A report on the 1971 Irish championship has been added to the tournament pages here.
The championship was held in Cork, at Lee Maltings, U.C.C., and 23 players participated. It was remarked at the time that the field was relatively weak: of the Irish squad of six players from the Siegen Olympiad in 1970, four were absent for the event in Cork: Michael Littleton, Nick Patterson, Wolfgang Heidenfeld, and Maurice Kennefick. Only John Moles, board 3 in Siegen, and the defending Irish champion, Paul Henry, first reserve, played. They were joined by their fellow Northerner and future champion Hugh MacGrillen, with a gap of over a hundred points separating these three from the rest of the field.
Paul Henry started in indifferent form, and should have lost in round 3 to Moles and round 4 to Gerry McCurdy, before squeezing a win out of a drawn endgame against Ken O’Riordan in round 5, and then finishing strongly with 3½/4, conceding a draw only against MacGrillen, for a total of 7½.
MacGrillen won his first three games to open a clear lead, which he held until round 6, but was roundly crushed in twenty moves by Moles in round 7, before winning his last two to finish on 6½.
Art Coldrick started with 2½/3, but missed excellent winning chances against MacGrillen in round 4 to draw, and then lost convincingly to Moles in round 5, and erred in time trouble to lose again to Henry in round 8 to end in clear fourth place on 6 points.
Though all these seemed in strong contention, it was John Moles who coasted to victory. He was never in any trouble, and apart from the draw against Henry in round 3, a game he really should have won, he conceded only one other half point, with a short draw as Black against Ken O’Riordan in round 4. The tournament book commented that O’Riordan was better, or even winning, in the final position, but it seems to have been equal.
So at 21 years of age, Moles won his second Irish championship, after 1966 in Belfast. He never played again.