Author Archives: David McAlister

Sonja Graf – Part 3 Overlapping Matches

Posted on August 22, 2025 by David McAlister

MATCH AGAINST  JOHN J. O’HANLON John James O’Hanlon, as the saying goes, needs no introduction, but the Irish Chess Union website does have this fine tribute from J.J. Walsh. The Irish Independent reported on Day 1 of the match in … Continue reading →

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Sonja Graf – Part 2: Simultaneity, Dancing and Blitzing

Posted on August 22, 2025 by David McAlister

The Evening Herald in its 2nd February 1935 edition reported on Sonja Graf’s imminent arrival and gave a brief preview of her likely engagements. The German lady chess champion, Fraulein Sonja Graf, who will arrive in Dublin this (Saturday) evening, … Continue reading →

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Sonja Graf – Part 1: Foundation

Posted on August 22, 2025 by David McAlister

“Many highly-coloured stories have been written about Sonja Graf, but the majority of these have been found to be without foundation.” Anne Sunnucks, The Encyclopaedia of Chess, 2nd Edition, 1976, Robert Hale, London. This is the first of four posts … Continue reading →

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Koltanowski Simuls and Match -v- O’Hanlon 1937

Posted on August 14, 2025 by David McAlister

On the 21st January 1937, after playing in the famous Hastings Christmas Congress and then an international tournament in Birmingham, George Koltanowski embarked on a lengthy exhibition tour of Britain and Ireland, but when he arrived in Dublin, it seemed … Continue reading →

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O’Hanlon at Cambridge 1932

Posted on August 5, 2025 by David McAlister

Throughout his career, J.J. O’Hanlon would send a selection of his game scores to the editors of Irish chess columns, frequently with his own annotations appended. Here we present the result of one such offering, as described by T.P. Donnegan … Continue reading →

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Gerard Kerlin, and the 1942 Champions’ Chess Tourney

Posted on July 1, 2025 by David McAlister

On the 25th of August 1969 Albert Long, Honorary Secretary of the Ulster Chess Union, wrote to Brenda Kerlin about her brother Gerard. In the letter, by way of introduction, he indicated that he had been given her address by … Continue reading →

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1940 Irish Championship, Dublin

Posted on June 25, 2025 by David McAlister

Following on from our recent post O’Hanlon at the 1940 Irish Championship, we have now compiled, in our usual format, a full report on that Championship. Originally a ten-player tournament was planned, but at the last moment the Ulster players … Continue reading →

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O’Hanlon at the 1940 Irish Championship

Posted on June 18, 2025 by David McAlister

We have previously mentioned on a number of occasions John Saunders’ outstanding Britbase website. During some recent research, John came across an important annotated Irish Championship game and kindly sent it to me, while also pointing out that elsewhere a … Continue reading →

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Korchnoi in Newtownards

Posted on May 21, 2024 by David McAlister

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 … Continue reading →

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Memories of Morphy

Posted on May 15, 2024 by David McAlister

No, not that Morphy. These memories are of the Dublin chessplayer John Morphy. In his Evening Herald chess column for Saturday 30 July 1932, the editor T.P. Donnegan shared a small reminiscence of chess in times past. MORPHY’S DIVAN We … Continue reading →

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