“Congratulations to young Clontarf Club player B. Canton for the … brilliant and imaginative win against J.B. Steen (Ulster) in the recent Inter-Provincial match in Dublin. It is seldom one gets, much less expects, such a high standard of play in Irish chess.” [Norman Walker: Dublin Evening Herald chess column, 25th May 1955, page 7]
“[Here] is a satisfying attacking game which will be remembered with pleasure by those who have seen it before and a fresh enjoyment to all players. It … shows that the winner, Brian Canton, who played on the Irish team at Munich in 1958, can on occasion play imaginative chess of a standard unsurpassed by any Irish player.” [J.J. Walsh: Irish Times chess column, 14th September 1961, page 8]
Despite its appearance in two chess columns in different newspapers six years apart and the praise heaped on the winner and his play in the game in question, Canton’s “immortal game” has not so far found its way into the ICU database.
Brian Canton (Leinster) – J. Barnard Steen (Ulster)
Board 10, Interprovincial Match, Jury’s Hotel, Dublin, 14th May 1955
Selected annotations from Kenneth O’Riordan in the Dublin Evening Herald, 25.05.1955
[Play through the game]
12..hxg5 13.hxg5 Nf8 14.Rxh5 g6 15.Rh3 Bxg5 16.Nxg5 Qxg5 17.f4 Qxg4 18.Qh2 Bd7 19.Be2 Qf5 20.e4 “The finest move of the game and the beginning [of] a combination which is brilliant by any standards.” 20…dxe4 21.Bg4 Qxg4 22.Rh8+ Kg7 23.Nxe4 f5 24.Qh6+ Kf7 25.Rh7+ Nxh7 26.Qxh7+ Kf8 27.Nf6 “Forcing mate. White, incidentally, has seen that Black’s checks are quite useless.” 27…Qg3+ 28.Ke2 Bc8 29.Qh8+ Ke7 30.Qxe8+ Kxf6 31.Qf8# “As fine a mate as one could hope to get in a lifetime. White’s 20th and 21st moves were inspired.”
While looking for suitable study material ahead of the 1961-2 season, Walsh came across the game against Steen and it then found its way into his chess column. As we have seen, O’Riordan had heaped particular praise on Canton’s 20th and 21st moves, but during his analysis Walsh noticed a move order issue.
Position before White’s 20th move
“Without detracting from Canton’s excellent winning attack it must be noted that the vital 22.Rh8+ should have been played on move 20, followed by the combination in the actual game sequence. The reason for this finesse is apparent if instead of 20…dxe4 Black tried 20…Qf6, and after 21.e5 Qg7, when although his position is undoubtedly “lost”, it is not too clear just how white can deliver the decisive blow.”
O’Riordan and Walsh were clubmates of Canton in 1955 and, like him, in the first rank of Irish chess-players for many years. However, while concurring with their overall judgment of the game, there appears to be a further significant issue with Canton’s order of moves. It may be even more important (after 20.e4 dxe4) to play 21.Rh8+ because after the move actually played in the game (21.Bg4) Black does not need to accept the Bishop sacrifice and can play instead 21…Qf6 keeping his Queen on the a1-h8 diagonal and thereby preventing the Rook check. After 22.Nxe4 Qxd4 23.Nd6 White has good attacking compensation for two sacrificed pawns, but perhaps no more than that.
The Irish Championship of 1949, held in Galway, ended 70 years ago today. The event was a 7-round Swiss—the first time the Swiss system was used for an Irish Championship–with 16 players.
The field included the defending champion, Dónal J. O’Sullivan; the 1947 Irish champion Barney O’Sullivan [but see Note below]; the 9-times Irish champion J. J. O’Hanlon; the Connacht champion Robert Dundas, the Leinster champion P. W. Whelan, the joint Munster champion John C. Hickey, the Ulster champion J. A. Flood, the Irish Universities’ champion (and future Irish champion) Vincent Maher, and the former Irish correspondence champion and Olympiad team member Warwick Nash.
In the event, though, the runaway winner was Patrick Brendan Kennedy, a U.C.C. student playing in his first Irish championship, who recorded 7/7 to finish 2½ points clear of the field. His wins were against D. G. Jackson, Nash, [Dónal J.] O’Sullivan, Hickey (on his 20th birthday), Flood, Dundas, and O’Hanlon. This was the one and only time in Irish championship history that a player has become champion with a 100% score.
