The Irish Women’s Championship 2026 was held over the last weekend in October at the Talbot Hotel in Stillorgan, Co. Dublin, as part of the 2nd Annual Irish Women’s Chess Festival.
A full report has been added to the Tournament pages here.
The event was planned as a 7-round Swiss, following the format of last year’s event, with a round robin if there were not enough entries. As it happened, only six players entered; unlike last year, all players had to be IRL-registered and in addition had to be eligible for international adult selection.
The players were defending champion and top seed Alice O’Gorman, former champion Diana Mirza, sisters Nemhain and Bedhbh Doolin, newcomer Lila Quinn Field, and Lorena Putar.
Mirza beat O’Gorman in round 3, in a sharp game in which O’Gorman was lost out of the opening, was reprieved, and stumbled in a near-equal position late on.
After the penultimate round, Mirza led on full points, a full point ahead of O’Gorman and Field. Due to the tie-break system, head-to-head result or Direct Encounter, she was assured of the title, as she had won against both players who could still catch her. As it happened, it was her turn to be lost out of the opening in her last round game against Nemhain Doolin, which the latter duly converted. O’Gorman beat Field, to tie for first on four points, losing on tie-break.
A curious feature of the event was there were no draws in the entire event.