2007-08-03

City of Dublin

The 2007 City of Dublin Chess Championships will be held over the weekend of Friday 31st August to Sunday 2rd September in An Oige, 67 Mountjoy Street, Dublin 7, home of the Phibsborough Chess Club. Prize fund is €5,000 and first prize in the Masters Section is €1,000 euro. Entry form.

2007-07-26

Glorney and Faber Cups

The opening ceremony of the 2007 Glorney and Faber Cup competitions, hosted this year by Ireland, was presided over by Mary Hanafin, Minister of Education and Science. For more information on the competitions, see the ICU .

Press release. Commentary. Pictures. Games: Glorney, Faber. Results: Glorney, Faber, 4NU14, 4NU12.

2007-07-23

Sussex-Ireland Junior Match

John McKenna has sent in a report, with pictures, of the recent Sussex-Ireland junior match.

2007-07-22

Irish Championships Statistics

This website inherited many features of another site called The Irish Chess Archive (TICA), which has subsequently been retired. However, there are still a few features which, through lack of time, have yet to be ported over. One of these, which has now been rectified, is the listing of Irish Championship statistics. To get to it, click on Tournaments (on the left) and then click on the link which appears below it, Irish Champs.

Listing the champions by number of wins shows that, by sharing this year's championship with Brian Kelly, Stephen Brady has moved up into the company of two of the greats of Irish chess: joint second with Wolfgang Heidenfeld but still three wins behind J.J.O'Hanlon, who won the title a total of nine times. O'Hanlon's record will be tough to beat but provides Stephen another ambition besides the IM title.

2007-07-20

Nominations and motions for AGM

The AGM, at which motions are debated and officers elected, is due in September. Nominations for officers and proposals for motions should be sent to the by 3rd August. Last season's officers' reports are here.

2007-07-19

International Junior Team tournaments in Dublin

The ICU is hosting the 2007 Glorney and Faber Cup competitions in Dublin City University from 24th to 26th July. The competitions are for players under 18. The Glorney teams are comprised of 5 boys and the Faber teams are comprised of 3 girls. Teams from Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England will be participating in the competitions. At the same time the ICU is hosting a Four Nations Championships for U12 and U14 teams from the same 4 countries.

The Glorney Cup for boys, was originally instigated in 1947 by the Dublin businessman, C Parker Glorney. The Faber Cup was introduced in 1967 for girls by Faber Books. The Irish teams will feature Porneema Menon (who at age 14 represented the Irish Senior women's team at the 2006 Turin Chess Olympiad), David Fitzsimons (age 16, who became the youngest Irishman to beat an international grandmaster in Spain, two months ago), and finally five year Shane Melaugh from Donegal who will be competing in the U12 tournament and will feature on the Gerry Ryan show on 2FM next Monday morning (23rd July).

Minister for Education Mary Hanafin will be present to inaugurate preoceedings and make the first move on the top board in the tournament next Tuesday 26th July in DCU at 9am and Senator David Norris will be present at the prizegiving on Thursday 26th July at 2.30pm.

For further details please contact ICU public relations officer , tel. 085-1526889.

2007-07-12

National Club Championship 2007

The winners this year were Kilkenny, ahead of Rathmines, Ennis and and Galway. The first two win the right to represent Ireland in the 2007 European Club Cup to be held in Turkey later this year. Results. Games.

2007-07-08

Irish Championships

There was great drama in the last round. First, Brian Kelly, needing a draw for a GM norm, unfortunately could not stop the in-form Mark Hebden. With Pert and Rozentalis drawing, that meant Hebden and Pert shared first place and Brian was joint third and assured of at least a share of the title of Irish Champion, depending on the result of one other game - Philip Short versus Stephen Brady. This tense encounter was the last game to finish and involved more than one time scramble but eventually Stephen, who had the edge in a long bishop and pawn endgame, emerged victorious and thus shared the title with Brian. Final standings. Commentary. Games: browser, PGN.

2007-07-04

Gonzaga Classic announced

Details of the annual Gonzaga Classic have been announced. As ever, the event will be raising money for charity, though the prize fund is still estimated at €2000. In an unusual twist, there will be a 'swap chess' tournament held on the Sunday evening. For more details, see the flyer.

2007-06-26

LCU AGM

John Healy has written a report on the AGM of the Leinster Chess Union.