Category Archives: Simuls

Chandler – MacRéamoinn, Dundrum simul 1984

Murray Chandler’s visit to Ireland in January 1984 saw him play four large simuls in as many days, in Dundrum, Trinity, Skerries, and Cork. In the opening event, at Dundrum C.C. on January 18, 1984, Chandler won 24 or 25 … Continue reading

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Chandler – O’Connor, Trinity simul 1984

John Saunders’ BritBase site has a newly added collection of Murray Chandler’s games 1973-1989, featuring 1,594 games played during those years. This includes several hundred new games keyed in from scans of scoresheets provided by Chandler, as well as additional … Continue reading

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Capablanca on Irish chess

Capablanca scored +27 =12 -1 and +37 =2 -1 in his two Dublin simuls, on December 4 and December 5, 1919, respectively. Shortly afterwards, he recorded his impressions of Irish chess, in a letter to the Irish Statesman: ‘Señor Capablanca … Continue reading

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Sir Horace Plunkett, P.C.

The “Privy Council” is in the headlines all of a sudden; though the link from this to Irish chess is a very slight one, it leads to a very interesting character in Irish chess, and indeed in Irish history. Sir … Continue reading

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Glorney -v- König

The Glorney Cup was held last month at Carrickdale Hotel and Spa, Co Louth, 71 years after the initial competition between schoolboy teams representing Ireland and England took place in Dublin on the 26th and 27th August 1948. We have … Continue reading

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Spassky – Buckley, Kilkenny simul 1991

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 … Continue reading

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Hans-Joachim Hecht simuls, 1974

Oisín McGuinness’s recent comment on the Simuls page here talks of a simul the West German grandmaster Hans-Joachim Hecht gave at Collegians C.C. (Kiely’s of Donnybrook) on April 17, 1974. A report of the event appeared in the Irish Times … Continue reading

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Korchnoi photograph

Ulster player Cathal Murphy stumbled upon this super old photograph in the 1970s Armagh Memories Facebook page and sent it to me. It was dated November 1976 but was actually taken in February 1981 at the event I had previously … Continue reading

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Zukertort-Soffe, blindfold simul 1879

Last week saw a welcome return of John Watson’s series of book reviews at The Week in Chess, after an extended break. And the very first book up for review is none other than Tim Harding’s Eminent Victorian Chess Players, … Continue reading

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“Here’s one that wasn’t so good”: Alekhine-Barry, Dublin 1938

The Simuls page has a list of the illustrious visitors to Ireland down the years: these include Steinitz, Capablanca, Alekhine, Euwe, Smyslov, and Topalov, all world champions at one time or other. But only one of these was the reigning … Continue reading

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