collegians tied for third and fourth places on 21. Dundrum qualified for the championship playoff, possibly by virtue of winning the individual match between the teams.
dub
rat
dun
col
tcd
por
total
Dublin
.
4½
5
4
4½
5½
23½
Rathfarnham
3½
.
3½
3½
6½
4½
21½
Dundrum
3
4½
.
5
4
4½
21
Collegians
4
4½
3
.
6
3½
21
Dublin Univ.
3½
1½
4
2
.
6
17
Portmarnock
2½
3½
3½
4½
2
.
16
In the championship playoff, Dublin won by a comfortable margin in the end, for their first Armstrong since the 1970-71 season. However, Raheny actually led by a point (after accounting for all adjourned games) heading into the last round, and it was Dublin’s decisive 6-2 win against them that decided the title.
dub
rah
dun
raf
ram
phi
total
Dublin
.
6
3½
6
5
7
27½
Raheny
2
.
4½
4½
7
6½
24½
Dundrum
4½
3½
.
2
4½
6
20½
Rathfarnham
2
3½
6
.
4½
3
19
Rathmines
3
1
3½
3½
.
3½
14½
Phibsboro
1
1½
2
5
4½
.
14
The decisive match was played in the Dublin clubrooms at 20 Lincoln Place, on Tuesday, March 3, 1981 (Irish Press, March 4, 1981 p. 14). The scorecard was:
Dublin
Raheny
J. Murray
1 – 0
P. Delaney
R. Pye
0 – 1
J. Delaney
P. Carton
1 – 0
A. Delaney
J. J. Walsh
1 – 0
C. Quinn
P. Cassidy
½ – ½
J. O’Nolan
B. Palmer
½ – ½
A. Cronin
B. Canton
1 – 0
M. Delaney
C. O’Hare
1 – 0
C. Brady
6 – 2
In the relegation playoff, two teams were intended to be relegated, but since U.C.D. automatically took one, only one team faced the drop. In the end, Kilkenny were a long way adrift.
col
por
tcd
san
kil
ucd
total
Collegians
.
5
4
6½
6
–
21
Portmarnock
3
.
3
4
7½
—
17½
Dublin Univ.
4
5
.
3½
4
–
16½
Sandymount
1½
4
4½
.
6
–
16
Kilkenny
2
½
4
2
.
–
8½
U.C.D.
–
–
–
–
–
.
–
The winning Dublin team in board order was Robert Pye, John Murray, Pat Carton, J. J. Walsh, Paul Cassidy, Brian Canton, Bernard Palmer, and Ciarán O’Hare, with subs Brian Beckett, Brian McKenna, and Jonathan O’Connor.
Dublin team results
The results are arranged in John Gibson’s notebook in the style above. Results for other teams are as follows:
The sole link with this year’s winning team is Jonathan O’Connor, who in a very long and distinguished career has never otherwise played on an Armstrong Cup-winning team. Congratulations to him and all this year’s team!
[Update, May 31, 2024: Brian McKenna’s first name was added, based on Colm Egan’s identification, via Gerry MacElligott, and the timeline for the new tournament structure was corrected based on a note by David McAlister. Many thanks to all for the information.]
Mike Clarke left a comment to our post Korchnoi and the car about William Collins, and more specifically sought information about Viktor Korchnoi’s simultaneous exhibition at Newtownards in early February 1981.
From 1982 to 1993 Collins authored a highly-regarded chess column in the Saturday edition of the Belfast Telegraph. Originally I thought that this ruled out him having reported on Korchnoi’s display at Newtownards Town Hall. However I then remembered that before his Telegraph column he had contributed semi-regular articles in the Telegraph’s sister publication, Ireland’s Saturday Night.
So, Mike and our other readers, here is Collins’s report in the ISN for the 7th February 1981 on that Korchnoi simul.
KORCHNOI – he lost only one game!
THIS HAS been an historic week for Ulster chess. Nobody in their dreams could have envisaged the massive coverage devoted to the game over the last few days.
Clearly we backed a winner by bringing Victor Korchnoi here.
Korchnoi’s short tour was a resounding success. He gave two simultaneous displays against a total of 72 players, and in the process lost only one game. Here are the details:
Armagh played 40, won 35, lost 1 (F. Coll), drew 4 (T. Clarke, D. Blair, S. McCrea, W. Hegarty).
Newtownards played 32, won 29, lost 0, drew 3 (R. Devenney, D. Murray, J. Strawbridge).
Spectators and contestants alike were impressed, not only with Korchnoi’s play, which was of the highest standard, but also his manner. He couldn’t have been more courteous or friendly. Korchnoi is also a wonderful raconteur. Those who met him after the display were enthralled with stories about his encounters with Spassky and Karpov. He talked far into the night about his preparation the next World title match against Karpov, and explained why be preferred Europe as a venue. He was prepared to discuss other leading players, and his opinions were liberally interspersed with anecdotes.
On Fischer: “My first impression – good. Second impression – he is crazy. Two years later – he is wise.” His favourite player: Paul Keres. ‘I could never obtain a better position against him, let alone beat him.” Michael Stean (his second): “A gentleman, but his health is not good. Tony Miles: “Not a gentleman but I beat him every time.” The new Soviet star Kasparov: “There is already tension between Karpov and Kasparov. I like Kasparov’s annotated games.”
The visit will be remembered for a long time. Yet even before Korchnoi had left, tour organiser John Flynn was considering ideas for his next big venture. This could involve bring two or three Grandmasters to the Province.
Finding this report re-opens the issue of the precise results of the Korchnoi Newtownards simul. At our Simuls page we had reported them in the same terms as Collins in the ISN article. However, in six consecutive comments at that Simuls page starting here and also in Mike Clarke’s comment referred to above, various pieces of recollection differ.
The possible differences amount to Korchnoi losing at least three games in Newtownards (two of these being against Damien Artt and Desmond Forson) and conceding draws to Sam Livingston and to Collins.
I do not wish to take issue in any way with the genuine belief in the various recollections but could there be a way of resolving this puzzling situation.
Perhaps the answer might involve Michael Stean, Korchnoi’s second in two world championship matches with Anatoly Karpov.
In GM Michael Stean on the BBC we posted about Stean giving a simul at Newtownards Town Hall in June 1979 with the GM winning 32 games, drawing 2 and losing 6. As Collins and Livingston were both members of the Newtownards Chess Club, I suspect their draws may have been against Stean, but the Korchnoi connection has somehow created conflation or confusion in people’s memories.
Moving on to possible Korchnoi losses, a similar effect may exist – in my subsequent comment to the Stean post I had added the results of a Stean simul at CIYMS Chess Club in January 1982. Among the five winners against the GM on that occasion were Artt and Forson.