Paddy Kennedy, 1949
I had never heard of Irish championship medals, but in 1949 one was awarded, which his son David has very kindly photographed:
Brian Canton, formerly of Clontarf and Dublin C.C.s, died on July 7.
He was a member of the Clontarf club that was founded in the early 1950’s and that won the Armstrong Cup twice, in 1953 and 1955, and the National Club Championship in 1955. He played with Dublin C.C. later, including on multiple Armstrong Cup winning teams.
He represented Ireland in one Olympiad, Munich 1958. He won the Civil Service Senior Championship in 1952 (he worked with Posts & Telegraphs) and the Oireachtas Championship in 1965.
Here is a photo of the (very young) 1955 Armstrong Cup winning team, with Brian Canton third from right (source: Evening Herald, March 9, 1955 p. 5):
Last year, we reported here on the 1974 Irish championship, and remarked that no games were available from the event. Remarkably, a few months later one turned up, on the ICU web site, in Paul Cassidy’s article My Memorable Games and Opponents: his round 8 encounter with the top seed, Bernard Kernan.
It seems to have been a searing experience for Paul:
“This happened in round 8 of the Irish Championship 1974. A win for me would have put me in a very strong position to challenge for the title in the final round. I played a very good game, got a winning position, refused numerous draws, made a very nice and not obvious Rook sacrifice to force mate, and then blew it all! …
This loss represented the end of my serious chess career. For many years I simply could not come to terms with it. I had, of course, previously lost won positions like we all do but for some reason this one seared into my soul. There was so much at stake and I had played so well to conjure up a beautiful finish with the Rook sacrifice. I have now come to terms with it but it still hurts to reproduce it here and experience once again the calamitous finish. ”
Paul’s memory fails him here, as the 1974 championship only had 8 rounds, and furthermore even if there had been a ninth round and he had won this game, he would have been on 5½, still 1½ adrift of Tony Doyle.
Still, it must have been a galling experience. Here is the finish:
Kernan – Cassidy, Irish Championship 1974
Position after 41. Bc3
The event seems to have retained the unusual time control used the previous year: 45 moves in 2½ hours in the first session. This has considerable bearing on what followed, since Black was in “tremendous” time trouble.
The continuation was 41… d4 (41… Rf4 or 41… Rf3 would be even stronger, but Black still has an overwhelmingly won game) 42. Bd2 Rf3 43. Qd7 Rf1+! 44. Kxf1 Qh1+ 45. Kf2, and now (in the last move before the time control!) came the disastrous 45… Qxh2+??, when the white king escapes. The finish was 46. Kf3 Qh1+ (46… Rf8+ changes nothing) 47. Kf4 Rf8+ 48. Ke5 Qh2+ 49. Kd5 1‑0.
The straightforward 45… Rf8+ (the intended continuation when 43… Rf1+! was played) would have won on the spot.
The lists of Irish championship players have been updated to include the 2018 championship: see the full list in descending order of number of championships played, and the same in alphabetical order.
Two errors have been corrected:
Previously “W. Laveney” was given as having played in the 1977 championship, following the tournament book, but this seems to have been a misprint for “W. (William) Lavery”;
“M. Taylor”, who played in the 1976 championship, was previously given as “A. Taylor”; both versions are given in the tournament book.
In addition, full player names have been given for several more players.
In 2018, Colm Daly and Eamon Keogh each equalled John O’Hanlon’s record of 29 championships. Five of the top ten in terms of the number of championships played have entered this year’s championship.
Corrections are always welcome, so please feel free to comment.
Just over a year ago we published a tournament report on the 1975 Irish Championship which was much enhanced by material provided by joint winner Alan Ludgate. At that time 11 games were available, 8 of those featuring Ludgate, and we can now provide a further three found in Cyril Hardiman’s Sunday Independent chess column.
The introductory post on the Championship pointed out the prevalence of the Modern Defence in the available games. As it happens two of the three additions also feature that opening: McGuinness – Cummins from Round 2 (which won the Best Game prize) and Crowe – Cummins (Round 6).
