Category Archives: Photos

Gibson – Doyle, Leinster Championship 1980

Among the many tributes that poured in for John Gibson was one at the Irish Go Association web site, which features a very nice recent photo: The photo’s metadata indicates that it was taken on February 29, 2020. The last … Continue reading

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Williamson Shield 2022

The Williamson Shield 2022 took place at Stormont from February 4-6, marking another very welcome step in the transition back to in-person tournaments, and attracted 31 players across two sections. Many thanks to organiser Damien Lavery, who transcribed virtually all … Continue reading

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O’Connell’s School, Leinster Schools champions 1957-58

O’Connell’s School, Leinster Schools Champions 1957-58 Front row, L.-R.: W. Davis, John McMahon, Art Coldrick, Paul Cassidy John McMahon sent me the very nice photo above in March, from the O’Connell’s School Yearbook of 1958. That season marked the fourth … Continue reading

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Barnett – Whitmarsh, Imperial v Lensbury Match 1925

by Lafayette (Lafayette Ltd), whole-plate film negative, 18 October 1929 By Source (WP:NFCC#4), Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=40802266 Richard Whieldon Barnett, 1863-1930, the 1886 Irish champion, was described by Gerald Abrahams in Not Only Chess (London, 1974) as follows: “[T]he late Sir … Continue reading

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Michael Littleton

Attribution: Fotograaf Onbekend / Anefo, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons A recent thread at the English Chess Forum pointed out that a large collection of high-quality chess photographs from the Dutch National Archive has recently been made available via Wikimedia Commons. … Continue reading

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Sir Horace Plunkett, circa 1920

A group including Sir Horace Plunkett (front row centre), Trinity College Dublin, circa 1920. Image © UCD National University of Ireland, Dublin licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Last year, I posted on Sir Horace Plunkett, longtime … Continue reading

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P. B. Kennedy and the Irish Championship 1949

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. … Continue reading

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Déiseach – Spassky, World Junior Championship 1955

Alan McGowan, ChessScotland’s historian, has sent the photo above, for which many thanks. The third World Junior Championship was held in Antwerp, from July 21 to August 9, 1955. Ireland’s representative was Dónal Déiseach of Clontarf C.C., then Armstrong Cup … Continue reading

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Ulster Championship 2018

This year’s Ulster championship, which ran from August 25-27 in Belfast, was a 6-round event with 12 players, and resulted in a clear-cut win for Thomas Donaldson, a full point clear of the field, for his first title. The report … Continue reading

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Philip Short 1960-2018

Philip Short, August 2018 I’m reeling, as is anyone remotely linked with Irish chess, at the sudden and unexpected loss of Philip Short. He was Irish champion five times—1981 (joint), 1986 (j.), 1988, 2015 (j.), and 2017 (j.)—and finished joint … Continue reading

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