Category Archives: Irish champions

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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Mulcahy-Bouwmeester, Munich Zonal 1954

Today, March 24, marks the 50th anniversary of the Viscount air disaster. One of the 61 people on board was Noel Mulcahy, one of Ireland’s strongest players. He was Irish champion in 1953, and equal second or better in five … Continue reading

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O’Hanlon-Cox 1936 Challenge Match revisited

In my article on the 1936 O’Hanlon-Cox Challenge Match I was able to present six of the seven games played in the match. I have now unearthed the game-score of Game 1, the one that had previously eluded me. It is … Continue reading

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More on John Moles

A long, detailed, and very interesting obituary of John Moles appeared in the December issue of Histos, an online academic journal co-founded by him, written by a close and long-time academic colleague who knew him over decades. I never met … Continue reading

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John Moles 1949-2015

I was very sorry to hear of the sudden death of John Moles, one of the most talented players Ireland has ever produced, on October 4. He was twice Irish champion and played in two Olympiads, and wrote an outstanding … Continue reading

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From Irish champion to polar adventurer

The format for the 1989 renewal of the Irish Championship provoked a bit of controversy at the time. The Irish Chess Union abandoned the usual formula of one-game a day over 9 rounds and compressed the Championship into 5 days. … Continue reading

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Who did Dake play?

In the comments to “The trials of Aibhistín de Búrca” Paul Brown raises the issue of which player played A. Dake at Warsaw (de Burca or Cranston). At IRLchess we have plumped for de Búrca. De Búrca, in his 1960 … Continue reading

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Heidenfeld and the 1958 Irish Championship

There’s one simple way for an Irish chess website to increase its traffic: start a debate on the eligibility to play in the Irish Championship, more specifically should it be an open or closed tournament (and if it’s a closed … Continue reading

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Cox centenary: Challenge match with O’Hanlon

In our earlier Thomas Cox centenary article Play-off for the Dublin CC Championship 1936, I chronicled how J.J. O’Hanlon had suffered a surprise defeat to Cox. O’Hanlon was the reigning Irish champion and he perhaps felt the need to restore … Continue reading

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Alexander Baburin

The recent discussion around Alex Lopez’s near-miss of a GM norm at the Istanbul Olympiad reminded me that the biography pages here were missing a page for Ireland’s first (and still only) GM, Alexander Baburin. He earned the title a … Continue reading

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