The Irish Women’s Championship was held last month in the Talbot Hotel, Stillorgan, over the Bank Holiday weekend October 24-27, 2025.
A full report has been added to the Tournament pages here.
This year the event and two supporting events were held as part of “The Inaugural Irish Women’s Fsetival”. The Irish Women’s Championship itself had a rating floor, of 1600, for I think the first time. It was contested over seven rounds, which I think was also a first. The event was open to Irish citizens, IRL-registered players, and non-IRL players who had been resident for at least two years in Ireland, though non-IRL-registered players were not eligible for the title. Last year’s champion Diana Mats did not play, and indeed she does not seem to have played any games in Ireland in the past year, and WGM Shrook Wafa was a late withdrawal. However, the field of 12 included three former champions.
First place was taken by the Ukrainian teenager Maryna Petrenko, who scored an unbeaten 6/7, including wins against each of the three former champions Antonina Góra, Diana Mirza, and Alice O’Gorman, to finish 1½ points clear of the field. However, she was not eligible for the title.
Heading into the last round, Nemhain Doolin was in second place on 4½, followed by Góra on 4, and Mirza and O’Gorman tied on 3½. All changed in the last round as O’Gorman beat Doolin and Mirza beat Góra. This produced a three-way tie for second place, and for the title, between Doolin, Mirza, and O’Gorman.
The tie-break system was the same as for the Irish championship: head-to-head results between the (eligible) tied players, and if no clear winner, a rapid playoff match between the two players with the highest scores between these, counting all missing results as draws. In this case, it all worked out much more smoothly than with the Irish championship a few months ago. Doolin had beaten Mirza earlier, O’Gorman had beaten Doolin in the last round, and O’Gorman and Mirza hadn’t met. This meant a rapid playoff between Doolin and O’Gorman, which was won 2-0 by the latter. So Alice O’Gorman became Irish Women’s champion for the second time.
21… ?
The diagram shows a crucial moment in the sixth round game between Petrenko and the Portuguese-registered Emma Fougerat.
Black now played the natural 21… h6, but this turns out to be an error. White has the very strong 22. Nf6+!!, winning. If 22… gxf6 23. Ne4 f5 24. Qh5 Be7 25. Bxh6, White threatens Ng5 and in some lines Nf6+. Black is forced into 25… Qxd4 to avoid being mated, and will still end up in a losing position, as the knight on a5 will eventually drop.
Instead 21… Be7! would have avoided this possibility and left Black with a slight advantage.
In the game, Petrenko missed this exceedingly difficult chance, and instead played 22. Qh5.
After 22… Be7 23. Nh3, Black went wrong with 23… f5? (23… Be8=) and after 24. exf6 Bxf6? 25. Nc5 Be8 26. Qg4 was lost.