Here’s the third “new” game:
Brian Denny – Arthur Pinkerton
1975 Irish Championship, Dublin
Round 2, 13th July
Source: Sunday Independent, 2nd November 1975 (page 14)
with annotations by “a leading Irish player.” [Play through the game]
22.Qe3
“If instead White plays 22.Bxe8 then 22…Qh2+ 23.Kf1 Qxh3+ 24.Ke2 (24.Kg1 Bh2+ 25.Kh1 Bf4+ wins the Queen) 24…Qxg4+ and White is under considerable pressure” – Sunday Independent. [The only move that seems to give White a fighting chance is 22.Nf3 covering the h2 square and forcing either an exchange of Queens or the Black Queen off the b8-h2 diagonal. DMcA] 22…Qh2+ 23.Kf1 Bf4! White resigned.
After 23…Bf4 the Sunday Independent gave the following winning variations:
“If 24.Qc3 – White does not seem to have much alternative – then 24…e3!! and White’s position is split apart, e.g.
(a) 25.Re2 Qh1 mate
(b) 25.fxe3 Bg3!
(c) 25.Rxe3 Bxe3 26.fxe3 Qh1+ etc.”
[In variation (c), 25…Rxe3 is perhaps a more visually entertaining finish. If 26.fxe3 again 26…Bg3 wins. DMcA]
The championship was held at the New University of Ulster in Coleraine (now “Ulster University at Coleraine”), from July 17-25, 1976. It was sponsored (for the first time ever for an Irish championship, according to the tournament book), with a first prize of £150, about equal to £1,000 today.
The event drew an excellent turnout of 28 players, including the defending joint champions Eamon Keogh and Alan Ludgate, the 1974 champion Tony Doyle, and five out of the six-man squad announced a few weeks earlier for the Haifa Olympiad.
The clear favourite was Bernard Kernan, who was the player on form, having lost just two games in Ireland over the previous twelve months, winning the Oireachtas Championship, the Mulcahy Memorial and the Cavan Open, and finishing as highest placed player as equal second, ½ point behind Tony Miles, at the Dundrum International Open.
From the outset Kernan led, and after round six he was a full point clear of the field. But then he wobbled. The diagram shows the position after Kernan’s 27th move in his round 7 game against Michael Littleton. Littleton now played 28. f4. What do you think of the resulting position and how would you evaluate the chances?
Littleton – Kernan, Irish Championship 1976
Position after 27… Re8-e6
After this loss, Kernan and Littleton shared the lead with 5/7, with six more players just half a point behind. Kernan beat Tony Doyle in round 8, while Littleton drew with Ludgate. Heading into the last round, Kernan led with 6, followed by Littleton on 5½, followed by six players on 5: the defending joint champions Keogh and Ludgate, Paul Delaney, Ray Devenney, the Leinster champion (undefeated in this event) Denis Healy, and the London player Richard W. O’Brien.
If Kernan had lost and Littleton had drawn in the last round, there could have resulted a 5-way tie for first, the largest ever. (And this is not even counting Ray Devenney, whose duties as a church minister prevented him from playing in the final round, who might have made it a 6-way tie.) In the event, though, Kernan as White agreed a quick draw with Ludgate on board 1, and Littleton as Black agreed an even quicker draw with Denis Healy on board 2, leaving 21-year-old Bernard Kernan as Irish champion for the first, and as it turned out the only, time.
We’re fortunate that the organisers put together a tournament book including all but a handful of games. For some reason only four games appear as of today in the ICU games archive, and no games appear in any of the commercial databases. Many thanks are due to Alan Ludgate, who provided a copy of the tournament book plus all his scoresheets, and to David McAlister, who provided a pgn file including all games from the tournament book plus one extra game.
Update, August 3, 2019: one week after the event, a substantially revised game file with about 150 extra or modified games was published at The Week in Chess, via Tim Harding. The report has been updated with these new games, and also incorporates David McAlister’s reconstruction of Fitzsimons – Han, round 7 (see comment below), and several annotations that appeared in Chess Today and other sources.
The game in the last post was far from Boris Spassky’s last interaction with Irish chess. In March 1991 he visited Ireland and gave two simuls, in Dublin and Kilkenny. The Kilkenny event was part of the club’s celebration of its 21st birthday.
Spassky was undefeated across the two events, scoring +24 =1 -0 in Dublin and +22 =8 -0 in Kilkenny, conceding draws in Kilkenny to Seán Bradley, Liam Brady, Maurice Buckley, Trevor Hunter, Fergal O’Dwyer, Paud O’Reilly, Ciaran Sharkey, and one other.
Maurice Buckley has provided a copy of his scoresheet, signed by Spassky and complete with photo of simul in progress, for which many thanks.
